Vegetarian Talk

In a lame attempt at taking a bite out of the soy industry, the dairy industry is calling on the government to stop allowing producers of soy, almond, and other nondairy milks from calling their products milk. This whiny, tell-the-teacher playground tactic is likely in response to the growing use of people refusing to use milk in their products—and rightly so; in some areas of the world up to 90% of the people have milk intolerance, which makes perfect sense. Milk, after all, comes from cows (typically) and is, therefore, intended for baby cows.

Humans are the only species who continue to drink milk beyond infancy—let alone milk from another species, which you have to admit sounds weird when you put it that way—and milk itself is intended for a species that grows to an immense size in a few short months, not humans who already have an obesity epidemic on their hands as it is.

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June is Alternatives to Dairy Month, and for good reason. Though many of us enjoy dairy, humans are the only mammals that continue drinking milk beyond infancy. We don’t actually need it (like the dairy industry would have us believe) if we eat a diet full of fruits and vegetables, and it can cause more problems than it’s worth. Here are ten reasons to kick the dairy habit.

10. It’s Full of Hormones

Most of us are aware of the hormones given to cows, making them produce hundreds of times the amount of dairy they made decades ago due to our demand. These get into our bodies and can cause serious health problems, like mood swings and decreased libido.

9. It Can Decrease Your Leafy Greens Intake

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Much hubbub lately about the conflict between eating meat and attempting to reduce one's carbon footprint.  One speaker making the rounds recently is Nicolette Hahn Niman, a rancher and environmental lawyer who runs the famous Niman Ranch with her husband Bill.  Hahn Niman argues that you can call yourself an environmentalist and eat meat, but only if you eat the right kind of meat.


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Every day a battle rages within my blood—to do it or not do it? A huge part of me wants to raise my daughter as a vegetarian. She’s four, completely healthy, having come a long way from her premature birth, and absolutely loves animals. Right now she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up (the same thing I wanted to be at four, actually)—a step up from wanting to be a cat when she grows up, which is what she told me just a year ago!

A vegetarian lifestyle is one of the most humane, ecologically important things I could teach her. It’s about caring for the earth, about being a humane person, and about respecting our fellow sentient creatures. She’s already asking questions and becoming troubled with the responses I’ve been giving her about the chicken and fish she eats. I try to give straightforward responses, too, because therein lies my dilemma—I don’t want to “force” my beliefs onto her.

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