Milk

I'm what I like to consider a conscientious omnivore. I don't eat a lot of meat, but if I'm at your house and you serve me a steak, I'll happily eat it. Healthy eating is important to me, and I base my diet around real, organic when possible, food. I try not to make it too complicated.

HOWEVER... Where I find myself constantly getting hung up lately is the issue of milk. Simple, white, thank you, cow, for all that you do for me milk. I don't have any real righteous indignation about the basic issue of using cow's milk for human consumption, though I do agree that huge factory farms are a problem. But really, what's wrong with drinking a little organic milk from a small, responsible farm? Probably nothing, but my brain won't shut up about it. 

I really only consume milk in my coffee, and on my cereal, if I'm having cereal, which I don't do every day. But every time I am at the grocery store standing in front of the milk case, I freeze up. My biggest concern is the recent scientific evidence suggesting the WAY too vague possibility that there MIGHT be a link between the consumption of cow's milk and certain cancers. In my hypochondriacal mind, that should be enough to send me running to the nearest vegan market, but alas, I just can't give up milk in my coffee. 

I have spent many minutes, possibly even collectively hours at this point, surveying in great agony the "milk alternative" displays at various stores. I have tried different kinds: soy (which we're also not supposed to consume too much of), almond, rice, coconut, flavored, unflavored... But none of them work for me. They're all either too cloying, too watery, too bitter, whatever. Some even have titanium dioxide in them. The only passible solution I have found is a chocolate almond milk which tastes alright in coffee, kind of just turns it into a sticky sweet mocha, but then I'm consuming more sugar than I intended. And forget using it on cereal. So I always end up just buying the stupid cow's milk, telling myself "This is just a temporary fix. Next time I'll find an acceptable alternative." 

Which brings me to this morning. I woke up and realized I had no milk in the fridge. And I didn't have any milk in the fridge because of all the above-mentioned, anxiety-inducing issues I have with it. I don't drink coffee every day, but on the weekends, it is a comforting part of my morning routine. So anyway, Valued Reader (if you're still with me at this point), I woke up and wanted coffee. With milk. Do I drag myself out of bed and walk down the street to the mini mart, where they will surely only have mass-produced, hormone and antibiotic-laden poison milk? Or do I get in the car and drive to Trader Joe's, where I can get organic? (But this raises another issue, as TJ's only sells organic in the half-gallon, and that's really more than I need, unless I'm going to commit to eating cereal every morning for the next two weeks.) And does organic really make a difference? And what's the difference between organic and non-organic with the label "This milk comes from cows not treated with rbST"? Is that good enough? And how about the disclaimer on all milk cartons that says "No significant difference has been shown in milk from cows treated with the artificial growth hormone rbST and non rbST treated cows." What does that even mean?? 

So here I am, sitting with my organic, fair-trade coffee laced with poison mini-mart milk, hoping I'm not going to die.