Confessions of a Milk-a-holic

This is a confession of a true Milk-a-holic...me =)

I have been reading a few articles on the web about lactose intolerance and how prevalent or not prevalent it is in the world population. Some state that drinking milk into adulthood is unnatural, that humans should stop drinking milk after infantcy. All of the different opinions make the truth very confusing, but I can honestly say that I am not lactose intolerant. If anything, I am a TRUE Milk-a-holic!

Ever since I was a young child, milk has played an important part of my life. Yes, I was raised on a dairy farm, but milk was ALSO an important part of my diet. I knew at a young age how great milk was for my body! After many adventures as a kid, I can honestly say I NEVER had a broken bone, even though I had plenty of injuries. I had milk and cereal before school, milk and cheese at school, and milk and ice cream at home for supper. We used to drink raw whole milk(averaging 3.5-4% fat) at home, from the cows. I don't endorse that practice now, not because it was unsafe, but because pasteurized milk is MORE safe. Nevertheless...I drank milk everyday, and not a small 8 ounce glass, but a big glass, 10 ounces or more each time, at least 3 times a day.

Now as an adult, I find that my body tells me when I haven't had milk. Some people are addicted to caffeine or pop, but I am ADDICTED to MILK! Yes, I sure am! If I don't start my day with milk, I am groggy by noon. If I don't have milk for lunch/dinner, I am craving it by the afternoon. If I don't have milk for supper, I NEED a LARGE glass for a snack before bed! It's crazy but after I have that glass of milk I feel so much better. I often enjoy milk with snacks, but cheese and crackers, yogurts, and yogurt smoothies are some of my favorite "other" snacks.

Our bodies need calcium, and if we listen to our bodies we will fill that need. I read an astonishing/shocking statistic the other day: ONLY 5% of girls and 25% of boys, ages 9-13 get their daily requirement of calcium that they need! How terrible! Kids develop life habits at this age, and by not including milk/dairy in their diets they will surely have issues with osteoporosis and other bone diseases in their futures. How terrible! I can't imagine how awful this truly is. So, please if you have children, make sure that they have 3 servings of dairy each day to fulfill their daily need of Calcium, as well as: Vitamin A & D, Phosphorous, Protein, and Magnesium. Serving sizes are small: 8 ounces of milk, 3 ounces of cheese, or 8 ounces of yogurt. Please, just do it for your kids-they deserve a healthy future with healthy habits! Thanks!

Pictures from the Preschool Tour!

I finally got some time to sit down and post some pictures. The preschool tour threw off our schedule at the farm just a little, and now we are working on planning the tour for the High School Ag class coming next Wednesday. I love pictures of kids seeing a dairy farm for the first time...and a picture is worth a million words. Also a HUGE thanks to the Dairy Princesses that came out to spend time with the kids on Monday! I know they had a blast seeing a real life princess in person!

Explaining to the kids that in the summer heat we run sprinklers, which are ALOT like water parks....so fun for cows too!

Kids enjoying snack time, cheese and crackers.

Dairy Princess Angie handing out stickers to the preschoolers-which say "I met a dairy farmer".-Those were awesome stickers!!!

Meeting Baby Joey. Those kids wanted to hug Joey so badly!

Talking about what we feed the cows to the little boys, so curious about the smells that they smelled.

Petting a cow for the first time. They weren't scared at all!

Snack time with cheese and crackers, and their new stickers.

Mmmmm...juice boxes :)

The best group picture we got at the farm!

Mainly, as you can see, 21 preschoolers and a baby calf are all hard to manage and get to stand still, oh well.

Bottle feeding calves with Dairy Princess Val. Kids LOVED this activity!

Bottle feeding with Dairy Princess Angie. Odessa enjoyed all of the extra attention.

HAY RIDE! The boys were huge fans of the hay ride, but we learned that only boys should drive not girls, like me ;)

Loading the hay ride to the calf barn.