The Truth of Milk
I met a man in a pub in England who started explaining something to me, about how Asians rarely drank milk, and how to them, white English milk-drinkers had a strange sour smell to them. He explained to me how unnatural it is to drink the food of an infant, and even more unnatural, the food of an infant from another species. He also told me how the form of calcium in milk is difficult to absorb, and actually apple-juice is a really good source of calcium, in a more digestible form.
When I first learned these things, I rejected it all. It was such a commonly accepted wisdom that milk is good for us that the neurons in my head found it difficult to take in this new information which didn’t fit. I felt a little offended because I was being corrected. I went away, and my mind pondered on it. Even as I slept. Eventually it crystallised. Of course it isn’t natural for us to drink milk. It is designed for infants – so if nature had intended for adults to consume milk we would suckle from the breast for all our lives. And things which we have not evolved to cope with, are by and large not good for us – smoking, alcohol, poor diet and so on. Drinking milk I realised didn’t fit in with my scientific understanding of what it is to be a human. I had previously been subject to a commonly accepted wisdom which was wrong. So I gave it up.
Before I gave up, I had for years suffered from swollen tonsils, and I had tried various ways to remedy the complaint. Within a week of giving up milk on my cereal every morning, my tonsils recovered. That was four years ago, and they’ve been fine ever since. The milk coating on my throat was the perfect breeding environment for bacteria, which kept making me ill.
When I first learned this truth, I came close to rejecting it, to protect my ego. Fortunately, I allowed myself to change. I eventually thanked my acquaintance for enlightening me, and the quality of my own life has improved, because I changed. I didn’t realise that the man explaining to me the truth about milk was actually giving love to me – passing on some of his knowledge to give me an improved quality of life. And the results of his love, when I eventually decided to receive it, were quantifiable in the condition of my health, and also in the well being of animals which are forced to provide us with the milk which we don’t need. Love is real. We can only decide to benefit from love, when we see more clearly what it is, and when we decide to open our hearts to accept it in to us. And we have to want to change. After all, we’d all say we want to grow. And growth is change.
Our love has measurable effects.
When I first learned these things, I rejected it all. It was such a commonly accepted wisdom that milk is good for us that the neurons in my head found it difficult to take in this new information which didn’t fit. I felt a little offended because I was being corrected. I went away, and my mind pondered on it. Even as I slept. Eventually it crystallised. Of course it isn’t natural for us to drink milk. It is designed for infants – so if nature had intended for adults to consume milk we would suckle from the breast for all our lives. And things which we have not evolved to cope with, are by and large not good for us – smoking, alcohol, poor diet and so on. Drinking milk I realised didn’t fit in with my scientific understanding of what it is to be a human. I had previously been subject to a commonly accepted wisdom which was wrong. So I gave it up.
Before I gave up, I had for years suffered from swollen tonsils, and I had tried various ways to remedy the complaint. Within a week of giving up milk on my cereal every morning, my tonsils recovered. That was four years ago, and they’ve been fine ever since. The milk coating on my throat was the perfect breeding environment for bacteria, which kept making me ill.
When I first learned this truth, I came close to rejecting it, to protect my ego. Fortunately, I allowed myself to change. I eventually thanked my acquaintance for enlightening me, and the quality of my own life has improved, because I changed. I didn’t realise that the man explaining to me the truth about milk was actually giving love to me – passing on some of his knowledge to give me an improved quality of life. And the results of his love, when I eventually decided to receive it, were quantifiable in the condition of my health, and also in the well being of animals which are forced to provide us with the milk which we don’t need. Love is real. We can only decide to benefit from love, when we see more clearly what it is, and when we decide to open our hearts to accept it in to us. And we have to want to change. After all, we’d all say we want to grow. And growth is change.
Our love has measurable effects.