Since the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Milk Life, a campaign
funded by America’s largest dairy companies, has tried to sell the idea that
dairy is healthy by sponsoring Olympic athletes. But this year, a group
of Olympians are fighting back.
In a PSA that aired in major U.S. cities just before the
closing ceremony in Pyeongchang, five vegan Olympians share their stories about
the many benefits of a plant-based diet.
Dotsie Bausch, a silver-medal-winning cyclist, is spearheading
the Switch4Good campaign. Earlier this
year, Bausch
created a 10-day challenge called the Plant Milk Challenge to help people ditch
dairy.
In an interview
with Adweek, she said:
I switched to a whole foods, plant-based diet about two and a half years before the 2012 Olympic games. I stood on the podium at 39 years old, the oldest competitor ever in my specific discipline. My diet change was the key factor in me being able to recover quicker, decrease inflammation and have all the stamina and energy I needed to compete against competitors 20 years my junior.
In addition to Bausch, the ad features Seba Johnson, the
first Black female skier in the Olympics; Kendrick Farris, the only U.S. male
weightlifter to qualify for the Rio Games; Kara Lang, a forward on the 2008
U.S. women’s Olympic soccer team; and Malachi Davis, a sprinter who competed in
the 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
The dairy industry spends millions on ads during the Olympics
to convince consumers that milk is healthy, but this claim is just not true. In
fact, dairy consumption has been linked to increased cancer risk.
According to a 2006 Harvard study, women with diets high in meat and dairy raise their risk of cancer by 33 percent.
Dairy consumption has also been linked to prostate cancer in more than 20
studies.
What’s more, women who consume dairy products, such as
yogurt, ice cream, and cheese, increase their risk of mortality from breast cancer by 50
percent, according to an extensive 2013 study.
But dairy isn’t just awful for your health. It’s also
unspeakably cruel.
At dairy factory farms, cows are treated as mere
milk-producing machines. They are forcibly impregnated and kept in terrible conditions. Shortly after they are
born, calves are torn from their mothers. Male calves are killed for veal.
Females are forced into the dairy herd, trapped in a cycle of abuse for years until
they are considered
“spent and sent to slaughter.
Disturbing, right? Just watch this undercover video from a
Mercy For Animals investigation.
This blatant cruelty is precisely why the Switch4Good campaign is so important.
If you’re still drinking cow’s milk, then it’s time you
joined the millions who are boycotting this terrible industry by ditching dairy
and other animal products. Click here to
learn more about the campaign.
And for foolproof tips on how to ditch dairy, click here.