Last fall I taught a teleclass series called “Playing Your Part on the World Stage”, which was sponsored by the National Association of Memoir Writers (www.namw.org.) The class is based on my book “Making History: how to remember, record, interpret and share the events of your life,” and explores how each of us contributes to “big” history. (By the way, I’ll be teaching this 6-week teleclass series again this spring, starting March 18th, again through NAMW.) I love teaching this class because I hear such great stories, and they spark memories of my own. Here’s another story about the changes in medical science:
My daughter is sensitive to numerous foods, including milk. It took years for doctors to allow that this was possible – because of the bias toward “normal” being people of Northern European descent, who have a gene that allows them to digest milk and milk products.
I too have this handy gene, inherited from my British/Swedish mother. So I can drink milk, no problem. But the paternal half of me is part Native American, and most Native Americans don’t have this gene, and neither does my daughter.
I can’t tell you how many pediatricians scoffed at me years ago when I said milk seemed to make her sick. Children need milk in order to have strong bones and teeth! A medical fact! Don’t question. Don’t make unscientific observations. You are just a mother, not a doctor.
Because of various factors, including the powerful Dairy Industry, it’s only recently that medical science has finally admitted that not everyone can drink milk!
If you’d care to share a story about this topic, please leave a comment here. At the end of each month I’ll gather up the Sharing History comments and pick one at random from a drawing, and send the winner of the drawing my e-book: your choice of a Making History Workbook.
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The subject of milk makes me really cranky. We were feeding the kids rBGH before 95% of west coaster knew what this was about. Chances are 50% of them still do not know. A few years ago my youngest son began having milk issues. This was a kid who drank gallons of milk as a toddler and then at age four turned up his nose at milk. Of course he would still eat ice cream or milk shakes. After a while it became obvious that even milkshakes and ice cream were not working for him. I began the research. Holy crap! Really? A few weeks after my “cold shower” shock, a nutritionist spoke at Husband’s workplace and was so sincere that the BEST thing each and every one of them could do was to give up milk. SHA! I had already done the research.
VERY few people are able to process milk after the age of 3. Some people are luckier than others, but the older we get, the more harmful it is to our bodies. Also, we have been taught that our bones need calcium to be strong. The facts are that the US consumes more dairy per person than any other country in the world. We also have the highest rates of osteoporosis. Yes, we may need calcium, but not of the dairy variety. The dairy variety is making us sick. Of course there are drugs for that. The best advice? Eat your veggies!
People wake up! The food pyramid that we all hold as the holy grail is written by the USDA. Not a doctor or even a heath professional, but a farm group. A farm group whose livelihood depends on selling what they grow/plant.
Think what you will, do the research, try to find an assenting point of view. The milk is a lie.
Thanks for this passionate response. The subject of milk nearly always invokes passion, doesn’t it? That’s because lies are about betrayal, and the milk lie betrays our children, who are the people we usually care about most passionately.