Dairy is Scary: The Deep Dive!

Hi there,

Here’s 1k30’s image-free-but-still-shocking further look at how dairy is scary. Read at your own risk.

As well, please keep the following in mind:

This all comes from a place of love and non-judgment. I ate dairy for years (even after realizing I was lactose intolerant).

Shalva, my wife and partner, is aware of everything below. And despite taking a break from dairy during her 1k30, she still insists she’ll never fully give it up. (I love her for and despite this.)

Okay, onward.

1. Dairy is a bummer.

You’ll see why in a second. But first, we should admit the following:

Many of the best things in life are dairy.

Butter
Cheese
Ice cream

Who doesn’t love dairy? It’s just so tasty.

Well, here’s the problem.

It may seem obvious, but cow’s milk, the starting point in all dairy foods, comes from a mother cow. And that mother must have just given birth to produce milk.

What does that mean?

Milk-producing cows are impregnated, carry a baby to term, birth said calf, and pump milk until it runs dry at which point the process is repeated 2-4 times until the cow is “spent” and is taken to slaughter at 20% of her natural lifespan.

And no, the baby does not get to stay with her mama. Within 24 hours, the dairy farmer takes the calf away from its mother forever. (Farmers transfer male calves to solitary veal pens and female calves to an area with other soon-to-be milk-producing females.)

Of course, some rural communities need a milk-producing cow to feed their household. But their family’s cow who sleeps in the backyard lives a vastly different life than 99% of dairy cows.

Those cows, the ones responsible for your grocery store’s dairy section, suffer their entire lives. They’re housed in wretched conditions and are periodically relieved by tentacular milking machines.

Now, you can call me sensitive. But my empathy towards dairy cows has grown stronger over the years.

Shalva carried each of our babies for nine months and nursed them for another 18 or so. The pain and stress of carrying a baby, birthing them, and providing mother’s milk are mind-blowing – and I only experienced it second-hand.

Why should any species be forced to go through all that and have their baby taken?

So dairy is a pretty big bummer from an animal welfare perspective.

And if that doesn’t make you feel something, maybe the following will.

2. Dairy is objectively disgusting.

You may have heard that cow’s milk contains pus. That’s true and in the US, more than most countries.

But even in the US where more pus-per-liter is allowed than most developed nations, it’s only about one drop per cup of milk.

Now, I’m a don’t-pee-in-the-pool-even-though-it’s-just-a-drop-in-the-bucket kind of guy. So even a drop of pus per glass grosses me out.

But it’s up to you on that one.

What’s more disgusting about milk is this:

You can picture an idyllic dairy farm, right? In overalls, Farmer John sits on a stool under the sun surrounded by rolling grassy fields and milks Bessie into a tin bucket.

Well, the reality couldn’t be further from that.

Modern-day dairy farms are hundreds of dairy cows hooked up to robotic milking machines crammed together in sunless pens. (Their closeness is the reason 80% of all antibiotics made by Big Pharma are used to treat livestock.)

You probably could have guessed this reality.

But have you ever considered the stench?

You can smell a dairy farm from miles away. Why?

Well, pardon my language, dairy farms smell like sh!t.

Think about that.

I can close my eyes and smell the sweet aromas from our beloved local ice cream shop. But that’s not how it smelled on the dairy farm.

A little manure, no big deal, right?

Get this: each dairy cow produces 120 pounds of manure per day. Imagine that!

Now consider a 2,500 dairy cow farm. That farm produces as much waste every day as a 400,000-person town. (That’s the entire city of Minneapolis!)

And to be kind, I’m going to spare you the details of how they impregnate these poor female cows. But know that because it’s far grosser and violating than you’d assume, it also involves a lot of cow poop.

Okay, we can stop talking about how dairy is objectively disgusting. Let’s move on to the last way it’s scary.

3. Dairy can make you really sick.

I’m going to drop some facts and be done because it’s making me ill to keep talking about it.

Dairy is linked to many types of cancer:

Colon cancer
Breast cancer
Prostate cancer

Dairy is linked to autoimmune disease.

Dairy is the number one source of saturated fat, a contributor to heart disease and stroke.

On and on, y’all.

Dairy is scary.

Thanks for being brave enough to look behind the curtain. Hope it helps you stick with 1k30’s rule about cutting dairy.

And if you dare, here’s a video showing all of this: DAIRY IS SCARY! The industry explained in 5 minutes

As a palate cleanser, assuming you did watch the above video, here’s our wholesome video about our queso:

And to end this on a useful note, here are our favorite dairy-free ice creams:

And of course, the Cashew Queso Recipe we’re challenging you to make. 🙂

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