Health, Taken Seriously

In our house, we don’t drink cow’s milk. It started when we discovered that dairy products, even organic ones, caused my husband to “break out.” He gets what looks like acne on his face whenever he consumes moderate amounts of dairy. When we first discovered this, it was pretty remarkable. If he had a bowl of ice cream, sure enough the next day he had a huge red spot somewhere on his face. We’ve never found out exactly what is going on, as organic dairy does this too (we initially suspected the growth hormones found in traditional dairy, but then why would organic dairy cause the same problem?)

When my first son was one month old, I had a minor surgery that prevented me from nursing him for several days. So he got formula. He broke out horribly. The pediatrician said it was baby acne, but within a few days of stopping the formula, he cleared up and never looked like that again. When he was one and we tried to introduce cow’s milk, he got awful diarrhea from it. I’ve always been a lover of cow’s milk. I used to drink it daily but after all these experiences, I was beginning to dislike cow’s milk. What on earth could be in this milk that would cause people’s skin to erupt when they ate it? Oh, and for the record, this appears to be something with American dairy because when we go to Europe, my husband doesn’t react the same way despite eating copious amounts of gelato, yogurt, and feta.

So, that is why we drink soy milk. Since my husband drinks it and now my son drinks it, I decided to drink it too. It takes a little getting used to, but I don’t mind it now. It is a little weird that we are the only mammals on the face of the planet that drink milk made for the babies of another species. And when I think about the things that are done to poor cow’s to increase their milk production, and about the fact that there’s a limit on the amount of pus allowed from the dairy cow’s utter into our milk, I’m glad that my family’s milk comes from a bean. I also love that soy milk doesn’t contain saturated fats, but does contain naturally occurring omega-3′s (in the form of ALA) and fiber.

Now there’s another reason why I love soy milk. Silk brand now makes a soy milk that contains 400 mg of omega-3′s per serving (370 mg ALA, 32 mg DHA)! Our diets are alarmingly low in healthy omega-3 fatty acids, and DHA is one of the most important omega-3 fatty acids (especially for the developing brains of children) so adding it to our milk is a great way to sneak it into our diets. There’s no difference in the taste and my son drinks it as quickly as he does plain Silk. If you’re a vegetarian or don’t eat much fatty fish or don’t supplement, definitely consider buying some.