Before I say anything else I want to define the term milk. This article is not talking about that homogenized, pasteurized, crap from poorly treated animals fed grains in a confined area. I'm talking about fresh raw milk from 100% grass fed animals raised on plenty of quality pasture. The two are not the same, and the former shouldn't even be allowed to be called milk. If you're not familiar with the differences, read this.

There are many reasons why someone should drink milk, and there are just as many reasons why someone else shouldn't. I'm not going to talk much about that, but instead focus on some logic and a common and completely flawed argument against the human consumption of cow or other animal milk. It goes something like this:

"Milk wasn't designed for humans, it was designed for cows, and therefore isn't a healthy human food.", or "Milk is perfect for growing a baby cow, not a human."

For starters, lets just assume designed is a shorter way of saying an animal evolved milk production, and we'll avoid bashing the creationists who really think it was designed by the almighty food scientist in the sky. Now, lets take a look at how many foods were "designed" for humans, keeping in mind our definition of design. There's twinkies, corn chips, burgers, fries, and a whole host of civilized foods. Human breast milk was, of course, designed for human consumption. Although, specifically infant consumption. What about the wild foods though, native to early human diets--meat, fruits and berries, leaves, shoots, roots, tubers, nuts and other plant parts. With the exclusion of domesticated plants and animals, no foods were designed for the human species. Or to put it more scientifically, humans don't have a history of coevolution with other food species. Whereas a tree may have evolved a specific berry for a bird to eat, or specific fruit may have evolved with monkeys, the same is not true with humans. The two most likely reasons for this are that our species hasn't been around that long (on an evolutionary time scale), and also that we are highly adaptable opportunistic omnivores. Instead of our food adapting to us, we adapt to our food by using our brains, and tools to harvest, prepare, and cook it. That's right, early humans used to use their brains when determining what to eat.

At this point it should start to become clear why the argument against milk is so flawed. No foods were designed for the human species, with the exceptions of human breast milk and domesticated plants and animals, so it shouldn't matter if milk wasn't designed for humans. The argument makes about as much sense as saying that a certain berry was designed for birds and therefore is not healthy for humans to eat. Or that, a certain tuber was designed for a plant to store energy and therefor wasn't intended for human consumption. If early members of our species had used such flawed logic, we wouldn't have made it very far. Lets not forget, we are opportunistic omnivores and we used to use our brains when determining what to eat, rather than listening to the latest biased research report on the news.

In deciding what constitutes a healthy human diet, the only thing that matters is what we are well adapted or evolved to eating. This would include the wild foods of our pre agricultural hunter gatherer diet. Animal milk wouldn't have been consumed until after the rise of agriculture and pastoralism, so there is still debate about how well adapted we are to consuming it. However, many humans do toleate lactose into adulthood and there are examples of groups of people who do very well on diets containing large amounts of milk. An example is the Masai of Kenya and Northern Tanzania who traditionally lived on a diet of meat, milk, and blood. They are known for their exceptional health and longevity.

The Bottom Line I don't have the answer, and nobody else knows for sure if milk is a good food for you. So, don't believe anyone, but instead use your brain. I know, the food industry has been trying to make you think you need to listen to million dollar reports to figure this stuff out. Instead, think about the following and use your brain to decide what to eat:

Did my ancestors drink milk? Do I feel good when I drink milk? Is good quality milk available in my area (raw, organic, 100% grass fed free range cows)

That's it. If you can't answer yes to all these questions, then you probably shouldn't be drinking milk. And remember don't believe me, don't believe anyone. Trust your experiences.