If you grew up in the United States or especially went to public school here, you probably remember being served milk with every single meal. Why is that? Many people assume it's because milk has something essential, some kind of essential things that you couldn't get elsewhere. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that couldn't be further from the truth. What is cow's milk habit that soy or almond milk doesn't? Is it vitamins? Well, no. There's actually just as many vitamins and the very same vitamins in soy and almond milk that there is in cow's milk. But what about cow'sy-m? Everyone talks about drinking milk to get strong bones from the cow'sy-m. But in actuality, soy and almond milk pretty much any brand will have the same amount if not more cow'sy-m than cow's milk. So that's not the reason. Well, to be honest, there's nothing good that comes with cow's milk that you couldn't get elsewhere. In fact, cow's milk comes with a slew of really bad and negative things that you can avoid easily simply by choosing plant-based milk. The most obvious is cholesterol, which plays a role in blocking arteries, promoting heart disease, and triggering heart attacks. Nasty stuff, right? Well, cholesterol is actually only found in animal-based foods like milk and is never present in plant-based foods like almond milk or soy milk. But there's more. Did you know that many dairy cows have infected others, which produce somatic cells which end up in the milk? Well, the dairy industry calls them somatic cells. Regular people call it pus. So anytime you're drinking cow's milk, you're very likely also consuming millions of somatic cells or pus. Really gross, right? Alternately, when you drink soy or almond milk, you're consuming no somatic cells whatsoever. It's just one more way that when you choose plant-based foods over animal-based foods, you're avoiding a whole lot of nastiness. Also, did you know that many people have dairy intolerances and don't even realize it? Only way to know for sure whether you have dairy sensitivities is to cut the stuff out of your life completely for a few weeks. Many people find that when they cut out dairy, their chronic congestion or skin issues like acne or digestive troubles that they've struggled with for all their life clear up completely and spontaneously. So they had a sensitivity to dairy that they didn't even know about. So if you're struggling with any of those types of maladies, why not cut dairy out of your life for a little bit and see what happens? Finally, don't forget that cows are the number one producer of methane, which is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So when you opt for almond milk over cow's milk, you're making a much bigger impact on the earth than if you were to change your car for a bike. It's a big deal. In light of all these reasons and more, getting rid of dairy makes all the sense in the world. You don't give up any of the good stuff like vitamins and nutrients, but you get rid of tons of the bad stuff, like cruelty, cholesterol, somatic cells and methane. So leave the cow's milk for the baby cows for which it was made and go out there and milk yourself some almonds. This has been Michelle Cain for Vegan.com. Thank you guys so much for tuning in and I will see you tomorrow in the next daily video. Bye!