The Movie - Got The Facts On Milk
It all started with underground rumors passed by word of mouth, "Cow's milk is unhealthy for humans!" In order to find out more, I went to see the movie Got The Facts on Milk being shown at an Israeli film festival.
The movie documents the journey of four friends through America with the purpose of examining the facts about milk (the name of the film being a paraphrase of the Dairy Industry's promotional campaign "Got Milk" which shows known personalities sporting a milk moustache.)
Expectations And Reality
Because of the topic, and the conspiratorial atmosphere, I expected the movie to be somewhat dark and scary, discussing threatening diseases, with dire predictions made by scientists. But, as my ninth grade cinema teacher used to say, "A movie about boredom does not have to be boring."
Surprisingly, the movie, which was conceived of and directed by Israeli born Shira Lane, a young woman that suffers from an extreme allergy to dairy products, is humorous, up-beat, creative and graceful. I must admit, it was strange watching a movie with such a heavy message - while continuously smiling.
In order to off-set the heavy subject matter, the movie is accompanied by some animation, as well as short, funny video clips, and cool music. The movie is saturated with interviews, including an actual spokesperson for the American Dairy Association.
Milk Is Good For You, So We Think
The movie also includes posters and movie clips from dozens of advertising campaigns promoting milk and its products, for the last 100 years in the United States.
The general conception of the American public (and in my opinion all the Western countries) is that milk is nutritious because it "supplies calcium, strengthens bones, builds muscle, promotes healthy skin, prevents disease, and is good in general."
Almost every passer by interviewed in the movie, when asked their opinion about milk, said with a million dollar smile "Milk is very good for you."
Questions
But, asks the movie, how is it possible that the general public believes 'milk is good' when this premise lacks support by the scientific community? What about allergies to dairy products being one of the most common allergies? What about all the people who cannot digest lactose? (By the way, according to the movie, lactose intolerance is natural, and the ability to digest lactose is a genetic mutation…)
Why doesn't anyone talk about the fact that giving your baby cow's milk can cause an iron deficiency that hinders the baby's development? Why don't they tell us that one cup of milk can contain up to 180 million somatic cells - which are essentially pus cells? Why haven't we heard that the best source of calcium is actually from leafy greens?
The specialists and scientists interviewed in the movie state that not only is milk unhealthy, there is also no biological logic to drinking it. ("Why don't we just drink dog's milk?" says one of the interviewees sarcastically.)
Diseases Linked To Dairy Products
The list of diseases linked to dairy products by the specialists interviewed is not modest. They include: heart disease, intestinal cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, joint infection, infections in general, asthma, acne, and so on and so forth.
The movie does not simply name the ailments and move on - it is full of interviews with scientists and researchers, as well as medical patients that have quit (and some that haven't quit) consuming dairy products as a result of related diseases.
Enviromental Concerns
Wait, that is not all. Raising cattle for dairy products, claim people interviewed in the movie, affects other areas as well: it is detrimental to the environment and contributes greatly to global warming. In fact the shocking news is that the cattle industry contributes more to global warming than all the cars combined!
Also the growth of cattle pastures and crops to feed cattle are one of the biggest causes of deforestation in the world today. And, here's the piercing moral reality - in order for a cow to give us a never ending supply of milk, she has to be separated from her calf immediately after birth.
Dancing in Supermarket Aisles
In one of the best scenes in the movie, the director and her merry friends list all the ingredients made of milk derivatives (such as casein, whey, and lactic acid). Then, they enter an American supermarket and clear from the shelves, while dancing, all the food items containing some kind of dairy byproduct.
At the end of the dance, the friends discover that 75% of the products were cleared, and we see a supermarket with almost endless empty shelves.
The viewer gets the hint - if milk is such a big source of income it is understandable that any government would support it. But, can a government really support an industry that harms the health of its citizens, and aggressively promotes it to their children? The citizens interviewed in the movie preferred to believe it wouldn't. One of the people interviewed said "…after all, it's the food we give our babies." Another one disagreed, "America is about the bottom line. It's not about whether or not it's good for you or healthy …it's about how a product can be marketed so that you will spend your money…"
Where Did We Go Wrong?
As everything we have believed about milk is being challenged by this movie, the viewer has to ask: how it is possible that we were wrong all these years? And, the director answers simply, "Once we thought that the world was flat, right? And not too long ago we thought that cigarettes did not harm health. Is it possible we are wrong again?
The most important message, in my opinion, was something said by one of the interviewees, "Don't believe me - learn to investigate this on your own, because if you do, it's a sign that you are no longer mentally fixated and can take your life and health into your own hands."
For Additional Information:
http://www.milkdocumentary.com/Trailer.html
http://blog.gotthefactsonmilk.com/
http://www.ecocinema.org.il/
http://www.citytree.net/blogs/posts/183/ http://www.heartcenter.co.il/siteArticle.asp?aid=379&cid=49