After learning that Charlotte-based Friendship Trays, which delivers meals to elderly and disabled citizens, is cutting individual cartons of milk from its meals to save on costs, PETA is offering to lend a hand. The group is sending single-serve cartons of nutritious and delicious vitamin D–fortified soy milk that will help recipients get the calcium and other nutrients they need without the artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated animal fat found in cow’s milk. Several studies, including the Harvard-based Nurses’ Health Study, have shown that consuming dairy products offers little to no protection against bone fractures.
“The last thing elderly people need are dairy products, which are linked to cancer and heart disease,” says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. “Leaving cow’s milk off the tray makes room for delicious, calcium- and vitamin D–fortified soy milk and lets baby cows keep the milk that nature intended for them.”
As far back as 2005, the Harvard School of Public Health warned against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendation that year to include milk and other dairy products in one’s diet: “This recommendation ignored the lack of evidence for a link between consumption of dairy products and prevention of osteoporosis. It also ignored the possible increases in risk of ovarian cancer and prostate cancer associated with dairy products.”
Up to 50 percent of cows used for their milk are afflicted with udder infections. They also commonly suffer from painfully swollen knees and hoof disorders—including foot rot, ulcers, and abscesses. Newborn calves are traumatically torn away from their mothers so that their mothers’ milk can be sold. Many male calves are destined for weeks of intensive confinement to cruel veal crates before they are killed. Most females are condemned to the same sad fate that their mothers endure.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
Charlotte Area News From All Local Sources
