Let's get one thing clear. When I wrote about those passing out deliberate
lies, I was referring to the professional anti-milk forces, not to anyone on
this list. They're what the military call "collateral damage."

The anti-milk, "milk is poison" crowd cares nothing for objective scientific
arguments. Their writings cite medical journals, true, but any careful reading
will show that they never cite articles that show benefits for milk and never
cite articles that refute the claims made in articles giving bad effects of
milk. They selectively quote the articles the articles they cite, they take
information out of context, they attribute conclusions that are to be found
nowhere in the articles. And that's assuming their citations are accurate enough
that you can find the originals in the first place. All this misinformation is
copied and disseminated without question from place to place and eventually the
unsuspecting public believes that it must be true because so many people are
saying so.

Believe is the operating word. I don't believe in beliefs. I put my trust
into what we can objectively know from the consensus of scientific research. Here
are some beliefs that don't fit that criterion. Milk is "very bad for
everyone". We drink milk because "strong forces," i.e. the "dairy lobby," pushes it
on us. Please. Ever since my stroke I've been eating a healthier low-fat and
low-sugar diet. That doesn't mean that fats and sugars are innately bad for me
or very bad for everyone. McDonald's and Coke and Oreos and all their
advertising doesn't make us fat either. We can choose to have them in moderation or
choose not to.

Same for milk. Only the tiniest minority of humans must avoid dairy because
of life-threatening allergies. Even those with lactose intolerance, the
overwhelming majority of those with lactose intolerance, can have some dairy without
any symptoms at all, and the tiny minority who can't can use lactase pills.

Milk is not innately bad. Milk is a choice. I've spent twenty years showing
people how to identify dairy in foods and avoid it or substitute for it if they
choose to. I'll put my record up against anybody's. But I've also spent those
twenty years telling people how to keep milk safely in their diets if they
choose to, because of milk's excellent nutritional properties.

I've been a member of this list since forever. It serves a great purpose in
sharing information about the real world, the daily grind of needing to avoid
milk in a dairy culture. Sharing information this way is the miracle of the
net. Disseminating misinformation is the snake in eden. I'm going to stomp on
that snake whenever I see it.

People are obviously going to have strong opinions about something that may
make themselves or their children ill, or possibly kill them. Totally and
completely understandable. All I ask is that we please face those fears with honest
information that can help each other.

Steve Carper