Milk (牛乳)

Milk is "gyuunuu" in Japanese.

I remember back in the day when "Got Milk?" was a big commercial theme, where famous celebrities wore "milk moustaches" to advocate for the drinking of milk. Where has that gone? Apparently, it hasn't gone anywhere, and I've just moved.....Got Milk? was a phenomenon in California for California consumers and didn't really spread to other states, but it was sure memorable for me.

Lately, however, milk consumption has gone down. A Wall St. Journal recently showed that dairy farms are literally pouring milk down the drain due to it clogging up inventory and lack of sales/ oversupply (American farms apparently ramped up production a few years ago to meet demand but now have overdone it). I don't really see people drinking milk in the morning, and definitely not for other meals.....people prefer coffee in the morning to wake them up, or only consume milk to add to their coffee. To me, there's something wrong with a country that consumes more beer (the poison, in my opinion, makes you feel worse about yourself later on, is bad for you health wise, and makes people make bad decisions, all for those few hours of drunken debauchery and to have a good story in the morning) than milk, a healthy option that helps kids grown and actually has nutritious value. I've been in plenty of situations where just drinking milk filled me with some energy. ( I get that some people are lactose intolerant or fear that milk will make one fat, as my girlfriend thinks, so I won't hammer the point, but drink milk, not beer!0

I've been in the habit of drinking a class of milk per day since before I can remember. Back elementary school, milk was for lunch......in addition to breakfast. My parents would buy a large gallon of milk for the whole family and I was the main consumer. Something about the cool refreshing feel of milk in the morning to break the long hours of no food or water, I can feel the milk going down through my system and settling in on the bottom of my stomach. Milk also goes well with a lot of breakfast foods (almost anything really, except my mom keeps telling me not to drink milk with bananas. What she doesn't know is I've been doing that for years). It's especially good with peanut butter, serving kind of like a fabric softener for your mouth in separating that sticky peanut butter. And in grade school, milk wasn't done after breakfast! The school cafeteria also served milk, and in some cases it came as the school lunch! My parents always speculate why I grew to be taller than both of them, wondering if it was a hereditary issue or some sort of American diet issue, I assert that it was a milk issue! My parents didn't get much milk in Communist-ruled China (where even meat was rationed out and was in low supply), I got milk in abundance (possibly genetically enhanced milk, with growth-hormone cows, I admit, so maybe I was using HGH!) and grew to be taller. Pretty simple.

Anyway, sorry for the random rant. Drink more milk! (not a milk spokesperson or working in the milk industry, just a milk enthusiast and nostalgic about the good ol' days of milk dominance) Look, milk still is put in the back of the grocery stores for a reason, people still feel it's an essential item that they'll go all the way to the back for so grocery stores put it there to make them look at other items around the store, so I guess it isn't dead, just diminished. Don't cry over spilt milk,ふくすいぼんにかえらず I guess.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan