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Growth and organic food, not cows milk?

post #1 of 9
Thread Starter 
I always had this question flowing around. My kids 4 and 1 years old still breastfeeding and we eat mostly organic food and some dairy, but not cows or goat milk. My question is comparative "conventional" food feeding and kids who drink cows milk, my children probably going to shorter?

Thank you in advance for you information.
post #2 of 9
Thread Starter 
nobody???
post #3 of 9
Are you asking if your kids are going to be shorter if they long term nurse and eat organic food?
post #4 of 9
Thread Starter 
Not really about nursing. My question is about what is going to be a different in their growth compare to kids who drinks cows milk, because cows makes milk for their calf (body mass way more bigger than humans) and also the impact of the growth hormones in conventional food.

Maybe I'm not clear enough...
post #5 of 9
Yeah, I didn't answer originally because I didn't understand your question but figured someone else would.

Honestly, I don't have any recollection of any studies on this, so this is conjecture and nothing else.

I don't think your kids are going to be any shorter because of their diet (who knows, they might end up short anyway for genetics).

Cow's milk is indeed geared toward large-massed creatures. However, I don't think the mass=height in humans (maybe more flesh on our bones, though). Also, and this is highly debatable, I think at this point those of European descent and certain African descents have adapted to drinking cow milk, and can do so without odd results.

Next, most Americans drink pasteurized milk, which means they are not enjoying the true nutritional benefits. And thus I doubt they will see extra height or health from it. Yes, I know the hype about how much calcium is in cow's milk, but unless you drink it raw, you're not getting it in a form that's very bioavailable. So, no, I don't think calcium or anything else in conventional milk is making your average American any taller.

Next, the growth hormones I believe will enhance puberty but not height. The point of the hormones is to increase milk, not overall size, in the cow.

So that's my musings on the milk part. Dunno about the organic food part; I can't imagine why organic food would stunt anyone's growth or conventional food would enhance it. I'm stumped here.

If you are worried and would like to give your children milk but are reluctant to expose them to the hormones and chemicals and so on, look into raw milk. There are many differences, not just lack of hormones. I mean, I don't think you have to give milk at all, but I do think there's a world of difference between conventional and raw.
post #6 of 9
I don't think the hormones in cow's milk make kids taller. Fatter maybe, earlier puberty maybe, but it shouldn't affect overall height.

The only way that early puberty affects height is that kids will get their "puberty growth spurts" at a younger age. The hormones won't make 4yos any taller than they'd otherwise be. It might make your 9yo have the growth spurt she "should have" at age 12, but it won't affect height before that growth spurt, or final adult height.

I've only heard of these "growth hormone issues" with cow's milk from cows given added hormones. I've never heard of problems from the hormones naturally present in the milk from healthy cows, or from goat's milk at all.
post #7 of 9
I don't have the answer to your question, but I wanted to say that I personally believe that RAW organic milk (cow/goat) is GREAT! We started doing raw organic milk over a year ago and we are VERY pleased with it. We drink a ton of it.
post #8 of 9
I don't think it effects height at all, DH DS and I have all drank cows milk and we are all VERY short.
post #9 of 9
My 13 year old son has never drunk a glass of cow's milk in his life (he does eat other dairy but not a lot of it) and he's grown 8 inches in the past two years and 2 inches in the past two months. Most of your height is puberty, genetics, and decent nutrition, which obviously doesn't need to include the milk of another species.
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