How many of the forum's veggies still drink milk? I do, but I'm seriously considering changing my ways after reading this report....

www.milkmyths.org.uk

i try to avoid milk because i feel better when i dont have it.

Also if you want to know more about animal cruelty in farming practices generally, go to www.viva.org.uk!

I'm not sure with milk, people have drunk it for thousands of years, it's the staple food of some people, if it was bad for you we would know by now I think, and people wouldn't be giving it to babies.

As for wether or not it's cruel, almost everything to do with farming these days is cruel.

I am not veggie but don't really drink milk. If I have cerial or muslli I have rice Dream on it, i rarely drink normal tea, just green tea and herbal. I love quality Ice Cream and cheese tho.
I think milk causes alot of problems for people but as it's a staple part of peoples diets they don't notice. People with lots of mucus or people with Astma often feel better if they cut milk out.

Originally posted by nick2
I'm not sure with milk, people have drunk it for thousands of years, it's the staple food of some people, if it was bad for you we would know by now I think, and people wouldn't be giving it to babies.


Ahhhh, but if you read the website properly then you'll see that it might actually be bad for us. And we don't give it to babies, we give human milk to babies.

We're also the only species on earth that still drinks milk (and the milk of another species at that) after we're weaned.

Just take a look... That's all I'm asking.

I don't buy milk at all... I don't even get through a pint in a week, so it just gets wasted. :rolleyes:
Am not a veggie tho - I just don't eat a lot of dairy, or meat... Hang on - what do I eat? lol! :hihi:

if it was bad for you we would know by now I think,

but we do!

Originally posted by caprice
I don't buy milk at all... I don't even get through a pint in a week, so it just gets wasted. :rolleyes:
Am not a veggie tho - I just don't eat a lot of dairy, or meat... Hang on - what do I eat? lol! :hihi:

I actually already drink soya milk and eat soya butter, because I prefer it and it's better for you. It also lasts longer.

But cheese... Cheese is another matter. I LOVE cheese. How am I supposed to give that up?

Perhaps if I only eat organic, free range cheese that might be better?

you can get non dairy cheese like stuff and the soft cheese they do is very nice and not much different!

Originally posted by JBee
And we don't give it to babies, we give human milk to babies.


Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

Originally posted by nick2
Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

Dunno?

And Caprice, I love all cheese, blue, chedder, bree, ect. ect.

My life would not be worth living without it :(

I couldn't eat non-dairy cheese, it's like alcohol free beer, vile.
You might as well just eat rice and drink water and live a long misserable life.

Originally posted by nick2
Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

Nestle farm babies, don't they? Then force third world mothers to consume their products at gunpoint. Or summat. :confused:

Lets not loose site of the purpose of this thread eh? www.milkmyths.org.uk

Hmmmm,....i think i will buy soya milk from now on!

But i'm with you on the cheese, would never be able to stop eating it! I love Cheese.....i sometimes think i might turn into a mouse!! :D

Well to be honest I love eating meat and drinking milk, but don't like animal cruelty. And I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable slaughtering animals.

So I'm a hypocrite, but on a day like today for example, when over 300 people have been killed in a stampede in Saudi, the quality of life that cows have doesn't really register.

I hate the thoughts of Animal Cruelty but I'm not a veggie.
I hate the thoughts of animal cruelty but I still drink milk.

It's a rock and hard place situation.
Milk (so they say) is good for (maybe not THE BEST form of calcium, but certainly good). I like the taste of milk I like the moreishness (is that even a word) of milk and I can't see me EVER giving up milk.

I once tried Soya milk and I almost vomitted I think it's THAT gross.

The website does offer insite into information I wasn't aware of but still how do we know it's not one sided and 100% accurate.
You know what some of the animal rights activists are like... say and do anything to get their point across. Even if it's made up.

Surely a journalist such as yourself JBee can see this objectively and not be instantly taken in by what the website says.

Originally posted by nick2
I'm not sure with milk, people have drunk it for thousands of years, it's the staple food of some people, if it was bad for you we would know by now I think, and people wouldn't be giving it to babies.

I have to agree with these points.

As for whether or not milk is as bad as the link says so:

Hormones in milk are linked to ovarian, breast and prostate cancer, as well as juvenile-onset diabetes. The saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein it contains are linked to many other diseases.

...how much of this is down to the milk, and how much down to the growth hormones and other chemicals that the cow is fed with?

Is organic milk the way forward?

Right on about soya milk, it's a travesty of a liquid.

To be honest I think the real issue about milk is that of the supermarkets squeezing the life out of farmers by forcing them to accept less and less of a share of the retail price.

the calcium in milk is very hard to digest for us adults so its not a very good source for us best to get it from greens. Theres lots of debate about milk but the best thing to do it go dairy free for a week or two and see if you feel the difference within yourself if you dont carry on drinking it if you do feel better may be worth cutting down ??

I've been drinking barely any milk for the past few months - as little as just the amount in one cup of coffee, and I have to say I feel worse for it. It's funny, I've not really thought about it til I read this, but now it's dawned on me what I'm not getting in my diet! :o

We are a nation of unweaned, drinking milk throughout our lives. .

Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

You know, until I had my first child, I also thought this to be the case, as the marketers allow you to think this. When my milk came in, I realised that it is FAR too precious to freeze dry and no woman in her right mind would give it up to be treated in such a way (to a milk bank maybe), so yes, they use spray dried cow's milk with added chemicals to stand in for live vitamins.

Milk is the first food for newborns. It contains all the genetic codes and messages for growth and development for THAT particular species, and no not for humans.

Also, many methods of modern farming feed cattle cake to dairy cows which is difficult for them to digest. It gets through their various gut systems by being covered in mucous allowing it to move along and that mucous is passed into the milk. Which is why your mouth feels the way it does when you've had a drink of it, and why it is best to avoid it and all dairy products when you have a cold or anything where your nose runs. I tested this a couple of years ago, eating half a massive pot of yoghurt and I felt like HELL the next day.

What nestle do, greenback, is they GIVE powered milk to poor countries as many in those places think the West knows best (which they do when it comes to ignoring nature), and the people can't read the packaging. They make up the formula to the wrong strengths and their children are ill, or die.

There is an ongoing international Boycott call on Nestlé products. See www.babymilkaction.org for more info. (Sorry, no good at links; need bladeslass to help me out!)

Abdul, at an educated guess I'd say it was down to the nature of milk, it containing hormones for us to GROW as babies. If there are cancer cells present, oestrogen encourages them to multiply; just like it is responsible for the multiplication of cells in a fertilised ovum.

The thing with milk subsititues is not to expect them to taste like milk. Just taste them with an open mind (and mouth!) and consume them for what they are.

I haven't looked at the wesbite yet, I'm off for a gander.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
...they use spray dried cow's milk with added chemicals to stand in for live vitamins.
Is that instead of those pesky dead vitamins?

Originally posted by lizzmobile
Milk is the first food for newborns. It contains all the genetic codes and messages for growth and development for THAT particular species, and no not for humans.
Mmmm, genetic codes for growth of the drinker transfered in milk? Where did you get that info from?

Originally posted by lizzmobile
Also, many methods of modern farming feed cattle cake to dairy cows which is difficult for them to digest. It gets through their various gut systems by being covered in mucous allowing it to move along and that mucous is passed into the milk.
OMG, that is such nonsense! Let me get this right. The cows eat the cattle cake, but they can't digest it properly and so it's covered in mucus in the cows' gut. That mucus is then passed into the milk and we drink it. So we're drinking cows mucus in the milk?! Please tell me you don't actually believe that!

Love the stuff and I'm not about to stop drinking it on the say so of a web site. Anyway I wanna play for Accrington Stanley....

ppn_, for a biologist, you seem incredibly disconnected from nature and human instinct, and any knowledge that might deviate from what the papers say, and that includes your scientific papers.

I will not deign to answer you as you seem to intentionally contradict everything I say, have no knowledge whatsoever of any kind of alternative anything, unless someone points it out to you, then you back off.

How boring is that? Not a debate at all, just a one sided bashing of everyone else's opinion and repeating of previous posts.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
ppn_, for a biologist, you seem incredibly disconnected from nature and human instinct, and any knowledge that might deviate from what the papers say, and that includes your scientific papers.

I will not deign to answer you as you seem to intentionally contradict everything I say, have no knowledge whatsoever of any kind of alternative anything, unless someone points it out to you, then you back off.

How boring is that? Not a debate at all, just a one sided bashing of everyone else's opinion and repeating of previous posts.

I refer you and your highly offensive assumptions about my knowledge to the thread where you originally posted your message [EDIT- Which is here (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82807&perpage=15&pagenumber=3)]

I will say again though, just for the record, if you expect to post your views and opinions on here and remain unquestioned and unopposed, then you're in the wrong place.

If you continue to post factually incorrect information, or express views that are contrary to mine or those of others, then you should expect people to post contradictory views.

but milk is just horrible :P

Not mad about milk as I am lactose intollerant to a degree but I love it in my cups of tea and that's about it.

Ignore the rubbish that is spread about. In a few years time someone will be telling us that soya products cause leprosy or something.

Imagine we have a new gimmick here for upping the price of milk - a bit like freerange eggs brought about by intensive chicken farming. So - pay an extra 50p and have milk from cows fed only grass.

So - thats meat is bad for you; eggs are bad for you; sugar is bad for you; milk is bad for you; smoking is bad for you; in fact - if it does not make you into some wierd friend of the earth who only chews on soya biscuits - produced on soya friendly farms - then you had best give it up cos it is guarenteed to be bad for you.

Sigh*

Dragon

Originally posted by Dragon
So - thats meat is bad for you; eggs are bad for you; sugar is bad for you; milk is bad for you; smoking is bad for you;

Add to that coffee is bad for you, or is it ?, red wine is good for you one week, then bad the next. The latest one is that tomato juice stops you getting lung cancer, but next month it will turn out it gives you bowel cancer instead.

Just eat everything, in moderation and you'll be ok.

If they come-up with an edible alternative to milk (soya milk is not edible IMO) then I'll give it a try.

tomato are good anti cancer foods as are most red things like cranberrys. Its not new news thats been said for ages.

I love cranberry joice - and it's good for me - win/win situation.

Originally posted by Dragon
[B
So - thats meat is bad for you; eggs are bad for you; sugar is bad for you; milk is bad for you; smoking is bad for you; in fact - if it does not make you into some wierd friend of the earth who only chews on soya biscuits - produced on soya friendly farms - then you had best give it up cos it is guarenteed to be bad for you.

Sigh*

Dragon [/B]

Isn't it easy to just shrug your shoulders and say "sod-it, everything is bad for me and the world will aways be a cruel place so what's the point in doing anything about it." What a cop out.

Personally I'd rather do my bit, even if it is only a bit, and know that I'm making a difference, even if it is only tiny.

So from now on I'll be drinking soya milk and eating soya butter (which I do a lot of anyway). To solve the cheese problem I'll compromise by eating only organic cheese. Then I know that the cows will have led a happier, more natural way of life, even though the health issues are still there.

And for anyone who is interest in trying soya milk, I do agree that most varieties taste quite foul. But Holland and Barrett make an excellent soya milk sweetened with apple juice that is really really tasty. I drink loads of it. And it's actually cheaper than most soya milks (99p per carton) and lasts for ages without going off.

I rarely have any cow dairy as it seems to add to my eczema problems, so I choose to have small amounts of organic sheep dairy instead. It's too expensive to drink by the gallon but it seems to suit me much better. Sheep's milk cheese is really easy to get too- every supermarket sells at least one.

It's funny, I know perhaps 100 vegans and every last one loves soyamilk (although they will have personal preferences) and each finds at least some of the many soya/rice cheeses to their taste - i like em all, except the one that's supposed to taste like blue cheese.

I guess trying soyamilk in a positive frame of mind because you actually want to change make a lot of difference. Dairy milk in tea now tastes rank to me. It's a bit like giving up sugar in tea, at first it tastes weird but soon you can't really stand it any other way.

My usual soya milk is Tesco value unsweetened at 65p a litre, which if you look at the packet is organic too. Own brand soya milk is the same price in Morrisons too.

The sweetened and or "fresh" soya milks are nice in porridge/cereal but rubbish in tea cos some contain vanilla or apple juice, and you don't want your wonderful refeshing tea tasting of that do you!

:thumbsup:

Humans have been drinking the milk of other animals for thousands of years, but what we drink now isn't the same, it is a highly processed food. Most supermarket milk is pasteurised, standardised and homogonised. This means it has been processed to a degree where it is not the same as we have been used to. I have no idea whether it is dangerous or not, but it should be viewed as a highly over-processed food and not something natural we should give to our children.

Originally posted by KenH
...it should be viewed as a highly over-processed food and not something natural we should give to our children.
There are lots of natural things out there that I wouldn't consider giving to children. Just because something is 'natural' doesn't necessarily make it good for you.

Isn't pasteurisation a good thing? Killing off all those bugs?

Originally posted by ppn_2204
There are lots of natural things out there that I wouldn't consider giving to children. Just because something is 'natural' doesn't necessarily make it good for you.

Isn't pasteurisation a good thing? Killing off all those bugs?

But do you have any idea why milk is now mostly "homogonised" or what benefit that has to you? Virtually all supermarket milk is processed in this way and it is relatively recent trend.

Originally posted by KenH
But do you have any idea why milk is now mostly "homogonised" or what benefit that has to you? Virtually all supermarket milk is processed in this way and it is relatively recent trend.
I don't know. I thougt that homogenisation was just the process that distributes the cream through the milk, so you don't get the cream settling out to the top of full fat milk.

I only buy semi-skimmed milk, so I hadn't really noticed any difference in recent years.

I don't know what effect homogenized milk might have on health.

[EDIT - All I can think of is that homogenisation of full fat milk presumably means that you can no longer pour off the excess cream from the top. If you're worried about not being able to get rid of that fat, buy skimmed or semi-skimmed milk]

Originally posted by ppn_2204
I don't know. I thougt that homogenisation was just the process that distributes the cream through the milk, so you don't get the cream settling out to the top of full fat milk.

I only buy semi-skimmed milk, so I hadn't really noticed any difference in recent years.

I don't know what effect homogenized milk might have on health.

[EDIT - All I can think of is that homogenisation of full fat milk presumably means that you can no longer pour off the excess cream from the top. If you're worried about not being able to get rid of that fat, buy skimmed or semi-skimmed milk]

No, that isn't what this does. It breaks down the fat into smaller globules that are spread through the milk. Some people think that those fat globules are then small enough to get straight into your blood stream. My point on this subject is that we talk about "milk" as if it is something that came from a cow whereas it is actually something that once came from a cow but has been highly processed in a factory. Does anyone recall asking for homogonised milk or did this just happen because it was better for the milk factories?

Put your hard hat on KenH.

I have rice milk on my cereal... I think it tastes nicer than milk. Shame they can't make fantastic cheese with it tho. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by KenH
No, that isn't what this does. It breaks down the fat into smaller globules that are spread through the milk.
Sorry, yes, that's what I meant. I think the method you describe is why you don't get the cream on the top of full fat milk.
Originally posted by KenH
Some people think that those fat globules are then small enough to get straight into your blood stream.
I would have thought these were too big to be absorbed by the cells of the gut.
Originally posted by KenH
My point on this subject is that we talk about "milk" as if it is something that came from a cow whereas it is actually something that once came from a cow but has been highly processed in a factory. Does anyone recall asking for homogonised milk or did this just happen because it was better for the milk factories?
I don't mind the processing to be honest. Pasteurisation is good thing, and I haven't heard anything bad about homogenisation either. I'm interested in what other processes might be involved that I don't know about.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
Put your hard hat on KenH.
Do you have anything useful to contribute, lizzmobile?

Meow! Saucer of milk for table three! :hihi:

I think homogenisation was invented for people like me who hated the blob of cream on the top of the milk. I have no idea whether this is good or bad for you... personally I regard milk as something relatively unprocessed. BUT I think its a freaky idea to be drinking it in the first place. Just cos we've done something for decades doesn't mean its right.

I worry alot about the links with breast cancer etc. I know of several people who have sufferred from breast cancer and its the first thing they give up. So I'm trying to cut dairy out as much as possible as a preventative measure. I hate the taste of milk on its own anyway so its easy to just stick to the occasional bit of cheese and the odd yoghurt.

Originally posted by ppn_2204
Do you have anything useful to contribute, lizzmobile?

PPn displaying the milk of human kindness? :rolleyes: :hihi: :hihi:


Fat molecules are not digested in the stomach and are too big to ''pass through'' by osmosis or whatever.
They are emulsified by bile further along the alimentary canal and into the jejunum.

One also has to consider the effect of residual drugs (such as antibiotics & steroids) excreted by the cow's milk glands that have been pumped in by the dairy farmer to cut out the risk of mastatis in the udder & other Bovine diseases & inflammatory problems.


Originally posted by nick2
Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

From PPN_2204 :hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :heyhey: :thumbsup:

Personally I love the stuff and get through a couple of pints a day easily.

If we believed (or cared) about half of this 'foodscare' cobblers we'd have starved to death years ago.

My message to the nut-cutlet brigade is stop ramming this claptrap down everyone's throats.

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
PPn displaying the milk of human kindness? :rolleyes: :hihi: :hihi:
You should read the rest of the thread. I was a bit p****d off at the time ;). Besides, I'm with Lady Macbeth on the milk of human kindness. It's over-rated.
Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
Fat molecules are not digested in the stomach and are too big to ''pass through'' by osmosis or whatever.
They are emulsified by bile further along the alimentary canal and into the jejunum.

One also has to consider the effect of residual drugs (such as antibiotics & steroids) excreted by the cow's milk glands that have been pumped in by the dairy farmer to cut out the risk of mastatis in the udder & other Bovine diseases & inflammatory problems.


From PPN_2204 :hihi:

Hey matey, if you're going to do the science bit, at least get it right. Only water moves by osmosis. The rest is fine though ;) :D

I agree about the use of antibiotics and other drugs though. Nasty stuff, but the farmers do insist that they're necessary, and I've no idea how much of it ends up in the milk.

I recall Monsanto being at the helm of a critically damning report where they'd genetically modified Soya & added a gene from the poison of a scorpion.

This paralised the moth larvae that fed on the soya - devastating the crop.

Now, does that make the soya safe for us? YES said Monsanto.

But does it make it Vegan or Veggie? :suspect:

Originally posted by ppn_2204


Hey matey, if you're going to do the science bit, at least get it right. Only water moves by osmosis. The rest is fine though ;) :D


That's why I said ''or whatever'' - cos I couldn't remember the process I was trying to think of :hihi: call it old age

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
That's why I said ''or whatever'' - cos I couldn't remember the process I was trying to think of :hihi: call it old age
I know, I saw the 'whatever', but I had to come back with something ;) .

Originally posted by ppn_2204
I know, I saw the 'whatever', but I had to come back with something ;) . why? are you an errand obsessive compulsive? :o :hihi:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
I recall Monsanto being at the helm of a critically damning report where they'd genetically modified Soya & added a gene from the poison of a scorpion.

This paralised the moth larvae that fed on the soya - devastating the crop.

Now, does that make the soya safe for us? YES said Monsanto.

But does it make it Vegan or Veggie? :suspect:
Interesting Did they do it to kill off the soya crop pests?

I suppose it depends on which gene they used and what the resultant protein interacts with in the moth larvae. Maybe its target is something that moth larvae have and humans don't, in which case the soya should be ok for humans to eat - maybe. Hard to say without having read the article.

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
why? are you an errand obsessive compulsive? :o :hihi:
Why yes; yes I am. And a pedant. (isn't in errant, by the way?) Thank you for noticing :) .

No, errand - when you send someone to fetch you something back :D

You said you ''had to come back with something.''

I'll get my coat.

[edit] no actually, would you fetch it me? :hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
No, errand - when you send someone to fetch you something back :D

You said you ''had to come back with something.''

I'll get my coat.

[edit] no actually, would you fetch it me? :hihi: :hihi: :hihi: :hihi:
Ah, I see now. Very good. My brain obviously doesn't work along the same lines as yours ;) :D .

Originally posted by ppn_2204
Ah, I see now. Very good. My brain obviously doesn't work along the same lines as yours ;) :D .

That's cos u is a wimmin & are obsessed wiv cleaning like what the adverts say. ;)

Full fat milk make's me sick don't know why.
My mate was told by her dentist that milk had more sugar in than fizzy pop, true/false ?

Originally posted by zoboz111
Full fat milk make's me sick don't know why.
Because it's horrid. Too much fat. Get semi-skimmed.

Originally posted by zoboz111
My mate was told by her dentist that milk had more sugar in than fizzy pop, true/false ?
Don't know. Off the topic of my head, I'd say false. I think milk is about 5% lactose (milk sugar), while cola is about 10% sucrose (plain old sugar). Breast milk is a bit higher in lactose, maybe about 7 or 8%. Plus, it's the acidity of drinks like cola which does some of the harm to teeth.

Is that powdered baby milk made from human milk, how do they get it ?

Baby milk is just modified cows milk as far as I know

Originally posted by Hanoge
Baby milk is just modified cows milk as far as I know
I can understand why some mothers don't want to breast feed, or can't for various reasons. I do think though that breast milk is preferable to the packet stuff (or whatever the stuff comes in), at least for the first few months. Lots of good stuff passed from the mother to the baby that you don't get in cows milk.

And it comes in prettier cartons :wow: :hihi:

Going back to the mucous in milk issue for those who are interested:

Brominated flame-retardant chemicals have been found in human breastmilk and that is just from sitting on chairs and sofas treated with it. The contact is suffice.

What women eat goes into their breastmilk (as the mother who ate cabbage the night before!). We all produce mucous when we eat indigestible things so there is no reason why mucous would not pass into the milk of cows.

I'm a veggie (due to religious reasons as well as disliking the thought of eating animal corpses).

I will never be a vegan though, milk is an important part of being a hindu, the cow is sacred to us and considered to be "like a mother" because she has the ability to give us milk.

Running over a cow in India will get you into big trouble, they are allowed to roam around freely, even in the cities.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
Going back to the mucous in milk issue for those who are interested:

Brominated flame-retardant chemicals have been found in human breastmilk and that is just from sitting on chairs and sofas treated with it. The contact is suffice.
That sounds interesting - and scary if true. Could you post a link to the story, or to some further information?
Originally posted by lizzmobile
What women eat goes into their breastmilk (as the mother who ate cabbage the night before!). We all produce mucous when we eat indigestible things so there is no reason why mucous would not pass into the milk of cows.
For those who are interested, the reason why mucus from cows guts will not end up in their milk is a scientific reason, so you might not like or believe it.

Mucus is produced for various reasons all the time. Yes, it might be produced when we eat undigestable things, and it's usually to aid their passage through the gut. I think that mucus is produced to ease the passage of most things through the gut, indigestable or not. However, once you get to the - ahem - extreme end of the gut, where the non-digested stuff is, that's when the mucus comes in really useful.

As for cows mucus, produced in the gut in response to undigestible cattle cake, ending up in the milk; it's just not going to happen. Cells in the cows' mammary glands produce the milk, and they are not connected to the gut in such a way that mucus from there is going to end up in the milk. Yes, chemicals in the blood stream of cows (or humans come to that) could theoretically end up in milk. However, mucus produced in the gut is not going to pass into the blood stream and from there onto the mammary glands.

The only way you're going to end up with cows gut mucus in their milk is if you get milk contaminated with the products of the cows' bottoms.

I'll be more than happy to stand corrected if anyone wants to show that this isn't the case.

That sounds interesting - and scary if true. Could you post a link to the story, or to some further information?

This is an article I have - somewhere - in print, I think it was from the Guardian or some such, about 3 yrs ago. Otherwise, there are reportedly over 100 non-desireable chemicals found in human breastmilk, things we pick up on our way through life. If I find it, I'll post the reference.

However, Friend of the Earth website, babymilkaction.org, ifban.org and even the mainstream babycentre.co.uk site all feature items about the chemicals found in breastmilk.

Re mucous, I am certain to have read this in a farming magazine, so that's where I got that information from, although I have no idea which one; it was whilst travelling in New Zealand.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
This is an article I have - somewhere - in print, I think it was from the Guardian or some such, about 3 yrs ago. Otherwise, there are reportedly over 100 non-desireable chemicals found in human breastmilk, things we pick up on our way through life. If I find it, I'll post the reference.

However, Friend of the Earth website, babymilkaction.org, ifban.org and even the mainstream babycentre.co.uk site all feature items about the chemicals found in breastmilk.
Yes, I agree, some chemicals can be absorbed through the skin. I would have thought that for the chemicals from something as inert as flame-retardant furniture to be absorbed through the skin while sitting on it, you'd have to be lounging around naked on the furniture. I don't know for sure though, because I hadn't heard of this until now. Most chemicals, unless they're particularly nasty and in their 'raw' form (ie straight out of the bottle in the lab), require direct contact with the skin. For example, how jewelry containing nickel can set off an allergic reaction in some people.
Originally posted by lizzmobile
Re mucous, I am certain to have read this in a farming magazine, so that's where I got that information from, although I have no idea which one; it was whilst travelling in New Zealand.
I don't dispute that some chemicals from the gut can end up in the bloodstream and from there onto the cows' milk. However, the molecules that give mucus from the gut its, well, mucus-ey feel won't end up in the milk and result in the sticky, thick feeling in your mouth when you drink cows' milk. This feeling is, I think, due to the relatively high fat content of the milk.

lounging around naked on the furniture

Hey, you get all sorts round here! :P

I concur on the skin contact issue, completely, but you can also breathe in chemicals, non? And sometimes when you open new things, you can smell the stuff, ie getting into a car on a hot day so it's going in for sure.

Originally posted by lizzmobile
Hey, you get all sorts round here! :P

I concur on the skin contact issue, completely, but you can also breathe in chemicals, non? And sometimes when you open new things, you can smell the stuff, ie getting into a car on a hot day so it's going in for sure.
Ah, but you were talking about contact:
Brominated flame-retardant chemicals have been found in human breastmilk and that is just from sitting on chairs and sofas treated with it. The contact is suffice.
Smelly flame-retardant furniture? Wouldn't have it in the house. Most of my furniture is pretty inert and thus smell-free, thank you very much :). As for whether the vapour can end up in breast milk, don't know ::shrug:: I'll stick with the non-smelly stuff on the offchance that when one of the cats knocks a candle over, my house will be a little less likely to burn down.

No need to whittle about fire retardents when you let bacteria ridden pests like cats allover your worksurfaces & furniture after theyve just done the 4-foot-floozy in the litter tray :gag:

Hairy toxoplaz sarnie anyone? :gag:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
No need to whittle about fire retardents when you let bacteria ridden pests like cats allover your worksurfaces & furniture after theyve just done the 4-foot-floozy in the litter tray :gag:

Hairy sarnie anyone? :gag:
Bacteria are good for you. Stimulate the immune system. And for calling members of his species pests, here's (http://www.cs.uccs.edu/~cdash/downloads/cat.jpg) what Merlin says to you :).

Can he outsmart a bullet? :)


So toxoplasmosis is good for the immune system eh?

It should be renamed Gary Glitter cos it Fox Kids

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
Can he outsmart a bullet? :)
He can. He's lightning fast.
Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
So toxoplasmosis is good for the immune system eh?

It should be renamed Gary Glitter cos it Fox Kids .
No, I said bacteria are good for the immune system. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite.

found in animal faeces, transferred by contact.


Along with Tet Tox from the soil/ faeces blah


Cats - :gag:

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
found in animal faeces, transferred by contact.


Along with Tet Tox from the soil/ faeces blah


Cats - :gag:
Indeed. But you can't blame the cats for tetanus. Make sure your jab's up to date and you're fine.

But will you agree that cats carry revolting organisms on their feet allover worksurfaces?

And this is indeed a health hazzard?

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
But will you agree that cats carry revolting organisms on their feet allover worksurfaces?

And this is indeed a health hazzard?
I do agree. With the first bit anyway. It's only a health hazard if you don't wipe the surfaces down before you prepare food. I walk around with bare feet in the house, so I've probably got bugs on my feet too. ::shrug:: Don't walk on the work surfaces though.

Originally posted by ppn_2204
. ::shrug:: Don't walk on the work surfaces though.

Let me know if ever you start - I'd like to see that! :heyhey: