# 102 How Do We Survive
It is all very well for us to try to improve our health, our
standard of living and our relation with nature, but I am beginning to
think we are overdoing it a little.
In the mail they have sent me three liters of products that
substitute milk; a Norwegian company would like to know if I am
interested in investing in the production of this new type of food,
since, according to specialist David Rietz, “ALL (his capitals) cow
milk contains 59 active hormones, lots of fat, colesterol,dioxins,
bacterias and viruses”.
I think of the calcium that when I was a child my mother told me
was good for the bones, but the specialist already has an answer for
me: “Calcium? How do cows manage to acquire enough calcium for their
large bone structure? From plants!” Of course, the new product is made
on the basis of plants, and milk is condemned based on an endless
number of studies carried out in a variety of institutes all over the
world.
How about proteins? David Rietz is implacable: “I know they call
milk ‘liquid meat’ (I have never heard this _expression, but he must
know what he is talking about) on account of the high dose of protein
it contains. But proteins prevent calcium being absorbed by the
organism. Countries that have a protein-rich diet also have a high rate
of osteoporosis (lack of calcium in the bones).”
In the afternoon my wife sends me a text she found on the Internet:
“People who are now between 40 and 60 years old used to go about
in cars that did not have safety belts, head rests or airbags. Children
were left loose in the back seat, having a good time jumping around.
Cradles were painted in bright colors that are now considered “dubious”
because they could contain lead or some other dangerous element.”
I, for example, am part of a generation that built the famous
ball-bearing carts (I do not know how to explain this to today’s
generation – let’s say they were metal balls held between two iron
arcs) and we would roll down the hilly streets of Botafogo using our
shoes as brakes, falling, hurting ourselves, but ever so proud of our
high-speed adventure.
The text goes on:
“There were no cellular phones, our parents had no way of knowing
where we were: how could that be possible? Children were never right,
they were always being punished, but even so they did not have
psychological problems of rejection or lack of love. At school there
were good students and bad students: the good ones passed, the bad ones
had to repeat the year. This was not a reason for consulting a
psychotherapist – they just had to repeat the year.”
And even so we survived with some scratched knees and few traumas.
Not only did we survive, but we also fondly remember the time when milk
was not poison, when children had to solve their problems without any
help, fought when they had to, and spent a great part of the day
without electronic games, inventing their own games with their friends.
But let us go back to the topic of the column: I decided to try
the new miraculous product that substitutes the killer milk. I did not
get past the first sip. I asked my wife and our maid to try it, without
explaining what it was: they both said they had never tasted anything
as foul in their life.
I am worried about the children of tomorrow, with their electronic
games, parents with mobile phones, psychotherapists helping at each
defeat and – above all – having to drink this “magic potion” that will
keep them free of cholesterol, osteoporosis, 59 active hormones, and
toxins.
The will live with lots of health, lots of equilibrium, and when
they grow up they will discover milk (by that time, perhaps it will be
banned by law). Maybe in the year 2050 a scientist will endeavor to
rescue something that has been consumed since time began.
Or will we have to get our milk from drug dealers?
New book
“The Zahir” is being published all over the world this year. Click here for more information.
