Milk: The Truth, the Lies and the Unbelievable Story of the Original Superfood

by Matthew Evans

A powerful, entertaining and, at times, eviscerating commentary on the most controversial of original superfoods.Milk. It's in our coffee, on our cereal. We see it in processed form – yoghurt, butter, cheese, skimmed and lactose free. It's there in almond form, or made from oats or soy, and is as lauded as the 'perfect' food or lambasted as not fit for human consumption and a toxic planet killer, depending on who you trust. Which type you drink, whether you were raised on breastmilk, what you think of it, is affected by culture, biology and fashion. How you view it is driven by your gender and your politics, as well as your geography.The miracle liquid has suffered an image problem. It has been used to keep people poor, to keep women subjugated, and to build corporate and medical careers. It's been blamed for climate change, the breakdown of human health, and an enabler of the industrial revolution. From perfect food to pariah, milk's role in life has often been debased.Milk celebrates the majesty of this noble liquid, and delves into the pretenders to its throne, from formula to Mylk. It looks at the transformation of what a milk-producer eats into one of the most nutrient dense foods available, and how that can be transformed again into the butter, cheese and clotted cream that we know and love today. It's an exploration of the science, history and politics of what makes mammals different from every other life form on earth.

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Food

280 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2024

Reviews

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins]

Milk is a little uneven – some of the science can be skimmed, and I would’ve liked to see more on the politics and economics, but that’s just my personal preference. It’s an interesting read, full of ‘fun facts’ you’ll likely be sharing with your loved ones for days.

My full review of Milk is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Claire]

I love a deep dive book like this usually, and this book is an interesting exploration of milk as a human food source. I was hoping it might reach the soaring heights of The Secret Life of Groceries but it was not to be. Fair warning going in this book is heavily biased towards dairy (and this is acknowledged repeatedly by the author to his credit), and is also fairly zealous in its promotion of breastmilk over its alternatives. At a more sensitive moment in my parenting life I’d have found that quite overwhelming. As a drinker of plant milk, I found some of the discussion of the production and nutritional makeup of these alternatives interesting, but wasn’t convinced the author had a deep or broad understanding of the varied reasons some people might preference such options. An interesting read but one to be mindful when picking up.

[Dale B]

made me want to drink a big glass of full cream milk

[Lachlan Douglas]

Lactose tolerant people will love this one

[Alice]

A deep dive into its namesake, this book covers all things milk; from who creates it and why to who consumes it and why, and all the many, muddy, murky bits in between.
In an industry fraught with political, social, environmental, racial, gender-based and cultural misnomers Evans successfully analyses matters of health, sustainability, animal welfare & ethics, productivity & profitability, and attempts to answer the age old question: what is milk?
Whilst that is still something for humanity to clearly define, he triumphantly dissects the world of this uniquely mammalian nectar and also the new generation “milks”.
He is transparent in his bias as being pro-cow’s milk; yet it did not detract from or sway the journey I undertook as a reader to find my own niche within the dairy/no dairy space.
Fans of his previous works will devour this as I did. His honest, educated, no frills approach to matters that concern all of us continues. 5 stars.

[KJ]

If you like oat milk you better enjoy bacon. Priceless!

[Simon Carey]

Some interesting stuff but mostly just an incredible amount of information about every type of milk

[Nelson]

mmmmmmilk

[Hưng Trần]

Dude did sufficient reading materials for this book, collected good information, is very biased which is okay because I am of the same opinion. However, he isn’t an expert so most things he say are not his, kinda make the book much less convincing. Also, the key benefits of milk in term of economics were glossed over to emphasize his love for raw or minimally processed milk, which I agree is the best, but made him sound like a raging racist (he only talk about farmers living in western societies producing his treasured raw or minimally processed milk, discarding most of the reasons why there exist factory farms and UHT processing, the author was really sounding like a racist towards the last few chapters)

[Dave Guia]

I will never have a plant "milk" ever again.

[Krystelle (based on the novel by Stephen King)]

This was a surprisingly interesting and absolutely sits in the bucket of 'definitive' in terms of an incredibly specific book on an incredibly specific topic. 'Milk' is a magnum opus on just that...milk. It goes through the historical and scientific background of the topic, covering the eponymous milk as well as cream, butter, cheese, and everything in between.

The writing is not perfect, but it's definitely interesting - Evans covers all the avenues with a charming personal tone attached to the facts in this book. There's a lot of information in here and it can be hard to take in, but the book barely feels like it is the length that it is, as it has such a good flow. There's also quite a bit in here that makes me second guess some of my long-held beliefs on the ecological impact of some plant milks and veganism.

I admire Evans's dedication to the topic of all things milk, and I really do recommend this one as a read. It shines a light on something that comes into all of our lives that we barely think of, and it's thoroughly enjoyable.

[Phoebe]

An exploration of human and animal milk and its various benefits and how attitudes towards milk have changed over time. It was generally quite informative, particularly during the initial chapters which explored breastfeeding and the incredible properties of breast milk.

From the middle section onwards, the chapters felt more disjointed and less structured as it switched towards how societal attitudes towards milk changed and the rise of alternative milks. Almost every chapter started with a 'fun' fact about milk from different animal species which didn't seem to relate to the main issue in the chapter.

The last section of the book briefly touched on the environmental issues related to milk, although it felt like some legitimate criticisms of the dairy industry felt glossed over in favour of pointing out the shortcomings of alternative milk industries.

Overall an entertaining read which brings up some pros and cons of milk and the dairy industry, but I was hoping for a deeper dive into the societal attitudes and implications.

[Rosemary]

Accessible but not patronising, this book told me a lot of things I didn't know and gave corroborating data for things I knew intuitively, like the high water usage for producing milk in Australia mostly coming from "green water" (rain) and only a small proportion from "blue water" (irrigation water). Only about 4% of Australia is arable, so it's lucky we can feed cows on marginal land (that can produce grass but not crops).

Compare this with California dairy's 1.8 times the water usage as for producing almonds, along with some other big issues with indoor dairy, and you can see that convincing vegans that dairy isn't destroying the planet will be a bit of a hard sell. (See p.150).

I'm glad to see saturated fat as a cause of heart disease can now be briefly dismissed as dated, where not so many years ago it would have needed a treatise.

Eye opening stuff, meticulously backed up with footnotes and an excellent index.

[Amanda]

I received an advance review copy of this and was instantly engaged by Evan's warm and accessible prose, and some really startling facts (who even knew that stuff about Tasmanian Devils?!).
With really thorough research, the work goes on to examine milk in all of its facets, exposing what a truly remarkable food it is. Once you've spent some time with this book, you will never look at milk substitutes in the same way again.
This is a must-read for anyone with interest in nutrition, food and feeding. A fascinating read.

[Chris Nicholas]

A well written, easy to digest deep dive into the history and science of milk.
Evans breaks down a lot of the stigmas around milk, and while his analysis and comparison to plant based products is by his own admission slightly bias at times, his arguments toward the benefits of milk are intriguing and enlightening.
As someone who struck milk from their diet a few years ago due to some misconceptions around “health” and being environmentally friendly; this book has me rethinking my decisions.

[Alison]

I am really glad that I read this book, wasn't sure if it would be any good, but this guy has done some research and writes in a way that isn't too dreary or boring. If you really want to know about milk, everything from the cow, the environmental issues, health issues, humans and other animals, and all the way to the bottle, then this is the book for you. Loads of research, loads of interesting facts, and a good read. Suitable for teens and adults.

[Mansoor]

"Milk isn’t just nutrients. It’s nourishment. When we’re infants it has all the things, thousands of chemical components, that are doing us good. Milk provides two-way communication between our bodies and our mums. It inoculates us, protects us, nurtures us, alters the expression of our genes, and connects us to our environment."

[Preet Singh]

Regardless of where you sit on the ‘milk or dairy’ vs ‘vegan’ debate, this book is worth a read.

Matthew Evans has done a superb job at breaking things down and really giving me (and I’m sure to many others) an easy to consume deep dive into ‘milk’.

Would recommend this book to everyone.

[Matija Ziberna]

The milk lexicon.

[Louise]

A fascinating five star read about milk that I didn't know I needed.

I did Accidentally Stall on it for a while there, but I'm very glad to finish it.

[Royce]

Intriguing, informative and well written.

[Clare Staines]

Fascinating book about all things milk. Confirmed my desire to seek out less processed food and made me happy that the dairy foods I love are so beneficial.

[Karen]

Absolutely fascinating.

[Jed Macdonald]

An interesting, well-researched guide into the world of one of my favourite liquids.

[William McEniery]

Absolutely fantastic book. Very well researched and extremely interesting. Each page seems to have something new to learn about milk.

[Anna]

So much interesting information packed into a book in an easy-to-read and accessible way. Great read, highly recommend!