Perhaps the pushback began in earnest in 2023, when model Hailey Bieber, who'd previously espoused a mostly plant-based diet, posed for her 50 million Instagram followers wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the dairy industry's campaign logo, 'Got Milk?'.
![[Hailey Bieber, who'd previously espoused a mostly plant-based diet, posed for her 50 million Instagram followers wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the dairy industry's campaign logo, 'Got Milk?' in 2023]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/15/16/94129395-14288129-image-m-38_1736960087844.jpg)
An improbable slew of young dairy-farming influencers were next, stalwartly defending the white stuff. And then, last week, the knockout blow. Not the University of Oxford research that found drinking one large glass of milk a day is linked to a 17 per cent reduced risk of bowel cancer. Or the other study that concluded those who drank plant-based milk were at a higher risk of both anxiety and depression compared with dairy drinkers.
![[Nicole Kidman downing a glass of milk after being presented with the award for Best Actress at the National Board of Review gala last week]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/15/16/94129353-14288129-image-a-39_1736960124729.jpg)
No, the cow's milk comeback was sealed when Nicole Kidman stood up to accept a Best Actress award for her film Babygirl in New York – and celebrated by downing a glass of milk on stage. In the movie, a young intern uses cow's milk to seduce Kidman's CEO character, raising the shocking prospect that milk is now sexy.
The scene, which has caused almost Saltburn levels of uproar, was based on an incident that happened to the film's director, Halina Reijn. She says she found it both 'courageous' and 'hot' when a young actor ordered a glass of milk for her at a bar. As for Kidman, she told an interviewer: 'I really like milk.'.
