Is milk the drink of champions? Metro readers share their thoughts

In MetroTalk: Plant-based diets are rising in popularity in the sporting industry.

Share your thoughts on these topics and more in the comments.

Lets take note from plant-based athletes

Former Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu is working with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board to promote a link between dairy, red meat and sporting excellence (Metro, Thu).

It is completely unnecessary to eat
and drink animal protein to achieve sporting excellence. There is nothing in meat or dairy that cannot be obtained from a plant-based diet. The human body absorbs far more calcium from broccoli than from milk.

Research ties red meat to increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes and diabetes.

Beans, peas, lentils, nuts and tofu are good sources of plant protein.

Plant-based diets are rising in popularity in the sporting industry.

To name but a few: motor-racing
champ Lewis Hamilton, ultra-runner
Scott Jurek, surfer Tia Blanco, former speed cyclist Dotsie Bausch and tennis champ Novak Djokovic. Mary Horsfield, Enfield

What’s clean and simple about cow’s milk?

There’s nothing ‘clean and simple’ – to use Ohuruogu’s words – about drinking cows’ breast milk. How can stealing the milk that’s designed to nourish a baby calf be either right or healthy?

There are numerous sources of calcium from non-animal foods. Dairy and red meat have been proven to not only be risky for health, but they exploit animals.

It seems the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is getting anxious and desperate for sales.

There are hordes of vegan and plant-based athletes who prove animal products are not necessary for health and strength. Liz Willis, Leatherhead

Rather than paint Ohuruogu in gold, as they have done for this campaign, she should have been painted red to highlight the significant link between the production of dairy, red meat and climate change. Pam, via email

Rishi’s lucky call

I thought the timing of the general election was odd, but seeing the initial findings of the Covid inquiry (Metro, Fri), it seems clear Rishi Sunak would have suffered a total wipeout if the public knew the sheer scale of the negligence and incompetence of those supposedly leading the country. Neil Dance, Birmingham

Would you prefer a car-free London?

Hats off to Antony Porter (MetroTalk, Thu) for not having a car. Cars kill and maim thousands in the UK every year. Worldwide, it’s hundreds of thousands.

He might like to know of the Dutch city of Groningen, which has made its centre car-free. People walk and cycle. How about it for London, mayor Khan? Ros Kane, Leytonstone

Antony says ‘we shall soon have cities, towns and motorways gradually seizing up with vehicles’. I agree.

While visiting Worthing on the coast a week ago, I noticed the air quality was far better than on most days in London. It was literally ‘a breath of fresh air’. The sooner we get rid of polluting vehicles from the streets of our towns and cities, the better. Scott, West London

I agree with Bob Readman (MetroTalk, Thu) about how bumpy bus rides are. I always read a novel on my bus but for the first part of the journey it’s impossible because I’m jumping about like a toad on 
a trampoline. Steve Mitchell, London

New builds are being built to be rented out

In talking about the loss of wildlife and farmland for food, Ronald Utting (MetroTalk, Thu) beautifully sums up the cost of building on the green belt.

His letter, though, raises an obvious question. He mentions new houses in Cirencester costing between £550,000 and £900,000? Who can afford that?

These prices are typical of new-builds and it’s clear they’re being built as investments to be rented out.

Builders have played Sir Keir Starmer and his chancellor Rachel Reeves like a fine violin and been given the opportunity to build yet more estates of expensive houses on greenfield sites to enhance the investment portfolios of the wealthy.

What is needed is housing that is cheap to build, not affordable housing that is often uneconomic for the builders and therefore never gets built.

If that means prefabrication and a ruthless focus on costs, so be it. Look at how some hotels and cruise ships have built accommodation cheaply. Think, for example, about a standard premoulded bathroom that can be slotted into a standard prefabricated building. John Daniels, Redhill

We need to stop thinking of property as investment and start thinking of it primarily as somewhere to live. The entire housing and mortgage industry needs complete and urgent reform. David Roker, London

It was a horrific injustice dished out to Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison after wrongly being convicted of rape.

He was jailed for an attack on a mother-of-two in Salford in 2003 but had his conviction quashed last July after DNA evidence implicated another man.

And now a report has found the Criminal Cases Review Commission twice refused him a chance to appeal by and that there were ‘serious’ failings and missed chances to quash his conviction (Metro, Fri).

Whenever a miscarriage of justice occurs, people are always at pains to 
point out that other innocent people are languishing in prison cells.

Get the cases properly investigated and get the innocent people out. Andrew Shaw, Edinburgh