Milk chocolate: a kiss of death!

How Many Cows Must Die To Feed Your Chocolate Addiction?

Last evening (Sunday, November 17, 2002), along with
millions of other Americans, I watched Christopher (from the
Sopranos) enter a drug treatment center designed to cure his
heroin addiction. Upon entry, his bags were searched by a
therapist, and two large handfuls of chocolate were
discovered.

Why do drug clinics ban the consumption of milk chocolate?
They know that America's most addictive opiate-laced food is
that sweet brown candy bar representing society's biggest
trick and treat.

This year, 415,000 cows will die as a consequence of their
role in producing the milk that becomes the major component
of milk chocolate. For them, the Hershey's Kiss is a kiss of
death.

Many people adjudge milk chocolate to be equal to or better
than sex. There is physiological rationale for such
cognitive reasoning. Naturally produced internal secretions
of steroid hormones regulate and define the human sexual
response. Exogenous hormones can produce feelings of
comfort, well-being, and euphoria. Milk chocolate is an
expedient source of morphine-like substances and steroid
hormones.

In the vegetarian movement, milk chocolate is what keeps
pretend-vegans from becoming true vegans. So-called
compassionate activists would sooner swallow live goldfish
and bite the heads off of chickens than give up their milk
chocolate habits.

The average American cow produces 18,000 pounds of milk per
year. A herd of 488,000 cows must be milked to obtain the
necessary ingredient for their milk chocolate cravings. Each
year, one of those cows gives birth to a calf. Half of the
calves are males, and are destined to die at the hands of a
butcher. Thirty-five percent of those milking cows are
"culled" out of the herd each year, sent to slaughterhouses.

Ergo, 171,000 cows plus 244,000 male calves equal 415,000
bovine deaths per year to support milk chocolate consumption
in America.

Four hundred and fifteen thousand cows will die this year
because you and most of your friends, neighbors, and
relatives love milk chocolate, and cannot stop swallowing
the substance representing America's foremost addiction.
Three billion pounds of milk chocolate are consumed each
year in America. Called a "comfort food," chocolate is
addictive due to the presence of concentrated naturally
occurring milk opiates known as casomorphins.

Since 90% of chocolate candy bars are composed of
concentrated milk and sugar, Mars, Hershey's, and Nestle's
bars can accurately be called brown cheese with sugar. Each
pound of milk chocolate requires nearly three pounds of
whole milk. Three billion pounds of milk chocolate requires
8.9 billion pounds of milk.

Although it took Milton Hershey two years to produce his
secret milk chocolate formula, we now know that Hershey's
milk chocolate contains 50% sugar, 40% milk solids, and 10%
cocoa solids. Milk chocolate manufacturers begin with whole
milk, but fat makes milk rancid, so that the milk is dried,
and milk solids are used in the secret formula. According to
USDA, it takes 7.4 pounds of whole milk to manufacture one
pound of dried whole milk powder. Accordingly, a giant ten
pound Hershey's Kiss (yes, they sell them) would contain 5
pounds of sugar, one pound of cocoa butter/liquor, and 4
pounds of milk powder. It would have taken about 29.6 pounds
of milk to produce that 10 pound Hershey's Kiss.

Chocolate is made from cacao beans which grow within pods.
Beans are fermented, dried, then roasted, much like coffee
beans. They are then squeezed to produce chocolate liquor.
The addition of sugar and milk produces milk chocolate.

Chocolate consumption has been linked to hundreds of subtle
and not-so-subtle human conditions from headaches and
indigestion to heart disease and death.

The next time you are faced with that all-so powerful milk
chocolate urge, take responsibility for your actions. One
bite of a milk chocolate candy bar constitiutes abuse to two
very wonderful creatures, the cow and the human consumer.

Do you know of a friend or family member with one or more of these milk-related problems? Do them a huge favor and forward the URL or this entire file to them.