Many vegetarians and vegans eat no animal products
because they have adopted a life choice of compassion
to animals. Some call this philosophical lifestyle
"ahimsa," or harmlessness. Others eating a plant-based
diet recognize that animal products do their bodies no
good, placing their first priority on supporting healthy
human nutritional issues backed by real science.

Many vegetarians support the consumption of a
food thickening agent, carrageenan, by pointing
out that this food emusifier is extracted from
red Irish moss. Yet, the molecular structure of
carrageenan is identical to galactose, a sugar
found in all milk and dairy produts. Galactose
consumption can be hazardous to one's health,
even in the form of carrageenan commonly found
in soy cheese, soy meat analogues, and commercially
prepared soymilks. Carrageenan is also used as
a thickening agent for chocolate cow's milk and
chocolate soymilk. Thick and creamy. Got
carrageenan? Got indigestion.

In 1735, at the age of 28, Carl Linnaeus published the
first edition of his "Systema Naturae." Linneus classified
plants and animals according to their reproductive
organs and created two systems, the plant and animal
kingdoms, by sorting each living organism according
to phylum, genus, order, class, and species.

One of the problems of drawing an imaginary line between
plants and animals is that various characteristics in
nature often cross over artificial lines created by men.
So, some plants eat and digest bugs, often acting like
simple animals, while some animals conduct their same
life functions by turning green with the envy of
photosynthesis.

One "crossover" has much in common with the Notmilk movement.

Most humans (homo sapiens) cannot digest cow's milk sugar.
We lack the enzyme (lactase) to break the bond contained
within lactose.

Seventy-five percent of the human population cannot tolerate
the consumption of lactose. For those humans who are "lactose
intolerant," the painful and discomforting result of eating
milk sugar is that bacteria living in one's lower gut
ultimately break down lactose, and in doing so, eat and
digest milk sugars and create symptoms of lactose intolerance
which include bloating, cramps, diarrhea, and gastric distress.

Milk lactose is composed of two sugars, glucose and galactose.
Galactose has been identified as a causative factor in heart
disease, cataracts, and glaucoma. Which brings us back to
the Linneaus classification which separates animals from plants.

See:

http://www.notmilk.com/deb/090599.html

There is little debate as to the toxicity of galactose,
(ergo, carrageenan) and its etiology in cataract formation.
In the above link, Dr. David Gordon puts together pieces of
a puzzle that point to galactose as being a key factor in
coronary heart disease as well. Over four hundred convincing
references from peer-reviewed scientific journals add support
to the carrageenan/galactose disease controversy.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com