A Story about my Tits

In 2001, I found a lump in my breast.

Actually, I found a bunch of lumps.

One afternoon, I stopped in at the gyno. She felt me up.



After the exam, she explained that I did not have cancer. Rather, the lumps in my boobs came from not eating enough calcium.

I looked up at her, like: Huh?

I LOVED milk. I drank it every single day. I also ate a ton of cheese. Fettucini alfredo was one of my favorite dinners through college. Most of my life, I was a firm believer that milk DOES do a body good.

www.cynical-c.com

Let's fast-forward nine years.

Today I'm a vegan on a gluten-free, sugar free, soy and corn free, high fiber, high raw diet who runs at least fifteen miles a week and does yoga every other day.

I do not drink milk.

I do not eat yogurt.

My tits are lump-free.

So much for the great source of calcium in your cow's milk, huh?

This story came jogging back to my memory last week. Calcium was all over the internet. And I swear those Got Milk? ads come out like swarms of locusts.

Dumbass!

Why doesn't the ad say what milk really does?

Milk: It makes you wanna choke a bitch. So drink up!

At least we got the goods to fight 'em.

First, there is the lovely Alisa who runs Go Dairy Free. There's Healthy Chef Alex twittering a story about vegan nuns. Then there's this post at The Vegan Diet.

Of course I gotta cover the belly news.

When it comes to digestion - it's important to consider your dairy intake and how it makes you feel.


Thirty to fifty million Americans are lactose intolerant. Seventy to ninety percent of the human beings living on the eastern hemisphere cannot digest cow's milk.

I know it's presumptuous of me... but I can't help wondering...

Maybe

just MAYBE

It's because we're not supposed to be drinking it?

There are SO many great sources of calcium out there. Most are easier to digest than milk. Most give you more BANG for your buck too. Not only do you get calcium, you get tons of other vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Check it. Check it. Check it.

Calcium is easy to get into your system. It don't take effort or complicated recipes. Here are some of my favorite easy fixes.

Collards
Instead of using a taco shell, stick your fixin's into a collard.
It holds together way better anyway.


Mustard Greens, Swiss Chard, Kale
Here greens are sauteed in evoo, garlic and a pinch of nutmeg and eaten with pakora pancakes.



Broccoli
foodnmore.wordpress.com

Soak in some boiling water for 3-5 minutes. It softens up the broc without losing the nutrition.




Beans
There are beans under there, I swear!!!




Seaweed
Vegan sushi - my new favorite breakfast!



Tahini
whatscookingamerica.net

I drizzle it on top of my sweet potatoes.
I mix it with carob and hemp milk for puddin'.
Such a great picker upper!

Questions

So... where am I on the preachy meter today? Pretty high, I know. At least I didn't get into all the gross stuff about milk. If you wanna really get into it, you can find that out on your own.

Please - LET ME HAVE IT! I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts about dairy and lactose intolerance. Do you drink milk? Eat cheese? Why or why not?

Whether you've quit dairy or not - what benefits have you found from consuming or not consuming dairy products?

All I can do is give my testimony. My tits used to have lumps from calcium deficiency. Now they don't. I also used to get sore throats every week. Now I don't. That's all I can say.

Maybe if Jack Shepherd did my body good, I'd believe him about the milk.