The Dairygod Father: The Good, The Bad, & the Delicious- Part 1- Milk

Back again my Crock Pot Cooking Cave People, and it's time for a long awaited post on my thoughts on the delicious and potential duodenally disastrous topic of dairy.  I've decided to attack this in a three part series to keep your brain from shutting down, your eyes glossing over, and to keep drool from getting all over your keyboard.  In Part 1 of this series we are going to talk about something that we have been told "does a body good" for the past couple decades: Milk.

Through out the Paleo-sphere this topic gets debated quite a bit.  Some of the more hardcore "Cavemen", claim that it's a no go based on it's effect on insulin levels, it's potential for gut irritation (lactose and casein), and it's acidic nature.  However I'm not so sure all milk is created equal, and therefore I'm not so sure all milk is a problem for all people.  This is another one of those things that again is going to differ depending on the person, the source of the milk, and whether or not you deem it worth the money or hassle.

Milk- It does a body good right? 

This particular topic was a difficult one to research, simply because of the studies out there about milk, either condemning or praising it, are on what I consider not be real milk at all.  Most of the studies out there are looking for the benefits or potential dangers of pasteurized, conventionally grain-fed, low-fat/skim milk.  This kind of milk is no more, in my opinion, than murky water.  Let me explain why.  The first problem is the elimination of fats from milk.  As we all know (or you should by now for those of you who listen to me ramble everyday) fats are our friends, and so eliminating them from any food source is never a good thing.  However when the fats are taken out of the milk it's even more disastrous because it destroys the nutritional value of milk in a couple ways:

1. It turns delicious milk into no more than murky water, and makes it taste about the same.
2. By eliminating the fats, you have just made it damn near impossible to get any of the fat-soluble vitamins out of the milk (mainly vitamin A, but also the Vitamin D this pseudo-dairy is said to be fortified with), making it even more nutritional sparse, again like drinking murky water, since you aren't getting the vitamins you thought you were.
3. You remove the little remaining CLA from this milk which does a bunch of good stuff in the body but the most important thing in my opinion is that it has ability to nullify the effects of betacellulin, which has been shown to bind to receptors and enhance cancer cell growth-1.   

The next problem is the pasteurization of Milk.  Yeah it's great for prolonging the shelf life of diary and it is said to kill all the bacteria in raw dairy, however there are few problems with all the bacteria and enzymes in Raw Milk.

1. It doesn't make any sense to prolong the shelf life of what is basically murky water
2. When the milk is heated in the pasteurization process, important things like the milks natural Lactase, Lipase, and Phosphatase, which helps with the breakdown of milk sugars (lactose), proteins, and the absorption of calcium, are destroyed eliminating the natural digestive support given by Mother Nature, herself.  All the enzymes naturally found in milk are extremely heat sensitive making them some of the first things to go when milk is pasteurized.
3. This process not only destroys the bad bacteria but also a lot of the good ones our bodies could use.

Finally most of the milk in these studies and sold in Super Markets around the world is from conventionally grain-fed cattle.  These cows are forced to walk around in there own feces and the fecal matter of other cows, which is why they all usually get sick and need to be fed antibiotics.  As you can probably imagine cows that walks around in poop all day and are force fed food they were never meant to eat are going to produce milk that is filled with nasty bacterias, antibiotics, and viruses. These are things you definitely don't want in your body, so of course I would NEVER suggest someone drink Raw Milk from cows raised in such a manner.  That means that yes, the best thing to do to this kind of milk is Pasteurize it, and if pasteurizing it kills all the good stuff, why would you want to drink it? 

The other side of this proverbial coin is Raw Grass-fed milk.  There is quite a bit of literature out there (most of it anecdotal) that people who are lactose intolerant can drink this kind of milk and not feel like Kane from the movie "Alien".  The theory behind this is that without the pasteurization process the Raw Milk still contains the lactase, lipase, and phosphatase, that is killed in the heating process, so the raw milk is more easily digested by our bodies with the help of good Ol' Mother Nature.  The other benefit that I see with this kind of milk is that it is Grass-fed.  Allowing cows to graze and eat what they are suppose to negates the need for antibiotics and hormones, and allows the rumen of the cows to do it God given job.  It's amazing that when cows are fed what they were intended to eat, the benefits that come along with it.  The milk from these cows has been shown to have significantly higher levels of CLA, around 5x that of conventional grain-fed cattle, higher and more bio-available levels of Vitamin A, contains higher levels of Vitamin K2 in its fats, and has a Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio of 1.  These are HUGE benefits boys and girls.  Now does the milk have to be raw to contain the benefits of being grass-fed, no, but just remember any milk that's pasteurized loses the natural enzymes needed to help us humans down the milk of another animal.

We've talked about the benefits of Raw, Grass-fed milk, now lets take a look at the down side.  One of the biggest hazards is that even raw, grass-fed milk still has a high insulin response.  This means that all of you still dealing with insulin resistance, this is still a no-no, and even for those who aren't insulin resistance I would suggest only drinking it post-workout if at all.  Secondly, it's fraking (yes another BSG reference) expensive and really hard to find.  In a lot of states you can't even get it due to the problems associated with grain-fed raw milk being pressed upon grass-fed raw milk.  The final flaw, the shelf life.  The shelf life of raw milk is like 7-10 days if you refrigerate it, so you have to find it from a local source and drink it fast, and personally spiking insulin that frequently is a problem for the majority of people.  Bought in small quantities and used as a special treat, I think raw, grass-fed dairy is a decent infrequent dietary splurge, but shouldn't be ingested daily.  Where can you get it? Check out this link to a website ran by the Weston A. Price Foundation.

The final topic for discussing milk is what kind of cattle it comes from.  Most people assume that all dairy cows are created equal, however this isn't at all the case.   The two main types are A1 and A2 cattle, labeled as such based on the beta-casein present in the dairy cows milk.  A1 Beta-Casein is the nasty stuff associated with the release of beta-casomorphin-7, which is an opioid-like chemical released upon digestion.  This protein fragment is what normally causes the joint pain, digestive issues, and leaky gut generally related to all casein.  This is normally because the kind of dairy cow that produces A1 Beta-Caseins (Holsteins and Friesians, these are your typical black and white cows), also produce more milk per cow, so they are the favored dairy cows of the conventional factory farmed dairy industry.  The A2 Beta-Casein produced by cow breeds like Jerseys and Gurnseys cows (brown and white cows), hasn't been shown to cause the same problems with gut irritation, joint pain, or leaky gut problems.  So if you insist on drinking milk, or doing a GOMAD protocol try and stick to the brown cows, the Masai did and did pretty well on it.  A2 dairy is also associated with Goats milk which also seems to be less of a problem for even lactose/casein intolerant people.

No matter what I say here in defense of milk or damning it, give it a try and see how it effects you (unless you have an autoimmune issue then stay the FRAK away from it), but it grants you the Super Power to clear a large room in a single blow, DON'T EAT IT ANYMORE.  Some of us were not blessed with the ability to devour dairy without losing friends.  My suggestion is as always eliminate it for a while (30 days usually works well) and then slowly add small amounts of it back in and see how it treats you.

Coming Soon- Dairy: The Good, The Bad, the Delicious- Part 2- Cheese

Articles used and quoted in this blog post:

1. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dairy-intolerance/

2. Eat Wild

3. http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/conjugated-linoleic-acid-cla-and-breast-milk

4. http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/dairy-fat-and-diabetes.html