Recently, I read that farmers were complaining about a report called "White Lies" published by the Vegetarian and Vegan foundation claiming that VVF is irresponsible as it means removing entire food groups (dairy), thus, essential nutrients, from the food pyramid. Interestingly, VVF has also provided a dairy-free guide for those dropping dairy and are concern about nutrients such as calcium and protein.
I was really curious about the constituents of cows milk and human milk so I did a search on that. The article says that the protein level was lower in human milk than in cows milk and vice versa for the carbohydrate level. I found this interesting because even in a growing child who require much nutrients, the protein was not as high as in cow's milk, yet we often hear people say a vegetarian diet lacks protein.
Other interesting aspects of human milk different from animal milk include:
- human milk has low energy and nutrient density compared with the milks of most other mammals, except for a high density of carbohydrates
- in cow's milk the major proteins are a-casein and , b-lactoglobulin; the ratio of casein to whey protein is 80:20; the casein micellar volume is double that of human milk, and the curd formed is hard; the principal milk immunoglobulin is IgG; and lactoferrin and Iysozyme are present only in small amounts
- cow's milk triglycerides contain a higher proportion of short chain fatty acids and a lower proportion of long chain and polyunsaturated fatty acids
- many of the non-nutritional factors found in human milk are absent from cow's milk or are present only in trace amounts
Read more from the article: http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F174e/8F174E04.htm
News report of the farmers' complains: http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Agriculture&F=1&id=12620
Tian Yuan Vegetarian
3 years ago
3 comments:
Wow! Impressive report, but short. Only 85 pages... :-P
I like the approach of the British vegans/vegetarians. They seem to rely much more on science than celebrities (hint: PETA). In the long run this is the way to go. Celebrities can easily be ignored, but a growing body of research, in our favor, cannot.
However, expect the propaganda machine of the British dairy and farming industry to strike back very soon.
Milk is nasty--there's a reason why other mammals don't drink it after they're weaned (or drink the milk of other mammals, for that matter)
Some good info is here:
http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp
Yes you are right Eda, they ahve already strike back..
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