Sitting in class, quite often the noise of kids cracking knuckles echos through the room. When someone wants to get them to stop, they say “Stop, you’re going to give yourself arthritis.” Everyone seems to thinks this statement is true. However, when we look at the article 11 Things You Thought Were True That Aren’t written by Sam Parker in May of 2013, it turns out, this is not quite right.  There have been numerous studies proving no link between arthritis and cracking knuckles. This false belief is very similar to another falsehood in our life.  Milk has been labeled as “healthy”, but there is a misunderstanding in this statement. To see the real problems with milk, we have to look back at it’s history, then ponder why we are the only mammals drinking milk.  Also, we will have to explore the myths about milk's benefits and lastly, seeing what happens to the cows. After this analysis, we will explore some ways milk can still be implemented into our diets.  Let’s start our exploration to see why milk needs to become less important in our life.

People's habits form over time, for some there’s may be brushing their teeth in the morning. However, the habit of drinking milk started long before any of us were alive. Milk’s revolution started over 7,000 years ago.  This data was uncovered by archaeologist Peter Bogucki who has a PH.D. from Harvard and his team after finding clay fragments that were used to separate the fatty milk solids from the liquid. The article Archaeology: The Milk Revolution written in July of 2013, talks about how this unique piece of pottery shows how people in the recent ice age began to drink milk and how milk became a part of their diet. Today, an average American drinks 20.4 gallons of milk a year taken from a Huffpost article on June 27, 2011. We all have the idea that milk has overwhelming health benefits.  Like the knuckle cracking fallacy, health benefits from milk may not be what everyone says.
The milk industry wants us to believe milk is a daily essential, but is it really?  Humans are the only mammal to drink milk past their infancy.   In many cases, this interest is caused by the milk industry.  We are told milk is helping our health.  However, when looking at studies done about milk’s benefits, many are funded by the milk industry states an article titled Got Proof? Lack of Evidence for Milk’s Benefits written by Mark Hyman. This article further states that humans “no biological requirement for cow’s milk”.  Our bodies don’t need milk and in fact a growing number of people’s bodies are resisting all the milk intake otherwise know as being  lactose intolerant. An article written for the USA Today by Elizabeth Weise titled 6 in 10 Adults Can’t Digest Milk concludes that 60% of adults can’t drink milk past their childhood. These people live their life without drinking milk and are not breaking bones at a rate different from the milk drinking population.  Since we have recognized that milk is not needed we should look at some false benefits.

When someone is told a fact by a trusted friend, adult, or even some news station, it is natural for them to trust the information.  This is why many people believe that milk has so many benefits. So, what are the hidden non-benefits of milk? It is a well accepted fact that milk helps build strong bones, but maybe this fact is not as true as we think.  Drinking milk does not help to decrease the risk of hip fracture but instead it increases the risk says Milk Intake and Risk of Mortality and Fracture In Women and Men, a study done by BMJ. Despite this contradicting evidence, we all still drink milk in large quantities not really thinking about anything past how good it tastes. 
People drink milk for the taste or health benefits, but they never really think about where it comes from.  Obviously milk comes from cows, however no one cares cow’s milk is meant for calves.  Which means cow’s milk contains all of the nutrients required by calves to live a healthy life an article titled Dairy Products and 10 False Promises written in the McDougall Newsletter part of a health and medical care center, tells us. Do we feed our dogs human milk, once they get past being a puppy? So, why do we drink the cow's milk after we outgrow our mother’s milk?  We are drinking milk meant for calves and this is not only causing adults problems, but kids to.

Kid drink milk because every adult in their life tells them it will help build strong bones. However, drinking milk causes problems for children.  In most milk produced in the world there are bovine growth hormones (BGH). The effects of BGH can be subtle. Also consuming milk can increase the risk of osteoporosis, childhood obesity, and diabetes an article titled Milk Message written on Health 101 talks about. We have seen some of the negative effects milk has on kids, now it is time to look at the negative effects on the cow’s.

Some of the things we doing in a day may seem to benefit someone, but in reality it does nothing. This is similar to what we think about milking cows.  People may think cows are not harmed by the milking process, but this thought is not right. Dairy cows are treated with little respect during the milking process.  Most mother and calves are separated at the calf's birth, but cows need to have bonds with their young an article titled Don’t Cows Need to Be Milked? tells us.  Also in the article they says this bond breaking experience happens up to seven times in a cow’s life.  The article Milk Production: Due to Pregnancy written on Viva and Viva Health, a website dedicated to linking diets to health, states that cows will only produces milk when they need to feed their young. Therefore, cows are becoming pregnant at an age younger than one and a half years old.

   With no real benefit for humans or cows, lets look into some ways to change our diet.  Even though knuckle cracking may not cause damage it is still a good idea to keep it under control. A similar approach is needed for our milk consumption.  Even though there are negative effects to consuming milk, one glass a day along with other milk products like yogurt or cheese will not hurt an article title Milk Might Not be as Good For us as We Thought makes clear, written by Charlie Cooper in 2014.  One of the reasons people drink milk is because it has a lot of calcium which is good for building strong bones.  People don’t realize they only need 100 mg of calcium a day and this calcium allowance can be found in foods like white beans, dried figs, and almonds to name a few  the article 18 Surprising Dairy-Free Sources of Calcium written by Laura Schwecherl on Greatest, a website trying to help people find their health, states. Now there is also the concerns for the cows, however there are ways to help them, too.  By buying organic foods or free range, it make sure the animals are being treated with respect and given the care they need to be healthy and happy.  Even though milk has some negative effects, there are ways we can get put it into our diet for those who can’t live without it.

The dangers of knuckle cracking may have been just a way to make a point.  Today, we have looked into how our obsession with milk began and how we as humans are the only mammals to drink milk past our infancy.  We also explored the negative effects milk has on us and cows.  Lastly, we explored the options for us if we choose to keep milk in our diet.  If we all start to spread the word about the negative effects of milk, then maybe in 20 years we will no longer be the only mammals to to drink milk past infancy.  We could also start to tell people just to stop cracking their knuckles instead of  just telling them they will get arthritis. Milk consumption can be changed but it is something that we all will have to work on.