Dairy Truth

If you are concerned about the large number of chemicals and additives in milk, you may be tempted to give your family “Hormone-Free” milk. Unfortunately, there is no such thing! Hormone-Free milk is just a marketing phrase for “less hormones than chemically-saturated” milk. In fact, all body fluids and flesh from any animal contains hormones. Steak, hamburger, pork chops, milk, urine, etc. all contain hormones. What they are really advertising is the fact that they don’t add hormones to their cows to artificially produce more milk. Any animal is a hormone-producing machine. We make our own hormones constantly. We don’t need cow’s hormones in our bodies as well!

However, this doesn’t change the fact that milk hormones are bad for you. In fact, just eating meat can be bad for you. Anytime you eat or drink an animal, your body is assimilating that animal’s hormones. The old saying, “You are what you eat” never rang truer!

We’ve made the point before that other animals don’t drink milk once they are weaned. And other animals certainly don’t sit down and drink the milk of other animals. Only we humans do that. Let’s put it into perspective. Would you sit down for a bowl of cereal and ask for a nice big squirt of breast milk? Sounds sort of gross! But we do the same thing by feeding our children cow’s milk. And who doesn’t love a big bowl of chocolate ice cream? Yum! Frozen cow’s milk!

So the question shouldn’t be “Is Hormone-Free Milk Better?” but rather “Where are the hormones in my diet coming from?” If you want to grow to be a cow, then certainly drink plenty of cow’s milk and eat lots of beef. All those cow and steer hormones will help you grow into a nice big bovine! But as humans, we should steer (pun intended) away from animal hormones period. There are plenty of other nutritional sources for proteins, vitamins, and minerals that avoid the hormone problem all together. We’ll look at other plant-based foods in upcoming articles that will provide a healthy, nutritional alternative to animal-based diets. For example, a diet rich in spinach, broccoli, and other green vegetables, is better for you in the long run than beef and dairy. You may even be surprised how much better you feel once you eliminate meat from your diet and thus, reduce the amount of animal hormones you are ingesting and assimilating.

Dean Novosat writes about health and nutrition. He has two websites http://www.DairyTruth.com and http://www.FastingLife.com

by Paul MacIver

Irritable bowel syndrome is a chronic functional disorder of the intestines which causes abdominal pain, often accompanied by cramping, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. It is also referred to as spastic colon or mucous colitis. Irritable bowel syndrome is more commonly known by its abbreviated term - IBS.

There are three forms of IBS depending on the symptoms — diarrhea-predominant (IBS-D), constipation-predominant (IBS-C) and IBS with alternating stool pattern (IBS-A). Clinical investigations are going on a new IBS subtype, post-infectious IBS (IBS-PI).

Symptoms of IBS

IBS symptoms include:

* Abdominal pain

* Discomfort associated with changes in bowel habits

* Fewer than three bowel movements a week

* More than three bowel movements a day

* Hard or lumpy stools

* Loose or watery stools

* Straining during a bowel movement

* Urgency (having to rush to have a bowel movement)

* Feeling of incomplete bowel movement

* Passing mucus (white material) during a bowel movement

* Abdominal fullness, bloating, or swelling

* Chronic pelvic pain

* Mental stress

* Fibromyalgia and various mental disorders

* Researchers believe that there are neurological and psychological disorders associated with IBS.

Causes of Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The exact causes of irritable bowel syndrome are unknown, but there are factors that may aggravate the trouble. Dietary factors and stress don’t exactly cause IBS, but they can aggravate it. Various studies and researches have noted an IBS connection to diet. Physicians feel that the correct diet can provide IBS relief.

Common IBS diet advice includes:

* Eat soluble fiber foods and supplements.

* Substitute dairy products for soy or rice products.

* Be careful with fresh fruits and vegetables that are high in insoluble fiber.

* Eat small amounts in regular intervals to lessen the symptoms of IBS.

* Avoid eating red meat, oily or fatty (and fried) products.

* Avoid taking dairy products (especially when lactose intolerance is suspected).

* Avoid solid chocolate, coffee (regular and decaffeinated), alcohol, carbonated beverages and artificial sweeteners.

IBS Treatment

IBS treatment includes dietary advice and medication. Developing good dietary habits may be the best treatment for irritable bowel syndrome.

Medications can provide instant IBS relief. These may include stool softeners and laxatives in constipation-predominant, and antidiarrheal (loperamide) in diarrhea-predominant IBS. The low dosage of tricyclic and SSRI antidepressants has shown to be the most widely prescribed medications for helping to relieve symptoms of visceral sensitivity (pain) and diarrhea or constipation respectively. Other medications include:

* Alosetron: Alosetron is a selective 5-HT3 antagonist for IBS-D. It is only available for women in the United States under a restricted access program, due to severe risks of side effects if taken mistakenly by IBS-A or IBS-C sufferers.

* Cilansetron: Cilansetron is also a selective 5-HT3 antagonist that is undergoing further clinical studies in Europe for IBS-D sufferers.

* Tegaserod: Tegaserod is a selective 5-HT4 antagonist for IBS-C. It has shown to have an excellent safety profile for relieving IBS constipation and chronic idiopathic constipation.

About the Author
Paul MacIver writes about health conditions including IBS and Crohn’s Disease. To read how hypnotherapy can be used to beat IBS visit Online IBS Help.

The Baby Had a Dairy Allergy

This email comes to us from our friends at NotMilk.com. We felt it was important enough to share with you. It was originally written to Robert Cohen, Director of NotMilk.

Elizabeth Steinweg sunrisehands@attbi.com wrote:

Good Morning Robert! Thank you so much for your refreshing daily reminders of how we can all do without cows milk. My son has a dairy allergy. He is now 3-1/2 and quite healthy! However, when he was a baby, he would wake up several times each night and make lots of noise.

It made things difficult and we were very concerned about his sleep disorders. Even into toddler hood, we also noticed he would get these coughs and wheezes that wouldn’t go away for weeks and weeks. His nose would run and he was one miserable creature! I have known for some time about the detrimental effects of dairy on the population but we were still consuming it in moderate amounts.

One day, after reading one of your articles on snotty nosed kids, I decided we were finished! We don’t buy anything with dairy anymore–even lactose in seasonings, casein in “non- dairy” cheeses, etc. We tested our son by allowing him to have very small quantities of dairy over a 3 month period just to see if this is what was causing his constant congestion…sure enough, every time he had some, he plugged up. So we knew for sure that we needed to quit consuming cow juice. After all, it was made for cows, not humans, right?

In the process of ridding our home of this poison, the rest of us have felt better as well. We don’t seem to be getting the colds and “allergies” that we used to when we ate dairy. Grant, my son, is now breathing easy and his nose is so clear, it’s freaky! Tiffany, my daughter (almost , hasn’t been sick for many months and seems to be fighting off the “bugs” that many of her classmates are getting without much difficulty.

I might add, we eat as healthy as we can in other domains as well. Whole grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables pretty much comprises our diet and I’m finding so much more variety in the vegan way of eating than ever before!

Occasionally, we feel the need to have something that’s quick and convenient and can be used for special occasions. I found this place called: http://www.yvonneskitchen.com that has made this transition much easier in many ways. Everything in her repertoire is dairy and egg free. They are dry mixes that are very convenient to use and very tasty too! So far, we’ve had the corn bread, chocolate pudding, chocolate cake, and pancake and waffle mix. Yum! Yum!

How refreshing to be able to make a chocolate cake for my kids’ birthdays that’s safe for everyone! The corn bread is very fluffy and the chocolate pudding is smooth and silky. Try some and see what you think!

If you like them, you may want to pass the site along to your readers. I’ll leave that part up to you–I am not benefiting in any way personally by passing this along–only wanting others to benefit from this find!

Thanks again for your conviction and determination in getting the word out…God Bless!

Elizabeth Steinweg (lady with happy, healthy, dairy free children and husband)