Stop Blaming Obesity on Soda

This morning, from about 2 AM until sometime after 5 AM when
the birds began to sing and the sky began to brighten, I
surfed the Internet seeking words of wisdom regarding the
obesity epidemic which plagues 21st century western civilization.
After reading hundreds of articles, each with a uniquely absurd
theory of its own, I've concluded that there is only one
foolproof method that any fool can follow for an immediately
effective weight loss protocol.

We must all simply get into our cars, just as my own state governor
recently did, and drive one end of New Jersey's Garden State Parkway
during rush hour at speeds approaching 100 miles per hour while
not wearing a seat belt. A thigh weighs about 40 pounds, and one
would instantly lose up to one square foot of ugly cellulite in the
process. One does not even have to visit a gym after his one-way
ride to weight loss. Just lay there while your jaw is wired shut
and your stomach and other internal organs are stapled. Post-accident
mirrors provide instant feedback which helps to motivate those on
this health plan to get sick to one's stomach and permanently lose
his appetite.

This plan works better than all of the stupidly drawn conclusions
from ignorantly taught nutritionists who seem to be the reason for
today's obesity epidemic. I offer only an instant cure, and I do
so tongue in cheek...or tongue on lap, or tongue on
floor mat, or wherever that tongue ended up after cars merge with
guard rails at speeds reserved for re-entry space shuttle missions.

So, what was the last thing that went through Governor Corzine's
mind before his now famous accident? If you said, "The control
panel" you'd be half right. However, the governor lived, thank
goodness, because my state of New Jersey is notorious for awful
leaders who betray the health of its constituents. People like
Christy Whitman who served as George Bush's Secretary of whatever
agency it was that told the cleanup workers on 9/12, "Trust us,
the air is perfectly safe to breathe." Those people won't be part
of America's obesity epidemic either, as various cancers overtake
their own body's ability to gain weight.

Why is it that the N-people (nutritionists and nincompoops) have
no ability to see what people were eating when there was no
obesity epidemic?

Why is it that in just thirty years, there has been one major
change to the American diet, and the D-people (dummies and
dieticians) were not required to take arithmetic as part of
their training in order to add the number one to a second
number one and come up with the resulting number two?

"Overweight children are usually the victims of the
dietary habits of the adult members of the family...
Reducing dietary fat to levels necessary to the control
of cholesterol cannot be achieved if a child drinks
whole milk or eats cheese."

Charles Attwood, M.D.

Today, they blame it on soda, so soda machines are
removed from schools. One finds so many conflicts
of interest with USDA employees holding seats of
power. These decision makers have strong ties to
the dairy industry, but similar relations with
soda manufacturers are rare. See:

<http://www.notmilk.com/usdatest.html>

Today we demonstrate that although soda may be a part
of the overall obesity problem seen over the past 30
years, the major factor is increased cheese consumption.

The differences in soda and cheese consumption during the
period of time from 1970 through 2000 were obtained from
USDA food consumption publications. Data were also obtained
for 1970 soda and cheese consumption rates by performing a
Google search.

Here is what was discovered. In 1970, the per capita
consumption of soda in America was 29.9 gallons. By 2000,
that number had increased to 37.7 gallons.

In 1970, the per capita consumption of cheese was 10
pounds. By 2000, that number had increased to 29.8 pounds.
In 2007, the average American will consume 32 pounds
of cheese.

Just one factor was considered. Calories. The human body
does not care where it gets its fuel. Sugar, fat, protein,
carbs...it's all fuel to be converted into energy. Extra
fuel is stored as fat. So...in fairness to dairy, neither
fat nor cholesterol content was considered. Just calories.

One pound of American cheese contains 1,490 calories.
One gallon of cola contains 1,592 calories.

Here is what was found.

In 1970, when I was in college and most people were slim,
the average American each day consumed 130 calories from
soda and 71 calories from cheese. Criticize what you may,
but that proportion kept us relatively slim.

By 2000, the average American was consuming daily 164
calories from soda and 122 calories from cheese.

What we must do, then, is determine the differences. That
is the key to the obesity epidemic. The baseline (1970
numbers) did not result in large numbers of overweight
children as there are in 2007. That trend resulted from
the increased consumption of one or both commodities.

BOTTOM LINE

From 1970 until 2000, the average American consumed
an additional 34 calories each day from soda. From
1970 until 2000, the average American consumed an
additional 50 calories each day from cheese.

In July of 2000, the Journal of the Archives of
Disease in Childhood reported:

"From 1965 to 1996, a considerable shift in the
adolescent diet occurred...increases occurred in the
consumption of higher fat potatoes and mixed dishes
(pizza, macaroni cheese)...These trends, far greater
than for US adults, may compromise health of the future
US population."

Since there are 365 days in a year, and 3,500 calories
in a pound, I calculated that during the 4 years of
high school, a teenager would gain 14 additional
pounds from his or her soda consumption and 21
additional pounds from his or her increased cheese
consumption.

Oh, yes...one major difference between the two
commodities that I have not yet considered in the
obesity argument, but do so now. Soda does not contain
powerful growth hormones. Growth hormones instruct
cells to grow. Combine the large amount of calories
found in cheese with saturated animal fat and
cholesterol and an abundance of naturally occurring
concentrated growth hormones, and the body does what
it is instructed to do. Grow! Place the blame for
obesity where it rightfully belongs. Cheeseheadism
is what causes obesity. Dairy marketing geniuses
have been deceiving Americans, but the real numbers
lack the capability to lie.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

USDA Permits Pesticides Directly on Cow's Bodies

In 2006, dairy farmers applied 2,784,000 ounces of
pesticides to the bodies of dairy cows. The annual report
shows that 59 percent of those pesticides were used for
fly control because many farmers continue to cut off the
cow's tails so that nature's perfect swatting machine
can no longer reach out to occasionally hit men. Imagine the
biting winged creatures attracted by the stink from the rear
of a cow on a hot summer day, and understand the life of
torture that cow lives without the use of her tail. The
dairyman's solution? A solution of liquid pesticides for your
body to absorb.

If you barbecue 'em, or if you suck up their body fluids, what
amount of these pesticides find their way to your soul?

http://tinyurl.com/2a4z5r

Three years ago, I wrote the following column regarding the
cutting off of cow's tails. During these past three years,
nothing has changed on America's dairy farms.

Is Cutting off Cow Tails Painful?

Oops! The dairy industry blundered again by
giving up another one of their dirty secrets. The
following information was published in the September
10, 2004 issue of the national dairy farm magazine,
Hoard's Dairyman. On page 558, we find this revealing
letter from a California dairy producer:

"When Cows are Abused

Dear Editor,

The article 'When cows are abused' in your August 10,
2004 issue, page 484, should be required reading for
anyone raising a farm animal.

The author concludes, 'All our public relations efforts
are in vain if an animal rights horror happens in our
dairy community and only PETA speaks out.' Amen. In the
nearly 17 years that I have dealt with the animal welfare
and animal rights set of issues, I have witnessed far too
many occasions upon which agriculture has given its power
away to the activists by not taking care of industry
blemishes in-house. Downer cows are a prime example: tail
docking is another. Science clearly (not 'sort of')
doesn't support docking cattle, and yet farmers continue
to do it. Must we, again, wait until we're forced by public
policy and an embarrassing media expose to to the right
thing? I hope not." (Ria De Grassi)

Thanks to Hoard's editors for tipping us off.

Chopping off cow's tails is a common practice in the
dairy industry. Why do dairymen do such a thing? So
that they will not get swatted while milking their cows.

Let me tell you why cows have long tails. The tail was
invented by an architect who recognized that the part
of the bovine structure located just below the tail
attracts many different varieties of the common and
not-so common fly. A tail is nature's perfect built-in
fly swatter. Without her tail, the cow lives an
uncomfortable life of being eternally pestered and bugged.

Cutting off tails is called docking. To me, docking is
what I ineptly do each time I attempt to return a powerboat
to its berth after a day of water skiing with my kids. To
dairymen, docking is chopping off a cow's tail.

I found a letter regarding tail docking in the January 25,
2002 issue of Hoard's Dairyman. On page 90, N.L. from Vermont
writes:

"We milk 72 cows. We have been docking tails for a couple
of years. We use an elastrator in the winter when fly
populations are the lowest. The tail slowly dies, then
atrophies. After about two weeks, we lop off the remaining
tail. We dunk the stump in iodine and watch for infection,
keeping a close eye on the wound until it heals. The wound
takes a long, long time to completely heal. My question is:
Why not (cut) the tails when the heifers are small? It could
be done with other stress-inducing procedures like dehorning."

Dr. Ken Nordlund, DVM responded:

"Tail Docking is controversial and has been banned in
England and some Scandinavian countries because of concerns
about pain, reduced ability to swat flies, and potential
problems with infection and wound healing. However..."

Folks, the list of "howevers" will break your heart, but to
Hoard's and its readers, it's business as usual.

I've run out of tolerance for "however" people. I hope
that you are not one of them. Please re-read the letter from
N.L. and know that with the next bite of a slice of pizza or
Hershey's Kiss, you must also take responsibility for extreme
pain and suffering to a living and sentient creature, a cow
dedicated to your dairy consumption, set aside to produce the
cheeses and ice cream, yogurt and butter, cream cheese, and
milk chocolate that you consume by being a so-called
compassionate vegetarian.

In 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously
the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful
distance of miles, there is complicity."

I blame the horribly unethical practice of tail
docking on farmers. Once you are made aware of tail
docking, and continue to support the consumption of
milk and dairy products, you become part of the problem.
There is complicity.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Sustainability

If you opened up a store in your town and could not
pay the rent you would soon be out of business. If
you started just about any business in America and
lost more money than you made, your business would
soon close. Such is the simplicity of economy in
this great land of capitalism and opportunity, an
economic theory that any ten-year-old fourth grade
child is able to explain in a detailed essay.

That same basic economic theory seems not to apply to two
entities. Dairy farms and the United States of America.

In 2000, I wrote the following about a Texas Congressman:

"The most powerfully connected congressman with
agricultural interests is Larry Combest. Between 1996
and 1999, the top 2 percent of farmers in his district
received an average of $847,872."

Combest's district is better known as the Texas
Panhandle.

"...Since 1969, more than $6 billion in direct farm
subsidies have gone to counties at least partially
represented by Larry Combest, enough to buy every
farm in the district..."

I remembered writing that column this morning when I read:

"The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last
year...a USA TODAY analysis shows."

Wow!

"The loss, equal to $11,434 per household, is more than
Americans paid in income taxes in 2006."

Huh?

What that means is that as a business, we are bankrupt. We
cannot pay the rent. Our utility bills are long overdue.

How long has this crapola been going on and how far behind
have we gotten? Here's the bottom line.

The average American household is in debt to an amount of
money equal to $516,348 because the United States does not
know how to run its business. This sum of money does not
reflect credit card bills or mortgages. This is about
government pork. Unnecessary jobs. Fuel for jet flights
to train killers which certainly are not necessary. Finally,
and this one is debatable, for things that go boom which
many people, myself included, believe generate a
questionable return on investment.

There is an upside, though, according to the USA Today
article. We could again break even if:

"Every U.S. household would have to pay
about $31,000 a year to do so in 75 years."

Let's tighten our belts and be tough about things, folks.
America was founded upon this original idea. If a company
cannot afford to remain in business, let it be absorbed
by another company or go out of business itself. Its
inability to survive means that it is either being poorly
run or that there is no need for the service or product
which it provides.

Let's start with the over-subsidized dairy farms. Just
let them fade into oblivion. Same for other subsidies.
Same for the bombs which we can no longer afford, unless
they are used to defend our own way of life. It is time
to live a sustainable life in a world that is rapidly
running out of resources.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

An Early Retreat to Heaven

The long Memorial Day six-day Holiday weekend has come and
gone. For some, the weekend begins early Wednesday afternoon
after work and runs through Tuesday morning when revelers
return to the office after retreating from their retreat
long before sunrise, badly in need of a shave and a freshly
pressed suit of work clothes.

As for me, I remembered to take suntan lotion. I remembered to
take the dog and her food bowl and her food, and beach blankets
and plenty of towels, and just in case my grown kids wanted to
be pre-teens again, a yellow plastic sand shovel and bucket. I
even packed the rarely-used White's electronic treasure finder,
just in case something of value washed up on an Easthampton
beach. An olde coin from the days Captain Kidd sailed Long Island
waters, or a smuggler's cache of something or other, or a ring or
bracelet or just some spare change. I had plenty of shorts, socks,
t-shirts, and my one pair of Asics sneakers. I took assorted pills
and vitamins. Just what the doctor ordered. Two hours from home
and one hour away from my destination, panic set in. I had forgotten
the one item I cannot live without. I had left behind my VitaMix
machine.

Regular readers of this Notmilk column know that I am addicted to
my morning smoothies. Nothing replaces freshly made fruit blends.
A large drink takes me through my morning Internet surfing. A second
one takes me through lunch. A third smoothie acts as my evening snack
while I watch the Yankees battle their way through the worst of
baseball curses, old age. There I drove on Montauk Highway in
Westhampton Beach and suddenly yelled, "The Vitamix. I forgot it."
Did you ever feel a smile? I could not check the rear view mirror as
Lisa was driving the family van. I could sense the happiness of three
daughters who would not be wakened early by the powerful Vitamix
engine. That whirring noise is the world's best alarm clock. They
would live without that sound for the next four mornings. Their
silent
cheer was deafening. My instant depression worked like a lip zipper.
I felt like crying. Withdrawal from any drug is hell. Withdrawal
from fresh fruit smoothies would be...what's worse than hell? OK,
watching The View followed by American Idol followed by Dancing
With the Stars. I felt like Malcolm McDowell in Stanley Kubrick's
Clockwork Orange, eyes taped open, tied, bound to a chair, screaming
from his temporary torture.

And then an angelic voice spoke up from the back seat. "Dad, there's
a supermarket. They probably have pre-made fruit smoothies in the
produce section. I've seen them before."

We stopped at the King Kullen supermarket on Montauk Highway in
Hampton Bays, and my daughter was right. There were seven bottles,
and having no choice, I threw caution to the warm ocean wind and
bought them all. We had a cooler filled with ice, fresh pineapple,
and pina colada mix, so there was plenty of room for the seven
bottles. Make that six bottles. I had to try one immediately.

Expecting disappointment, I selected something called
C-Boost Tropical Fruit Smoothie made by Bolthouse Farms.
My immediate thought was that the marketing people could
come up with a sexier name. Bolthouse Farms? Do these
people grow screws?

On the side of the bottle, the Bolthouse writes:

"Why you should feel good about what's in this bottle. C-Boost
ingredients were thoughtfully selected to support your body's
immune system and to delight your taste buds. Each bottle brings
together hand-picked acerola cherries and camu camu, two of the
world's most vitamin C rich fruits. We then blend in delicious
mango puree and apple juice to round out this unique tropical
flavor. Finally, the added benefits of zinc, vitamins A and E,
as well as the addition of echinacea and astragulus help to give
your body's immune system it needs each day."

They seemed to be touching the right politically correct bases,
and this and other juices touched a base or two I had never heard
of. Camu camu?

At the moment, I wasn't particularly interested in my body's
immune system. What I craved was great taste. I twisted open the
plastic bottle expecting to taste any old blend of fruit juices.
Instead, I was happily amazed by something that I would have
guessed contained fresh apricots and fresh peaches. It was
wonderful! The side of the bottle read, "Perishable. Keep
Refrigerated." There was no way that anything would be left to
perish. I drank each tiny sip as if it was Tranya, that ice cold
beverage served to Captain Kirk and his fellow officers on the
Starship Enterprise by Balok at the conclusion of "The Corbomite
Maneuver" episode. For you trivia buffs, the alien Bolok was
played by Ron Howard's little seven-year-old Brother.

While savoring my C-boost, I checked out the other drinks.
Green Goodness - fruit juice blend with fourteen powerful nutrients.
Berry Boost, Blue Goodness...I couldn't wait. Without meaning to,
I had purchased something called Vedge. My wife and kids are always
telling me to "veg out" and I was looking forward to doing just
that. As they drank their pina coladas later that evening, I finished
my day with the vanilla chai tea. There's something about cardamom,
ginger, cinnamon, and clove that wakes the beast in me. I was in bed
long before their evening ended. The next day, I ran out of my
new Bolthouse drinks. Would I have to drive west on Montauk Highway,
which resembles Shea Stadium parking lot when the Mets play the
Yankees?

Soon after the sun rose, but long before the girls woke up, I
explored
Newtown Lane in Easthampton and quickly found the Waldbaum's market,
and
there it was. Bolthouse drinks. A happy ending to a great weekend,
but
would there be Bolthouse when I got home to New Jersey? I had to get
an answer before writing this column. YES! The Shoprite in Emerson
was
loaded. Why had I never heard of this brand before?

I loaded up on fresh fruit for the week anticipating the smoothies
I would soon be making, and just in case, took home a six pack of
Bolthouse Farms juices.

Check out the company and store availability:

http://www.bolthousefarms.com

***************************************************************
NOTE: I neither seek nor accept money to promote products.
I do so only when I find something worth recommending. - R.C.
***************************************************************

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

An Unusual Memory for Memorial Day

Last evening, HBO presented the film version of "Bury My Heart
at Wounded Knee." No, I did not cry during the movie, but it
was close. Two of my daughters did cry. Faced with their first
experience and understanding of how American Indians suffered
during three hundred years of pre-casino days, one daughTer
asked, "Did it really happen this way?" I could only nod.

I thought that you might like an interesting aside to last night's
movie. History repeated itself in the 1970s with a second incident
at Wounded Knee. Indian protestors were arrested and during the
protest/incident, things got out of control. In another example of
men, guns, and testosterone do not mix, there was a shooting, and
men fell to the ground, and when it was over, an agent of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation lay dead. That man has been a symbol
to many persons around the world.

A Native American protest leader was arrested and charged with that
crime, despite enormous conflicting testimony. Millions of people
have come to know of his case and support his freedom. His supporters
included the late Mother Theresa, members of the U.S. Congress, the
European Parliament, the Dalai Lama, and Amnesty International.

The interesting aside which I add to today's story is that President
Clinton was ready to release Leonard Peltier during the final week of
his presidency thanks to the lobbying of a friend and supporter. That
friend had donated many millions of dollars to the Clinton campaigns
for the presidency. One week before the decision was due, Clinton was
pressured by demonstrating FBI agents. His decision was withdrawn and
Peltier remained in jail. The man who so badly wanted to see Peltier
released is billionaire media mogul David Geffen.

Pay careful attention to 2007 and 2008 politics. Hilary Clinton is
expected by many to get the Democratic Nomination, but there is an
up and comer who gives her nightmares. His name is Barack Obama.
Obama's primary source of campaign funding has been David Geffen.
Politics is often payback time, and this year has been a prime
example. Without Geffen's millions of dollars and hundreds of
political friends and favors, Obama would be an underfunded idealist.
Today, he is a man who would be king.

We live in times that try men and women's souls, and a few
courageous people seek to change things for the betterment of all
mankind.

One of the most interesting books that I've read is "The Life and
Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson," by Adrienne Koch. Two years
before the American Revolution began, Jefferson wrote (in my opinion)
the single greatest essay in American history.

Jefferson's "Summary View of Rights of British America" cited the
many injustices of British rule and laid the foundations for the
American Revolution.

Jefferson's argument for independence addresses tyranny and
misrepresentation, the likes of which America is again witnessing at
the hands of federal regulatory agencies like the FDA. Jefferson
wrote:

"Single acts of Tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of
a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period,
and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too
plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to
slavery."

Two ex-FDA commissioners have gone to work for Monsanto, and FDA has
not fairly treated the review process for Monsanto's genetically
engineered hormones. These conflicts of interest place the health
interests of Americans secondary to the financial interests of those
who compromise the integrity of government officials.

We are in prison. Bars and shackles, favors traded for laws and
policy now prevent us from enjoying our inalienable right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These basic truths that were deemed to be self evident to the
founding fathers HAVE been taken away by a series of tyrannical acts.

Until FDA labels foods containing genetically engineered organisms, I
will continue to protest my loss of liberty. FDA'S tyranny protects
pharmaceutical companies and food manufacturers. The rest of the
world does not allow such betrayal. Only in America. We deceive
ourselves by believing that we are land of the free. Our media will
not tell us the truth, relying upon ad revenue from the betrayers.

While I continue my hunger strike, joined by nearly five hundred
people who have fasted for one day or longer, another hunger strike
continues as protest to one of America's great injustices.

In 1997, ex-Attorney General Ramsey Clark spoke of a man that few
Americans have heard of, a man who happens to be the most well-known
political prisoner on this planet. Clark said:

"Until Leonard Peltier's rights are respected, there can be no peace
in our hearts and our minds, or if we have courage, in our
bodies...it is imperative that we, you and I, secure the freedom of
Leonard Peltier."

Leonard's tragic story, and those who fast to bring justice:

http://www.capecod.net/~spiral

Leonard Peltier, a Native-American, is 60 years old, and has lived in
a federal prison for the past 30 years. In 1995, US prosecutor Lynn
Crooks testified that no evidence exists against Peltier.

Remarkably, this testimony came during a parole hearing in 1999.
He is long overdue for release through parole, and it is one of two
remaining options for freedom. The second is executive clemency.

Peltier's struggle and my struggle are your struggle too. Together,
we are all innocent victims to tyranny.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Did You Watch: Bury My Heart on HBO?

Last evening, HBO presented a 2 hour movie version
of the book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. There is
an unusual aside to the story. I've just finished
watching the program and am posting this at 11:20 PM.

A cow was partly responsible for one of the bloodiest
and most shamful periods of American history.

The year was 1854. Blame the President (Franklin Pierce)
and his secretary of war (Jefferson Davis) for one of
the sorriest chapters in American history. President
Pierce did not like political agitators, particulary
those who proposed an end to slavery. So far as Indians
were concerned, Pierce believed that they stood in the
way of America's progress, and were a threat to coast-to-
coast railroad transportation. To him, native Americans
were a group of insurgents to be controlled or eliminated.

Because of a cow, Sitting Bull defeated Custer at the
battle of Little Big Horn. This is the true story of
the cow who started a war. In the days of the Oregon
Trail, a homesteader's cow became separated from her
wagon train and wandered into a Sioux camp. Losing
a cow was a catastrophic event for a family of 19th
century settlers.

Today, you can buy a herd of 20 cows for the same cost
as a brand new family mini-van. In settler days, your
prairie schooner (covered wagon) cost exactly the same
as the family cow, about $70. Rice, beans, and dried
fruit could be had for just 6 cents per pound. Flour
cost only 2 cents per pound. A rifle was $15.

At that time during America's history, there were few
lawyers or activists in the Old West, so the Sioux
didn't sue nor declare war. They might have even
returned this funny looking animal, if only the
settlers had asked. Instead, the pioneers went to
Fort Laramie, Wyoming, where they reported their lost
cow as a theft. They blamed the Native Americans.

One very eager West Point graduate, Lt. John Grattan,
assembled 29 soldiers and then set out to punish the
Indians who by that time had barbecued the unfortunate
animal. The chief offered the soldiers a horse in trade
for the cow, but Grattan's response was to open fire.
He killed the tribe's leader, and the Sioux fired back
killing 21 soldiers. Shortly thereafter, 650 soldiers
returned to massacre 85 Sioux men, women, and children.
The year was 1855. The result was years of hostilities
by both sides. All because of one wandering cow.

The war between the Sioux nation and the United States
lasted for two decades. The Sioux joined the Cheyenne
in Montana, and were led by Sitting Bull who inspired
them to small victories over the US Cavalry. Army troops
commanded by General George Custer, wanted to end things
with the insurgents in the summer of 1875, so he planned
a final campaign that backfired into his famous "Last Stand."

The battle of Little Big Horn was a devastating loss for
America and a great Indian victory. Within a year, the
Sioux nation would be crushed.

One hundred and fifty-three years ago when America was
young, and when settlers sought a better way of life
in California, the dairy cow that started the Indian wars
would have yielded just one quart of milk per day. That
hardly produced butter to equal one-quarter stick.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I watch less than 5 hours of television
each week. Tonight I'll be watching HBO
at 9 PM, EST. Won't you please join me
if you are able to? If you do not get
HBO, call a friend, invite yourself over,
offer to bring the popcorn.

Robert Cohen
i4crob@...

Hey, What's Up?

Hay.

Exactly. Hay. It's up. Way up.

While the price of hay does not directly affect
you or me, it does affect dairy farmers, who
cannot afford higher prices for virtually everything,
while netting lower returns for their milk.

In 1985, dairymen were getting just about the same
price for their milk as they received these past 12
months. Unfortunately for them, every one of their
costs is higher. Feed, labor, transportation, vet
bills, antibiotic costs, hormones, treatment for
mastitis. Energy, fuel, fertilizer. It just isn't
getting any easier for dairy farmers.

Two years ago, dairymen were lucky to be paying $1.70
for a bushel of corn, while corn futures hovered in the
$2.00 range. Today, May 2007 corn futures are $4.25 per
bushel. Soy futures are soaring too, and are now over
$7.50 per bushel. Yes, Virginia, cows eat soy because
it's healthy for them.

What's a farmer to do?

Perhaps the writing is on the wall as evidenced by a
recent California sale. Tulare County, California is my
version of hell on earth. If you think the New Jersey
Turnpike has a stench, drive through Tulare. Even with your
windows closed, the smell of ammonia permeates your car's
interior. At times, one can see black dots from horizon to
horizon. Cows. Thousands and thousands of dirty stinking
cows. Peeeee-yuuuuuu.

In February, a world's record was set with the auction of
the largest herd in history. Some 10,000 dairy cows were
sold by farmer Sam Knevelbaard (rhymes with Evil-Bad).
That added up to a convoy of 285 semi trailers trucking
Southwest on Route 40 on the way to a home somewhere in
the Mojave. The sale grossed about 18 million dollars.
Gross is the key word here.

One cow drinks 40 gallons of water each day and eats 80
pounds of feed. That's 14,600 gallons of water and nearly
30,000 pounds of feed per animal per year. Multiply the
recent sale of 10,000 animals. What conversion factor shall
we imagine? How about the conversion of what goes into one
end of the bovine and out the other end? Forget global
warming. This is a prime case of global disgusting. Where
does one put one-half billion pounds of excrement? How about
the Washington, D.C. Capitol Building? Nobody will ever notice.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

No Accounting for Bad Taste

Sometimes, there is no accounting for bad taste, and when
it comes to some of the members of my innermost circle, that
guilty label includes Lisa, Jennifer, Sarah, and Lizzy.

For example...I love dark amber maple syrup which some people
call "Grade B," and I it as describe as a thick liquid loaded
with a magnificent and miraculous chemical catharsis in which
thin water-like sap is boiled and concentrated into nature's
sweetest most-flavorable gourmet sweetener.

My wife and three daughters prefer Aunt Jemima's syrup, which is
made by boiling sugar and spice and everything nice, but has
a taste and bouquet which I find offensive.

Last evening, I stripped bare the shelves of my refrigerator
and looked deep into the least and most inaccessible of kitchen
cabinets, searching for a container holding just a few teaspoons
of Vermont's finest gift to downeasterners. Sadly, all I found was
a disgustingly aged bottle of Aunt Jemima's Original syrup.
The ingredient list told me that this gunk was made from corn syrup,
high fructose corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, caramel color, salt,
sodium benzoate, sorbic acid, and sodium hexamtaphosphate.

I opened the cap, took a whiff, and reminisced of my old college
diner when the local greasy spoon offerings smelled strangely like
the mixture of everything which collects on the tiles underneath
the Formica table which is bolted to the floor with a large
stainless steel rod.

I could not, would not, cover a pancake or sweeten a bowl of oatmeal
with this offensive gloop, so I put it back where it was found, still
unsuccessful in my search for the real thing. I then located a small
11.75-ounce container (337 grams) of Madhave Agave Nectar. That's
what
I used to sweeten last night's dinner which was enjoyed by yours
truly.

There's no accounting for bad taste when it comes to anybody selecting
Aunt Jemima's fake stuff over the real thing, be it maple syrup or
agave
nectar, the sweet juice of the agave cactus. The agave people have a
website:

http://www.madhvahoney.com

..but this column is about my dinner, not the teaspoon of agave used
to
sweeten my meal. Actually, the sweetener was not entirely necessary,
but when creating a new dish, I am in the mood to experiment, and this
final product was a pure delight.

Here's what I proceeded to do.

I craved soy yogurt, but the supermarket shelves were relatively
bare,
and the few choices of SILK soy yogurt were uninteresting and
extremely
overpriced - So...I decided to make my own.

I own a VitaMix machine and hope that you do too. Other blenders
might
be up to speed, but I could not say for sure, because I do not own
other
blenders.

I took a small container of soft silken Mori-Nu tofu, which cost
about $1 and added it to my VitaMix. I also added one cup of freshly
sliced mango and one cup of freshly sliced strawberries. I pureed
the three ingredients and ended up with just under a quart container
of yogurt.

I then added 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and one teaspoon of
the agave nectar which added a lovely sweet essence to it all.

In a separate bowl, I sliced two bananas, one pear, one apple,
a few strawberries, some giant raspberries, tiny bite-sized pieces
of cantaloupe, grapes, and pineapple.

Note: I've made my own tofu from homemade soymilk, but the process
is a large pain in the butt and the cleanup is not worth the effort,
so it's easier to just buy ready-made tofu. If you live near a large
metropolitan area with an Asian population, chances are that you can
find fresh tofu every day. I could take you to a few dozen local
markets in Bergen County, New Jersey, where I live and introduce you
to some incredible merchants who stock fresh tofu in large vats
of water.

So, I refrigerated the soft silky yogurt, then spooned it over about
a quart of fresh fruit. Dinner took about an hour to savor, piece by
piece, grape by grape, berry by berry, covered with a thin
film of delightfully fresh homemade yogurt.

Long before yogurt became a popular American snack, my father used to
eat large bowls of sour cream with sliced bananas and blueberries.
His physician's name was Hank Heimlich, and I remember the day my
dad's
gall bladder was removed by this very famous New York doctor, who now
lives in Cincinnati with his wonderful wife and my dear friend, Jane.

Tomorrow, I'll make a different yogurt. I noticed a bag of frozen
peaches while cleaning out the freezer this week. Easy recipe: One
package of soft Mori-Nu, two cups of fruit, vanilla and sweetener to
taste. Eat atop plenty of fruit and add raw sunflower seeds, almonds,
or cashews.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

I May Act Dumb, But My Body's Plan is Brilliant

Heart disease is America's number-one killer. The choice
is yours to either be a victim, or have a change of heart
and let food be your medicine.

Every doctor learns in medical school that there are both
good and bad cholesterols. Can there really be such a thing
as "bad cholesterol?"

Repeat after me:

My body is not dumb.
It does not do stupid things.
My body reacts to the stupid things which my mind
directs it to do.
The body was designed with an intelligent plan.

The following is not taught in medical schools.
The following represents the cause and cure of heart disease.
You require simplicity? Here it is...

LDL cholesterol (low density lipoprotein) is manufactured as
the human response to continuous heart damage. The internal
production and secretion of this so-called "bad cholesterol"
is the manner by which the body repairs its own damage.

I refer to LDL cholesterol as the body's own spackle. When
picture hooks create holes in living room walls, one goes to
a hardware store to purchase a can of spackle. That substance
fills the holes. You then take a piece of sandpaper and file
down the spackle until the wall is smooth.

Many events are responsible for heart damage. The largest heart
study in American history (Castelli's Framingham Heart Study)
has identified sulfur-based amino acids (from eating animal
protein) as the key to the etiology of heart disease. So, the
body's brilliantly programmed response to heart disease is to
neutralize the damage caused by the ingestion of animal protein.
Your body's response is to manufacture more LDL cholesterol
which acts to repair the damage.

The higher the cholesterol reading, the greater is the damage
that must be repaired. So, what do naive meat eaters do when
faced with high cholesterol rates? They seek advice from
well meaning, but ignorant doctors.

Doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs, which take away
the body's mechanism by which the damage is repaired. In other
words, cholesterol-lowering drugs make things worse. Why not
simply eliminate those factors which cause the damage? Because
most doctors are not taught to think. They are taught to
diagnose and prescribe medications. (There are exceptions
to this "ignorant doctor" rule. They include Caldwell Esselstyn,
MD, John McDougall, MD, Joel Fuhrman, MD, Michael Greger, MD,
and many others.)

Animal protein (meat and dairy) contains an abundance of
sulfur-based amino acids. The worst foods to eat (the
highest levels of sulfur) are chicken and eggs. You do
not want the rotten egg smell infusing into each of your
body's cells. One must neutralize the resulting acid. To
do so, calcium is leached from where it is stored: in the
skeletal system. For this reason, those living in meat-eating
nations have the highest rates of bone disease.

So, what can you do if you have high cholesterol and hope
to prevent or reverse heart disease? The heart-healthy answer
is to change your diet and furnish your body with clean fuel.
Stop the damage immediately and your body will have less of
a need to manufacture large amounts of the inappropriately
named "bad" cholesterol.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Be On The Lookout For...
One or more really, really bad cases of constipation.
One or more horribly ugly case of the zits.
Crazed crooks with violent mood swings, depression,
and irritability.
An offensively smelly gang oozing gallons of mucus.
Kidney stones resembling Stonehenge.

In this age of Homeland Security, and a Big Brotherish warning
to be aware of what your next door neighbor is up to, keep an
eye out for one or more maniacs unloading the contents of a 48
foot trailer truck into their garage or refrigerated backyard
storage facility.

You see, thieves have commandeered a trailer truck filled with
11 tons of cheese.

Sounds like an episode of the Sopranos, right? Nah. No member
of Cosa Nostra would be silly enough to try to get away with
heisting 23,500 pounds of mozzarella, right? Is your neighbor
hosting a pizza party for the local high school? How about a
wine and cheese tasting for a last second hastily arranged
local volunteer fire department fund raiser.

Whatever it takes, somebody knew what they were doing when they
hooked up their rig to an unoccupied truck at a Pennsylvania rest
area on Route 80 the other night.

Where police should look...

Like sending coal to Newcastle or tea to China, the
last place one would think of looking would be the state
of Wisconsin. Just in case you haven't been watching Green
Bay Packer football games, that's cheeshead country. Who would
expect the cheese to end up in America's cheese producing
state? Nobody, except perhaps for a clever cop.

Rumor has it that years ago, the mob invested in numerous
traditional businesses including mid-western cheese factories.
It's been well documented that some of Al Capone's money went
to a big cheese distributor in Brownsville, Wisconsin. I've
heard that the place is now clean, but who knows? Getting
rid of 21,500 1-lb packages of mozzarella ain't no easy task.
Repackage and ship. Sounds as if somebody with the ability
to do the job is working overtime.

Where else could 21,500 pounds of cheese be unloaded, repackaged,
and shipped out again to thousands of locations all across
America? Sounds like an existing cheese factory to me. There's
just not enough money to be fencing the goods door-to-door.

I spoke with the Pennsylvania State Police and, as of now,
they are still clueless. Not a whiff of evidence. Should you
have a tip, call Trooper Foley at 814-355-7545 or Corporal
Leiter at the same number.

The cheese was inside of a 48-foot white Great Dane trailer,
with Illinois registration ST194973 and the
inscription "Trailer#202."

Rumor has it that the reward is "all the cheese you can eat" which
for me would be no reward at all. However, if the cheese happens to
be Vegan-rella, I do have an extra refrigerator sitting empty in my
basement.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

How to Commit Suicide

Today is Wednesday, May 23, 2007, and on Sunday, May 20th, I wrote:

"If a pro ball player/manager like Pete Rose wagers on a sporting
event, he is barred from baseball for life...If that same baseball
player takes steroid or protein hormones to enhance his performance,
he is suspended from the sport...So, for all Barry Bonds Wanna(Giam)
bes, let it be known that we agree with the conclusion of the
recent scientific study regarding cow's milk and muscle mass..."

Many people wrote to me, not to defend Barry Bonds who will soon
break Henry Aaron's home run record, but because I took a so-called
cheap shot at New York Yankee outfielder, Jason Giambi.

He's the "Wanna(Giam)be" to whom I referred, and many baseball fans
were angered by my continued assault on a man who earns $20 million
per year attempting to hit 95 mph fastballs into the upper deck at
Yankee Stadium.

Three days after I wrote that column, it appears that Mr. Giambi has
committed professional suicide, and this may be strike three. The
back page of today's New York Daily News has a picture of a moping
Giambino with large letters superimposed over his pinstripes:
FLUNKED!

It seems that Mighty Jason has struck out - again.

What does it take for a man to earn so much money and then get a
pituitary cancer that nearly ends his life? What does it take for a
man to be a role model for kids, and in doing so betray them again
and again as he has done through his repeated drug use?

They do not make a uniform big enough or artfully enough to disguise
Jason's bulging muscle mass. Two seasons ago, Jason showed up at
spring training as a much smaller version of his once hormone-
induced bulky self. Then last season, he showed up again, bigger
than life. Bigger than death.

What does it take for the sports world to make the connection
between hormone use and cancer? Jason is not the first one to get
caught and simultaneously suffer from a cancer. Many before him
and many after will suffer the same inglorious moment of exposure.

Hormones in any form should be rejected by a world made aware of
the consequences.

Today, the hormone of choice among professional athletes is insulin-
like growth factor (IGF-I). Players take it because they know that
they cannot be caught. There is no accepted blood or urine test.
We know only by what we suspect after seeing a 180 pound athlete
grow into a 235 pound athlete from one season to the next.

We reward those athletes willing to risk their lives for one season
of glory with enough money in one year to retire on for the rest of
their lives.

On page 56 of today's Daily News, writer Mike Lupica's column
contains this headline: "Unsafe at Any Speed." Many of today's
readers may not understand the reference to Ralph Nader's award
winning book about the dangerous cars once built in Detroit.

Taking banned substances to improve one's performance may do just
that, but these powerful drugs continue to be unsafe at any speed
for our young people with trust and illusions. Most will not become
professional baseball players. Some will suffer the same cancers
and bodily injuries. Muscle tears. Bone breaks. Non-adherence to
the original architectural plan for a human body.

Today's drug of choice, IGF-I, just happens to be the most powerful
growth hormone manufactured in the human body. If you want to build
muscle mass rapidly, take IGF-I. You can purchase it in any town
in America, guaranteed. Take a ride with me and I'll point out ten
places to purchase IGF-I in ten minutes. Take IGF-I and you put your
body at risk for injuries and life ending cancers. Giambi should
have learned the first time around. He did not, and for his crime
against baseball, for his insult against the fans who trusted the
man, he will forever be the liar who sold out his own life and the
hopes of adoring and trusting fans.

One day, society may become honest with IGF-I issues.
One day, a respected sports writer will reveal that IGF-I in
the human body is identical to IGF-I in the cow's body.
One day, a light will click on in the collective darkness of
people everywhere who will suddenly realize that the healthiest
milk from the cleanest organically raised cow will naturally
contain these same powerful steroid and protein hormones which end
the lives and careers of role model ballplayers who are merely
playing a role. An athlete's message to his fans in the twenty-first
century is:

Anything is worth a moment of fortune and glory. Putting one's own
health at risk is worth the money. Putting the children at risk is
also worth the subsequent physical aches and pains and emotional
pain from exposure.

Baseball is America's sport. Baseball takes our minds off of the
daily grind. The daily rat race. The daily horrors of this world
in which we live.

On page two of today's Daily News we read that one out of every
four young American Muslims say that suicide bombing is ok.

On page eight of today's Daily News we read that less than 42
percent of eighth graders are passing standardized reading tests.

I live in a much different world than the one I learned about when
I was an eighth grader. In those days, the hills were alive with the
sound of music. When I was in eighth grade, the New York Yankees
were sold for a sum representing less money than Jason Giambi will
be paid this year. In eighth grade, I read a book about a Corvair
motor car that forever changed my life. From that time forward,
when those in power would ask for my trust and faith, I began
to ask why. It has become imperative for us all to do the same.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Letter to NY Times Editor Re: Vegan Diet

Dear Friends,

I sent these letter to the New York Times and respectfully
request that you send a letter reflecting your own opinions.
You must include your name, address, and telephone number
(for confirmation). Send emails to:

letters@...

Send Faxes to: 212-556-3622

Send snail mail:

Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036-3959

Please ask that the New York Times interview me: 201-967-7001

Thanks!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Vegan Diet (150 Word Version)
Vegan Diet (280 word version)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Editor,

A Times commentary (May 21, 2007)  took latitude in condemning
vegan diets for infants. The case facts are unsupported by
thewriter's conclusions.

In 1989, the Journal Pediatrics (vol. 84) determined that a
vegan diet was appropriate for the mother of an unborn child:

"Vegan diets can meet the nutrient and energy needs of pregnant
women."

In 1994, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 59)
reported:

"Vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle,
including during pregnancy and lactation."

It is with sadness and a reverence for life that vegans
request that the New York Times undertake an unbiased review
based upon scientific literature. The Times will find that all
persons must take responsibility for his own dietary needs, and
that to ignore those needs of a newborn infant is the worst form
of  child abuse requiring an immediate response from mankind's
parents to all of God's children.

Robert Cohen
i4crob@...
841 Kinderkamack Road
Oradell, NJ 97649
201-967-7001

Robert Cohen is Author of "God's Nutritionist",
the vegetarian writings of Ellen White, the most
translated author in the history of American literature.

********************************************************************

RE: Vegan Diet (150 Word Version)

Dear Editor,

A guest commentary published in the editorial section of the New
York Times (Monday, May 21, 2007) took great latitude in condemning
vegan diets for infants. The facts of the actual case do not
support the conclusions of the opinion writer. In noting that
the child was born in a bathtub and had not been to a hospital
during a very short life in which his basic nutritional needs
had been neglected, despite the fact that the protruding bones
could be easily seen and counted underneath the child's skin by
the medical examiner, the prosecutor said, "These were not vegan
parents. These were child killers." The couple was appropriately
found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary
manslaughter and cruelty to children.

In 1989, the Journal Pediatrics (vol. 84) determined that a
vegan diet was appropriate for the mother of an unborn child.
Pediatrics reported:

"Vegan diets can meet the nutrient and energy needs of pregnant
women. Birth weights of infants born to well nourished
vegetarian women have been shown to be similar to birth-weight
norms and to birth weights of infants of non vegetarians."

Five years later, Dr. Benjamin Spock became involved in the
growing controversy regarding vegan diets for infants. At that
same time, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 59)
reported:

"Vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle,
including during pregnancy and lactation."

It is with deep sadness and a reverence for life that all vegans
respectfully request that the New York Times undertake an unbiased
review based upon the scientific literature. In doing so, the
Times will find that all persons must take responsibility for his
or her own dietary needs, and that to ignore those needs of a
newborn infant is the worst form of child abuse requiring an
appropriate response from all of mankind's
parents to all of God's children.

Robert Cohen
i4crob@...
841 Kinderkamack Road
Oradell, NJ 97649
201-967-7001

Robert Cohen is Author of "God's Nutritionist",
the vegetarian writings of Ellen White, the most
translated author in the history of American literature.
________________________________________________________
Please do not publish phone contact: 201-967-7001

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Big-Massive-Invidiuals: Soy & Self Identity

A trio of researchers attempted to (in their own language):

"Identify self-identities among mainstream and natural foods
shoppers and the relationship of these self-identities to soy
consumption and BMI."

In the abstract of their article, these scientists did not define
BMI. I believe that BMI means "Body Mass Index" but for the
purpose of this study, it seems as if BMI was used to define
Big Massive People. In other words, those persons with a "higher
BMI" were chubby people, while those with a "lower BMI" were
skinny folk.

The study is published in the May issue of the journal Obesity
(2007 May;15(5):1101-6).

Tamara Schryver, Chery Smith, and Melanie Wall, Department of
Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota
hypothesized that:

"Soy consumers (SCs) would have lower BMIs than non-consumers (NCs)
and that persons who self-identify themselves as SCs, natural foods,
organic foods, health conscious, whole foods consumers, and
vegetarians would have higher intakes of soy."

Here is how these researchers approached this study:

"A validated soy foods frequency questionnaire was administered to
298 adult mainstream and natural foods grocery store shoppers in
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN. An additional survey gathered information
on consumers' self-identification with several dietary and lifestyle
descriptors."

Here are their results:

"Asians and those who shopped at natural food grocery stores
consumed more soy foods and had lower BMIs than other ethnicities
or those who shopped at mainstream grocery stores. Five overarching
self-identities were found: vegetarian, mainstream, nouveau gourmet,
pleasure, and bargain. Vegetarian and nouveau gourmet self-identities
consumed significantly greater amounts of soy foods and had
significantly lower BMIs, whereas mainstream self-identities
consumed significantly less soy foods and had significantly higher
BMIs."

Their conclusion:

"Self-identities influence soy food consumption and BMI."

During the Viet Nam war and the Nixon years we needed comedy, and
got plenty of it in the form of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In."
While reading this study abstract, I recalled Arte Johnson playing
the part of a World War II German soldier, looking out from behind
a potted palm tree and muttering, "Verrrry interesting..."

I reacted with the same words.

What's next? Hopefully, Schryver, Smith, and Wall will repeat
this experiment with cheese and ice cream eaters. Identify and
analyze the self identities of dairy consumers as they relate
to their BMIs.

We've already learned that soy consumers have LNIs (Little
Not-so Massive Indices) when compared to the mainstream. I
hypothesize that a big-time dairy consumer will have an HBI
(Holstein-like Body Index) in comparision.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Testing the Senses of the Senseless

We performed a double blind vision experiment using a standard
eye chart on sixty blind males between the ages of 35 and 49,
randomly assigned (by picking names out of a milk carton) into
one of three groups.

The first group of 20 subjects drank one 6-ounce glass of
soymilk five minutes before the eye test. A second group of
20 subjects drank a 6-ounce glass of whole cow's milk before
the eye test. The control group of 20 subjects drank a 6-ounce
glass of water before the eye test.

In order to eliminate experimental bias, we did not tell the
ophthalmologist which subjects drank which liquid. Ergo, the
experiment satisfied the primary criterion of traditional double
blind studies. Since our study was done with 60 blind subjects,
it might be the first triple blind study in the history of medical
research.

In order to eliminate sunlight as a possible extraneous variable,
the blinds were drawn. That way, we continued to make history by
producing an unprecedented quadruple blind study. We then hired
a vision-challenged lab technician from "Temps-Are-Us" to lead
the test subjects from the waiting room to the test lab so that
in effect, we had the blind leading the blind. Our study had become
a pentacle blind study, certainly, never again to be repeated. One
of our group came up with the final suggestion so that a seeing eye
dog was supplied for the temp. We now had a sextaple study, but
wishing not to be confused with Kinsey, Masters, or Johnson, decided
not to publicize that fact. We were meticulous in our methods
so that nobody could challenge our test results.

After examining the research data, we found a small statistically
insignificant difference between the three groups. Those drinking
soymilk scored slightly higher than the control group which
scored slightly higher than those drinking cow's milk.

Conclusion: If you drink soymilk, it will help you to see the
light, while drinking cow's milk will leave you in the dark.

*Unfortunately, the milk-drinking group went last and nobody
thought to clean up after the seeing eye dog. We do not feel
that this omission biased the test in any way, although extra
personnel had to be brought in to clean and disinfect the
bottoms of group number three's shoes.

OK, we admit it. Our study was silly, and we made it all up,
but the idea was still no sillier that many of the studies
submitted to and accepted by any one of the 250,000 different
journals which cumulatively represent a scientist's never-ending
pursuit for publicity and the right to make biased or unbiased
conclusions and stake his or her claim to fame for 15 minutes.

Which brings us to a recently well-publicized study comparing
weight lifters and their attempts to build muscle mass. No, we're
not referring to the ultra un-orthodox service held every Sunday
morning at the United Church's Mass of the Muscle. We're talking
about bulging, rippling shirt-bursting abs and pecs which make
weight lifters look absolutely gorgeous, darling.

Yes, we admit it. We really did not do the vision experiment,
but if we did, it would have been our responsibility as ethical
and credible researchers to know our subject. You see, blind
people cannot read eye charts, and as sure as you're sitting
there still reading this column, the fact that cow's milk
contains powerful growth hormones should have been considered
by the ignorant scientists performing and publishing an equally
absurd study comparing muscle mass of soymilk drinkers to
cow's milk drinkers.

If a pro ball player/manager like Pete Rose wagers on a sporting
event, he is barred from baseball for life. When a pro wrestler
fixes a match (they are all fixed, oh trusting ones), he is
hailed as a conquering hero before a sold-out Madison Square
Garden crowd. Twenty thousand sane people scream and stomp and
adore the winners of pre-determined choreographed athletic
events featuring men with bodies perfectly chiseled by hormones.

If that same baseball player takes steroid or protein hormones
to enhance his performance, he is suspended from the sport. If
the pro wrestler takes steroid hormones he is given ovations
in every one of America's sporting arenas and earns two or
three quadrillion dollars in pay-per-view television events.

So, for all Barry Bonds Wanna(Giam)bes, let it be known that
we agree with the conclusion of the recent scientific study
regarding cow's milk and muscle mass, but question the
researcher's inability to consider that muscle mass would be
influenced by the naturally occurring hormones in milk.

The soy/milk muscle mass study was published in the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, (Vol. 85, No. 4, 1031-1040,
April 2007). The scientists doing that study report that the
consumption of fluid milk promotes:

"...greater muscle protein accretion after resistance exercise
than does consumption of an isonitrogenous and isoenergetic
soy-protein beverage."

Sarah B. Wilkinson, senior author, major study. She's just a
sweet kid, seeking her PhD at some institute of higher learning
called McMaster University in Canada. I looked her up online.
What does she know about hormones? Not a thing, really...What's
a nice looking child like you doing generating enormous headlines
and earning such amazing propaganda for my least favorite industry,
Sarah? Your online photo:

http://tinyurl.com/2ugmbb

Gawsh, you're just a kid. OK, time to take off the gloves.

In her study, Sarah concludes:

"Milk-based proteins promote muscle protein accretion to a
greater extent than do soy-based proteins when consumed after
resistance exercise. The consumption of either milk or soy
protein with resistance training promotes muscle mass
maintenance and gains, but chronic consumption of milk proteins
after resistance exercise likely supports a more rapid lean mass
accrual."

What does this child-scientist know about milk hormones? I emailed
her to find out, but received no response. Thursday, nothing.
Friday, nothing. Saturday and early Sunday, not even the courtesy
of a response.

wilkis@...

Is she in over her head? After all, the study of protein hormones
is not her field. She's into exercise Kinesiology. I could just as
well have asked Sarah to repair displaced abomasums in the twisted
stomachs of overstressed Holstein cows.

Question: How can a PhD student determine the effects of milk on
muscle mass without first considering the natural presence of
growth hormones in milk?

Answer:
She cannot.

Yet, I cannot accuse Sarah of scientific fraud. However, by adding
her study to the vast storehouse of scientific data available to
researchers on this specific subject, she has entered the playing
field and stepped up to the plate. Despite the fact that she's a
sweet looking kid, she has opened herself up to intellectual
scrutiny and criticism by peer review.

She may not be a fraud, but her study certainly is. Invalid?
To the max.

Cow's milk contains powerful growth hormones, and to ignore that
fact and then claim expertise in the field is to demonstrate
one's lack of professionalism. Give that girl a PhD in ignorance.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Kids Vomit Dairy: A Mild Case of Whatever...

Dozens Sickened in School

There was an article that captured my fancy on page
B-6 of yesterday's (May 18, 2007) New York Times:

Dozens in School are Sickened
After Free Drink is Distributed
by Winnie Hu

I never imagined that I would find any comment regarding
kids getting sick from a milk or dairy product to be
funny, but this one made me a chuckle from its absurdity.

It seems that dozens of sixth and seventh graders in the
Lakeland Central School District drank free samples of
"fortified milk drinks" given out at lunchtime.

The drinks in question were samples of a new high protein
milk drink called "Slammers" and "Slim Slammers" made
by Snapple.

The name of the product was ridiculous enough and appropriate
enough to put a smile on my face after the students "vomited
or felt nauseated" shortly after drinking from bottles of
this new dairy product, but what really tickled my fancy was
the comment of Joshua Lipsman, Westchester County health
commissioner. The New York Times quotes Mr. Lipsman, who said,

"It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever it is."

I say promote that man to a job in Washington immediately.
He is a natural born bureaucrat, if ever there was one, who
made the perfect comment to fit a horrible circumstance. Forget
USDA or FDA. This man would make a great presidential press
secretary.

REPORTER #1: "Er, Mr. Press Secretary. Does the administration
detect a worsening of things in Baghdad?"

LIPSMAN: "It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever
it is."

REPORTER #2: "Er, Mr. Press Secretary. Are the Republicans
in the House stalling the new Immigration Bill?"

LIPSMAN: "It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever
it is."

REPORTER #3: "Er, Mr. Press Secretary. Is Israel's immediate
aggressive response to Hamas rockets fired at an Israeli school
appropriate?"

LIPSMAN: "It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever
it is."

REPORTER #4: "Er, Mr. Press Secretary. Is it true that Mr.
Ashcroft threatened to resign when the President asked for
illegal wiretaps?"

LIPSMAN: "It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever
it is."

HELEN THOMAS (UPI Journalist): "Er, Mr. Press Secretary. On
May 17th, Thursday, page 8, the New York Daily News reported,
and I quote, 'Harlem residents are three times as likely to
be obese and four times as likely to have diabetes as people
who live on the upper East Side.' A guy calling himself the
Notmilkman claims that people who live in poverty get loads
of subsidized milk and cheese, and that's the reason for
obesity and diabetes. Any comment about high obesity and
diabetes rates for people of color living in poverty?"

LIPSMAN: "It appears to be a relatively mild case of whatever
it is."

I hope that one day Mr. Lipsman, in all of his insensitivity,
has that same phrase etched onto his tombstone...

"Here lies a man who was very clever,
he died of a case of mild whatever...
The cure was nearby, underneath a tree,
but to ask would mean loss of his dignity."

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Truth or Dare

You are hereby invited to dare your friends.

Go ahead. They already think that you're a little bit crazy.
What would it hurt to dare your friends and loved ones to
read one, two, or all three of the following comments:

Comment Number One:

http://www.notmilk.com/tudrmac.html

Comment Number Two:

http://www.notmilk.com/kradjian.html

Comment Number Three:

http://www.notmilk.com/milkatoz.html

The Dairy Industry of Great Britain has issued a
Press Release in "honour" of World Milk Day, June 1st.

Please compare our scientific references to their
poppycock, hogwash, balderdash & gibberish. In fairness,
we are printing their arguments; let's dare them to deal
with ours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WORLD MILK DAY IS 1st JUNE (Press Releases 14-May-07)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In honour of World Milk Day on 1st of June, The Dairy
Council would like to clarify some of the facts about
milk and dairy products. Dr Judith Bryans, Director of
The Dairy Council, said:

"As one of the most nutritionally complete foods available,
milk has been part of the human diet for thousands of years,
and is a natural source of a whole host of vitamins and
minerals needed for good health. Sadly, many mixed messages
and myths exist, blaming milk for a variety of ailments."

The following paragraphs detail some of the essential milk
facts.

Lactose Intolerance and Dairy

Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest lactose, which
is the sugar found naturally in milk. It has been estimated
that around 5% of the UK population is unable to digest
lactose. However, contrary to popular belief, people with
problems digesting lactose do not have to avoid all dairy
foods. Hard cheeses, such as cheddar, contain very little
lactose, so are well tolerated. Yogurt and other fermented
milk products also rarely cause symptoms.

Milk Alergy

Milk allergy is not the same as lactose intolerance. A food
allergy is an inappropriate response of the body's immune
system to an otherwise harmless food or a component of food.

A growing number of people believe themselves to be allergic
to milk, although only 0.1-0.5% of adults are truly allergic
to milk. In fact a true allergy to milk protein is quite rare
and is usually restricted to young children; most of whom will
have outgrown the problem by the time they are three years old.

Milk and Diabetes

A growing body of research suggests that eating dairy foods,
especially low-fat varieties, may help reduce the risk of
type 2 diabetes.

Milk and Cancer

There is strong evidence to suggest that a high intake of
calcium and calcium-rich foods (such as milk and dairy products)
helps to lower the risk of colon cancer. Similarly, there is
preliminary data to suggest that drinking milk may be associated
with a reduced risk of breast cancer.

The Composition of Milk

Milk supplies only 8% of the fat in the British diet and so is
not a major contributor to fat intake. In fact, there is far
less fat in milk than many people think. Even whole milk
contains only 3.9% fat. With only 1.7% fat, semi-skimmed milk
has less than half the fat of whole milk, and skimmed milk is
virtually fat free, containing only 0.3% fat.

Milk and calcium

It has been suggested that consumption of milk and dairy foods
can increase loss of calcium from the body, due to the relatively
high protein content of milk. This is because excess protein in
the diet can increase the amount of calcium lost in urine.
Therefore, it is sometimes suggested that dairy can weaken rather
than strengthen our bones. However, if high protein intake is
teamed with a high calcium intake, as it is in dairy foods, the
correct balance can be maintained to ensure the body receives
sufficient calcium for bones to remain strong.

Milk and dairy products are some of the best natural sources of
calcium. To obtain the same amount of calcium as from one 200ml
glass of milk, one would need to consume four servings of broccoli,
or seven and a half slices of white bread, 11 servings of spinach,
or 15 servings of red kidney beans.

Milk and Weight Control

There is a misconception that milk and dairy products are fattening
and should be avoided by those trying to lose weight. In contrast,
evidence is emerging that dairy foods may actually make it easier
to lose weight, particularly from the abdominal area.

Milk and Asthma

Dairy foods have been suggested as a common trigger for asthma,
but there is little scientific evidence to support this. In fact,
recent research indicates that dairy may actually help protect
against the disease.

Milk and Your Skin

There is no convincing evidence that milk, or in fact any dietary
component causes spots. The best diet for skin and health is the
same as that for general health and includes a good balance of
foods from the four main food groups, including dairy.

Soya versus Milk

Soya products are not nutritionally equivalent to dairy foods, and
using them as a substitute could mean missing out on a number of
nutrients. As soya is naturally low in calcium, some soya
alternatives to milk are fortified with extra calcium. However,
studies have shown that the added calcium in soya drinks is less
well absorbed by the body than from cows' milk.

For further information relating to dairy research or for
nutrition advice relating to dairy, please contact The Dairy
Council - info@... or telephone on 0207 395 4030.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Lest we forget...

It happened in May of 1999. This week we celebrate the
eight year anniversary of an event that scared the overalls
off of every dairy farmer in the world. Eight years ago,
they closed the dairy industry in Brussels for a full month
because milk and dairy products were found to contain 100
times the safe level of dioxins.

When consumers panicked and stripped supermarket shelves,
bureaucrats reasoned, "better dead than dread." Dioxin levels
were ignored and things went back to normal. America would
suffer similar panic if the truth was released. Ask yourself
why, in this land of the free and home of the brave, those
who know the truth believe that it is in our best interests
not to know the truth. God forbid...Americans might become
a nation of vegans overnight.

"The lipophilic nature of dioxins results in higher
concentrations in the fat of animal and fish products,
and their excretion via milk secretion in dairy cattle
may result in relatively high concentrations of dioxin
contamination in high-fat dairy products."

Journal of Animal Science, 1998 Jan, 76:1

A few months after Belgium closed their dairy industry for 30
days, independent tests on Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream
revealed that America's delicious dessert contained 200 times
the safe level of dioxins. When Ben & Jerry's learned that their
product contained dangerously high levels of dioxins, their
response was:

"It's in the environment."

Our response? Indeed! Eat body fluids from diseased animals and
you eat concentrated quantities of pesticides and dioxins.
Concentrate these body fluids into cheese (10 pounds of milk
make 1 pound of cheese) or ice cream (12 pounds of milk make
one pound of ice cream) and you multiply the risk factor by
more than one thousand percent.

"Dioxins are the most deadly substances ever assembled by man..."

United Press International. March 11, 1983.

Steve Milloy, author of junkscience.com tested samples of ice
cream for dioxins. He paid for these very expensive tests and
found:

"The level of dioxin in a single serving of the Ben & Jerry's
World's Best Vanilla Ice Cream tested was almost 200 times
greater than the 'virtually safe [daily] dose' determined by
the Environmental Protection Agency."

The only major newspaper to report the story was the Detroit
Free Press. 11/8/99

"The only safe level of dioxin exposure is no exposure at all."

Ben & Jerry's promotional literature

"The primary source of dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs)
and coplanar PCBs for the general population is food, especially
meat, fish, and dairy products."

Chemosphere, 1998 Oct, 37:9

With each dose of dioxin you eat in pizza or ice cream, the
effects are cumulative. Even if you stop today, it might be
too late to defray yesterday's damage, but it might also be
just in time to prevent tomorrow's cancer.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Today's Double Jeopardy Answer is: Drinking pasteurized milk.

June is National Dairy Month. Three years ago, the Centers for
Diseae Control (CDC) conducted an "Emerging Disease Conference"
and in doing so, provided today's question and answer.

CDC's traced the etiology of infectious disease outbreaks
directly to pasteurized milk consumption.

<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no5/03-0484.htm>

Centers for Disease Control scientists determined that a new
strain of multidrug-resistant Salmonella, passed from cows
to humans through milk, cannot be controlled by antibiotics.

If only consumers could see the filters from the milk from
freshly milked cows, which capture feces, clotted blood,
and phlegm. Feces pass coloform bacteria (from the colon)
to the milk you drink. This is not the exception to the
rule. This is just the way it is.

Lead CDC researcher Sonja J. Olsen is chief of the Epidemiology
Section of the International Emerging Infections Program in
Thailand. Dr. Olsen's interests include the epidemiology and
control of emerging infectious diseases.

Olsen's team investigated a recent Pennsylvania outbreak.
CDC determined that routine inspections do not prevent
poisonings. CDC also determined that such contaminations
after pasteurization are common.

CDC did not state the obvious. Drink body fluids from
diseased animals and you place yourself at risk. Since
pasteurization does not work, and since infections in
cows are all so common, there is just one way to avoid
becoming a CDC statistic...Notmilk!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Triple Jeopardy Answer is: Drink pasteurized milk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You get credit if you asked:

What did 150,000 Chicago area people do wrong in
March of 1985?

The same thing that 16 Kentucky nuns did wrong in April
of 1984.

The same thing that 15 Vermont school children
did wrong in March of 1986...

and the same thing that 45 Illinois picnic goers did wrong
in July of 1995.

Ninety-three people in New Jersey and Connecticut fell
ill after drinking pasteurized milk in March of 2000,
while 49 people became ill after drinking pasteurized
milk in Massachusetts.

Thirty-eight in a New York school.

Twenty-three in Arizona.

All became violently sick after drinking pasteurized milk.

Forty-nine at a military base in Louisiana.

97 at a Florida nursing home.

All trusted the work of Louis Pasteur. All trusted the marketing
from the dairy industry. Nature's perfect food. Indeed.

Nature's perfect food naturally contains dangerous pathogens.
Cow's milk is perfectly disgusting. Salmonella. E. coli.
Listeria. Yersinia. Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. None of
the above is completely destroyed by pasteurization. The
milk is heated in the processing plant. Some bacterial
spores survive. As the milk cools, the bacteria begins to
grow again, doubling at room temperature every 20 minutes.
Doubling every thirty hours in the refrigerator while under
40 degrees Fahrenheit cold storage.

Do you trust in God to protect you? Sixteen Kentucky nuns
did. Do you trust in schools to protect kids? Thirty-eight
New York children did. Do you have that much faith in your
government regulators and dairy farmers to do the right
thing? Millions of people who become ill each year place
their faith in those who know the truth about milk.

Have a dairy-free National Dairy Month for June, 2007.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com

Are You Eating Too Many Pesticides?

A new publication (Sci Total Environ. 2007 May 1) may help to
convince meat and cheese eaters that a plant-based diet is the
healthiest way to go.

I can still remember the cloud that hovered over our entire summer
camp when I was eight years old. A line of trucks entered through
the front gate and began to spray. We were told to stay indoors.
We cheered as we watched from the windows of our cabins. There
would be few mosquitoes that summer, thanks to the camp director's
wonderful decision to invest whatever it took to kill those flying
pests.

The cloud sprayed from the backs of trucks could be seen for about
ten minutes, then settled to the Adirondack forest between and
behind our cabins. To the ferns and the pine trees. To the pristine
mountain lake and the playing fields.

The year following this spraying, Rachel Carson published a book
about the dangers of chemical toxicity to humans. Her book was
called "Silent Spring." Dow Chemical soon published their own
response to Carson's work; a pamphlet called "Silent Autumn" which
warned that without the technology which delivered those chemical
pesticides, there might not be a harvest to feed the world.

These twentieth century chemicals became twenty-first century
breast, uterine, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancers. In
two years, a breast cancer would take Rachel Carson. There was
no more of that fog spray and the mosquitoes returned with a
vengeance.

The May 1, 2007 issue of the journal of Science of the Total
Environment (Sci Total Environ. 2007 May 1) includes a study
in which pesticide exposure was measured in two groups of woman
in relation to their diets.

Rivas A, et. al. Department of Nutrition and Food Science,
University of Granada, Spain, tested the blood serum levels of
women and found concentrations of various organochloride pesticides
to be in excess of safe levels.

A food questionnaire was used to determine how often two groups
of women (pre-menopausal vs. post-menopausal) consumed various
foods, and blood serum pesticide levels were measured by various
methods including gas chromatography and electron capture.

The pre-menopausal (Pre-M) group had higher serum concentrations
of all organochloride than the post-menopausal group. In the
Pre-M group, the chemical concentrations were most significantly
affected by milk/yogurt, red meat, eggs and poultry. In the
Post-M group, the significant foods contributing to high
organochloride levels were fresh and cured cheese, red meat,
and white and oily fish.

The researchers conclude:

"These results confirm foods as a source of human exposure to
persistent organic molecules. Consideration should be given to
the reduction of permitted residue levels to minimize this threat
to human and animal health."

Didn't the scientists miss the obvious? Shouldn't consumers take
responsibility by giving more consideration to their diets? Duh.

The higher up one eats on the food chain, the more one consumes
concentrated toxins from flesh and body fluids of animals. Eat
one portion of broccoli or lettuce and you'll ingest one dose
of pesticides and dioxins. After all, these chemicals are in the
environment. Ingest body fluids from animals that eat thousands
of doses and you deliver these same concentrated residues of
poisons to your own body.

"Atrazine is used primarily as a weed killer in the production of
feed corn. This highly toxic herbicide has been linked to many kinds
of cancer, including cancer of the breast, ovaries, uterus, and
testicles, as well as leukemia and lymphoma...European countries,
including Germany, Italy, Austria, and the Netherlands, do not allow
the herbicide to be used within their borders. According to farming
averages and data supplied by the Vermont Department of Agriculture,
Ben & Jerry's farmers now use thousands of pounds of carcinogenic
atrazine every year."

Food and Water Journal, Summer, 1998

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

New Hope for Crohn's Patients

One day last week (May 8, 2007), a radio DJ jokingly asked
Pearl Jam's guitarist Mike McCready if he ever had to leave
the stage in the middle of a set to use the bathroom. That
was how Pearl Jam fans learned that McCready suffers from
Crohn's Disease. McCready's response to that bathetic question
was a bit of a shock to his radio host:

"Sometimes, I didn't quite make it off the stage but, I never
let the disease stop me from doing what I love and that's the
message I want to send to kids who are dealing with it also."

Many years before I became the Notmilkman, one of my best friends
(Richard Grubman) died after a long bout with Crohn's Disease. I
as there for the birth of his children and he was there for mine
and his painful life and subsequent death were a horror story for
Rich and his family. Since that time, through this column, I have
come to know many more persons who are affected by Crohn's,
ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.

That is why I was so pleased to see news of a new pharmaceutical
which is designed to attack and defeat the bacterium responsible for
Crohn's, Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP). I have been
writing about this bacterium for many years. Farmers know of it. The
dairy industry knows it. Gastroenterologists know. Even the National
Academy of Sciences knows. In 1996, they reported that the bacteria
responsible for this horrible disease, MAP "...was found in 100% of
Crohn's Disease patients, compared with 0% of controls."

We get MAP directly from cow's milk.

The reason that 40 million Americans suffer from irritable bowels,
ulcerative colitis, and Crohns, is their love for milk and cheese
and ice cream. The bacteria causing Crohn's Disease is not killed
by pasteurization and has shown great resistance to traditional
antibiotic protocols.

In my 2002 book, MILK A-Z, I wrote the following about Crohn's:

http://www.notmilk.com/c.html

America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an
Australian pharmaceutical company's Investigational New Drug
application (IND) for the development of "MyocondaR" to treat
those infected with MAP. The name of the company is Giaconda
Ltd (ASX: GIA).

I know for a fact that many readers of this Notmilk column will
find this good news to be exciting and might consider becoming a
subject in the new experiment. Giaconda's new antibiotic protocol
includes the simultaneous treatment of three antimicrobial drugs.

Company Contact:

Patrick McLean - Chief Executive Officer
pmclean@...

The investigative process will take many years. This is the first
time that a pharmaceutical company is proceeding with the theory
that by eradicating MAP, mankind can cure Crohn's. I wish them
success.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

General Tso's Chicken Fingers, Part 2

This is NOT a Milk Column; Just a bit of Reminiscing

If you are a regular reader of the Notmilk column and have
no desire to read anything not having to do with milk,
nutrition, cows, or animal rights issues, stop right here.

I posted my "traditional" Notmilk column today and briefly
discussed General Tso's Chicken, and it got me to thinking...
so, if a 55-year-old notmilk guy's memory of a simpler life
long ago has no interest to you, push that delete button now.

I have been a big fan of Chinese food for more than 50 years.

From the age of 5 through 8, New York City's House of Chan
had no better customers than my father and myself. I used to
take the A train subway ride from somewhere in the Bronx near
230th Street down to 59th Street and then walk four blocks
to the West Side YMCA. At that time, my closest friend was
Eddie Albert, Junior. Eddie was to become a famous actor
and starred in "Butterflies are Free." He has sinced died from
a cancer. His dad and my dad were quite friendly. Eddie's father
can be seen in reruns of Green Acres with Eva Gabor. My dad
was a handball player, and I would watch him play some of the great
ones, from Jimmy Jacobs to Oscar Obert. Me? I was a swimmer, and at
that young age, the fastest in New York City in my age group. My
friend Eddie was number two. Even at age 8, we both beat the times
of the best 12-year-olds in the annual New York City Triton Swim meet.
For that one day each year, we wore something strange called a
bathing suit. On all other days, we (tiny) boys swam naked together
in the large YMCA pool.

After my workouts, dad would take me to the House of Chan for a late
lunch or early dinner. This was New York's best Chinese restaurant at
a time when Chinese restaurants were a rarity.

We moved to New Jersey in 1961, and that was the end of my swimming
career and Olympic dreams. There was just one Chinese restaurant of
note within ten miles of my home then. It was the China Chalet in
Closter, New Jersey. Dad had a house account, number 145. In the
summer, especially after Sunday afternoon doubleheaders, many of the
Yankees would come to eat there with their families. Mickey Mantle
was a regular. So was Elston Howard.

Even in high school and college I would eat at the Chinal Chalet with
friends and just sign my name and dad's house account number. Lucky
me.

Ten years before having children, just out of college in the 1970s,
I became friendly with a man named Matt Peng. Matt and I would often
go to New York City's Chinatown and eat in 3 or 4 different
restaurants
each trip. One dish in one place, another dish elsewhere, etc. At that
time, I could take other friends to one of two dozen different places
that I knew by name. Not "that place on Mott Street" or "the dumpling
house" on Pell, but the "old" Sey-Eng-Look" (4-5-6) across from the
Golden Palace on 25 Bowery. I would often look forward to eating
at 10 AM on a weekend before the American tourists showed up.
My favorite place was a hidden gem that seated over 1,000 persons,
and there were no menus, just little olde Mandarin women pushing
carts. You pointed to what looked good and were billed by the number
of plates on your table. Webbed duck feet. Chicken heads. Turnip
stuffed dumplings. Pig ear. Sea slug. Jellyfish. Various organs and
body parts not normally seen in typical New York cuisine.

What I am saying is that in my pre-vegetarian days I knew Chinese
food pretty well and could give you the best insiders tour of
Chnatown.

Throughout all of those years of eating Chinese food, I have no
memory of General Tso's Chicken being offered on any menu. General
Tso's is a very recent addition to the Chinese cuisine. In less than
a generation, it became an overnight sensation. I believe that the
name allowed Chinese take-out restaurants an opportunity to charge
and receive $4 more for a dish that was sold under a different name
having the same ingredients. In any event, we live in a world
of General Tso's Chicken. There was no General Tso in my youth.

Of course, there were no soymilk drinks in my youth or vegans
or computers or I-pods. When I was young, a child could ride New
York's
subway alone, and the sexiest scene one would see on television was
Jeannie's exposed belly. One could only imagine what Ginger and the
Professor were doing behind palm trees...or was it Ginger and Mary
Ann? Today's TV would have left little to the imagination. Gilligan
was still Maynard G. Krebbs to me and westerns such as Gunsmoke and
Bonanza were enjoyed by the entire family...together. Every night we
would sit in front of the TV. Beverly Hillbillies, Addams Family,
mom,
dad, my sister; we all watched the same programs in the same room and
the next day, the kids would talk about those same episodes in school.

Mom would try to cook Chinese food, but she did a horrible job of it.
She could not purchase the same ingredients that the restaurants used,
and canned Chinese food was disgusting, although a visit to the
supermarket recently confirmed to me that the manufacturer is still
in business. I really do wonder who eats that stuff.

It just appeared on the takeout menus. General Tso's Chicken. I do not
remember the moment. I tasted it once, then shortly thereafter became
a
vegetarian. That was ten years ago. I am told by my local Chinese
restaurant owner-friend that this is his most popular dish.

Things move so fast. Time races by so quickly. I have become my
parents, just as you will become yours. Soon enough, they will be
dead and gone. Soon enough, so will you. In a blink of the
geological-era-time-eye, so too will your children live and die
and their grandchildren's children will suffer the same fate as
a thousand generations of your ancestors.

If the entire written history of mankind could be represented by
this single email that you are now reading, the relative time span
of your own personal life could be measured in the period that ends
this sentence. Yeah, that one. The word "sentence" would represent
the most recent 500-year history after Columbus discovered "America."
This paragraph would represent the past two ice ages and many global
stages of planetary warming.

We are only a tiny bit luckier than the unluckiest Mayfly, who lives
and dies and reproduces his species in the few hours alloted to him
by the greatest of planners.

Long ago, a star exploded, and every atom of every cell in the finger
that you use to finally hit the delete button on this email, once had
its origin in that celestial event. A long time from now, those same
atoms of your finger's cell will swirl inside of a black hole and
one day become another star, to explode once again and be reborn as
the tip of a Mayfly's wing. Perhaps this cycle has already happened
two or three times or ten thousand. It's a long infinity.

Tomorrow is another day in a long list of days which is, in reality,
a very short list of days. Every moment should be held and caressed
as a precious gift.

Please pass the General Tso's tofu...

Robert
i4crob@...

General Tso's Zit

It can be found on just about every take-out Chinese menu:

General Tso's chicken.

Although they sure do like the name, no two take-out Chinese
eateries use the same cooking method or recipe to prepare the
dish which honors General Tso. It's a mystery to Chinese chefs
and Chinese food fans just why the dish is named after the great
general, just as a sprouting mystery is now facing young Chinese
teenagers regarding the blemishes on their faces and bodies:

General Tso's zits.

General Tso was a sadistic soldier who lived to defend the
Qing dynasty during China's Civil war which occurred about
the same time as America's Civil War. When fighting the
rebels in the name of the emperor, Tso used his razor sharp
sword to execute captured enemies with the famous "death of
10,000 cuts."

Today, Chinese teenagers are waking up and facing an American
teenage battle as they look at their faces in their mirrors:
faces representing a new landscape containing 10,000 slashes,
gashes, cuts and wounds, or to be more specific, zits.

Zits are a new experience to the Chinese who have identified
dairy as the connection. In citing a 2005 study, Chinese
newspapers have credited the emergence of a new look due to
milk consumption, the attack of the zit.

On Thursday, May 10th, the Chinese Daily Mail reported:

"How a Pint of Milk a Day Can Give You Acne"

"Many a spotty teenager has been told to lay off the chips and
chocolate if they want clear skin. But research suggests they
would do much better to cut down on drinking milk.

Teenagers who drink a pint or more of milk a day are almost 50
per cent more likely to develop spots and pimples than those who
rarely or never drink milk."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nearly seven years ago (11/25/2000), I wrote in a Notmilk column:

"China has launched a nationwide campaign to persuade children to
drink milk and grow up bigger and stronger than their "rivals"
in Japan...The official China Daily newspaper, quoting Zhang
Baowen, vice-minister of agriculture, said last week: "The
only solution to the problem is drinking more milk." China would
do well to carefully analyze the effects of milk and dairy
products on Japan. A once healthy nation, having adopted the
American diet, also adopted higher rates of American diseases."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's a relief to see the Chinese people wake up to milk's true
nature. Got zits? Got hormones from milk!

In the 2001 book "MILK A-Z" I explained te hows and whys of acne:

"Z is for ZITS"

Acne occurs when steroids (androgens) stimulate the sebaceous
glands within the skin's hair follicles. These glands then
secrete an oily substance called sebum. When sebum, bacteria
and dead skin cells build up on your skin, the pores become
blocked, creating a zit.

What do you expect? When teenagers combine their own surging
hormones with dietary saturated animal fat, cholesterol, steroid
hormones, dead white blood cells, and cow pus, they're gonna get
zits. The good news: The cure is an easy one:  NOTMILK!
______________________________

"As pointed out by Dr. Jerome Fisher, 'About 80 percent of cows
that are giving milk are pregnant and are throwing off hormones
continuously.' Progesterone breaks down into androgens, which
have been implicated as a factor in the development of acne...
Dr. Fisher observed that his teenage acne patients improved as
soon as the milk drinking stopped."

Don't Drink Your Milk, by Frank Oski, M.D. (Director, Department
of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)
___________________________

"Acne usually begins at puberty, when an increase in androgens
causes an increase in the size and activity of pilosebaceous
glands....if a food is suspected, it should be omitted for
several weeks and then eaten in substantial quantities to
determine if acne worsens."

MERCK Manual, Merck & Company, 2000
___________________________

"Acne is an end-organ hyper-response to androgens...These data
show that sebaceous glands are stimulated by androgens to varying
degrees and support the theory of an end-organ response in acne."

British Journal of Dermatology, 1998 Jul, 139:1
___________________________

"Acne vulgaris is a self-limiting skin disorder seen primarily
in adolescents, whose etiology appears to be multifactorial.
The immunologic response involves both humoral and cell-mediated
pathways. Further research should clarify the role of complement,
cytotoxins, and neutrophils in this acne-forming response."

Postgrad Med J, 1999 Jun, 75:884
___________________________

"Hormones found in cow's milk include: Estradiol, Estriol,
Progesterone, Testosterone, 17-Ketosteroids, Corticosterone,
Vitamin D, insulin-like growth factor, growth hormone, prolactin,
oxytocin..."

Journal of Endocrine Reviews, 14(6) 1992
___________________________

"We studied the effects of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like
growth factors (IGFs), alone and with androgen, on sebaceous
epithelial cell growth...IGF-I was the  most potent stimulus of
DNA synthesis. These data are consistent with the concept that
increases in GH and IGF production contribute in complementary
ways to the increase in sebum production during puberty."

Endocrinology, 1999 Sep, 140:9, 4089-94
___________________________

"...serum IGF-I levels increased significantly in the milk drinking
group, an increase of about 10% above baseline-but was unchanged
in the control group."

Journal of the American Dietetic Association, vol. 99, no. 10.
October 1999
___________________________

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Kicking the Milk Industry's Butt(er)

When the dairy industry first began to advertise that
drinking milk would result in weight loss, I wrote the
following column which was sent to readers of the Notmilk
group and dozens of different agencies, including the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

At the same time, the Physician's Committee for Responsible
Medicine (PCRM) filed a formal petition with the FTC.
Yesterday, consumers won a major victory, while the dairy
industry suffered a major slap in the face. After a private
meeting with dairy industry insiders, the milk producers
have agreed to immediately drop their outrageous weight loss
ad claim. We will never understand the behind-the-scenes phone
calls and maneuvering which led to FTC's recommendation.

Normally, a formal decision would have been rendered in such
a case, but we can understand the financial pressures that
often cause higher authorities to exert political pressure.

FTC allowed dairy to save face by not directly ruling
on the case, but a win by any other name is still a win,
and we in the Notmilk movement count our blessings for a
spoonful of honesty in whatever form it is delivered.

In 2006, I wrote:

Was milk designed for infants to lose weight?
You are asked to sacrifice your innate knowledge
by the dairy industry's latest claim: Drink
milk an get skinny. What could be any more
absurd than concluding that a substance containing
fat, cholesterol, plenty of calories, and
powerful growth hormones be considered a miracle
weight loss product? The dairy industry's
Marie Antoinettish attitude will have you next
eating cake with a tall glass of milk.

Let's examine a bit of real science: a June, 2005
publication in the journal Archives of Pediatrics
& Adolescent Medicine (2005;159:511).

The study of 12,829 American children determined that those
who consumed more than three servings of milk per day were
35 percent more likely to become overweight than those who
drank little or no milk.

How about the additional dairy industry claim that fruit
juice is responsible for America's obesity epidemic. All
of the above nonsense is brought to you by the National
Milk Producers who claim that everything else causes
obesity in American children, particularly fresh fruit
juice.

The average American receives nearly 12 times the amount
of calories from dairy products (547 calories per person)
each day as from juice (47 calories per person). Yet, the
dairy industry blames America's obesity epidemic on juice
consumption. Can they get away with this lie? Of course
they can, because television, radio, newspapers, and
magazines tell us so. The media grows rich supporting
the lie thanks to dairy advertising.

Even I didn't imagine that the dimwitted
dairy dodos would sink this low.

In a press release from those who would have
you drink body fluids from diseased animals:

"Increasing Numbers of Children Are
Fighting the Battle of the Bulge"

Milk and dairy foods are high calorie foods
laden with saturated animal fat and cholesterol.
They pack an additional wallop by containing
powerful growth hormones.

The dairy industry writes:

"Childhood obesity has reached epidemic
proportions. To help children maintain healthy
weight, parents may be keeping sight of what's
on their kids' plate, but they often overlook
what's filling their glasses."

The milk processors cite Susan Baker, M.D.,
chairperson of the American Academy of
Pediatrics' Committee on Nutrition.

Dr. Baker's comment:

"Many parents don't realize that many fruit juices
contain a lot of sugar and calories with relatively
few nutrients in return. As a result, kids who drink
juice all day long are depriving themselves of
essential nutrients their growing bodies need."

Aside to Dr. Baker:

Kids don't drink juice all day long.
You're exaggerating, Doc.

Just for the record:

1 cup of apple juice vs. 1 cup of milk

Apple Juice = 117 calories, 0.27 gms. fat, 0.0 choles.
Milk = 150 calories, 8.15 gms. fat, 33.18 mg. choles.

According to USDA food consumption data (edited by
Putnam and Allshouse), Last year, the average American
drank just over 1/2 ounce of apple juice each day.
(.558 oz)

Last year, the average American drank a total
daily juice consumption of 3.23 ounces.

At the same time, the average American consumed
the equivalent of 29.2 ounces per day of dairy.

Let's summarize:

Total calories each day from milk and dairy: 547
Total calories each day from fruit juice: 47

Milk also contains powerful growth hormones.
Apple juice contains no growth hormones.
The most powerful growth hormone in a cow's
body is identical in structure (70 amino acids
in the same sequence) to the most powerful
growth hormone in the human body.

Children eat cheese. Apple juice is not
concentrated into cheese or ice cream. Ten
pounds of milk are required to make one
pound of cheese. Twelve pounds of milk are
required to make one pound of ice cream.

Where are the calories? Where are the obese kids?
Compare 47 juice calories to 547 dairy calories
and ask yourself how these lying dairy people
get away with it.

Drive by school yards and see the roly-poly
children. Where else on this planet can one find
obesity so positively correlating with
poverty? Malnourished children living in inner
American cities receive subsidized dairy products
for breakfast, snacks, and lunch. Their little
bodies become large bodies after consuming
a combination of high caloric, high fat food with
growth hormones.

The lies from America's dairy industry marketing
people are more than just deceptive. They are
criminal and they do harm to our children.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Obliterating The Fowl

Humans do not habitually die from the bird flu virus. Ducks are
carriers of that virus called H5N1. Ducks occasionally spread
the virus to chickens. When that happens, health authorities do
everything in their power to destroy every chicken within a
minimum of 1 kilometer radius of the outbreak. During this phase,
the virus can change or mutate. Occasionally, the virus mutates
into a form which can kill humans. If it is not immediately
controlled, a pandemic the likes of which killed 50 million
persons in 1918 becomes possible.

A few days ago (May 7, 2007), an Indonesian woman died from
bird flu. To scientists and epidemiologists, a single death
rings alarm bells which trigger an extreme response of
manpower, dollars, and unimaginable resources to those in
the know.

On the day of his coronation in 1589, 35-year-old Henry IV
of France said,

"If God grants me the usual length of life, I hope to make
France so prosperous that every peasant will have a chicken
in his pot on Sunday."

Although King Henry was posthumously awarded the title of "Henry
The Great," after his murder by a fanatic Catholic, historians
credit King Henry with having brought religious freedom to his
Protestant subjects and a prosperity to his people who received
a "chicken in every pot" for their Sunday dinners.

Three hundred and forty years later, President Herbert Hoover
borrowed King Henry's famous slogan and added a car to every
garage, and soon enough chicken stores sprouted a short drive
away from just about every garage in America, and so began a
series of illnesses, obesity, and a promise of plagues to come
that were destined to kill more people than all of man's wars.

Today there is only one solution to prevent the inevitable
pandemic that will kill 1 billion or more of the earth's human
population. Kill all that which is foul. Kill all of the fowl.
Eradicate the ducks and geese and chickens, which bring nuggets
of pleasure to fast food diners and cardiologists who treat fast
food diners. A pandemic is coming, and there is no "if" to that
conclusion, just when.

There was a time when I believed that the bird virus was a
giant myth and hoax launched by pharmaceutical companies with
White House connections. They would make zillions of dollars
stockpiling antidotes for each American. Let everybody else die.
We Americans and our way of life would outlive the world's
barbarians. We would be ready to battle the virus, they would not.
In the words of our supreme Commander in Chief, "Bring it on."

Two books for your consideration:

"Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching" by Dr. Michael Greger,
the youngest, brightest, funniest, most passionate, fuzziest
veganist physician in America.

"The Great Bird Flu Hoax: The Truth They Don't Want You to Know"
by Dr. Joseph Mercola, the man who endorses the consumption of
saturated animal fat as a health food. Hates soy. Loves raw
cow's milk. Hates vegetarians. Loves carnivores. Eats obese
vegans for dessert topped with whipped cream, caramel syrup,
and nuts.

The summer of animal rights conferences is right around the corner
and this year's controversy numero uno shall be, "Do we slaughter
millions and billions of ducks and chickens at the source so that
the influenza virus does not mutate, or shall we extend compassion
to the avian poop machines who may soon bury your neighbors and
mine?"

I've already cast my vote. Once on the side of the big, fat
hoaxsters, I now stand firmly behind Dr. Michael Greger, hoping
that his book, complete with 3,800+ references wins a Pulitzer
Prize for investigative journalism. Greger is a genius.
His website:

http://www.veganmd.org

I say, do it humanely, but rid this planet of everything fowl while
we have the opportunity. Before the lungs of 50 million bipeds
explode
from within. Who will be left to clean up the mess? Will there be
enough body bags, coffins, and toilet paper? I doubt it.

Alternatives? Wheat gluten and soy analogues make great
substitutes for diseased bird flesh, and as of yet, there
have been no sightings of the dreaded tofu flu.

Sorry to be the messenger of such gosh-awful news. Read Michael
Greger's book and get back to me before the mourning.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Michael Greger
on Tina Volpe's Wake Up America radio program. Scroll down to
May 7th. 2007 to listen to the archived show:

http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/wakeupamerica

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Animal Rights Terrorists

We animal rights vegans are mean, we are green, and what
we do is totally obscene...and someone is leaving a bloody
leather glove at the scene, and the glove does not fit. We
do not wear leather.

According to the May 10th issue of Hoard's Dairyman,
the "National Dairy Farm Magazine," (page 327):

The column is called: "Hoard's Has Heard"

"Violence against farmers wishing to grow their operations
is spreading across the U.S., according to reports. Several
incidents have been reported, including a dairyman who had
12 cows shot and killed since filing paperwork to expand his
operation. Another dairyman had a locked well poisoned. Hog
farmers have had barns intentionally set on fire during the
permitting process. According to Aaron Outze, director of
the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers, there have been
seven significant acts of violence or threats aimed at
farmers in the state since August alone."

Oh, yes. The old hidden ball trick. The "blame it on the
animal rights devilkin" ploy. The "Let's dress up as Indians
and have a tea party" so olde Sam Adams can import his smuggled
tea and in the process, create bad will for the British.

Do you imagine that animal rights terrorists are lurking
in an Iowa field, ready to kill farm animals, burn down barns,
and poison wells? Locked wells?

The state of Iowa stinks from enormous feed lots, represented by
this phony Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers. A pig's ass, I
say. Green eggs and scam. Blame insider crime on the animal
rights boogeymen who are not smart enough to know that there
are more surveillance cameras in Iowa than pigs. Blame insider
crime on animal rights boogeymen who come out of the woodwork
to unlock wells and add poison to the water supply.

Aren't animal rights people the ones with compassion for
animals? We neither poison nor shoot nor barbecue animals
cooped up in their barns. We have difficulty taking the life
of any living creature as opposed to farmers, who routinely
end the lives of their "agricultural units" every day.

The FBI should take a careful look at this phony coalition, and
they should begin with carefully going through phone records
of midnight cowboys. Imagine a farm where 12 cows are killed,
for example. Would you imagine that the 12 killed are the
best or worst milk producers? My guess is that they are the
worst, and that the farmer was dumb enough to file his insurance
claim the day before the act. The evidence will be there if
investigators care to look, but they won't look. Blame it on
the vegan terrorists. That insures law enforcement career
advancement.

Farmers keep records of every cow's milk production. FBI and
USDA should check the histories of each cow's production. I am
certain that such clues would point the way directly to the
farmer himself.

Burning down barns? What was removed from the barn, coincidentally,
before it burned to the ground? I have met many animal rights people
whom I dislike, but I've never met a heartless, uncaring one. None
that I know or could imagine would burn an animal to death to
justify any means to an end.

If ever there was a phony effort to place blame on an innocent
party and on an innocent movement, this is it. Conspiracy to
defraud. Please, FBI and USDA terrorist agents, put on
your thinking caps and catch the real bad guys.

Private note to the good guys: You are being investigated. Your
organization is being infiltrated. Homeland Security sees
vegetarians as homeland terrorists. Their budgets are entirely
too big, and their brains are entirely too small to think
otherwise. If you would be one to burn down a barn or kill an
animal through an act of violence, you will get caught. If
that is the case, I hope you stay in jail for a very long time
and that they throw away the key, because I do not want to share
my planet with any individual responsible for any of the above
sick and perverted acts of terror or horror. There is zero
justification for such actions.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

First They Came for the Troublemakers

I am often criticized for sticking my nose in the stinkiest
of places, for being a rather dull boy for doing too much
work while not enjoying enough play, for opting to read medical
journals while others waste their nights watching American
idols, for pointing out the hypocrisy on both sides of the
proverbial fence and making enemies of good guys and bad guys
without concern for my own popularity. Frankly, ladies and
gents, I don't really give a damn what others think.

I have been on the receiving end of anger. There have been
USDA terrorism agents in my living room. I have been
audited more than once for bogus reasons. Late night phone
calls have wakened my family, while threatening letters,
empty milk cartons in my driveway, and dead animals left
on my front lawn have delivered less than subtle messages
intended to make me find another "hobby."

I do what I do because I can. I do what I do because I must.
I do what I do because most people do not, will not, cannot,
shall not.

I refuse to ever be filled with the same guilt that
once haunted Pastor Martin Niemoller to write:

"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

Why Not Just Skip the Middlecow, er, Middleman?

It has been well established that CLA (Conjugated Linoleic
Acid) is a "healthy fat" and promotes good health.

Roasted soybeans in a cow's diet increase CLA content of milk.

In February of 2007, Tilak Dhiman, Associate Professor of Dairy
Nutrition at Utah State University, presented a paper at the 22nd
Annual Southwest Nutrition and Management Conference in Tempe,
Arizona, which contained innovative strategies used to increase
the quality of milk and dairy products by increasing levels of
CLA.

The three-day conference was held at the Mission Palms Resort
and is recognized, in the organizer's words, as "...one of the
largest gatherings of West Coast dairy and beef nutritionists,
consultants, academics, and veterinarians."

This conference included a golf tournament for attendees at
the luxurious Karsten Golf Course. I've attended numerous
vegetarian, vegan, and animal rights conferences, but we never
seem to have enough time to play golf, so it's true what they
say: Cattlemen face more hazards and traps and experience
numerous strokes. Some even lie about those strokes.

Back to the science...

The researchers reported that foods containing CLA offered
consumers protection from cancer and bone disease. They
concluded:

Levels of CLA in milk increased after cows were fed a diet
supplemented with roasted soybeans. Well, imagine that?

And, what would happen if humans were fed those same
roasted soybeans? Why not find out for yourself? They are
now being sold in your local supermarket. Buy the soybeans
and just say no to milk! Skip the middleman and all of the
accompanying health problems associated with dairy consumption
while benefiting from all of the good things attributed to
soy.

For those soy-bashers among us, be warned: Most American
dairy cows are now fed large amounts of soy in their diets,
so, if you illogically decide to skip the soy, you should
logically skip the milk too.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com

Notmilkman Co-Hosts Radio Show Today at Noon

I've had a generous offer to co-host an extraordinary
radio show with *Media-Star* Tina Volpe.

How could I say no? Tina has been setting the standard for
fascinating radio interviews of vegetarian and animal rights
personalities for the past year, and I'll be appearing with
her a few hours after posting this email.

To listen LIVE, click on the upper right corner after going to:

http://tinyurl.com/ywwkad

TIME: 12 Noon, Eastern Standard Time (New York)
11 AM Central Time (Chicago)
10 AM Mountain Time (Denver)
9 AM Pacific Time (Los Angeles)

Her past programs have been archived, and if you have time
to spare (in other words, give up American Idol and that
ridiculous Donald Trump reality show, "Who Wants To Become
My Bullied Overpaid Worker For One Year?"), you can listen
to the archived interviews of some three dozen fascinating
guests, including some of my favorite lecturers, activists,
and authors, such as Caldwell Esselstyn, Joel Fuhrman, Steve
Hindi, Howard Lyman, and John McDougall.

"Our" guest for today's program will be Dr. Michael Greger.

Michael is one of the best-known vegan doctors in America,
and I am proud to say that I've known him long before his
name became popular with vegetarians and animal rights
activists.

Some time before he appeared at his first North American
Vegetarian Conference with painted face, entertaining my
children and hundreds of others with amusing stories that
were equally appealing to to 8 and 80-year-olds, Michael
and I had begun to exchange emails.

His offer to do research for me (gratis) at a medical
school's vast library was much appreciated. He soon took
the small essay that I had written relating Crohn's Disease
to milk consumption and painted a major treatise filled with
powerful references that was so much more documented than my
original work. I was quite proud of Michael and thrilled that
he quickly made a name for himself in the mainstream media,
like a rising meteor flaming through a darkened sky. I
continue to be awed by the work Michael does, and today's
interview should be fun for Tina and myself and our listeners.

Michael has written a book that documents a subject that has
fascinated the world. His book is called, "Bird Flu - A Virus
of Our Own Hatching."

This book is available for free online, and will be the subject
of today's intimate conversation between Tina Volpe, Michael,
and myself.

Dr. Michael Greger is Director of Public Health and Animal
Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. He
helped Howard Lyman and Oprah defeat the cattlemen in the
now famous "meat defamation" trial. Dr. Greger was an expert
witness for the defense. When looking for a second opinion
on any medical matter, it is best to consult with Michael
Greger.

From radio host Tina Volpe's website:

"Dr. Greger is a graduate of the Cornell University School of
Agriculture and the Tufts University School of Medicine. His
other books include 'Carbophobia.' All of the proceeds Dr.
Greger receives from his books and speaking engagements are
donated to charity."

To listen to today's show, go to:

http://tinyurl.com/ywwkad

I'll be co-hosting next week's show too, and look forward
to speaking with Steve Brill (I've got his cookbook!)

Future guests include T. Colin Campbell and Brenda Davis.
What a lineup!

Be there today to listen at home or while you are working.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...

The Samurai Notmilkman

His name is Akio Sato, MD, and I call him my Samurai
Notmilk friend. Dr. Sato's Internet website:

http://www.eps1.comlink.ne.jp/~mayus/eng/index.html

The good doctor is a warrior, in the most respected
tradition, but his primary purpose is to serve his
fellow man. In my own religion, Judaism, one is spiritually
commanded to perform good deeds. Upon reaching the age of
13, a Jewish boy becomes a man and celebrates his Bar
Mitzvah. The literal translation of Bar Mitzvah is "son
of commandment." The culturally accepted translation for
"mitzvah" is a "good deed."

The word "samurai" has been made popular in American
culture through movies depicting heroic deeds by honorable
Japanese warriors. Interestingly, the word "samurai" is
derived from the ancient Japanese word "samorau," which is
a verb, meaning "to serve." In a sense, then, a samurai is
one who serves his God by serving his fellow man.

When accessing Dr. Sato's website, the first major statement
one finds is this:

"There are two main reasons why I think today's cows' milk is
not appropriate for humans:

First, cows' milk contains estrogens and progesterone in large
quantities. Second, cows' milk contains too much calcium,
amounting to 125 milligrams per 100 milliliters, which is about
4 times more than that of breast milk.

You may say that you have been drinking milk and eating dairy
products for several hundred years without any apparent harm.

No.

You ought to know that today's milk is harmful because dairy
farming practices have greatly been changed since the 1920s
or 1930s. Beginning about 80 years ago, pregnant cows and
especially those in the latter half of pregnancy have come
to produce a greater proportion of the milk that is consumed.

Pregnancy increases the production of female sex hormones, and
these hormones are in the same or much higher range in the milk
than in the blood of pregnant cows. This is why so many Western
people are afflicted with breast cancer (women) and prostate
cancer (men). I would like you to understand that today's milk
is vastly different from the milk your ancestors consumed 80
years ago. Consumption of dairy products is too excessive in
developed countries, a trend that started lately in the 1940s
and 1950s."

Dr. Sato presented a paper at an international workshop held
in Boston, October 23-25, 2006. The subject of his work
reflects the mechanisms of those steroid hormones in milk when
they are consumed by humans. Contact Dr. Sato for a copy of
that presentation:

mayus@...

Japan has suffered American-style diseases thanks to the
relatively recent introduction and marketing of dairy products.
Remarkably, the dairy industry has taken credit for those
changes, beginning with early sexual development of Japanese
girls.

I sometimes read through old issues of Hoard's Dairyman,
the national dairy farm magazine. The October 26, 1963
issue contained an editorial with this shocking admission:

"Japanese Taller With Milk."

The Hoard's editor commented on a major change in Japan,
just 18 years after cow's milk consumption began:

"The average height of 15-year-old boys in Japan has jumped
3 1/2 inches since World War II. According to the Christian
Science Monitor, clothing and school equipment manufacturers
are faced with the problem of revising size standards to keep
pace with the sprouting Nippers."

Sprouting nippers? Talk about politically incorrect!
I do not know what is the viler act. Verbal insult upon
the entire Japanese race, or the arrogance of what follows.
Yes, it gets much worse. Hoard's continues:

"Milk is credited as being the primary cause of today's
Japanese being taller and broader. According to the 'Monitor,'
milk is sweeping Japan. It is readily available in railway
stations, in offices, and it seems more common for young people
to drink milk for refreshment than carbonated beverages.
Consumption is expected to rise 500 percent within 10 years."

OK, so America's dairy industry admitted that the enormous
growth spurt was due to cow's milk consumption, and they did
so without mentioning the "H" word, hormones. The healthiest
milk from the healthiest organically raised cow naturally
contains powerful growth hormones. These steroid and protein
hormones work. Japan is the largest living laboratory study,
in the world, an example of how an entire society changed in
only 18 years.

Is taller better? With surges in height, there came a
decrease in the age of sexual maturity. In 1950, the
average Japanese girl menstruated for the first time at
15.2 years of age. Twenty-five years later, thanks to
milk hormones, she grew 4.5 inches, gained 19 pounds,
and the age of her first period dropped 3 years to
12.2. Whether or not you believe in

Humans were designed with just the right skeletal system
to hold a body's organs. Stretch the girders and in any
structure, be it a building or living system, and you
compromise the integrity of the plan. That is exactly
what man has done, with the help of dairy cows. Is it
any wonder that osteoporosis plagues milk-drinking nations?

I first wrote about the milk/Japanese growth connection in
1998. At that time, I cited a study published in "Preventive
Medicine" in 1978. Now, additional evidence identifies the
criminal who takes responsibility for his crime. The dairy
industry, guilty as charged. My 1998 column:

http://notmilk.com/deb/072698a.html

The 1963 Hoard's editorial concludes:

"This report has some interesting ramifications.
We could send a few of our quick-shooting heart
attack 'authorities' to Japan to scare the poor
kids out of drinking milk. Or we can suffer
along with their headlines here and arrange for
a swap of clothing and furniture. Our kids could
soon shrink to Nippon size if we followed the
advice of the confused cholesterol crowd."

The dairy industry has declared war upon Japan.
Up until now, the Japanese people have been waging
a losing battle. America's bottle of milk is Japan's
Pearl Harbor. Thanks to Dr. Sato and courageous men
like him, there is a growing tsunami of resistance
in Japan.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
i4crob@...