Milk - The Truth, the Lies and the Unbelievable Story of the Original Superfood

But it's much more than an eye-catcher. It's a revelation to many and rational facts to an educated audience. Today is the day Evans' book is released, and for almost all people who live on the land, it's a matter of common sense.

Mr Evans' dedication to this book, which took him two years to write, is evident on every page. It's a fresh look at why milk is revered and reviled in different quarters.

"There's a lot of angst about milk and dairy," he said. "Whether it's milk versus plant substitutes and the milking of animals."

Milk is one of nature's superfoods, and when opening the book in the earliest pages, Mr Evans provides a description that builds anticipation. "Thick, rich, custard-textured raw cream. That's what I'm scooping out with my ladle. The milk churn sits on the bench. It holds 10 litres (or two gallons) of luscious, golden-tinged milk". It's a description that will make you eager to delve deeper into the book.

A foodie of national renown with his other books and television series, the question to Mr Evans was there anything new in his research that provided surprises.

"One of the most interesting things was the increased number of hospital admissions in the United Kingdom due to vitamin deficiencies. Over a 10-year period, this number has tripled. It's due mostly because of the increasing consumption of plant milk," he said.

Statistics in the production of plant-based kinds of milk are also an alarming highlight in the book.

Mr Evans says for every litre of oat milk you drink, there's about 200g of oat residue - oats that still have much of their fibre and some protein in them.

"That's an awful lot of oat pulp kicking around. Numbers for global oat milk production are tricky to find, as most companies keep them close to their chests, but it's been estimated that it could be as high as 2 billion litres," he said.

"That would mean there's about 400 million tonnes of oat pulp to deal with every year. The Sweden-based firm Oatly knows waste oats are a problem.

"They also know their big vegan audience became very upset when they found out where all that waste was going - namely, into pigs. But at least they're very open about how they're trying to deal with oat waste.

The chapter in which he reveals the information about oat milk is ironically titled: Love Oatmilk? Good. Someone Better Love Bacon.

He says some readers may be surprised to learn that Oatly's major shareholder is a Chinese state government company that made its name in coal mining.

"This is perhaps ironic when they lecture people about global warming," he said.

It's a similar tale with soy milk. The by-product of soybeans used in milk production is okara.

Mr Evans says it contains little digestible sugar and is mostly fibre cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, which are almost indigestible. Like oat milk, 20 per cent of the residue from every litre of soy milk is wasted.

"In China, they are left with 2.8 million tonnes of okara a year. And that's only a fraction of the world's output, a staggering 1.4 billion tonnes per year."

He worries about the future of Australia's home-grown dairy industry. Supermarkets cost-cutting milk as a loss leader is just one concern he harbours.

"We may get to the point where Australia cannot produce the fresh dairy we need," he said.

Mr Evans concedes the dairy industry does have an impact, but he says it varies hugely from place to place and from farm to farm.

He also writes that oat crops are desiccated with glyphosate just before the header enters the paddock. Not so much in Australia, as the hot weather does nature's job rather than the European adoption.

Mr Evans says alternatives to dairy could well prove to be a bad idea.

"Certainly, if it's replaced by ultra-processed foods grown in monocultures that require laboratories and factories in an effort to mimic natural nutrition, then it could be a really dumb idea," he said.

"You can make your own mind up about what you want to eat - just base it on sound facts or admit you just feel better one way or the other and don't care about the numbers. Or only care about the cows. It makes no difference to me if you drink milk or eat dairy or not.

"If you're old enough to read this, then you're adult enough to make your own food choices, and some people will have a belief system that an old white bloke like me is unlikely to change anytime soon.

"But take it from someone who grows fruit, vegetables and nuts, as well as milks a cow - and has read everything they could muster on the issue - that dairy animals aren't the worst thing that can happen to the land..."

Milk: The Truth, The Lies, And The Unbelievable Story of The Original Superfood by Matthew Evans. Murdoch Books.