Got Bloat?

September 26th, 2011 • BY Erinn Morgan

The Milk Maven. Director Shira Lane spills the beans on the white stuff in a new documentary.

If the after-effects of a deluge of dairy products leave your body reeling, then you’ll appreciate the focus of a new, hard-hitting documentary that is so inspiring it actually spurred a riot at the South Korea Green Film Festival.

Winner of several film festival awards, “Got the Facts on Milk?” digs deep into the validity of the belief that milk products have real health benefits.

Filmmaker Shira Lane illustrates the contrary through scientific research and expert feedback showing how dairy product consumption is linked to diseases such as cancer and other issues like weight gain, asthma, and early menstruation. She also brings to light how the dairy industry is milking the system with marketing that positions milk as a healthy food product.

We checked in with Lane, who was fueled by her own intense dairy allergy, to get the lowdown on the good, the bad, and the truly ugly facts on milk.

WM: What was your most shocking finding about milk?

Shira Lane: It was shocking to discover the large quantities of research and studies that show that cow’s milk is not all the dairy industry portrays it to be. The further I looked into the research the harder it became to ignore these findings.

WM: What was the most inspiring finding?

Lane: The stories from so many doctors who cured their patients from chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes with a change in diet alone. It seemed impossible—like a miracle. Interviewing these now-well patients was the most inspiring to me, and moved me to take a harder look into the food I feed my family.

WM: What kind of environmental impact does the milk industry have?

Lane: It’s huge. According to studies that examine the milk industry’s contribution to global warming, herds of dairy cows excrete astounding amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas. Their pools of manure and urine have also been shown to contaminate local groundwater. Livestock also uses 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface and today’s increase of dairy consumption creates an increased demand for land, which is usually obtained with deforestation. I could go on and on…

WM: What type of reaction do you have to milk?

Lane: I’m allergic to casein, one of the proteins in milk. It clogs me up to the point that I can’t breathe. As a child back in the ‘80s I was diagnosed with chronic asthmatic bronchitis; I had to spend weeks at a time in the hospital. Today, after my own research, I have discovered that this is an allergic reaction to cow’s milk. I made this film so parents and other children who have been diagnosed with asthma can look into this issue.

WM: What are your go-to sources of calcium?

Lane: Green leafy vegetables, almonds, and seeds like sesame seeds. Milk was never a good source of calcium, even the dairy industry knows that. Because of a lack of scientific evidence to support this marketing claim, they were forced to drop their very successful ‘Build Strong Bones’ campaign a few years ago. But since that campaign was brilliantly done—most people remember that and take it as their nutritional guideline.

WM: What is your favorite healthy “milk replacement” food?

Lane: I make almond milk and cashew crème at home. Raw cashews blended with a little water make a great tasting non-dairy creamer, used in soups, pasta sauces, and desserts.

Check it Out: www.milkdocumentary.com

Kamagra oral jelly Online something to buy the most convenient way. He doesn’t demand from you any actions except how to visit the website. And in separate with goods necessary to you to put the end. To specify your address and to wait for the supplier to whom you will give money.

About Erinn Morgan

After a 10-year career as an award-winning New York City-based editor launching and redesigning urban, style-driven magazines, Erinn Morgan left her downtown Manhattan digs after September 11th, 2001, in search of a less encumbered, freelance lifestyle. A life-changing, two-year-long trek around the country in a motorhome eventually landed her in Durango, Colo., which she now calls home. Her writing has appeared in numerous— More about this author →