Growing up on a dairy farm, I drank milk almost every day. We would take a gallon jug out to the barn and fill it up straight from the bulk tank a few times per week, make sure we shook it before we poured, and had an almost endless supply of fresh milk. Coming from that background, it may seem strange to some to hear that I haven't had a glass of milk in decades, and I discourage my kids from drinking milk. It's not about allergies or lactose intolerance, it's about the difference between what I had access to then compared to now. The milk you find in the stores is not the same milk that I drank when I was a kid, and the differences are what make it good for us or bad for us.
On our farm, the cows came into the barn to get milked. Otherwise, they spent their days ranging the pasture looking for grass to eat, and the farm was on the river, so they had a constant supply of fresh water. Only in the dead of winter did they spend any significant amount of their day indoors, but any time the kids were outside playing at school, the cows were outside the barn in the fresh air. When there wasn't grass to be found, they had hay, and that was about it. The amount of grain they ever were given was very minimal. We never sprayed anything on the pasture, and the hay was grown in the same way. Our cows were only treated for disease as needed, and never got medications or hormones to increase production. And any time our cows were on medication, that milk was thrown away. That is how cows are meant to live, and the milk they produce in that environment is high quality, hormone free, and generally good for us.
Today's farms are a different story entirely. Often, these cows are in the barn most of their lives, and spend very little time foraging for grass. They are fed a constant diet of grains to increase production, and given prophylactic antibiotics and growth hormones to ensure they produce large quantities without getting sick (of course it does shorten their life expectancy by almost half). The grains they are fed, which are now genetically modified, are usually grown on fields that are not fertilized with anything but anhydrous ammonia and then sprayed with pesticides and herbicides (usually Round-up). The milk that comes from these cows is not even close to the same quality that I had as a kid. It is far from good for us, and I would argue that it is detrimental to our health.
On top of how we produce our milk on conventional farms today, we are then forced by our government to process it before it can be sold. Most today understand that when we take wheat from the field, grind it, strip out the germ and bran, and then add vitamins and minerals back in, we have created white flour; a processed food. How then, do we consider milk to be a whole food, when we take the raw milk, strip away the fat, pasteurize it, add fat back in with vitamins A&D, force it through a fine sprayer to homogenize it so the fat doesn't rise to the top, and bottle it in plastic containers that allow light in, thus breaking down the vitamin D. How is this not just as processed as white flour? To me, it's no different.
The government has become so germaphobic that in most states, even if you want to get milk as a whole food directly from a farmer, you have to become a criminal to do it. It is illegal in Minnesota, as in most states, to sell raw milk. Where is the evidence that raw milk is dangerous? With the national media kowtowing to the medico-government complex, if anyone was actually getting sick from consuming raw milk, it would be an instant media storm, with all kinds of experts warning of the dangers of raw milk and how it has to be pasteurized to be safe. Instead, all we have are "experts" who spout dogma and not science in order to keep a potentially great whole food off the market.
I admit, there can be issues with raw milk consumption, but these issues are mostly relegated to modern conventional dairies, and has to do with the fact that the cows are confined, fed genetically modified pesticide and herbicide laden grains, and given a steady diet of drugs. If cows have a natural environment (free range pasture and clean water) and are not subjected to daily drug injections or bombarded with pesticides and herbicides in their foods, they produce a milk that is extremely high quality, and has a bacterial environment that actually is good for us. Yes, the barns must be kept clean and the milk must be refrigerated promptly, but with today's farming techniques, this is so much easier than when we cleaned the barn by hand and walked the milk over the manure-filled gutters to get to the bulk tank.
Milk does do a body good, but it must be from the right sources, and left in its natural state. Modern conventional dairies produce a flawed product that has to be processed in unhealthy ways to be safe for consumption. Only fresh, raw, whole milk produced from free range and drug free cows should be allowed to make this claim.
For more information on "real" milk, visit the Weston A Price Foundation or www.realmilk.com. As long as we allow the medico-government germaphobes to have their way, we'll continue to be a sick society. Only by educating ourselves and taking our health into our own hands will we truly find wellness.
Look for future blogs that will give more information and insights into improving your health with natural health care. You can also visit my website, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter.
No comments:
Post a Comment