What’s The Big Deal With Dairy These Days? Doesn’t Milk Do A Body Good?

First lets start by looking at what is really going on in modern day cow dairies.  The modern cow is a freak of nature selectively bred to produce abnormal active pituitary glands by high-protein feeding.  This is a serious problem to be feeding cows high-protein soybean meal.   Soy is one the most genetically modified crops in the U.S.  Cows are supposed to eat green plants and grasses.  Feeding the cows this unnatural diet increases their milk supply but leads to high rates of mastitis (breast infections) that need to be treated with antibiotics.  Other problems these cows face are sterility, liver problems, and shortened lives.  All of this results in a very low quality milk deficient of CLA a cancer fighting compound and a full supply of vitamins and minerals. Source: Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon

                                                                   According to Dr. Mercola (www.mercola.com) a single glass of milk can contain up to as many as 20 painkillers, antibiotics, and growth hormones.

Next you take this low quality milk and then pasteurize it heating it to a temperature of 165ºF to supposedly kill any harmful bacteria further degrading it. Pasteurization was originally used to protect us from infectious disease and extend shelf life.  But recent studies have found raw unpasteurized milk to be quite safe if from a small clean trusted dairy.

The problem with pasteurized milk is it’s a dead food.

Pasteurizing or heating milk to extreme temps kills all the good benefits, and here is how…

• Alters amino acids in the milk making the proteins in milk less available
• Destructs vitamins such as vitamin C and other water-soluble vitamins.  The loss can exceed 50%.
• Reduces the availability of milks mineral compounds
• Destroys all enzymes in milk.
• Pasteurized milk puts a strain on the body’s digestive system preventing the absorption of vital nutrients
• Can lead to allergies, chronic fatigue, and many degenerative diseases.

What about skim milk?  “Americans began abandoning whole milk due to its high saturated fat content and this pattern has continued for decades despite the average American getting fatter and fatter and the cases of heart disease showing no signs of abating.  Never mind that atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) was virtually unknown prior to the mid 1920′s when Americans drowned everything in cream and butter.”-www.thehealthyhomeconomist.com

 How does drinking skim milk make kids (and adults) fatter? This happens when you reduce the saturated fat in a person’s diet and he/she turns to carbs (grains and sugars) to fill in the gap. It is the grains and sugars that truly make you fat, not saturated fat. 

 Raw milk on the other hand is simply milk that is whole and unprocessed.   That’s it! 

Raw milk has been proven safe in government data researched by Dr. Ted Beals, MD.  The key is to find small grass-based trusted dairies that provide raw whole milk.  According to the research you are about 35% more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk.

Source: http://www.realmilk.com/safety/those-pathogens-what-you-should/know        http://www.westonaprice.org/press/government-data-proves-raw-milk-safe

Dr. Mercola.com states “ the FDA would have you believe pasteurization of milk protects you from deadly pathogens contained in raw milk. The fact is however, that if cows are raised as nature intended (free-range and grass-fed), there is no need to process the milk these healthy animals produce.  The problem is cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are NOT raised in a manner that makes their milk suitable for drinking raw. ” And this milk from CAFO’s is what you will find in the gallons lining the grocery shelves.

Raw milk benefits include these nutrients that remain 100% intact …

• Healthy beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus
• Vitamins
• Enzymes which aid in the absorption of calcium in your bones, and lipase enzyme, which helps to hydrolyze and absorb fats
• Natural butterfat that helps effectively utilize the vitamins and minerals in the milk.  (Hence, the problem with skim milk)
• Cancer –fighting CLA conjugated linoleic acid
• High omega-3 and low omega-6 ratios which is the preferred ratio

Other problems that arise with milk whether raw or pasteurized are that many people have a low tolerance to it because of a lack of intestinal lactase, an enzyme that digests lactose or milk sugar.  It is estimated that up to 70% of adults worldwide have lost the ability to process lactose since childhood. Source: Paleo Fitness, Darryl Edwards

Some people are allergic to casein, a milk protein that is difficult for the body to digest.  For these people fermented or cultured milk is an option as it breaks down lactose and predigests casein.  Many times yogurt and kefir can be tolerated.

You know the old saying, “when you know better you do better”, well that’s what happened to me when it came to learning all this about today’s dairy products.  Now that you know,  you can make informed decisions when it comes to dairy and decide if milk really does a body good!

Here are a few suggestions to help

1.  If you are interested in raw milk find a small trusted dairy in your town or one that delivers from the farm fresh whole raw milk from cows grazing on grass.  These can be found by asking at local farmers markets or here http://www.realmilk.com/
2. If you are not ready to take the plunge to raw milk the next best thing would be organic grass fed milk that is low temperature pasteurized and non homogenized like http://www.kalonasupernatural.com/
3. Avoid all non-organic CAFO milk and milk products that are ultra pasteurized.
4. Try non-dairy options like full fat coconut milk as a replacement.
5. If you prefer you can avoid milk all together.  This is fine because there are no nutrients in milk that cannot be obtained from fresh meat, fish, fruit or vegetables.