Adjust Our Diet 4: Animal Milk to Plant-Based Milk

Our daughter was fed with milk products two months after she was born in 1995. Like most people, we believed that children need milk to grow. Since the Second World War (1941–1945), there is much advancement in the socio-economic conditions among Asians. Parents continue to feed their children with milk and dairy products, believing that they are essential for children to grow. Adults continue to consume milk with the belief that it will overcome osteoporosis.

As we had a better understanding of milk and dairy products, we decided to drop these products by the time our son was born in 2001. For this vegetarian baby, we provide vegetarian milk products from the organic shops. This suits him well and sustains his health.

Milk produced today is not a healthy product but a controversial product. In modern nutrition, milk is high in protein, fats and rich in calcium. However, in terms of mineral contents, milk lacks iodine, iron, phosphate and magnesium. The protein in milk comprises mainly of casein, which is large, hard, condense and difficult to digest. The casein and fats in milk wrap up the food you consume and thus making digestion difficult, until the casein and fats are digested first (Jiang 1999). This places a burden to your stomach to digest the food. See Jiang S.H. (1999). Eating this Way is Healthiest. Taipei: Yuan Shen Press. (In Chinese)


“Human milk is for humans, cow’s milk is for cows.” This is the advice of paediatrician professor Dr Lee Way Seah, a senior consultant in University Malaya Medical Centre, in the wake of the tainted baby milk scandal in China (Cited in Chai 2008). See Chai, M.L. (2008). “Breast milk is the best for infants, says Dr Lee”, New Straits Times, 28 September 2008.

Casein is hard and sticky in nature. Because of this, when it is stuck to the walls of organs, the organs are weakened. All these would lead to problems such as indigestion, bloating, diarrhoea, constipation, vomit, fever, bronchitis, and asthma and nostril blockage. If you have problems with digestion and continue to consume dairy products, the condition will worsen. The colon problems among adults and children with nose and ear inflammation have much to do with the consumption of milk and milk products (Jiang 1999).

In the long run, the food is kept in the stomach longer and in the mean time the gastric acid produced is inadequate, thus other organism such as Helicobacter polori would develop, resulting in stomach problem. If you consume chicken and milk, you have provided an ideal environment for the existence of such organism. This is because milk neutralizes gastric acid, thus enabling this organism to escape the control by gastric acid (Lai 2001). See Lai, C.N. (2001). “Taking care of the digestion system”, Lapis Lazuli Light, No. 9, pp. 8-10. (In Chinese)


Moreover, the various types of dairy products also bring negative impacts after they are processed in value-added production. In the process of heating and pasteurization, even though most of the germs are killed, the processes may also change or damage the enzymes, vitamins, proteins and fat structures. In the meantime, the polluted pesticides, additives, hormones and antibiotics remain in the dairy products. It is no secret that hormones (e.g. rbGH, rbST or BST) are injected to cows to increase milk production. Under these circumstances, what is the quality of milk and dairy products produced? What happens when you consume them?

If milk is not healthy, what are the alternatives for growing children and adults? Among the best substitutes animal milk are carrot juice, seed milk and fruit juices (Lai 1993). Plant-based milk is easily available in the organic shops these days. See Lai, C.N. (1993). The Pursuit of Life. Singapore: Lapis Lazuli Light.