Should you stop drinking MILK? | How To Cook That Ann Reardon

Should you stop drinking cow's milk, almond milk, oat milk or soy milk? Let's look at milk and debunk some of the myths.
Hi I am Ann Reardon, How to Cook That is my youtube channel it is filled with crazy sweet creations made just for you. This week we are looking at is milk bad for you? Should you be drinking almond milk? Or soy or oat milk? Do we need dairy at all? Join me for food science, creative cakes, chocolate & desserts, new video every Friday.

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[colleenjenkins]

Thank you so much for speaking to your audience in a respectful, intelligent way instead of treating us like dumb children the way most content creators do.

[SunnyB_adventures]

I'm allergic to cow's milk, so I have to be really careful and make sure none of my food has milk listed in the ingredients. It is crazy to me that people think that they are essentially entirely giving up cow's milk just by giving up the stuff from the jug. There are many things that aren't even obvious to people that don't have to avoid it that are full to bursting with cow's milk. Lots of sauces will have milk or butter or whey in. Cereal might have dried forms of milk in, especially when they're of the chocolate variety. I'm not even safe with 'plant based' things, they might still have milk in.
You have to check EVERY SINGLE LABEL and go to the trouble of asking servers at almost every restaurant (because most suck about listing their allergens) to check if something has milk in. It's a lot of work and I don't understand why anyone would do it just for funsies

[sameaston]

MatPat and Anne debating over milk and greens is the kind of YouTube drama I enjoy.

[diablominero]

Fun fact about bone density: one of the common osteoporosis medicines is a strontium supplement. Strontium is chemically similar to calcium, so it can fit into bones, but it doesn't leave the bones as easily as calcium.

Related fun fact: One of the reasons they stopped aboveground nuclear testing is they figured out radioactive forms of strontium from the bombs were ending up in kids' bones and getting stuck there, and there was concern that that'd cause cancer.

[nileredscandy]

A little bit on a tangent here, but I’m rewatching The Good Place right now, specifically the part where the team makes their case to the judge. Ann’s discussion about the environmental impact of cattle farming reminds me of that. There are so many factors that the conscientious consumer doesn’t even know about. And those factors that we are familiar with interweave in complex ways beyond untangling. And it’s so unfair that modern society puts the greater amount of burden of making ethical choices on the consumer

[kirstenpaff]

As an agricultural researcher, I really appreciate your acknowledging how hard it is to quantify environmental impact due to the many factors that go into making, storing, and transporting a product. The exact same product, produced at two different locations, can have vastly different environmental impacts. The obvious factor here is the energy needed for transportation, but also consider things like where is the water coming from (rainfall or maybe a river that is being pumped dry to meet human water demands), what was the land before production started (i.e. are you using existing farmland or are you converting natural land), what kind of soils are you dealing with (sandy soils are particularly prone to leaching, where fertilizers, stored animal manure, and other inputs are more like to travel through the soil and into the groundwater that humans use for drinking water), etc.

[elizaparakeet]

watching the momma cow chase after the van with her calf in it just broke my heart.

[MayuraVyamsaka]

I'm very glad you bring up the point about phytates and oxalates. It comes up all the time in the clinic whenever people are surprised they have iron deficiency anaemia despite eating large amounts of leafy green, and they're always so shocked when I tell them that the phytates and oxalates chelate out the iron and calcium and make them unavailable to absorb. And then I always have to reiterate that leafy greens are great to eat to get your vitamins and that just because they're technically iron/calcium poor is not an excuse to eliminate leafy greens from the diet lmao. This is why health education and food education are so important, because most of them believe in the hype around these foods so much, but when they realise what's actually going on, well... In the words of the great Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, trust is like a mirror—you can fix it if it's broken, but...

[fucentauriel]

If you live in the US, bear in mind that plant milks in grocery stores don’t legally have to be fortified, so always look on the label to see.

Also, calcium-set tofu is a good thing to add to your diet if you’re looking to get more calcium. Not all tofu is calcium-set, so be sure to check.

[Anna-ogwc]

Another thing I see often (student dietitian here) when people talk about the nutrients of kidney beans is comparing their dry weight (unsoaked) with milk instead of their soaked/cooked weight which can be just as misleading as talking about gram for gram rather than comparing servings. It's no wonder people get confused! 🌯🥫 Thanks again for your awesome content Ann ❤️

[jisthecoolest-_-]

So... I have no idea why any of this is happening in the first place. I feel like mats original video was completely fine and just mentioned alternative foods to eat instead of milk (which was like 30 seconds of his entire video) everything else was fine. Ann's video is good for talking about milk and it's alternatives. Neither video is wrong, ive been lactose intolerant for a very long time now and am now developing an allergy to it. I've actually been intolerant since I was 8 so both of these videos are really helpful. Growing up my family didn't have enough money to buy alternative milks because they are very expensive where I live. So I got most of my calcium from beans and broccoli. But now that I'm older( and have a stable job) I can start getting alternative milks now, I personally like soy a lot over oat and coconut but that's just me.

[jrmckim]

I grew up on a dairy farm. Our girls were treated better than the human kids lol. If one was sick, the vet was immediately called. We also never took the babies away. It's heartbreaking to see them go through such trauma. My grandparents also brought older girls from auctions to let them live out their lives instead of going to slaughter. As a kid, my friends were the animals on the farm. We had horses, donkeys, goats, and a few chickens. None were "food". My family just enjoyed watching and interacting with them. They each had their own personalities. I loved sitting on my grandparent's back porch and watching them play and carry on. I'm lucky to have an animal loving family.
When I was 17 it was all taken away from us by hurricane Katrina. We did all we could to save as many as possible. All but 2 of our cows died. The flood was so devastating to my family. The water was over 15 feet in some places. The worst part is that the water was contaminated with sewage, dead animals, and chemicals. So even if the animals didn't drown, they became sick or injured by chemicals like gasoline and diesel. Some had broken legs and ribs. It was just horrible all around. We are lucky to have survived but lost everything.

[mr.wafflesdacactus]

It's great seeing plant based milk talked about in a normal, non-biased way.
I'm lactose intolerant so I have to have alternatives, and I get a lot of comments who say, "You know it's actually worse for you, right?" without knowing that I can't digest cow's milk.
I hope non dairy milk can be seen more as an alternative instead of a 'better/worse' kind of competition.

[bethyngalw]

my brother was allergic to milk when he was a child, he went through a special therapy to acclimatise his body to milk, and now he's fine with it. Ironically, he's also allergic to nuts, and that hasn't gone away, so the option for milk alternatives were quite narrow when we were kids.

[ShadowYaz]

So, I watched all three of these videos on milk to see what up and I found that combined they paint a very well rounded picture of milk. It makes sense the How to Cook That compared serving sizes because she focuses a lot on cooking and diet. It makes no sense to replace a cup of milk with enough beans to build a sandcastle, especially in a recipee. But I also loved how Food Theory pointed out how advertisement affects your view on milk. Also, if you've seen the Film Theory episode about transmutation in FMA, it makes sense why they'd use gram to gram comparison. For X amount of calcium how much kale or milk would you need? Brew's video was also a lot of fun! He went into mythologies that imply that milk one of the first things to exist in the universe at all (in some cases THE first even.). All three of them explained the Lactase Persistence mutation (which I never get sick of hearing about /genuine. Like I swear if I come across a video that is only about Lactase Persistence, I will watch the whole thing) I don't think this is evidence of plagiarism from any of these vids. Food Theory and Brew asked a very similar question so it makes sense that they brought up similar evidence.
And, storytime! in 2020, before I had ever seen any of these videos, I wanted to make a video about milk and I had planned for the thumbnail to be of a skeleton drinking milk from a glass. Like, I keep hearing milk is good for your bones so I wanted the human bones to be drinking milk. I honestly don't think any thumbnails were lowkey stolen. :)
TL;DR: I thoroughly enjoyed ALL four of these videos and appreciate the three takes on it. :)

[zapheil]

I’m curious — when foods/drinks are fortified with calcium, where does that calcium typically come from? Is it from rocks? Is it extracted from calcium-rich foods? Does the source make a difference in how it is absorbed?

[helins]

After some digging I came to the conclusion that to me personally, the best option is locally produced oat milk! This video absolutely highlights the fact that there is no "one solution fits all" in these questions and that we all should do a little bit of research where we get our food from and what it is. Thank you Ann!

[Joh]

Interestingly, I've found that the lactose-free milk keeps for a lot longer than regular milk. It doesn't go sour as quickly, probably because the fermentation doesn't happen in the same way with the lactase added. It is a big plus for me, since I only use a little bit for my morning tea every day.

[callynn]

Your video + Food Theory's response are going in my lessons to show how scientists can debate and improve information. The way its supposed to be done :)

[ethanleclair]

Check with food theory for accurate up to date Calcium needs or questions, he just did a great video explaining it.