Once upon a time, I drank milk. Cow’s milk.
It never sparked any questions or doubts. It’s what our mothers gave us. And it was good with powdered chocolate Quik, cookies, cereal, oatmeal, and any number of yummy things.
I switched in my teens to skim. Always watching my weight and back then, reading Seventeen magazine for beauty tips. I felt good about the switch, focusing on calories and fat, still not questioning the drinking of milk from a cow. As I didn’t question so many things, like many a child.
In adulthood, actually for me in my late thirties, I began to be offended by cow’s milk. Some early reading about vegetarianism brought this to the forefront and one evening while grocery shopping with my husband I bought a half gallon of soy milk.
I poured a few ounces and very hesitantly brought the glass to me lips. This was going to be weird. Very weird.
Nevertheless, it was good. Sweet. I could drink this. I could actually give up cow’s milk forever. Which I did that evening. I had chosen the brand Silk. And I still choose that brand, a loyal customer I am.
It was my first step toward rejecting animal products and choosing instead a plant-based diet. It has happened not all at once but in stages. I didn’t expect this but I felt great relief, euphoric.
Why have I chosen a meatless diet? Simply, I love animals and can’t bear to support an industry that causes their suffering. I cannot see a plate of meat and not see the animal who had given its life.
Dairy practices have been dominated in recent years by corporate greed, and with that have come a complete loss of what a simple, American dairy farm once was. Cows living in factory farms today — the great majority of farms producing the country’s dairy — are enslaved in a truly horrible life.
So it wasn’t about health that I moved in this direction although I have received benefits of a meatless diet. Family members have high cholesterol and have been on meds since their 30s. So far, at almost 50, I haven’t needed any meds for elevated cholesterol.
I am rewarded two fold. I don’t have to carry the guilt of eating animals. I don’t have to contribute to the sad lives of millions of dairy cows. And I can enjoy the perks of better health.
I have found what works for me. And continue on an exciting daily quest to find ways to expand upon what began as a simple change from cow’s milk to soy.
