Milk is lovely. Yummy yummy milk. Creamy and white, nutritious and delicious. Plop into your tea, slosh it over your cereal, wash cookies down with it. It’s wholesome and white and it’s good for you. It makes your bones strong and probably has other medicinal qualities we don't even know about because it's WHITE and PURE and WHOLESOME. How can something with so many postive associations be anything less that ambrosia itself?

There are, however, people who think that drinking cows milk is a bad idea... Apparently drinking milk is 'cruel' to 'animals' and detrimental to your 'health'. Sucking milk intensively out of emaciated, genetically manipulated, miserable, shit-covered bovines and then gulping down the liquid they produce (a powerful elixir of fat and hormones intended to help baby cows pile on pound after pound every day) is suddenly wrong? Political correctness gone mad, that's what it is!

I cornered Justine from the Vegetarians International Voice for Animals (Viva) and forced her to justify some of these wild accusations levelled at our old friend milk.

Humans have been drinking milk for centuries! The relationship between dairy cows and people is ancient and symbiotic. How can something so natural be wrong?

Humans have only been drinking milk for 6,000 years; in evolutionary terms that is not very long at all. A symbiotic relationship means both sides benefit. The modern dairy cow is exploited to the limit and gains nothing for it in her short miserable life. Over 75 percent of the world’s population don’t drink milk. They couldn’t even if they wanted to as they are lactose intolerant and can’t digest the sugar in milk. So not drinking milk is the normal state for most people. Drinking milk beyond weaning, and taking it from another species is neither normal nor natural. No other animal does this.

Newborn dairy calves are taken from thier mothers and placed alone in stalls without excerise or natural interaction.

Milk’s good for you isn’t it?

Cow’s milk contains saturated animal fat, animal protein, hormones and growth factors all linked to illness and disease. The Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (VVF) have produced a review of the scientific evidence showing what the detrimental health effects of cow’s milk are. Our White Lies campaign describes the evidence linking a diverse range of health problems and diseases to dairy, including some of the UK’s biggest killers such as heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer and prostate cancer as well as osteoporosis, eczema, asthma, Crohn’s disease, colic, constipation and even teenage acne. You can read more here.

We’ve always milked cows. That’s what we breed them for! How cruel can it really be?

In the last few decades modern dairy farming methods have intensified greatly. The life of a dairy cow is dismal in the extreme. They are kept indoors for a substantial period of time (zero grazing they call this). They are artificially inseminated, go through nine months pregnancy then give birth. Their offspring is taken from them after a few days. If she is female she may be kept to replace her mother. If male he will be either shot of exported for veal. The dairy cow is then milked so humans can take her milk. She will be inseminated again and milked while pregnant for seven of the nine month pregnancy. This represents a tremendous physical strain, which may be why one in three dairy cows has mastitis (an infection of the udders).

Intensively milked dairy cows often cannot eat enough to support themselves and their milk production and appear emaciated as a result.

How can I possibly get through a day without dairy? Aren’t all the alternatives disgusting?

There are many fantastic, healthy alternatives. The VVF have produced a brilliant shopping guide offering advice for new vegans and plenty of information on why dairy damages health. This guide gives details of the many dairy-free alternatives available – soya, oat and rice milks, shakes, probiotics and yogurts, margarines and cheeses, desserts, custard and ice cream and not forgetting chocolate. You won’t miss out on nutrients or taste! (This is a guide on going dairy free and vegan foods. It's also got some helpful tips on the many ways that dairy can kill you.)

Don’t they cut down the rainforest to grow soya plants for soy milk?

Some people attempt to condemn soya by citing the environmental impact soya farming is having on the Amazonian rain forest. They are quite right to be concerned, but people eating soya is not the problem; 80 percent of the world's soya production is fed to livestock so that people can eat meat and dairy foods.

The visible bones of a high-yield milking herd.

What about organic milk? Isn’t that better for the cows and the people?

The conditions may be slightly better, but even that has been questioned. Organic milk still contains saturated animal fat, animal protein, hormones and growth factors linked to disease. Organically farmed dairy cows must still give birth and have their offspring taken from them if humans are to take the milk. If you care about animals or your health, going dairy-free is the only option.

For more information on VIVA you can see the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation's White Lies report available from here