NationStates Jolt Archive

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You're lucky you're Dakini.

For now, I'm switching to soy milk

I've never heard about a hormones in dairy products (only in meats) nor experienced anything likt that.

But switching to soy milk to avoid hormones seems a tad strange, seeing how soy is full of phytoestrogens. ;)

Edit: I don't know much about the topic since I hardly ever consume soy products. Here's a New York Times article (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D04E5DB143EF937A1575BC0A9629C8B63&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=print) on the topic. I hope it's accessible without registration.

Now, I'm not generally a huge dairy consumer. I usually buy a 1L carton of milk every couple of weeks and use it in cereal, I don't buy more because it tends to go bad when I do, cheese is generally too pricey for me so I don't get it often and I eat cereal instead of yogurt for breakfast so I don't buy that much either. When I went to visit my parents for the holidays, I consumed more dairy than usual, my parents have lots of cheeses and all that so I indulged. When I was going to return to school, my mom bought me a 2L carton of milk to take back with me. As a result, I ended up consuming twice as much milk so it would be done with before it went bad.
After a month of excessive (for me) dairy consumption, my period didn't come. At first I thought it was because of exams and visiting my family and that it made sense for it to be a week late. I continued my excessive dairy consumption (I did still have all that milk to drink) and it still didn't come. Two days after my milk ran out my period came. It was nearly three weeks late. It made me wonder whether the artificial hormones the cows are injected with had anything to do with it. I have heard that they can do screwy things to one's own hormones. Does anyone have any more information about this from trustable sources (i.e. not from a page by the dairy producers or from peta...)?

For now, I'm switching to soy milk and I am going to go to my doctor to make sure it's not something generally wrong with me anyways, but I'm now somewhat wary of dairy products.

You don't have to switch to soy if you don't want to--there are plenty of producers out there who advertise their milk as being free of rBGH. You don't even have to go to the expense of organic for that if you don't want to, though I like the taste better.

Most of the evidence I've seen of the problems with hormones has been anecdotal, so I'm not going to come out and say anything definitive other than this--I don't trust Monsanto to do anything other than worry about their bottom line, and they have the greatest incentive to keep rBGH milk on the market, and I just plain don't like the conditions that most factory farms work under, and they're the biggest users of the hormones. That's why I don't drink it--and I drink and eat a lot of dairy.

Lets do the time warp again.......

Most chicken, pork, and beef in the US also contains hormones.

Are the hormones there to help the cattle grow and fatten up quicker? If so maybe this helps explain the obesity thing.

I suppose anything's possible, but I kind of doubt it. Milke is processed quite a bit before it reaches the consumer and I wouldn't expect much, if any, of the hormones to be intact enough to make a difference. Also, I know plenty of people who drink large amounts of milk and have never exhibited any hormone problems.

It could simply be that, since your body wasn't used to all the dairy, you were reacting to it. Many people are at least nominally lactose intolerant, and if your body saw all the dairy as a stress, it might not have been keeping your hormone balance on track.

It could still be the stress from the exams and everything and the milk might be a weird coincidence.

In other words, I don't know, I'm just typing out possibilities. =)

Are the hormones there to help the cattle grow and fatten up quicker? If so maybe this helps explain the obesity thing.

Quicker growth is part of it, but the biggest thing they're supposed to do is increase milk output from the cows.

I've never heard about a hormones in dairy products (only in meats) nor experienced anything likt that.
I've heard that they inject the cows with hormones so they'll produce more milk and that these hormones end up going into the milk.

But switching to soy milk to avoid hormones seems a tad strange, seeing how soy is full of phytoestrogens. ;)
Well, I'm not sure which is worse for me, artificial hormones or natural ones.

Though the soy milk switch was also because I've been making fruit smoothies for breakfast and vanilla soy milk makes them taste better than regular milk does.

Also, wtf @ the post order in this thread?

Most chicken, pork, and beef in the US also contains hormones.
Well, I don't eat meat, so I'm not getting hormones from there.

Most of the evidence I've seen of the problems with hormones has been anecdotal, so I'm not going to come out and say anything definitive other than this--I don't trust Monsanto to do anything other than worry about their bottom line, and they have the greatest incentive to keep rBGH milk on the market, and I just plain don't like the conditions that most factory farms work under, and they're the biggest users of the hormones. That's why I don't drink it--and I drink and eat a lot of dairy. Gotta agree with The Nazz there.

Well, I'm not sure which is worse for me, artificial hormones or natural ones.

Though the soy milk switch was also because I've been making fruit smoothies for breakfast and vanilla soy milk makes them taste better than regular milk does.
I added a link to an article to my post - it basically says that research is inconclusive if soy (i.e. its estrogens) is good or bad for you.
Research mostly concentrates on breast cancer prevalence and menopause.
The key sentences, IMO: The one point experts agree on is that it is probably safe to eat soy foods in moderation, as people in Asian countries have done for centuries.

''Soy foods are great; they appear to be absolutely safe when consumed at levels consumed in Asia, which is one to two servings a day,'' Dr. Kurzer said. On average, Asians consume about 15 to 30 milligrams of isoflavones a day, Dr. Helferich said.

But in the United States, a woman could potentially consume 75 to 80 milligrams a day, through products like soy energy bars, chips and enriched cereal, as well as soy milk and tofu.

Also, wtf @ the post order in this thread?Jolt is doing the time warp again these days.

Well, I don't eat meat, so I'm not getting hormones from there.
Well, if you don't eat meat and hardly ever eat cheese and usually only consume a very moderate amount of dairy, maybe your body just wasn't used to all this animal protein and fat all of a sudden?

You don't have to switch to soy if you don't want to--there are plenty of producers out there who advertise their milk as being free of rBGH. You don't even have to go to the expense of organic for that if you don't want to, though I like the taste better.

Most of the evidence I've seen of the problems with hormones has been anecdotal, so I'm not going to come out and say anything definitive other than this--I don't trust Monsanto to do anything other than worry about their bottom line, and they have the greatest incentive to keep rBGH milk on the market, and I just plain don't like the conditions that most factory farms work under, and they're the biggest users of the hormones. That's why I don't drink it--and I drink and eat a lot of dairy.
I have no objections to switching to soy milk, the price is generally comparable and I've gone to soy milk to spite roommates before (they had a bizarre set up where we'd share the milk but they wouldn't chip in for it as often as they should have) it tastes pretty good (especially vanilla soy milk) and they usually cram calcium and the like into it. I could look into making sure that milk doesn't have the hormones, but if that milk costs more than the soy stuff then I'll probably go with soy...

There is no such thing as soy milk. Why? Because there are no such thing as a soy tittie. It's soy juice. /Lewis Black

I added a link to an article to my post - it basically says that research is inconclusive if soy (i.e. its estrogens) is good or bad for you.
Research mostly concentrates on breast cancer prevalence and menopause.

Well, I'm not going to consume more than 1-2 servings a day I think... so I'm probably good I guess. :P

Well, if you don't eat meat and hardly ever eat cheese and usually only consume a very moderate amount of dairy, maybe your body just wasn't used to all this animal protein and fat all of a sudden?
That could be the case.

Also, Drunk commies, would it make you happy if I called it soy drink then?

There is no such thing as soy milk. Why? Because there are no such thing as a soy tittie. It's soy juice. /Lewis Black

Random fun fact: Incidentally, "soy milk" may not be sold under that name in Germany; here, it will have to be labelled "soy drink".

Random fun fact: Incidentally, "soy milk" may not be sold under that name in Germany; here, it will have to be labelled "soy drink".
I think it's technically called soy drink here too. I'm just lazy and don't care... I think most people know what I'm talking about too.