Dairy Truth

by Dianne Ronnow

There have been new and confusing reports about milk and dairy products in the news lately. The dairy council has come out with a report that three servings a day will help you lose fat and weight. At the same time, another study (not as well publicized) came out saying that children who drink more than three servings of milk a day have more weight problems. On top of that the numbers of lactose intolerant people seem to be rising.

What is the truth about dairy product consumption?

As Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD. wrote in their article, “The Plot of Soy” (http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/ploy.html) in 1999, “Organic, cultured butter is available in many stores. It has restored enzymes and high vitamin A content. Contrary to widely held opinion, there is no evidence that butter contributes to heart disease or cancer. At the turn of the century, butter consumption in America was 18 pounds per person per year. Today it is a mere five pounds. As butter consumption has plummeted, cancer and heart disease have risen dramatically. The real blame for this increase points squarely at hydrogenated butter substitutes—margarine and shortening. Butter contains many nutrients that protect us against disease. Those with severe allergies to milk products can still eat clarified butter (ghee) and enjoy its good taste and numerous nutritional benefits.”

Dairy products have been a major part of many cultures’ diets for thousands of years. But the dairy products we have in our grocery stores here in America are very different than the dairy products consumed by people in the past.

The problem today is how we get our dairy products and how they are processed. It starts with the way modern cows are fed. They are given a diet of high-protein soy and grain based feed instead of the traditional grass feeding methods.

We know that grass fed cows have six times higher CLA (conjugated lineolic acid) content in their milk than in grain fed cows, and more Omega 3 fatty acids. CLA helps the body convert fat to muscle, fights cancer, and does many other beneficial things for our bodies. Because of modern feeding methods for cattle, we get almost no CLA in our diets with normal grocery store dairy products. Also the vitamin A and D content of grain fed cows is much lower.

Modern breeding methods also produce cows with abnormally large pituitary glands, so that they produce three times more milk than ordinary cows. These cows need hormones and antibiotics to keep them well in their crowded and unsanitary living environments. The hormones and antibiotics go into the milk, causing trouble for those of us who consume it. Antibiotics are not working the way they should for us anymore because all the antibiotics we consume daily in our dairy and meat products make us resistant to them.

The milk from these grain-fed cows is then pasteurized, which destroys dozens of valuable enzymes. Without these enzymes, the milk becomes very difficult to digest. This explains why so many people are lactose intolerant. This also overstresses the pancreas as it tries to compensate for these missing enzymes.

Pasteurization also destroys much of the valuable vitamin content of the milk. We have been told that pasteurization is needed to keep milk cleaner and kill bacteria. What it really does is allow huge dairy farms to get away with dirty milking practices.

Finally, when they make 1% and 2% milk, they add non-fat dried milk to these products to lower the fat percentage. Non-fat dried milk is ultra-processed, which oxidizes the cholesterol. Rancid (oxidized) cholesterol and fats are what promote heart disease, as we mentioned earlier. Dried milk also has a very high nitrite content.

Raw (unpasturized) milk, on the other hand, is very good for you, and actually safer than pasteurized milk, even for babies and small children. Children fed raw milk have more resistance to TB, scurvy, flu, diphtheria, pneumonia, asthma, allergic skin problems and tooth decay. In addition, their growth and calcium absorption was superior.

Of course, as with all foods, raw milk must come from healthy cows and be carefully handled and stored. The same technology that we use to pasteurize our milk also allows us to keep raw milk fresh and clean. If you are buying directly from a farmer, find out if the cows are kept mostly on pasture and that the barn is kept clean. The milk should go directly from the milking machine into a stainless steel tank or clean containers and be kept chilled. It should be used within a period of one week, after which it will begin to go sour (although it is not dangerous when it does so). With these precautions, raw milk is not only healthy but a safe food for all members of the family, even babies.

Dairy products, meat and whole foods, properly prepared are healthy and life giving. As much as possible, avoid meats and dairy products that have been processed.

For more information about raw milk, go to http://www.realmilk.com

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“The National Dairy Board’s Slogan, ‘Milk. It does a body good,’ sounds a little hollow these days.”

Scientific American, October, 1992

“Studies have suggested that bovine serum albumin is the milk protein responsible for the onset of diabetes… Patients with insulin- dependent diabetes mellitus produce antibodies to cow milk proteins that participate in the development of islet dysfunction… Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that an active response in patients with IDDM (to the bovine protein) is a feature of the autoimmune response.”

New England Journal of Medicine, July 30, 1992

“In lieu of the recent evidence that cow’s milk protein may be implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, we believe that the Committee on Nutrition should clarify whether cow’s milk is ever appropriate for children and whether or not infant formulas that are based on cow’s milk protein are appropriate alternatives to breast milk.”

Pediatrics, July, 1992: 89

“Antibodies to bovine beta-casein are present in over a third of IDDM patients and relatively non-existent in healthy individuals.”

LANCET, October, 1996, 348

“Cow’s milk proteins are unique in one respect: in industrialized countries they are the first foreign proteins entering the infant gut, since most formulations for babies are cow milk-based. The first pilot stage of our IDD prevention study found that oral exposure to dairy milk proteins in infancy resulted in both cellular and immune response…this suggests the possible importance of the gut immune system to the pathogenesis of IDD.”

LANCET, Dec 14, 1996

“Introduction of dairy products and high milk consumption during childhood may increase the child’s risk of developing juvenile diabetes.”

Diabetologia 1994;37(4):381-387

“These new studies, and more than 20 well-documented previous ones, have prompted one researcher to say the link between milk and juvenile diabetes is ‘very solid’.”

Diabetes Care 1994;17(12)

by Leslie Van Romer

Milk can be a very sensitive topic. It stirs our emotions. It plays our heart strings. After all, it was our first food. We link milk to our mothers and our very first memories. We associate it with white and pure and goodness. Milk comforts us, nurtures us. We drink it with our meals. We drink it with cake and cookies and graham crackers and put it on our cereals every morning.

We are often times more emotionally attached to milk than any other foods.

We were taught that we must drink milk for strong bones and teeth and that most all of the people in the world must drink it. As a matter of fact, most Americans believe that only 1% of the world doesn’t drink milk. The truth is that about 65% of all adults in the world do not drink milk.

How could we Americans not believe that milk is anything but wholesome and necessary for human health and fitness, and strength of bones and teeth, when we all have those milk slogans bouncing around in our brains?

Do these slogans sound familiar?

“Milk does a body good.”

“Everyone needs milk.”

“Milk is a natural.”

“Milk had something for everyone.”

“Milk is not just for kids.”

“Milk - nature’s perfect food”.

And what about the National Dairy Council’s most successful advertising campaign of all that began in 1996 and is still going strong? What man, woman, and child is not familiar with the “Got Milk?” advertisements? They are plastered in front of our faces everywhere we look.

According to celebrities, including athletes, movie stars, and talk show icons, who paste those white mustaches onto their upper lips, milk is necessary for strong bones, teeth, muscles, and nerves.

Milk, so they claim and get paid handsomely for it, offers “high-quality” protein, feeding into the myth that animal protein is superior to plant protein, which is a myth or a lie that we were brought up to believe as truth.

They also claim that milk helps you lose weight, be your best, and gives you extra energy (our best energy foods are carbohydrates from unrefined plant foods like fresh fruit and vegetables.)

Got Milk? I ask, “Got how much money to put on those white mustaches?”

Yes, milk does do body good if you are a calf and want to grow up to 800 or 1000 pounds in a year. Cows don’t even drink milk once they are weaned. Why? Because cow’s milk is made for baby cows, not adult cows, and not human beings.

Interestingly enough, human beings are the only mammals on earth that continue to drink milk after they are weaned, and the milk is provided by another mammal at that!

Using your common sense, not what you have been conditioned to think, does it make sense to you that people continue to drink milk after they are weaned, way up to adulthood, and that the milk comes from another mammal?

What do our large plant-eating mammals, like cows, elephants, horses, giraffes, and apes, eat for strong bones and teeth, and big ones at that? Plant foods.

When in doubt about which foods provide the best nutrition for human health, just look to nature for simple, common sense food and health answers.

There is one and only one reason to drink milk and eat cheese: Because you like them and you choose to eat them. Period. It not because dairy products are needed for strong bones and teeth, or for overall health and fitness.

Leslie Van Romer is a health motivational speaker, writer, and lifestyle coach. Visit http://www.DrLeslieVanRomer.com for more inspiration.