Monday, September 29, 2008

PETA has a new billboard linking Milk & Autism


This is infuriating to me on so many levels. Ok, I have issues w/ PETA anyway because I think a large portion of their marketing is fear mongering and it wouldn't surprise me if much of it is untrue.

Their marketing pamphlet mail-outs are disturbing (which is their goal, obviously) but that only made me toss them in the trash. They also like to picket the KFC by my house. And I've only ever seen 3 or 4 picketers there. I guess they forgot that people in Texas like their meat.

This 'Autism/Milk = Bad' campaign really chaps my hide.

First, my son has Asperger's Syndrome, an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC). He's a great kid and the Asperger's is not BAD or horrible nor will it kill him. It's challenging, I assure you. But we do survive and get by in life.

Second, my kid didn't get autism from drinking milk because my kids aren't that interested in ingesting dairy products anyway, unless it's chocolate milk. And that's a rare treat -- a few times a year. I don't think humans are designed to drink the milk of another species, most especially into adulthood, but I'm not going to vilify you because you like ice cream or yogurt or use real butter or even have milk w/ your cereal. You're an adult. You can make your own choices.

Third, ASC's are from before you're even born, people. You don't "catch" autism and you can't be "cured" of it. Are there therapies to help someone on the spectrum? Sure! GFCF comes to mind, as does heavy metal chelation. Do I advocate for that? Absolutely. You must do what works for your family. But you can't make autism happen from drinking milk.

Want some links to this?
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4

So there's my rant.

1 comment:

Eliana said...

PETA pulled this billboard, thank goodness. I have seen studies that link allergies to cow's milk to autism, and I have seen others that say there is no link. If milk is all your kid will drink, well, it beats no fluids at all!

And yes, we are GFCF, but DS never wanted milk in general and chose this diet more than we did. We actually had trouble figuring out what diet he wanted to be on!