It does a body bad

The thing I find most interesting about the wellness conversation in general is that most people are quite willing to adopt new things that "studies have shown" have health benefits, like green tea, kale and the gazillion other superfoods touted by all and sundry. But when it comes to really questioning some of the stuff we've been putting in our bods since babies that similar "studies have shown" are detrimental to our health, the willingness to change goes in the toilet.

The culture (or cult) of milk falls squarely into this category. Like cigarettes before it, cow's milk is gaining a bit of a bad rep and it's only a matter of time before it gets really bad, and not just according to the granola circles. But unlike cigarettes, we give the stuff to kids and to speak ill of it is still considered blasphemous, odd or just plain annoying. Most of us have fond memories (from our childhood or from just this morning) of drinking milk, eating yogurt, smothering cheese over every damn thing under the sun. It's tasty. It's calcium. It's just not something you need to mess with, thank you.

But more than meat, more than chemicals on my bod and in my house, more than the running and the guitar playing and the meditating to the Ramones, eliminating dairy consumption from my family is the number one priority. Have I done it completely? Shit, no. It IS hard to get it right out. It's everywhere and although I may not eat it myself anymore, getting it away from my kids has been a brutal challenge.

Other than the fact that we're the only mammals who drink another mammal's milk, here's why milk is messing up our lives:

• Cow's milk is meant to fatten up calves - it has more than three times as much protein as breast milk
• Beyond childhood, most of us stop producing lactase which we need to digest lactose
• The protein in cow's milk is difficult for all humans to digest - most of us can't digest it at all
• A high animal protein diet, particularly protein containing casein, is linked to cancer, Crohn's, allergies, eczema, asthma and arthritis

The other thing that dairy consumption gives you is mucus. Yeah, I said it. If you get sinus infections or have a regular date with other headcold symptoms every time you get sick, chuck the dairy and see what happens. I've got a man living in my house who's a walking advertisement for tossing the cow.

But where do I get my calcium? Because most of us can't digest milk, we're not getting all that lovely calcium we're promised. Also, there's a problem with us and calcium - it's not necessarily that we don't get enough intake, it's that we don't retain it properly, either because other things in our diets cancel it out (cola and caffeine are big culprits here) or we don't get enough vitamin D, which helps calcium absorption. There are plenty of things that have natural calcium, including dark, leafy greens and beans, and if you can pump a little iron, you're helping your bones and muscles out even more. Non-dairy milk is often calcium fortified, so you're covered there, too, yo!

Okay, okay, I rant. I know I do. We've all lived next to, grown up on or seen pictures of beautiful farms with dairy cows grazing peacefully in the meadow. Two things on that little image: the multi-billion dollar dairy industry and its agenda, and growth hormones. See where that cigarettes = dairy thing lines up on part one? And if you're happy getting an extra shot of hormones in your morning cereal, fill your boots. If you're happy with this additive, but are dead set against changing your milky ways, at least consider organic.

If you're ready to ditch the milk mustache, coconut, rice, hemp or almond milk are peachy keen. You can learn to live with black coffee. I know it's hard. I still have a block of parmesan in my fridge. I still buy yogurt for kids' lunches and give them ice cream for a treat. But we've switched to almond milk for everyone, Tofutti cream cheese for the girls, and I'm still experimenting with soy and coconut yogurt. The fake cheeses are atrocious, so don't waste your money.

I know it's everywhere, in everything and on every bloody food surface. But you won't regret weaning yourself.