h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know why milk produces mucus when you drink it? My son coughs all night whenever he drinks milk.?? Lactose? Anyone got an answer?

You think milk's bad, try peach nectar.

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Milk reacts in an unusual way with the acidity in your saliva.

Is that really true?

Well, if you think about it pretty much IS mucus. It's essentially a congealed liquid protein.

Ahh...

Apparently, it's only humans who continue to consume milk once they reach adulthood. I could be wrong, I often am.

And, TV cartoon cats are somewhat misleading, as you should not give milk (other than carton cat milk) to cats, it often makes them ill.

( this is an old thread. I'm trying to find out what a certain person, (who'll remain nameless) gets from replying to threads from last milleninnum. )

Emmily

Ooh - random old thread revival -

Emmily, I believe you are correct about humans being the only animals who consume milk after childhood.

Lactose is a milk sugar. Lactase is an enzyme necessary to digest lactose. Our bodies produce less lactase as we age. Some people never had enough to properly digest milk to begin with.

Bromelain, the enzyme found in pineapple helps to digest protein(including milk protein). Taking supplements of lactase and/or bromelain can help some people enjoy dairy instead of having to abstain from ice cream and cheese etc.

You learn something new every day! I knew that adult cats shouldn't be given milk - it can make them sick and/or give them diarrhoea. I didn't know about lactase or bromelain, though. Thanks for that titbit, Evangeline.

Both H and I snore if we have at bedtime. So we either both have milk or not at all.

Unless he is w*rking late and has a crafty before bed, which means he wakes me up when he starts the old tonsil lullaby.

Cheerful Dragon, you're very welcome. I've learned quite a bit working in a natural food store for several years. And, some of it was actually useful. Milk, and wheat are two of the most common allergens here(Louisiana). Pollen and mold would be next on that list.

Whole milk bothers me a bit. Switching to 1 or 2% instead made a big difference. Natural yogurt with live cultures doesn't bother me at all. Goat milk is supposed to be more digestible, but I haven't tried it yet. Goat cheese is rather nice.

When you think about it, milk is actually a pretty odd thing to drink.

We drink the nutritional weaning liquid, produced by, of all things- cows! Can you imagine if you came from a country(if such a place exists) where this practice was unheard of- how odd the drinking of milk would seem to them.

I do drink it myself of course, and i love cheese, but i have also heard that it does more harm than good in some people, because of its difficulty to digest. (sorry that sentence is a bit garbled, but im tired ok?!).It is alledged to cause a lot of flatulance, amongst other things..

If we all stopped consuming dairy products would our health suffer at all? Could we get Calcium from another source?

I thought milk builds strong bones. So says the commercials anyway.

Think of the weirdo whose came up with the idea of milking the cow in the first place

Never liked milk myself, although the low fat stuff is ok I suppose. It always makes me burp, and my breath smells awful afterwards. Also you get those horrible little lumps of fat floating in whole milk

Anyway, I generally go by what tastes bad probably tastes bad for a reason, so I don't drink it.

A person can survive quite well without consuming milk or other dairy products. Leafy greens provide a more absorbable form of calcium(and other minerals) than milk.

Drinking milk isn't any stranger than eating eggs. Who thought of eating something that came out of a chicken's butt?

You can get calcium lots of other places, like oily fish I think (especially if it's pilchards and you eat the bones), dark green veggies, etc.

Or by eating lumps of chalk.

Ooh, why not just cut out the middle man- eat a skeleton- loads of calcium.