Milk

Milk is a great source of protein, as long as it is organic, or even better raw. Raw milk is not pasteurized or homogenized.  Raw milk contains all the essential amino acids that are necessary for proper cellular growth. The problem with raw milk is that it doesn’t keep long, it spoils within a few days.  This was the problem years ago.  The population of America was growing vastly and the demand of milk was high.  There wasn’t enough milk being produced naturally to supply the people.  Pasteurization and homogenization helped solve the spoiling issue of milk.  A gallon of pasteurized / homogenized milk can last 4 to 6 weeks, almost three weeks longer than raw milk. Unfortunately, pasterurization and homogenization destroys the amino acid structure and can also alter the cholesterol structure.  This is due to the heating process that kills all the bacteria through the pasteurization process.  What is left is a substance that can be hard to digest.  This is why some people have allergies to milk. They do not have the enzymes to break down the pasteurized milk.  I used to have milk allergies. Once I changed over to raw milk my allergies went away.

The Milk Myth

Milk should not be consumed by humans after the age of 3, because milk is for baby cows.  GIVE ME A BREAK FOLKS!!! This idea drives me nuts.  This is some silly idea that a vegetarian group promoted years ago. Commercial milking of cows is not the most humane process, in fact it is down right upsetting. To protest against the cruelty of animals (cows) some groups came out and stated that we don’t need to drink milk, and that it is only for baby cows.  Though this concept is nice in the fact that it increases the awareness of how milk factories operate and are sometimes operating inhumanly, to say that milk is not a viable food for human consumption is FLAT OUT INCORRECT.

I am all about the humane practices and healthy organic way of living. I could tell you stories about the food industry that would make you never eat certain foods ever again. I will save that for another day. I want to discuss with you how the body works and why milk is healthy to consume.

The body is designed to breakdown fat, protein, carbohydrates (macro nutrients). These macro nutrients are then broken down into micro nutrients.  During the process of eating, enzymes are activated in the saliva and begin to mix with the food. The food travels down the esophagus and blends with the body’s enzymes to continue the breakdown of food.  The stomach is designed to breakdown food into smaller units to be delivered to the intestines.  The intestines breakdown the food further and the nutrients are filtered through the liver and enters the blood.

When you eat a particular food, as long at it is healthy and organic, the body will digest it with no problems.  The body doesn’t know where the food came from whether it came from a cow, a goat, a human, the ground, the sky. It makes no judgement of where the food came from.  It only sees the molecular configuration of amino acids, fatty acids, cholesterol, carbohydrates and breaks them down accordingly.  Protein is protein, fat is fat, sugar is sugar, the body is designed to break them compounds down.  Baby cows don’t need to consume milk after a certain age because they are herbivores, not carnivores. They eat grass and grains. Herbivores have a different digestive enzyme system than carnivores. Their digestive systems are designed to assimilate  alkaline foods into proteins to build and repair cells.  Carnivores digestive system works by balancing acidic and alkaline foods.  Meat, dairy, fish, poultry, eggs, are acidic foods that are digested with the help of acidic enzymes.  As long as we have this system within our make up we will be able to eat animal products with no problem. The human body is designed to eat animals.  As crazy at it seems, the human digestive system is designed to consume an entire animal, except for the fur, bone, cartilage etc. But we have enough digestive enzymes to help digest just about any animal product.

The stomach houses hydrochloric acid.  Hydrochloric acid is so acidic that can can eat away tissue.  People who are stressed out all the time can develop acid reflux. Acid reflux is the leaking of the hydrochloric acid from the stomach and gets into the esophagus and begins to deteriorate the lining. Also, HCL is so powerful that if you were to put your hand down your throat and into your stomach the acid would begin to digest your own hand tissue.  This is why we can eat animal meat.  Animal meat consists of muscle and some times skin and cartilage (eating chicken off the bone). The stomach is able to breakdown muscle, skin and cartilage from animals with no problem.  So if you were to stick your hand in your stomach, the body wouldn’t know that it was your own hand, it would just break it down.

This is much like milk. The body doesn’t care where the food came from, or whether it  had eyes and was a living breathing animal, it just digests it and uses the nutrients from it to feed the body.

Eating healthy organic raw foods is the best for the body.  Eating processed and mutated foods is what causes problems with health. Milk is not bad for you unless you consume pasteurized and homogenized milk. Then you take the chance of developing an allergy or disease.  Many anti-milk drinkers protest that you will develop cancer from drinking milk.  I can agree with this.  It isn’t the milk that causes the cancer it is the chemicals, preservatives and additives that does.  So when someone who drinks milk develops prostate cancer, the anti-milk group goes up in arms stating that the milk caused the cancer and that it proves that humans shouldn’t consume milk.  But they are misinformed and need to know that it isn’t the milk it is the processing of the milk that is the problem.

Skim Milk is better for you.

This is also a myth.  Skim milk is the watery substance that is separated from milk.  When milk is pumped out of the cow and settles in the bucket. The milk separates into different layers.  Fat weighs less molecularly than sugar therefore it raises to the top.  Whole milk contains more proteins, lactose (sugar) than cream and is heavier so it sits under cream.  The less the protein and fat the more watery and heavier the molecular weight becomes.  Skim milk is primarily made up of lactose.  Lactose is the sugar in milk.  Sugar molecules weigh more than fat and therefore sink to the bottom.  So in essence skim milk is sugar water.  There is not much protein and fat in skim milk.  Fat must be present to stabilize protein.  Take away fat and protein and you are left with skim milk.  So in order to sell skim milk to the public, the milk companies add in protein and some additives to increase the protein content.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that the protein is a viable protein. Because protein and fat must co-exist in order to stabilize protein.  Protein and sugars don’t mix well. Also, milk companies will add in powdered milk products to make the skim milk look white. People won’t drink a clear milk product, it has to be white to satisfy the visual perception. So additives are added to give color and to thicken up the skim milk to make it more sellable. Unfortunately, the additives and agents used are carcinogens and mutagenic. Which can result in ill effects such as; allergies, digestive disorders, cancers, coronary artery disease, if consumed in large amounts over time.

Like I always say, as long as man manipulates and breaks down the natural configurations of organic natural food, the human being will be subjected to illness and disease.

Milk is a great source of protein. Try to drink organic if you can. Better yet, drink raw if you can.

Daryl Conant, M.Ed

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