So I bought a litre of Silk Soy Milk tonight. While I’m not philosophically opposed to drinking the milk of a species other than my own, and I’m not on some vegan kick, I am pretty disgusted by the non-cow ingredients, e.g. recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, that exist in your standard jug of US-produced white frothy stuff. If you’re a Canadian scientist trying to determine if it’s safe, and you figure it’s not, don’t you dare tell anyone!
My first awareness that milk might not be the healthiest substance came in the summer of 1998 in Toronto, when I interned with IBM Canada. I lived with two naturopathy students — and at the time, I was going through about four litres of milk a week. I wanted to drink something healthy, so drink milk, right? It would disgust my roommates. “Milk will make you sick,” they would say. “People have been drinking it so long, they have no idea.”
I don’t like being sick.
After Toronto, I seriously reduced my milk intake, and stopped eating cereal, too. The primary consumer of this soy stuff will be my English Breakfast tea. I’ll be cooking the alfredo part of my spinach tortellini dish with it tonight, too. I’ll let you know how it goes…