This is part 2 in my ongoing series on big milk. Read the first part to get up to speed.
Kalle is... was, a copper miner in Falun, Sweden. For most of his adulthood his hands had grasped a pickaxe.
After the rebellion started, he now found himself pointing a halberd at the frontlines against an approaching mob of Danes.
Beside him stood rows of levies similarly armed with polearms and little in the way of armor.
To calm his nerves Kalle averted his gaze from the approaching army and turned to look at the backlines of his own.
Behind the mass of levies stood officers clad in shiny plate armor.
Nobles.
Consuming dairy products is still part of the latest nutrition guidelines here in Finland.
The chairman of those responsible for the recommendations has gone on record to say that the consumption of dairy should be reduced, but that the dairy recommendation was kept
because a significant portion of the population still relies on them for their daily nutritional needs.
She further highlights that milk is an important source of calsium, B12-vitamin, riboflavin (vitamin B2), iodine and vitamin-D.
Now, the recommendations do also allow fortified vegan alternatives. Most brands of oat- and soy milk are fortified with the same micronutrients that are present in regular dairy.
All of the vitamins and minerals listed above are widely available from non-dairy sources as well. The only exception to this is calcium.
Hail Calcium
Calcium is most often associated with bone health and its a key selling point for the dairy industry, like what potassium is to the banana republics (I'm only half kidding).
Milk is pretty much the only major source of calcium that most people can stomach, with the alternatives being fish bones and eggshells.
To get your modern RDI of calcium from non-fortified sources
is an uphill battle unless you enjoy munching on half a kilo of kale every morning.
So this begs the question: how did people get their calcium before
we knew to grab cattle by the teat? What about the other sixty percent of the population that is lactose intolerant?
Sorry in advance for this appeal to nature, but why do you think calcium is only found in high concentrations (aside from literal bone) in milk and eggshells?
Lactation occurs in mammals after childbirth and continues until the child can start eating solids. The calcium in an eggshell is consumed by the embryo before hatching.
What we can gather from this is that young, rapidly growing animals likely require high concentrations of calcium. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not growing any new bones at the moment.
This calcium craze is not global either. People in China consume an average of less than 400mg of calcium a day. Despite this, hip fracture rates (a common symptom of osteoporosis) are much lower in China
than the teat-suckling west. Genetic and geographical variables of course apply, but the basis for these ultra high recommendations for daily calcium rest on limited evidence on both the statistical and empirical front.
Once more: over sixty percent of the population is lactose intolerant! Most adults lose the enzymes necessary to digest lactose after weaning!
Fortify or crumble
Earlier I mentioned that most vegan milk substitutes are fortified. That's true, but with one notable exception: organic (luomu) products.
In a brilliant move of 5D chess the EU has decided that no product labeled as organic may be artificially fortified with these vital
micronutrients. But wait: how come some organic milk still has vitamin-D in it?
Milk has a naturally low concentration of vitamin-D and is typically fortified.
In another brilliant move of corruption the Finnish government has decided that organic skim-milk is the sole exception to this rule.
Organic milk substitutes are not exempt. If you want to label your oat- or soy milk as organic, you can't fortify it.
Valio Oddlygood's soy milk
uses organic soy beans and is unfortified, which goes against the nutrition recommendations set by the government.
Kalle's world was pain and blood and shit and mud. He was entirely unaware of what direction the battle was heading in. He had sustained minor injuries, but for every stab and scratch he had reaped a Danish soul as recompense.
At some point he fell over and found himself pushing off a dead corpse that had landed on top of him. Could have been friend or foe—levies like them weren't afforded uniforms.
Once he rose he found that the enemy in front had disappeared, fleeing. "Give no quarter!" rang a distant echo and the next moment he was thrust down once more. Hooves flew across his eyes against the grey sky. The officers clad in plate armor, mounted atop their
mighty mares gave chase to the fleeing enemy. Their lances skewered through the unarmored levies, collecting them like wooden pearls on a silver chain.
After the skirmish Kalle would follow the rebels across Sweden and would later succumb to a stray bullet fired from an Arquebus. After the fall of the Kalmar union, his son would continue his legacy as a miner back in Falun, now under Swedish rule.
Many of the officers would be rewarded with positions in the newly-established Swedish government as reward for their bravery.
Think I was dramatic enough guys? Which tragedy should I use as a metaphor next time I talk about milk?
