No Milk for Me All of my life, I have been told, “Drink your milk. It’s a good source of calcium.” It was not until as a teenager, and after some extensive research, I realized that peanuts, shellfish, and pollen were not the only allergens that plague a select, unfortunate few. For a small population, of which I am one, milk is harmful, unnecessary, and easily substituted in a balanced diet. Drinking milk was always a struggle for me. From every source imaginable, from cartoons to commercials, I was bombarded with the opinion that milk is healthy. So I drank my milk, albeit begrudgingly, as I have never enjoyed the taste of milk. I also ate yogurt, butter, and many other dairy products. As a child, the harmful effects of my habitual daily glass of milk were masked by my other daily ritual, that of ingesting 1-2 doses of allergy medication. I did not understand the consequences of my misguided food choices. The constant intake of dairy products caused me to gain weight and experience other harmful side effects, such as congestion, wheezing and nasal dripping. I felt sluggish and sad many days. I was sickly and nearly obese. I knew I had to change. If …show more content…
I discovered another opinion, one that both surprised and intrigued me. This opinion, which was proposed by Dr. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, stated that milk, instead of being a healthy part of a good diet, was actually one of the main causes of illness in the United States. These scientists hypothesized that if a person were to remove the dairy from their diet, then he or she would be able to find relief from a number of ailments, many of which I had suffered with for a prolonged period of time. After years of drinking milk and steadily seeing my health decline, I was elated to realize that there may be a simple solution to my medical issues: remove all dairy from my