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Commercial
Milk: It Does NoBody Good |
The subject of milk is rather complicated and it sparks just about as much controversy as the subject of fats. Many alternative practitioners feel that it's not necessary for humans to consume cow's milk, and link its consumption to health problems, such as ear infections, allergies, cancer, and diabetes. The medical community has convinced us that if we don't drink enough milk, our bones will disintegrate. And the American Dairy Association-sponsored media fools us into thinking we'll be cool, like celebrities with milk mustaches, if we drink lots of milk.
The focus of this article will not be to convince you to drink milk or not to drink milk. But if you do drink milk, it's important to know where your milk has come from and what it has been through.
LIVING CONDITIONS
If I were to ask you to picture a
cow, you would most likely see in your mind a cow grazing in an open pasture,
like one you'd probably seen before on a small family farm. That's a lucky cow,
compared to most of the cows bred for dairy production in this country.
Recently I toured one of the largest commercial dairy operations here in
ENVIRONMENT
Not only is the unnatural
building environment a problem for the cow, but it can be a huge problem for
the people around it as well. The massive amount of waste produced on a factory
farm is overwhelming and can have devastating effects on the surrounding
environment. Over one-fifth of the country's dairy products are produced in the
central valley of
FEED
A cow's natural diet consists
mostly of grass, but since there isn't enough grass to go around on the factory
farm, today's factory cow is fed a diet of mostly grain, and “other things”
that it would not normally eat. The bulk of the feeds consist of corn and soy,
which contain 80% of all herbicides used in the
Despite the fact that cows have four stomachs, a grain diet is still difficult for them to properly digest. Grain feeding leads to digestive disorders and other health problems, which contribute to the use of antibiotics and other drugs.
ANTIBIOTICS
If you're like a growing number of people today, you would rather not take antibiotics when you get sick. You may even be proud of the fact that you haven't had to use them in years. However, if you drink commercial milk or eat commercially raised meats and poultry, you could be consuming antibiotics on a daily basis, without even knowing it! Over 50% of all the antibiotics produced in this country are mixed directly into animal feed. Ideally, antibiotics should be used in farming only when necessary to treat infection. However, due to the real fear of infectious outbreak occurring in confined, factory farmed animals, they are fed a constant supply of antibiotics from birth until the time of slaughter.
Antibiotic resistance is a serious issue that has gotten a lot of press in recent years. Basically, bacteria are mutating and outsmarting the antibiotics, making them ineffective. (The same phenomenon is occurring on farms where bugs are mutating to withstand pesticide applications.) Medical doctors are being blamed for over-prescribing antibiotics, but that is only part of the problem. People are unknowingly consuming more antibiotics than they are actually taking by choice. Due to the heavy doses of antibiotics used on factory farmed animals, your steaks, hamburgers, chicken, and hotdogs are all laced with antibiotics. Milk alone contains traces of up to 80 different antibiotics!2
HORMONES
Heavy doses of hormones are routinely used to fatten animals as quickly as possible. In dairy farming, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) is used to force the cows to produce 4 times more than they naturally would. Back in 1930 the average dairy cow produced 12 lbs. of milk per day, in 1988 the average was 39 lbs. per day (due to grain feeding and selective breeding), and now with rBGH the average factory farmed dairy cow produces 80-120 lbs. of milk per day! This sounds like a great thing for dairy farmers, right? However, when you mess with Mother Nature, you will suffer the consequences. FDA documents show that cows injected with rBGH are 79% more likely to contract mastitis.3 In 1991, a report on Monsanto's BGH test herd at the University of Vermont found the same kind of problems identified by the FDA, plus an alarming number of dead and deformed calves born to cows treated with BGH.4 Other problems include
reproductive anomalies, increased need for antibiotics, digestive disorders, enlarged hocks and lesions, and more.
According the Humane Farming Association, “The FDA admits that BGH injections increase sickness and drug use in dairy cows.” Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, reports that “because of increased udder infections, it is more likely that milk from treated cows will be of lower quality—containing more pus and bacteria—than milk from untreated cows.”
PASTEURIZATION
Cows with engorged, infected utters pass bacteria and pus into their milk—making a sterilization process like pasteurization sound like a good thing, right? Well, maybe not. Pasteurization is a process of heat-treating milk to kill bacteria. Although Louis Pasteur developed this technique for preserving beer and wine, he was not responsible for applying it to milk. That was done at the end of the 1800s as a temporary solution until dairies could find a way to produce cleaner milk. But instead of cleaning up milk production, dairies used pasteurization as a way to cover up dirty milk. As milk became increasingly mass produced, pasteurization became necessary for large dairies to increase their profits. So the public then had to be convinced that pasteurized milk was safer than raw milk. Soon raw milk consumption was blamed for all sorts of diseases and outbreaks, until the public was finally convinced that pasteurized milk was superior to milk in its natural state.
Today if you mention raw milk, people gasp and utter ridiculous statements such as, “You can die from drinking raw milk!” But the truth is that there are far more risks from drinking pasteurized milk than unpasteurized milk. The reason for this is because milk naturally contains healthy bacteria that inhibit the growth of undesirable and dangerous organisms. Without these friendly bacteria, pasteurized milk is more susceptible to contamination.
Not only does pasteurization kill the friendly bacteria, but it greatly diminishes the nutrient content of the milk. Pasteurized milk has up to a 66% loss of vitamins A, D, E, and F (fatty acids). Vitamin C loss usually exceeds 50%. Heat affects water soluble vitamins and can make them 38% to 80% less effective. Vitamins B6 and B12 are completely destroyed during pasteurization. Pasteurization also destroys beneficial enzymes, antibodies, and hormones. Pasteurization destroys lipase (an enzyme that breaks down fat), which impairs fat metabolism and the ability to properly absorb fat soluble vitamins A and D. (The dairy industry is aware of the diminished vitamin A and D available in commercial milk, so it fortifies milk with synthetic vitamin A and D.)
We have all been led to believe that milk is a wonderful source of calcium, when in fact, pasteurization diminishes the nutrient value of milk—making calcium and other minerals unavailable. Complete destruction of phosphatase is one method of testing to see if milk has been adequately pasteurized. Phosphatase is essential for the absorption of calcium.
ULTRA PASTEURIZATION
As the dairy industry has become more concentrated, many processing plants have switched to ultrapasteurization, which involves exposing the milk to higher temperatures for longer periods of time. The industry says this is necessary because many microorganisms have become heat resistant and now survive ordinary pasteurization. Milk that has been ultrapasteurized is virtually sterile and has a longer shelf life—up to four weeks! Although the milk is sold in the refrigerator section, it can be stored unrefrigerated until opened.
HOMOGENIZATION
Naturally, real milk should have a layer of cream on top. In the past, the thickness of the cream was a measure of quality milk. As the quality of milk has declined over the years, so has the cream content. To hide the lack of cream in the milk, the dairy industry uses homogenization to break up the fat globules and evenly distribute them throughout the milk. This process unnaturally increases the surface area of milk fat, exposing it to air, in which oxidation occurs and increases the susceptibility to spoilage. The minute fat globules are also able to unnaturally pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream, bypassing the normal digestive and metabolic process and creating toxic by-products. Homogenization has been linked to heart disease and atherosclerosis. [See “Homogenized Dairy,” front cover.]
Considering how commercial milk is processed, it's no wonder that millions of Americans are allergic to it. An allergic reaction to dairy can cause symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting (even projectile vomiting), stomach pain, cramping, gas, bloating, nausea, headaches, sinus/chest congestion, and sore or scratchy throat. Pasteurized milk consumption has been linked to many other illnesses as well, such as: asthma, atherosclerosis, diabetes, chronic infections (especially upper respiratory and ear infections), obesity, osteoporosis, and prostate, ovarian, breast, and colon cancer.
MILK: TO DRINK OR NOT TO DRINK?
Once you understand where commercial milk comes from, it seems logical to just avoid it altogether. But the fact of the matter is that there are still a lot of benefits to consuming dairy—that is, if you get it from a good source. Real milk—full fat, unprocessed, from pasture-fed cows—contains vital nutrients including fat soluble vitamins A and D, calcium, vitamin B-6, B-12, and CLA (a fatty acid naturally occurring in grass-fed beef and milk that reduces body fat and protects against cancer). Milk, in its natural state, is a source of raw and complete protein and is loaded with enzymes. Raw milk contains beneficial bacteria that protect against pathogens and contribute to healthy flora in the intestines. Culturing milk greatly enhances its probiotic and enzyme content, making it a therapeutic food for our digestive system and overall health.
So the answer to the question is: go ahead and drink! But only if the milk is as close to its natural state as you can get it! In the meantime, here are a few steps that can help you make the transition to more natural dairy products.
Step 1: Replace commercial dairy with better quality dairy products.
Considering where commercial milk has been and what it has been through, it's best to avoid it altogether. Instead use better quality dairy products, such as raw cheese, good quality whole yogurt and kefir, and butter and cream that have not been ultrapasteurized. Many grocery stores and natural food stores offer organic dairy products, produced without the use of hormones, steroids, and antibiotics. Remember to buy whole milk dairy products. Keep in mind that yogurt in its natural state is whole milk, plain. Add your own fruit and flavors, to avoid extra sugar and other unnecessary ingredients.
Step 2: Get it straight from the cow.
In states like
If you've had adverse reactions to commercial milk, you may not be so eager to try milk in its natural state. It may be reassuring to know that I've worked with clients who experienced severe symptoms such as explosive diarrhea or projectile vomiting every time they consumed commercial milk and other dairy products—and were shocked that they had no reaction at all to milk in its natural state. Real milk—full fat, unprocessed, from pastured cows—is especially beneficial for children during their growing years.
Lori Lipinski is a certified nutritional consultant who practices in the
REFERENCES
1. Nutrition News and Views, Nov./Dec. 1999, Vol. 3, No. 6, p. 2.
2. Ibid.
3. “Down on the Farm: The Real BGH Story—Animal Health Problems, Financial Troubles,” by Mark Kastel.
4. “Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone: Alarming Tests, Unfounded Approval: The Story Behind the Rush to Bring rBGH to Market,” by Andrew Christiansen