General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do Kids Really Need Milk with their Meal ? [View all]hunter
(38,311 posts)... and their mutant factory farm cows that get turned into cheap meat and meat-by-products at the end of their miserable "productive" lives.
It's bad for the planet, it bad for human health, and it's ethically indefensible.
Human children don't need to drink cow's milk, and it shouldn't be encouraged at school. (Soda pop and juices are similar horrors...)
I'll confess my own kids frequently had the typical milk, boxed cereal, and orange juice breakfast because it was easy, they could do it themselves, and it was socially accepted.
When I was a kid the only cereals my parents bought were bulk cornflakes and "old fashioned" cook a long time oatmeal. The milk was powdered, and if you mixed it up that morning it tasted of tap water chlorine. (It wasn't so bad if you mixed it the day before and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight, or fermented it into buttermilk.)
My grandparents, who'd experienced the Great Depression, believed that anything other than bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast (eggs fried in bacon fat) was an indication of poverty and deprivation. Eggs and toast was the next tier down, then beans on toast with a bit of bacon fat, and below that, oatmeal with raisins and milk.
As an adult it turns out I'm lactose intolerant. When I was in the hospital last year I was served milk with lunch, and it was the first time I'd had milk in a glass in decades. There were some spectacular consequences, reminiscent of colonoscopy prep. The worst thing about it is that I was under 24/7 observation and allowed very little privacy.