Raw Milk info

[Dr.S]

I know a lot of you guys love your milk ...but if you have access to Raw Milk or Raw Cream, I suggest you give it a try (although it's darned expensive---heck, isn't almost every "healthy" food in America expensive? )


Raw Milk

by Tom Cowan, MD

As I'm sure most of you know by now, there are very few subjects as emotionally charged as the choice of one's diet. Sexual relations, marriage and finances come to mind as similarly charged subjects and, like diet, we are all sure we know all we need to know about each of these subjects. The subject of milk, as I have discovered during the past four years, when properly viewed will challenge every notion you currently have about what is good food and what isn't. The story of milk is complex and goes something like this.

Back in the preprocessed food era (that is before about 1930 in this country) milk was considered an important food, especially for children. Not only was there an entire segment of our economy built up around milk but, as I remember, each house had its own milk chute for the delivery of fresh milk directly to the house. It was unquestioned that milk was good for us and that a safe, plentiful milk supply was actually vital to our national health and well-being. It was also a time (now I'm referring to the early part of the century) when many of the illnesses which we currently suffer from were rare. As an example, family doctors would often go their whole careers without ever seeing a patient with significant coronary artery disease, breast or prostate cancer, whereas current doctors can hardly go one month without encountering a patient with such an illness. Furthermore, as scientists such as Weston Price, DDS discovered, there were pockets of extremely healthy, long-lived people scattered about the earth who used dairy products in various forms as the staple of their diets — further evidence that milk and its by-products were amongst the most healthful foods man has ever encountered.

If we fast forward to the 1980's, we now find an entirely different picture. For one thing, there have been numerous books written in the past decade about the dangers of dairy products — the most influential being a book by Frank Oski, MD, the current chairman of pediatrics of Johns Hopkins University and perhaps the most influential pediatrician in this country. It's called Don't Drink Your Milk. In it Oski pins just about every health problem in children to the consumption of milk, everything from acute and chronic ear infections, constipation, asthma, eczema, and so on. Secondly, just about all patients I have now in their initial visit proudly announce that they have a good diet and that, specifically, they don't eat dairy (which they pronounce with such disdain).

One might well ask where the truth in this picture. Perhaps the experiments of Dr. Francis Pottenger in the 1940's can help to solve this mystery. In these experiments Dr. Pottenger fed one group of cats a diet consisting of raw milk, raw meat and cod liver oil. Other groups were given pasteurized milk, evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk instead of raw milk. The results were conclusive and astounding. Those that ate raw milk and raw meat did well and lived long, happy, active lives free of any signs of degenerative disease. Those cats on pasteurized milk suffered from acute illnesses (vomiting, diarrhea) and succumbed to every degenerative disease now flourishing in our population, even though they were also getting raw meat and cod liver oil. By the 3rd generation a vast majority of the cats were infertile and exhibited "anti-social" behavior — in short, they were like modern Americans.

Since the 40's the "qualities" of milk have been extensively studied to try to find an explanation for these dramatic changes. Studies have shown that before heating, milk is a living food rich in colloidal minerals and enzymes necessary for the absorption and utilization of the sugars, fats and minerals in the milk. For example, milk has an enzyme called phosphatase that allows the body to absorb the calcium from the milk. Lactase is an enzyme that allows for the digestion of lactose.

Butterfat has a cortisone-like factor which is heat sensitive (destroyed by heat) that prevents stiffness in the joints. Raw milk contains beneficial bacteria as well as lactic acids that allow these beneficial bacteria to implant in the intestines. All of these qualities are destroyed during pasteurization. Once heated, milk becomes rotten, with precipitated minerals that can't be absorbed (hence osteoporosis), with sugars that can't be digested (hence allergies), and with fats that are toxic.

Raw milk has been used as a therapy in folk medicine — and even in the Mayo Clinic — for centuries. It has been used in the pre-insulin days to treat diabetes (I've tried it — it works), as well as eczema, intestinal worms, allergies, and arthritis, all for reasons which can be understood when we realize just what is in milk — such as the cortisone-like factor for allergies and eczema.

Another way we ruin milk is by feeding cows high protein feed made from soybeans and other inappropriate foodstuffs. Rarely is anyone truly allergic to grass-fed cow's milk.

Fresh raw milk, from cows eating well-manured green grass is a living unprocessed whole food. Compare this to the supposedly "healthy" soy milk which has been washed in acids and alkalis, ultrapasteurized, then allowed to sit in a box for many months.

The Pottenger cat studies provide a simple but profound lesson for all Americans: Processed, dead foods don't support life or a happy well-functioning society. We must return to eating pure, wholesome, unprocessed foods, including whole raw milk from pasture fed cows.

In my practice I ALWAYS start there — I encourage, insist, even beg people to eat real foods— no matter what the problem. Often with just this intervention the results are gratifying. SO, find a cow, find a farmer, make sure the cow (or goat, llama, or whatever) is healthy and start your return to good health!

 

[Dr.S]

more info

There's plenty of info available on the 'net....


We have been taught that pasteurization is a good thing, a method of protecting ourselves against infectious diseases, but closer examination reveals that its merits have been highly exaggerated. The modern milking machine and stainless steel tank, along with efficient packaging and distribution, make pasteurization totally unnecessary for the purposes of sanitation. And pasteurization is no guarantee of cleanliness. All outbreaks of salmonella from contaminated milk in recent decades — and there have been many — have occurred in pasteurized milk. This includes a 1985 outbreak in Illinois that struck 14,316 people causing at least one death. The salmonella strain in that batch of pasteurized milk was found to be genetically resistant to both penicillin and tetracycline. Raw milk contains lactic-acid-producing bacteria that protect against pathogens. Pasteurization destroys these helpful organisms, leaving the finished product devoid of any protective mechanism should undesirable bacteria inadvertently contaminate the supply. Raw milk in time turns pleasantly sour while pasteurized milk, lacking beneficial bacteria, will putrefy.

But that's not all that pasteurization does to milk. Heat alters milk's amino acids lysine and tyrosine, making the whole complex of proteins less available; it promotes rancidity of unsaturated fatty acids and destruction of vitamins. Vitamin C loss in pasteurization usually exceeds 50%; loss of other water-soluble vitamins can run as high as 80%; the Wulzen or anti-stiffness factor is totally destroyed. Pasteurization alters milk's mineral components such as calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulphur as well as many trace minerals, making them less available. There is some evidence that pasteurization alters lactose, making it more readily absorbable. This, and the fact that pasteurized milk puts an unnecessary strain on the pancreas to produce digestive enzymes, may explain why milk consumption in civilized societies has been linked with diabetes.

Last but not least, pasteurization destroys all the enzymes in milk— in fact, the test for successful pasteurization is absence of enzymes. These enzymes help the body assimilate all bodybuilding factors, including calcium. That is why those who drink pasteurized milk may suffer, nevertheless, from osteoporosis. Lipase in raw milk helps the body digest and utilize butterfat. After pasteurization, chemicals may be added to suppress odor and restore taste. Synthetic vitamin D2 or D3 is added — the former is toxic and has been linked to heart disease while the latter is difficult to absorb. The final indignity is homogenization which has also been linked to heart disease.

Powdered skim milk is added to the most popular varieties of commercial milk— one-percent and two-percent milk. Commercial dehydration methods oxidize cholesterol in powdered milk, rendering it harmful to the arteries. High temperature drying also creates large quantities of nitrate compounds, which are potent carcinogens.

Modern pasteurized milk, devoid of its enzyme content, puts an enormous strain on the body's digestive mechanism. In the elderly, and those with milk intolerance or inherited weaknesses of digestion, this milk passes through not fully digested and can clog the tiny villi of the small intestine, preventing the absorption of vital nutrients and promoting the uptake of toxic substances. The result is allergies, chronic fatigue and a host of degenerative diseases.

All the healthy milk-drinking populations studied by Dr. Price subsisted on raw milk, raw cultured milk or raw cheese from normal animals eating fresh grass or fodder. It is very difficult to find this kind of milk in America. In California and Georgia, raw milk was formerly available in health food stores. Intense harassment by state sanitation authorities has all but driven raw milk from the market in these states, in spite of the fact that it is technically legal. Even when available, this milk suffers from the same drawbacks as most supermarket milk — it comes from freak-pituitary cows, often raised in crowded barns on inappropriate feed. In some states you can buy raw milk at the farm. If you can find a farmer who will sell you raw milk from old fashioned Jersey or Guernsey cows, allowed to feed on fresh pasturage, then by all means avail yourself of this source. Some stores now carry pasteurized, but not homogenized, milk from cows raised on natural feed. Such milk may be used to make cultured milk products such as kefir, yoghurt, cultured buttermilk and cultured cream. Traditionally cultured buttermilk, which is low in casein but high in lactic acid, is often well tolerated by those with milk allergies, and gives excellent results when used to soak whole grain flours for baking. If you cannot find good quality raw milk, you should limit your consumption of milk products to cultured milk, cultured buttermilk, whole milk yoghurt, butter, cream and raw cheeses. Raw cheese ia available in all states. Much imported cheese is raw — look for the words "milk" or "fresh milk" on the label — and of very high quality.

 

[Dr.S]

recent news.. http://www.realmilk.com/

A bit of Milk and pasteurization history


MILK TAKES A PERMANENT DETOUR

As America grew, immigrants flocked to the cities making them crowded. They wanted milk, which was a staple, especially for their children.

When the cities were small there was room to keep a family cow. Common pastures in the heart of town had been set aside for this. Boston Commons is one example. But as cities grew, pasture was lost, yet the milk demand grew.

While pastures shrank another industry grew- the whiskey industry. The process of fermentation and distillation of the alcohol produced a side product. This product was an acid refuse of chemically changed grain and water known as distillery slop, or swill. This waste product was then fed to cows by individuals who cared nothing about the animals or the quality of the milk produced.

Distillery owners started housing cows next door to these distilleries and fed the hot slop directly to the cows. This was known as the swill milk system. This system grew especially as the distillery business shrank. Pressure was put on the distillery owners to make more profits from the milk side of the business. It soon became a huge industry.

Slop is of little value in fattening cattle. It is unnatural food to them and makes them diseased and emaciated. Bit it made cows produce a lot of milk. The milk was so defective that it could not be made into butter or cheese. But they still sold it. Three quarters of all milk sold in New York in 1852 was slop milk.

A reformist wrote a series of articles criticizing the state of the milk supply. He gave eyewitness accounts to their crowded and dark buildings. He described the cows as being sick, crowded, dirty, poorly nourished and forced to spend their milking career chained in one place. The people who hand milked into dirty, open containers were often sick themselves and had no thought as to sanitation measures. The cows died at unusually high rates.

Distillery dairies continued to sell milk up into the 1900's. The last one closed in New York in 1930. Even though reformers and medical groups called for an end to this practice of selling milk not fit for human consumption, the government did nothing.
So called "milk trains" were an attempt to get clean, fresh milk from traditional dairymen in the countryside into the cities. Yet compared to the high volume distillery dairies this was nothing but a trickle.

A well known fact even at that time is that the cow's diet determines the healthfulness of the milk. If fed a diet unfit for cows then they can only produce milk that is unfit for human consumption. Many people knew this but the swill milk industry thrived because it was plentiful and cheap.

Slop milk was bluish in color and very thin so dealers added different things to make it look like white, whole milk including starch, sugar, flour, plaster of paris, and chalk!

People knew that bad milk could lead to disease. "Nothing can be more certain than that the quality of milk is greatly influenced by the state of the health of the animal producing it". So said the reformer Robert Hartley in his book on the state of milk production at that time in 1842 (pg 38).

Not much has changed in 160 years. While the worst of the distillery diseases are gone, today in America cows live in confinement dairies, living in stalls they never leave, stalls sometimes welded shut, where they are fed "scientific" diets devoid of fresh grass, diets designed to maximize milk production with little thought to quality. These diets are high in grains, soybeans and "bakery waste" (bread, cakes, pastries- even candy bars) and citrus peel cake loaded with pesticides. These cows are not producing the kind of milk America's children and adults need and deserve.

The unclean environment of that time produced what was known as the "milk problem". Infant and child mortality was soaring, reaching up to almost half of all deaths reported in some larger cities. Water quality was also bad at this time with no central sewage system or clean water supply. Many people added water to their milk to make it last. Also, lack of refrigeration deteriorated a bad milk product often into a deadly one. In the heat of summer people in the crowded tenements got their milk in the early morning then stored it in the least stifling spot possible until used.

How to save infants and children dwelling in these large cities from dying by the thousands from infectious disease was one of the great national issues at the start of the 20th century. Two ideas of health were at play. One- the traditional medical outlook- was that good nutrition produced a healthy body that could ward off disease. The second was the new emergent science of microbiology that saw germs and microbes as the cause of all illnesses. The traditional way of warding off illness was to feed the body well with healthy food and create a healthy interior. The second approach was to kill microbes and thus prevent illness from occurring.

These two ways of thinking set the stage for the two movements that changed milk in America. One was led by medical doctors- mainly pediatricians- whose goal was safe and optimally healthy raw milk for the treatments of disease. They wanted to make it safe by controlling how it was produced. This led to the certified milk movement which fought to keep available a supply of clean, raw milk from certified producers.

The other approach, named after the famous germ scientist, Louis Pasteur, called for pasteurization, or heating, of all milk in order to make it free of any potentially harmful bacteria, no matter how it changed the quality of the milk. These two groups were and still are at odds with each other. Yet even these early proponents saw pasteurization as a stop-gap measure to the current problem at the time. It was seen as a temporary remedy until milk could be clean again. Raw milk was assumed by all parties to be the preferred and healthier alternative.

With the advent of pasteurization came also improved water quality controls and the ice box. The mortality rate of children plummeted and pasteurization was hailed as the miraculous answer to a stubborn and scary problem. While the pasteurization campaign was ramping up distillery dairies (the source of most problems) were still allowed to operate. The focus was on heating dirty milk rather than producing healthy, clean milk.

Human tuberculosis was originally thought to be the same as bovine TB and that it was contracted from cows. Even after this was proved incorrect people pushed for pasteurization as a way to protect against this dreaded disease in humans.

The media jumped on the bandwagon and for the next 40 years, through tinted perspectives and outright falsehoods convinced the American public that raw milk was deadly and pasteurized milk was the only acceptable form of milk. This legacy of media spin on milk persists to this day with most people believing that raw milk, even certified, is dangerous.

As the media and governmental spin continued, dairies found it easier to go with pasteurization than to clean up its act. They aggressively backed the notion that raw milk was dangerous (they certainly knew that raw milk from some of their dairies was unsafe). Misleading studies were performed that were quoted and re-quoted and found their way into medical textbooks that convinced a new generation of doctors as to the harmfulness of raw milk, abandoning their traditional role of advocates for certified raw milk as treatment for disease.

While the distillery dairies have finally vanished their legacy of producing high volume, low quality milk to the American public has led to the current dairy crises. Milk has been so adulterated through pasteurization, homogenization, and making low fat versions (powdered milk, high in free radicals, has been put back in) that the body no longer recognizes it as the healthy food milk should be. Many people now have milk allergies (almost none to raw) and other allergies and ailments, and some pediatricians are now advising against giving it to children. What have we come to when we can't even give milk to our children? The dairies across America have been operating at a loss and are closing one after another and their farms are sold into developments. Thus is passing a way of life.

We have come so far down this road that virtually all milk producers are stuck in the same rut. By the government insisting on America's access to cheap milk they have put a price lid on the dairy man that keeps his milk prices at 1940's level while his expenses keep abreast with inflation. The only way he can keep operating at all is through sheer volume. Higher volume means lower quality milk. He knows what it takes to make high quality milk- cows on green pastures- no antibiotics for continually concrete-worn feet, and no high volume producing scientific "fake" feed. He knows people would pay more for quality but he's stuck in the high production game. People spend less on basic food items than ever before, even while spending more on convenience food. Americans don't mind shelling out five bucks for frozen cardboard pizza but think they shouldn't pay as much for a gallon of milk. The reality is that gallon of milk does not pay a livable wage to the farmer and perpetuates the cycle of low quality, high volume milk production. If we were willing to pay a decent price then we might get decent milk. We the consumer must demand a change.

We have traded away quality for a false sense of safety. Modern milk is neither- high quality nor safe.

Finally, much of our understanding of modern pasteurized milk is what we read on the carton- Pasteurized, Homogenized, Grade A Skim Milk. We see the picture on the front- cows grazing on green pastures. We don't think beyond that. We've been told it's good, it's healthy, and because it's been pasteurized, it's safe. Raw milk, however, is scary, unsafe and unclean, or so we've been told. We don't think beyond that either. This misinformation has deep roots and much of the history of milk and the debate around it has passed out of cultural memory.