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April / May 2007
by Barbara Davies, ND
by Freddy Silva by Shelley Yates Beyond the Secret: The Law of Attraction for World Peace by Julia King RAW versus PASTEURIZED MILK - part one by Lisa Marie Bhattacharya (Whitaker)
Horoscopes for February and March (pdf file format) by Laura
Marketing for Healing Professionals by Juliet Austin, MA, Marketing Coach
by Yoga Teacher Sheri Kauhausen
Inspirations by Devrah Laval
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RAW versus PASTEURIZED MILK - part oneby Lisa Marie Bhattacharya (Whitaker)
The topic of raw milk has become a hot topic. You may have heard that this past November Ontario farmer Michael Schmidt’s home and farm were raided due to his legal distribution of raw milk. Yes, I’m writing legal, not illegal. He knew of a “loophole” in the law and was able to provide anyone requesting raw milk from his farm with a share in one of his dairy cows. In other words, the person buying a share, then, in part owns the cow from which raw milk is received. This avoids any issues with unlawfulness. This is a pretty clever way to gain access to a product that many people have been raised on, have thrived on and could no longer easily gain access to as the selling and distribution of raw milk is illegal in Canada. Many people who are advocates of raw milk believe that raw milk’s benefits far outweigh that of commercially pasteurized milk. As a Holistic Nutritionist my belief is that our food should be minimally, if at all, processed and/or refined – keeping it in from its whole natural state as nature intended. The same applies to dairy products. Some people argue that dairy has only been consumed as a regular food staple for roughly 1000 years and the evolution of our digestive functions cannot bare the load of digesting such foods. Actually there are Indian epics such as the Mahabharata that outdate these claims by possibly tens of thousands of years, in which is discussed the clarification of butter into ghee. Regardless, raw milk requires the least of our health safety attention. There are many cultures that have subsisted quite well on many forms of milk products from various livestock such as goat, reindeer, buffalo, llama and sheep and so on. So, quite frankly, I’m inclined to trust statistics (a well-respected, well-recognized science) and traditional knowledge over modern technology and corporate bias – “always consider the source” my statistics professor used to exclaim. Call me old-fashioned but I think we have to have a source we can trust or what do we have? The misinformation on the raw milk issue can be compared with the whole “saturated fats cause heart disease and high cholesterol” issue. The fact that we’re still blaming saturated fat for these ailments when its consumption has declined inversely with the rise of Heart Disease and bad Cholesterol is preposterous. Consider that for a moment. Were you aware of this? Where are we getting the majority of our health information from? More often than not it’s from the very sources that are steering us toward products to treat the diseases we develop. In other words, our health is usually not their number one priority. My intention is not to demonize anyone but we need to take responsibility for how we make our choices and take our actions. Unfortunately, we seemed to have taken a big “distraction pill” from what is truly a Canadian priority: our health and that of our loved ones and the health of our planet. So getting back to the raw milk issue I see it as symbolic of a much bigger question to consider: Should someone else, with a clear “distraction” from our health as a priority, be deciding for us? Another issue to consider is that people who want legal access to raw milk as a free choice – simply want to exercise a basic human right (Section 7 of the Charter of Human Rights says: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”). These same rights allow us to choose to eat chicken or broccoli for dinner. Both of these foods, by the way, have a higher chance of giving us E.coli than raw milk does. Raw milk consumers are not asking for mass changes in the distribution of milk as it is presently. They are simply asking for a right to a choice in the matter. “It’s such an ancient law. I’m not saying that everybody should drink raw milk, but I’m saying people should have a choice.” – Ontario Farmer Michael Schmidt
Yet another valid point was voiced recently on the web: “the so-called health experts say that raw milk can contain dangerous bacteria (e-coli, salmonella, etc.), however, the statement should be qualified by saying that this is only true if it is handled un-hygienically as it certainly does not naturally contain these organisms. For that matter, any food item which is handled improperly or comes into contact with germs poses a risk if consumed, as in the recent case of Hershey’s chocolate and Taco Bells. Do you see these companies being raided and threatened with legal action as the Ontario farmer was? And this farmer has never in almost 20 years encountered a single complaint of health issues related to his raw milk distribution. He clearly is being made an example of, for the benefit of those opposed to distribution of raw milk.
RAW MILK AVAILABILITY OUTSIDE OF CANADA RAW MILK VERSUS PASTEURIZED MILK NUTRITION Enzymes: All available; including lactase, galactase etc. Proteins: 100% available, all 22 amino acids, including 8 that are essential. 18 fatty acids: all metabolically available, both saturated and unsaturated fats.* Vitamins: all 100% available, including B vitamins, vitamin A, C, D, E & F. Minerals: All 100% metabolically available. Major mineral components are calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and sulphur. Vital trace minerals - 24 - or more, are 100% available. Carbohydrates: Easily utilized in metabolism. Bacteria growth in Raw Milk increases very slowly, because the friendly acid-forming bacteria (nature’s antiseptic) retards the growth of invading organisms (bacteria). ** All this and it tastes absolutely like pure, creamy, delicious goodness! How can you go wrong with a happy, wide-eyed, sunshine gazing, grass-eating jersey cow (or sheep or goat)? Unless you are a strict vegetarian or it is against your religion to consume milk, (organic) raw milk is an excellent whole, natural, nutrient-packed, sustainable food that will contribute to your good, lasting health. Pasteurizing milk entails heating the milk to a temperature of 145 degrees to 150 degrees F, keeping it there for at least half an hour and then reducing the temperature to not more than 55 degrees F, which completely changes the structure of the milk proteins, denaturing it into something far less than healthy. While this process has the potential to certainly destroy germs and bad bacteria, it also destroys the milk’s beneficial bacteria along with many of its nutritious components. Enzymes: most are destroyed, maximum 10% remaining. |
Minerals: either diminished or their activity is greatly reduced (i.e.: Calcium altered and no longer as well metabolized and therefore affecting the effectiveness of other minerals present) Immune components: denatured or destroyed. This is why raw milk will eventually curdle and sour if allowed to sit at room temperature. *** Pasteurized milk, not having any beneficial bacteria or enzymes, eventually rots. So the irony of pasteurization is that it actually destroys the germicidal properties of milk. Experimental animals deteriorate rapidly on pasteurized milk. For instance, calves fed pasteurized milk die within 60 days, as shown by numerous experiments. So why do we pasteurize milk? 1) It extends the shelf life of milk from five days to several weeks and 2) It enables the farmer to have lower standards of cleanliness. The standards for certified dairy herds and milk handlers of raw milk are considerably higher than for herds whose milk is to be pasteurized. Pasteurized cow’s milk is one of the number one allergic foods on this continent. It has been associated with a number of symptoms and illnesses including:
Raw milk, on the other hand, is not associated with any of these problems and even people who have been allergic to pasteurized milk for many years can typically tolerate and even thrive on raw milk.
HOMOGENIZATION Scientists have discovered that a significant amount of XO is present in areas of hardened and blocked arteries. XO is not present in human milk. In clean, raw cow’s milk XO is not absorbed by the intestines. Then there is the issue of the antibiotics, pesticides and growth hormones and the fact that nearly all commercial dairy cows are raised on grains, not grass, which they are designed to eat. This will change the composition of the fats in the milk, especially the beneficial Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA), content. Conjugated linoleic acid is unique because it is only present in food from animal sources (500 % higher in pasture fed cows), and its anticancer and weight-loss / muscle-gaining efficacy is expressed at concentrations near human consumption levels.
LOW-FAT SEEKERS & CHOLESTEROL-WATCHERS BEWARE... *Synthetic minerals that are added to fortify products should not be considered as optimal nutrients. Non-fat dried milk is added to 1% and 2% milk. Unlike the good kind of cholesterol in fresh milk, which plays a variety of health promoting roles, the cholesterol in dried milk (powder) is oxidized and it is this rancid cholesterol that promotes heart disease. And like all spray dried products, dried milk has a high nitrite content. So, if you want to lose fat or high cholesterol drink raw milk – there are plenty of studies that show it improves these conditions, unfortunately these studies don’t get a lot of press (check out informative links below)
BONE HEALTH Vegetarian? It’s possible to obtain all your calcium from dark green vegetables (where do you think the outdoor free range cows gets theirs from?) and sea vegetables. The darker the greens, the better; cooked collard greens, kale, wakame, hijiki and kombu are especially high in a multitude of minerals, not just calcium.
NEXT ISSUE: part two - Vegetarian? Politics, Allergies / Infections, Recommended Reading and Sources, Resources and web sites. Lisa Marie Bhattacharya (Whitaker) is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN.) who is passionate about whole, natural foods, as nature intended. for herself and her clients. Her interest in food policy comes naturally and she encourages people to choose sustainable foods, benefiting both our external and internal environment, whenever possible. She can be reached at 604-714-4065 and spreadvitality@yahoo.com and www.lisamariewhitaker.com. She is an active member of the Vancouver community including being a member of the Vancouver Chapter of the Weston A. Price Organisation. If you’d like to become a member, please email her at the above address for more information. |
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