There is much controversy as to whether humans should drink the milk of other animals. This relates largely to the fact that milk is really for young animals, and continuing to consume milk as an adult has been suggested to be detrimental to health. A large proportion of the world is intolerant to lactose and so for most people this is a moot point. Only white people from Western Europe tend to retain the ability to digest lactose beyond childhood. For them, consuming milk is not so problematic, and in general dairy consumption has been shown to be associated with some beneficial health effects such as lower body weights. However, whole milk is high in energy and so care should be taken regarding overconsuming energy from milk. Whole milk does have some beneficial nutrients in the cream (such as conjugated linoleic acid), but can also accumulate drug residues and hormones from the cattle. Drinking skimmed milk less the fat or organic milk negates this problem, but also means the ebenficial conjugated linoleic acid will be absent also.
Eat Well, Stay Healthy, Protect Yourself
RdB
