Anne Mendelson on the Myth of Milk as Superfood

Anne Mendelson tells the story of milk from the Stone Age peoples who first domesticated cows, goats, and sheep to today’s troubled dairy industry, and how she came to question why cows’ milk in fluid form became an obligatory part of children’s diet and a crucial food for adults — eventually creating the basis of a gigantic drinking-milk industry.

Her provocative new book Spoiled: The Myth of Milk as Superfood argues that the towering nutritional reputation of drinking-milk (as opposed to fermented versions of milk like yogurt and cheese) stems from the work of early scientific authorities who, unaware of race-related differences in the ability to digest lactose, pronounced fresh milk superior to fermented alternatives. Mendelson shows that the consequences have been damaging for dairy farmers, consumers, and ecosystems, and calls for a more sustainable, healthful future in our relationship with milk and the animals that provide it.

Anne Mendelson is one of America’s most respected culinary historians, and a founding member of CHNY. Her previous books include the cookbook Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages (2008), Stand Facing the Stove (a biography of the authors of Joy of Cooking,1997), and Chow Chop Suey (a history of Chinese food in America, 2016). She has been the recipient of a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the 2007 Sophie Coe Prize awarded by the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery