What a heretical statement!  Dare I suggest that milk is not “the perfect food for every body?”  I dare.  For a number of different reasons cow’s milk is probably exceeded among foods in its ill-health effects by white sugar and white flour.

Let’s talk about it.

MILK VS. CULTURED MILK

            My concern is with straight, uncultured cow’s milk.  I’m not talking about cultured cow’s milk dairy products such as natural cheeses, cottage cheese, cream cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir.  Very often in testing, when clients find  they’re sensitive to cow’s milk, but okay on cheese and yogurt, they’ll say, “How can that be?  Aren’t they milk?”

            The answer, of course, is that cheese and yogurt are not milk — they are made from milk.  Big difference!  When beneficial bacteria are added to straight milk to culture it into cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, buttermilk or yogurt, the protein is broken down — it’s predigested.  This eliminates the major problem causing the food sensitivity to milk — its indigestibility.

PURPOSE OF MILK

            Milk was created by God for the sole purpose of nourishing the newborn.  Milk is an infant food.  It was never designed for adult people or adult animals to have.  We can learn so much about God’s design for things if we simply observe the creation.

            Do animals keep drinking milk from their mothers forever?  No, it lasts for maybe a year or so.  Therefore, how long did God intend for the baby cow or baby goat or baby deer to drink milk?  As long as Mom produces it.

            Now, let’s carry this over to humans.  When does a woman stop lactating?  If she’s really healthy and well nourished, she can lactate for two or three years after birth, though after a year the milk flow will be slight.    Therefore, how long did God intend for human babies to drink milk?  Same answer—as long as Mom produces it.

FOR BABY COWS

            Observing the Creation teaches us another key point about the usage of milk for nutrition.  Not only is it an infant food, but the milk should match the animal.  God made sheep milk for baby sheep, whale milk for baby whales, deer milk for baby deer, goat milk for baby goats, AND (a little trumpet fanfare, please) COW’S MILK FOR BABY COWS!   What could be more obvious for simply look at the way God created things?

            Milk is a unique substance that is designed for the unique nourishment needs of each mammal.  Consider the differences.  A baby cow or goat or sheep is on its feet and pretty much functioning within moments after birth.  A baby human can’t walk till it’s nearly a year old.  Human babies are virtually helpless the first year of life in particular.

            The cow’s milk is designed to grow a very large animal that is by design a beast of burden.  So if you grow up drinking a lot of cow’s milk, what are you likely to produce by way of weight and body structure?  God’s design in the Creation is crystal clear:  Each mammal consumes its own mother’s milk.  So, the only one for whom cow’s milk is the “perfect food” is a baby cow.

PASTEURIZATION & HOMOGENIZATION

            The basic incompatibility of cow’s milk for humans is further complicated by two awful things we do to milk— pasteurization and homogenization.  Pasteurization involves generally a flash heating of the milk to 161 degrees  for 15 seconds.  The purpose of pasteurization is to destroy disease-causing organisms.  It also destroys spoilage microorganisms extending the shelf life of the milk.

            Sounds good, until you learn the extent of nutrient losses in pasteurized milk:  50% of the vitamin C, 90% of the enzymes, alteration of 10 of the 18 fatty acids, one-third loss of vitamins A and D, 38 – 80% destruction of B vitamins, and 50% loss of calcium and probably other minerals.

            The ironic part of this is that pasteurization didn’t really solve the problem of “dirty” milk on the market — actually it increased it.  Bernard A. Bellew, M.D. in his book, The New Diet Dynamics, comments:

“. . . those dairymen who did not wish to clean up their herds . . . could claim the milk they produced was pure because it was pasteurized.  For this reason, it was 1941 . . . before bovine tuberculosis was wiped out of every dairy herd in the United States.”

            Certified raw milk (guaranteed to come from disease-free cows, is in reality much safer than the potentially diseased pasteurized milk.  While cow’s milk, even if it’s raw with all its nutrients intact, isn’t the appropriate food for humans, it is made much worse by pasteurization.

            But that’s not all, for we have further health problems created by homogenization.  Homogenization is a mechanical process designed to break the fat globules in the milk down into a smaller size so that the cream doesn’t rise to the top.  Among other things, it has been suggested by cardiologist, Kurt Oster, M.D.,  that this denaturing of the fat in milk causes hardening of the arteries.  It also causes the milk to be less digestible, further increasing its allergic problem.

HEALTH PROBLEMS CAUSED BY COW’S MILK

            Because our digestive systems weren’t created for cow’s milk, we tend to react to it.  In the extreme that may produce abdominal cramping or diarrhea.  More commonly it just produces congestion — mucous, as an immune system reaction.

            This excess mucous is a significant factor with colds, sinusitis, asthma and ear infections, just to mention a few common ailments.  This is most often observed in children.  Almost all the children I see in my practice that have ear infections or asthma are drinking cow’s milk.  Many will solve these problems just from eliminating cow’s milk.  Often even the cultured dairy products like cheese and yogurt will also be a problem in these cases.  However, unlike the straight, uncultured cow’s milk, the cultured forms can usually be desensitized using homeopathic dilutions.

            Frank Oski, M.D., Pediatrician and then department head at New York University, wrote a book back in the late 70’s called Don’t Drink Your Milk!  Among other things, he notes that 25% of the children fed cow’s milk in their first six months of life will develop allergies.  Dr. Oski writes:

“The infant should never receive cow milk in an unmodified form.  After the first year of life, the child requires no milk of any type.”

WHERE WILL I GET MY CALCIUM?

            Thanks to decades of consistent propaganda from the dairy industry’s advertising, the average American has been duped into thinking that cow’s milk is the only place they can get significant amounts of calcium.  Not true! 

            First of all, for most people, avoidance of cultured dairy products is not necessary.  So, I’m usually not telling people to avoid all dairy products, but rather just the straight cow’s milk.  A cup of yogurt actually has slightly more  calcium than a cup of plain cow’s milk.

            But even if you were sensitive to all dairy products, there are numerous non-dairy sources of calcium and other minerals.  High calcium foods include soy, buckwheat pancakes, brown rice, bulgar wheat, fish, dried apricots, papaya, oranges, cooked prunes, cooked rhubarb, most meats, almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, collard greens, spinach, garbanzo beans, and a whole lot more   A wide variety of non-dairy foods has an abundant amount of calcium and other minerals.  You need not be dependent on straight milk.

COW’S MILK SUBSTITUTES

            So, if we should avoid plain cow’s milk, what do we substitute?  Let me first tell you some milk substitutes that are not recommended:

1. Acidophilus Milk — Acidophilus milk is simply that — acidophilus bacteria added to milk.  The problem is that it isn’t a cultured milk like yogurt.  It’s just acidophilus added to the milk.  You therefore get the uncultured milk with all its indigestibility and allergy problems with simply some acidophilus added to it.  If you want acidophilus in your milk, may I suggest using a high quality yogurt like the Mountain High, Cascade Fresh, or Nancy’s brand names, where the acidophilus has predigested the milk, making it more compatible with your body.  Acidophilus Milk is, in my view, just a marketing gimmick of no real value.  It will pretty much be as allergenic as plain milk.
2. Mocha Mix — This is a soy milk product primarily, but one look at the lengthy ingredient list of numerous synthetic food additives would label it as a junk food.

            So what are the good milk substitutes then?

1. Rice Milk — Rice Dream Beverage and now other brands of rice milk, are my preferred cow’s milk substitute.
2. Soy Milk — As long as you’re not sensitive to soy, this is fine.  Taste acceptability varies widely with brands, so if you try one soy milk that you don’t like, don’t give up.  In my experience, more people prefer the taste of rice milk over soy milk.
3. Goat’s Milk ­­— I know what you’re going to say—goat’s milk is for baby goats.  That’s true.  However, goat’s milk is more like human milk and is much more digestible than cow’s milk.  A relatively small percentage of people are sensitive to it.  Basically I recommend goat’s milk for infants that should still be getting mother’s milk, but are unable.

            Having identified these three as possible cow’s milk substitutes, let me say that other than milk on cereal or some cooking situations, you shouldn’t have much need for milk anyway.  I do not recommend just drinking a glass of milk, whether cow’s milk or a milk substitute.  Just say “no.”

Better Health Update is published by Pacific Health Center, PO Box 1066, Sisters, Oregon 97759, Phone (800) 255–4246 with a branch clinic in Portland, Oregon.  E-Mail:  drkline@pacifichealthcenter.com.   Monte Kline, Clinical Nutritionist, Author.  Reproduction Prohibited.

DISCLAIMER:  The information contained in this publication is for educational purposes only.  It is not intended to diagnose illness nor prescribe treatment.  Rather, this material  is designed to be used in cooperation with your nutritionally-oriented health professional to deal with your personal health problems.  Should you use this information on your own, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your constitutional right, but neither the author nor publisher assume responsibility.