11-07-2006, 12:46 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Avoid milk for better health </b>
beasts in my belfry | Maneka Gandhi
No product has been as heavily advertised as milk. Using religion, science, doctors, teachers, bureaucracy, film stars and whosoever can influence the sale, the Government has tried to ensure that everyone buys milk or any of its forms.
The fact that no Indian can digest it and that the health fall-outs are alarming - ranging from acne to kidney failure, diabetes and cancer - has been ignored and well concealed from the public. In some cases, the omission has been inadvertent - no medical students are taught nutrition in medical colleges so they do not know the relationship between food and disease and continue to parrot what they have learnt from their parents who learnt it from their parents.
In some cases the industry and scientists have deliberately suppressed evidence in order to promote milk drinking.<b> India is the largest milk producer and the second largest exporter of milk. In spite of this, the per capita availability of milk is one of the lowest in the world. There simply is not enough milk and with the hundreds of licences given to meat exporters and the thousands of unlicenced meat factories (Delhi has 11,000 illegal butcheries), buffaloes and cows are now been sold in their prime in the thousands to be killed for meat.</b>
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>In Mumbai, many Muslims want to eat the meat of pregnant and milking buffaloes and cows and every second truck that goes into Deonar illegally carries these animals and the meat sold with the teats attached so that it can be shown that the animal was a mother. I have a documentary taken secretly in Deonar showing a buffalo being milked by the butcher before her throat is cut. So, as a result, milk production in India is not increasing - it is declining. But the demand, thanks to advertising, is growing. So a huge industry of fake milk has stepped in to fill the breach.</span>
Milk-sellers have, for years now, produced synthetic milk. It costs Rs three per litre and sells at Rs 10 to 15 per litre. <b>Synthetic milk is prepared by using urea, caustic soda, refined oil, detergent, starch, glucose, sugar and pond water. Cheap refined oil is used as a substitute for milk fat. Caustic soda is added to the blended mixture of chemical and natural milk to neutralise the effect of increased acidity, thereby preventing it from turning sour during transport. Detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water, giving the frothy solution the characteristic white colour.</b>
<b>According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, chemical or synthetic milk looks like natural milk but it is harmful to the point of causing cancer. Urea destroys the kidneys. Caustic soda, which contains sodium, acts as a slow poison for those suffering from hypertension and heart ailments. It is especially harmful for foetuses and pregnant women. There are some ways to make out whether your milk has synthetic milk in it.</b>
<b>Natural milk has no pronounced taste but is slightly sweet. Any pronounced taste is abnormal. Synthetic milk is bitter. Milk should have no smell but "mixed" milk smells. Natural milk is not soapy if rubbed between the fingers. Synthetic milk is soapy. Real milk remains white on boiling.</b>
<b>Synthetic milk turns yellow. Real milk doesn't change colour when it is stored. Synthetic milk turns yellowish. Natural milk with urea in it comes to you with a much more yellow colour than natural milk. Real milk is acidic (a PH value of 6.8). Synthetic milk is alkaline. If fresh milk is tested with litmus paper. blue litmus paper turns red and red litmus paper turns blue. This doesn't happen if the milk is mixed.</b>
In a study done by Aligarh Muslim University in 2002 on synthetic milk identification, researchers found t<b>hat most natural milk was adulterated with synthetic milk</b>. According to the study, <b>the Government and industry taking the milk only check fats and solids</b>. <b>Since all the other checks (estimating the sediment, the bacterial count, the freezing point (which changes after artificial milk is added), etc) are expensive and time-consuming, a few samples are taken now and then and sent to the laboratory - while the rest of the milk is allowed to be sold. Even when the milk turns out to be "mixed", no action is taken against the dairy that sold it.</b>
It is sad that no Government organisation, least of all animal husbandry department (whose job is to ensure that you drink milk and eat meat), or the Ministry for Consumer Affairs pays any attention to the huge and open sale of mixed milk.
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beasts in my belfry | Maneka Gandhi
No product has been as heavily advertised as milk. Using religion, science, doctors, teachers, bureaucracy, film stars and whosoever can influence the sale, the Government has tried to ensure that everyone buys milk or any of its forms.
The fact that no Indian can digest it and that the health fall-outs are alarming - ranging from acne to kidney failure, diabetes and cancer - has been ignored and well concealed from the public. In some cases, the omission has been inadvertent - no medical students are taught nutrition in medical colleges so they do not know the relationship between food and disease and continue to parrot what they have learnt from their parents who learnt it from their parents.
In some cases the industry and scientists have deliberately suppressed evidence in order to promote milk drinking.<b> India is the largest milk producer and the second largest exporter of milk. In spite of this, the per capita availability of milk is one of the lowest in the world. There simply is not enough milk and with the hundreds of licences given to meat exporters and the thousands of unlicenced meat factories (Delhi has 11,000 illegal butcheries), buffaloes and cows are now been sold in their prime in the thousands to be killed for meat.</b>
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>In Mumbai, many Muslims want to eat the meat of pregnant and milking buffaloes and cows and every second truck that goes into Deonar illegally carries these animals and the meat sold with the teats attached so that it can be shown that the animal was a mother. I have a documentary taken secretly in Deonar showing a buffalo being milked by the butcher before her throat is cut. So, as a result, milk production in India is not increasing - it is declining. But the demand, thanks to advertising, is growing. So a huge industry of fake milk has stepped in to fill the breach.</span>
Milk-sellers have, for years now, produced synthetic milk. It costs Rs three per litre and sells at Rs 10 to 15 per litre. <b>Synthetic milk is prepared by using urea, caustic soda, refined oil, detergent, starch, glucose, sugar and pond water. Cheap refined oil is used as a substitute for milk fat. Caustic soda is added to the blended mixture of chemical and natural milk to neutralise the effect of increased acidity, thereby preventing it from turning sour during transport. Detergents are added to emulsify and dissolve the oil in water, giving the frothy solution the characteristic white colour.</b>
<b>According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, chemical or synthetic milk looks like natural milk but it is harmful to the point of causing cancer. Urea destroys the kidneys. Caustic soda, which contains sodium, acts as a slow poison for those suffering from hypertension and heart ailments. It is especially harmful for foetuses and pregnant women. There are some ways to make out whether your milk has synthetic milk in it.</b>
<b>Natural milk has no pronounced taste but is slightly sweet. Any pronounced taste is abnormal. Synthetic milk is bitter. Milk should have no smell but "mixed" milk smells. Natural milk is not soapy if rubbed between the fingers. Synthetic milk is soapy. Real milk remains white on boiling.</b>
<b>Synthetic milk turns yellow. Real milk doesn't change colour when it is stored. Synthetic milk turns yellowish. Natural milk with urea in it comes to you with a much more yellow colour than natural milk. Real milk is acidic (a PH value of 6.8). Synthetic milk is alkaline. If fresh milk is tested with litmus paper. blue litmus paper turns red and red litmus paper turns blue. This doesn't happen if the milk is mixed.</b>
In a study done by Aligarh Muslim University in 2002 on synthetic milk identification, researchers found t<b>hat most natural milk was adulterated with synthetic milk</b>. According to the study, <b>the Government and industry taking the milk only check fats and solids</b>. <b>Since all the other checks (estimating the sediment, the bacterial count, the freezing point (which changes after artificial milk is added), etc) are expensive and time-consuming, a few samples are taken now and then and sent to the laboratory - while the rest of the milk is allowed to be sold. Even when the milk turns out to be "mixed", no action is taken against the dairy that sold it.</b>
It is sad that no Government organisation, least of all animal husbandry department (whose job is to ensure that you drink milk and eat meat), or the Ministry for Consumer Affairs pays any attention to the huge and open sale of mixed milk.
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