I Am Milk!
Reader's Digest US|September 2019

Milk everyone’s first drink

- Kate Lowenstein and Daniel Gritzer
I Am Milk!

If you are a mammal, and I assume you are (Hello!), we are already well acquainted, aren’t we? I was, after all, your first food. I am the sweet secretion that flows from the mammary glands of a mammalian mom, the perfect nutrition for a baby human, cow, dog—what have you. I’m what allows an infant creature to exit its mother’s body and still continue to get everything it needs from her to grow into a larger, intelligent (in your case) being, tremendously jam-packed as I am with protein, fat, and delicious sugars.

The big twist with you humans, of course, is that you figured out how to continue your habit of drinking me well beyond your infancy and into adulthood. And rather than collect human milk and bottle it up, you chose a more efficient lactating creature to supply you: the cow.

This was an udder stroke of genius. By domesticating a milk-supplying animal—actually, over history, a bunch of them, including sheep, goats, buffalo, camels, and yaks—you found a way to take advantage of otherwise nutritionally useless grasslands and pastures. Ruminants such as cows, sheep, and goats are equipped with multiple stomachs and the (somewhat impolite) habit of regurgitating and re-chewing the contents of those stomachs until they’ve squeezed out every last nourishing molecule. With this unrivaled digestive determination, these beasts manage to turn scraggly weeds into copious amounts of rich and creamy me—and more.

この蚘事は Reader's Digest US の September 2019 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は Reader's Digest US の September 2019 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

READER'S DIGEST USのその他の蚘事すべお衚瀺
Cookies for Forgiveness
Reader's Digest US

Cookies for Forgiveness

My blowup was half-baked. The apology wasn't

time-read
4 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
Puff the Magic Pastry
Reader's Digest US

Puff the Magic Pastry

It always rises to the occasion

time-read
2 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
New Year's Traditions Around the World
Reader's Digest US

New Year's Traditions Around the World

1 MOST OF US spend the final seconds of each calendar year watching a nearly 12,000-pound geodesic sphere descend over Times Square in New York City.

time-read
4 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
Mom's Wall-Sign Wisdom
Reader's Digest US

Mom's Wall-Sign Wisdom

She never met a plaque or bumper sticker she didn't quote

time-read
3 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
Protect Your 'Holiday Heart'
Reader's Digest US

Protect Your 'Holiday Heart'

This joyful time of year can also be dangerously stressful

time-read
3 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
Heroes of the Holidays
Reader's Digest US

Heroes of the Holidays

It's not just Santa Claus bringing the holiday magic this season. As you'll see, he's got elves all over.

time-read
10+ 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
The Man Who Looks After His Wife's Ex
Reader's Digest US

The Man Who Looks After His Wife's Ex

For him and his bride, \"in sickness and in health\" meant something really special

time-read
8 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
How Risky Are Those Holiday Cocktails, Really?
Reader's Digest US

How Risky Are Those Holiday Cocktails, Really?

The latest recommendations about drinking and your health

time-read
7 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
HOW ONE KENTUCKY TOWN SAVED ITSELF
Reader's Digest US

HOW ONE KENTUCKY TOWN SAVED ITSELF

Downtown Hazard had lost its small-town mojo to drugs. Former addicts are helping to bring it back.

time-read
8 分  |
December 2024/January 2025
Dream It, Do It, Done!
Reader's Digest US

Dream It, Do It, Done!

Your bucket-list goals, accomplished

time-read
4 分  |
December 2024/January 2025