Thursday, May 20, 2010

MIlk


I haven't talked about milk in a long time and I get questions about it all time. Let's readdress the issues.

First off; milk in the stores is not good for you. Plain and simple. Why? Here are a few reasons to start with:


#1: Most of the time the cows it is derived from are treated with hormones and antibiotics, not to mention the fact that they are eating corn or grass that has pesticides on it.You get all that in your milk. Yuck.

#2 The milk is then pasteurized and homogenized which kills any enzymes it once had to actually help you digest the high amount of proteins that are in the milk. Now, the milk is left without nutrition and actually can leach the calcium from your bones. You get plenty of calcium in other foods that are actually digestible. It is a great myth that you need milk for calcium.

#3: Milk creates mucous. Mucous feeds yeast. It can cause allergies and ear infections. In fact, dairy is the number one allergy. Anyone who has stomach issues, stuffy noses or runny noses or ear infections should always eliminate dairy right off.

The Goodman household never drinks milk. We do use milk to cook with , to make yogurt and to culture
Kefir. We buy our milk right from the Cow. Organic grass fed cows. It still has enzymes, it still has vitamins. Since the cows we have around here are the black and white type, mucous production is still an issue so we still don't want to drink it. If you can get the brown type cow milk, it has a much lower propensity to create mucous. Even so, milk should be a food not a drink. All mammals are weaned. Mom's milk dries up. There is a reason. It is very high in protein and is needed in infancy. However , as the baby or animal grows, they actually loose some of the enzymes used to digest the milk. I am sure that is all part of the master plan. We don't need all that protein anymore. Our systems are changed to adapt to what we now need.
Once my babies were weaned, we went right to rice milk or almond milk. Never , ever, not once did I ever put cow's milk in a bottle. Ever. The earlier you introduce cow's milk to a child, the higher chance they will have a dairy allergy. And, once you get one allergy, you are that much more likely to create more allergies.

Culturing milk for yogurt or
kefir actually puts back the enzyme in the milk that most of us are lacking; lactase. It will render the milk more digestible. Culturing also creates probiotics in the dairy to help with beneficial bacteria. Many harder cheeses like cheddar and Parmesan are cured over 60 days and they too are much easier to digest. Many people still cannot handle milk in any form and a couple of mine have those issues. If you cure your yogurt for 24 hours, it will be much more broken down and even easier to digest. I still do not recommend dairy in any form to those with a true allergy.

So, if you are lucky enough to get raw milk, spend the extra money. I get mine from Save Your Dairy in Queen Creek with a drop off near my home. You can google them and find out more. If you don't live here, google raw milk to see if you have some close to you.

Goats milk is another option, I have a friend in Queen Creek that is selling some of her raw goats milk and some eggs. Goats milk is much easier to digest and many can handle goats milk even if they can't handle cow's milk. It has much less proteins.

You may email Denise at:
rockin7ks@aol.com. She is selling the milk for $4 per half gallon. It is great for yogurt as well. I can't wait to try my hand at some goat cheese. As soon as I get to that, I will blog my adventures.

If you are looking to start your own yogurt or
kefir, I bought my cultures from Culturesforhealth.com. I would be happy to give any tips I have learned. It is super easy and way cost effective.

So, homework assignment: if you are a dairy drinker or have cold cereal for breakfast, break the habit. Your body will love you for it. If you have kids with runny noses, cut the dairy and watch the magic happen.

12 comments:

Angela said...

Hey Shari,
I have recently switched my kids to rice milk, but my husband asked if the rice milk had enough fat in it. I don't think it does. How do you make sure your kids get enough healthy fat in their diet? Just the CLO or other stuff too? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to revamp our eating habits! Angela

Shari Goodman said...

Rice milk doesn't have the fat like regular milk but there are lots of ways to get good fat. Nuts, avacado's, Cod Liver oil, flax oil, coconut oil, etc. We don't need to get fat in our drinks. eat whole foods that have fats that are digestible.

Kara said...

Homogenization is the most terrible processing as it oxidizes the cholesterol making it basically toxic!

Sometimes people forget that almond milk from a box highly differs from homemade almond milk. For one you can soak, making it much more digestible and you can keep it raw so that you are getting all the great enzymes. Making things at home is far better in pretty much all circumstances.

Shari Goodman said...

Totally agree with you, Kara. Studies show that those who drink milk actually have a higher risk for heart disease mostly due to the homogenization process. No one really talks about that.

Almond milk really is easy to make. I still wouldn't drink it too much as a beverage because nuts are easy to become allergic to if you eat too much of it, as with all things. Rotation is key.

DK said...

I too have gotten our raw milk from 'Save the Dairy' in Queen Creek (even though it's so expensive), however I wanted to ask you how you skim your cream? I have been using a turkey baster to kindof 'suck' it out of the gallon but I'm definitely getting milk w/the cream and not all the cream out of the gallon. What is the best way you found to skim your cream? I'm so excited my sister bought a cow and she had her calf about a month ago.... soon I will be getting my milk from her and I already get eggs from all her chickens.

Shari Goodman said...

I just shake up the cream each time in the milk. It is great to use with yogurt. I have never skimmed. Anyone else out there who has with ideas?

Kara said...

Save Your Dairy skim's their milk and sells the cream separately. When we get milk from a nearby farm back in Iowa, the gallon separates and is 1/3 cream! With Save Your Dairy's milk we get a couple of inches on the top which is not worth messing with. Like Shari said, just shake it up. The fat is necessary for your body to assimilate the vitamins.

Angela said...

Thanks Shari and Kara for answering my questions. I've been wanting to try Save the Dairy, I think I will. My son Grant is allergic to nuts, so I've been using the Organic rice milk from Costco. Do you know of any problems with rice milk?

Shari Goodman said...

For rice milk, the Pacific brand is better than rice dream for nutritional reasons. I bought the enriched , vanilla version. I am pretty sure you can buy it organic. Sprouts will give you a case discount many times.

Linda Merrill said...

Trader Joe's has really good Organic rice milk and it's also the cheapest price I've found.

Shari... I have a quick question. My 10 month old is on an organic dairy-based formula and I know this is why she has a constant crusty, runny nose. I hate that she has to be on this. I want to take her off of formula early. Do you think this is okay? I know "they" say to keep babies on formula or breastmilk until they are one years old. I nursed her for 6 months and did the best I could with that. But seriously, I want to take her off of it now! Soy formula is not an option for me..... I think the dairy based is the lesser of the two evils. I hate giving it to her. What would you do?

Lindsay said...

They do not skim their milk right now because they don't have a skimmer and their milk isn't that rich because of the breed of cow they have. My sister-in-law was saying that they are looking into getting a skimmer and some jersery cows so they can sell cream. So, I would think it's fine to just shake it up without worrying about super high fat content.

Kara said...

Love you new format Shari :)

Save Your Dairy sells cream sold as "animal feed" because it isn't pure cream since they don't have the equipment to separate it. They just let is sit in large vats and skim the cream off the top. I buy it sometimes. It is hit and miss, sometimes it whips up pretty well and sometimes it is just not pure enough. I will be excited when I can get real cream from them though.