Milk. The nectar of the gods.
I love milk. Actually, it is a borderline obsession. You know that scene from Anchorman where Ron Burgundy says, “It’s so damn hot… milk was a bad choice ? I could not disagree more, milk is never a bad choice.
I average a gallon of whole milk in about 2-3 days, and I am the only one in my household that even drinks milk. Yes, I’ve even been known to finish an entire gallon of milk a day. Ok, I think I have painted a pretty good picture of my obsession with milk…so why am I telling you this??
Is what I’m doing unhealthy?
My wife, Emily, is the nutrition guru in the family and she has been trying to get me off of milk for a long time. She is actually the one who converted me to whole milk, from skim milk, as a compromise to my ridiculous milk drinking habit. Why does she want me off milk?
Well, I’ve done my research, and here is some food for thought when it comes to milk.
Homogenization and Pasteurization
Homogenization: What is it?
- Homogenization is a process where milk is forced at high pressure and temperature through tiny holes to break its fat molecules into smaller globules. Milk homogenization is an essential tool of the milk food industry to prevent creating various levels of flavor and fat concentration.
Homogenization: Why could this be bad?
- Homogenization can cause for a higher concentration of casein and whey proteins, which can lead to increased level of allergenic properties. Also, there are a lot of benefits in ingesting the fat membranes from milk, but since those membranes are pulverized during the homogenization process, we don’t get any of them. Benefits include: ability to suppress pathogens, fight off depression, decrease chances of Alzheimer’s disease, and protect against multiple sclerosis.
Pasteurization: What is it?
- Pasteurization was invented by a Mr. Pasteur, Louis Pasteur to be exact, in the 1800s. It is a process that exposes raw milk to high temperatures for a short duration to destroy pathogens.
Pasteurization: Why could this be bad?
However, cool that process sounds it is actually not a great process for milk. Mr. Pasteur had his head so wrapped around the Germ Theory that he neglected to see other benefits to milk.
- Pasteurization can destroy enzymes that that help contribute to immunity and digestive health.
- Pasteurization can destroy a lot of the vitamins in milk such as Vitamin C, B6 and B12.
- Modern research associates pasteurized milk with a number of allergies and illnesses including asthma, bronchitis, eczema, rheumatoid arthritis, musculoskeletal pain, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and even antisocial and aggressive behavior.
Skim…Whole/Organic??
Skim
Skim has to be the best choice, right? I mean, it’s low fat, how could it be bad?
If you still live in the world where low-fat, low-carb and fake sugar are your “healthy options†you need to do a nutritional overhaul. Saturated fat is sooo terrible…right?
21 studies analyzed included nearly 348,000 participants, most of whom were healthy when they were enrolled. They were followed for five to 23 years, during which 11,000 developed heart disease or had a stroke. Looking back at the dietary information collected from these thousands of participants, the investigators found no difference in the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, or coronary vascular disease between those individuals with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.
Kind of trumps the low-fat argument.
Why else is skim bad??
- Dairy producers add dry milk powder to improve protein content in skim milk which is added in a process like homogenization which causes milk’s nutrients to be damaged, as we discussed.
- Also, the cholesterol becomes oxidized which can lead to heart disease
- Vitamins A and D are fat-soluble….So you can’t absorb them from milk when all the fat has been skimmed off.
- Also, you need vitamin A for the assimilation of its protein…so it is then drawn from the liver. This can deplete the body’s reserve of vitamin A, and in turn, increase the risk of autoimmune disease and cancer
Whole/Organic
Whole milk is better choice than skim, but whole milk is often still homogenized which leads us to the same problems of homogenization listed above. However, whole milk is full-fat milk so you do not run into a majority of the problems you have with skim milk listed above.
It says organic…it has to be good.
Drinking whole organic milk may seem like the best option, and easiest if you shop at normal grocery stores, check out this fact from Natural Bias.
Many organic brands are ultrapasteurized which means that the milk is exposed to higher temperatures, but for a shorter duration. Ultrapasteurization destroys more nutrients than regular pasteurization, and the milk that results can last up to 6 months without being refrigerated. Since people would be less likely to buy ultrapasteurized milk if they knew this, stores refrigerate it anyway. Even without the residues of antibiotics, pesticides, and other chemicals, it’s arguable that ultrapasteurized organic milk is even less nutritious than conventional pasteurized milk.
The Case for Raw Milk
Raw milk contains a lot of beneficial bacteria and enzymes that help destroy pathogens and can benefit our immunity. Also, all of the badness I have described above does not happen to raw milk. You get the healthy fats, you get the vitamins, you get all the health benefits that are destroyed through our modern dairy processes. You drink milk how it was made to be, and you reap the benefits.
But I’ll get sick if I drink raw milk.
It’s estimated from CDC data that you’d have to drink more than 3 million glasses of raw milk before you might expect to contract an illness of any kind from it, and according to data on the incidence of illness caused by raw milk, you’re more than 25 times as likely to get sick from other foods. Raw milk causes about 60 cases of illness per year, which may very well be exaggerated, and is only 0.01% of the estimated 500,000 raw milk drinkers in America. In contrast, the rate of illness from other foods is 25%, or 76 million cases in a population of about 300 million.
The modern dairy process does not only remove many of the beneficial factors of milk, it actually adds negative factors.
Find a farm. Drink raw. Be a better human.
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Starting tomorrow and for the next 30 days I am going milk free (which is going to be incredibly difficult) and see what happens. Right now, finding and drinking raw is just not practical so I am going dairy free until I have better access to raw milk.
What are your thoughts on milk??
-Jerred
Sources: Dr. Weil, Natural Bias, Natural Bias, Care, Photo, Photo