Milk-the perfect food??? 
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Milk - The Perfect Food?
Contents
Introduction
Cow's Milk Is Designed For Cows
Immune System
Toxins
Pasteurization
Milk Promotes Calcium Loss
Bovine Growth Hormone
Cancer
Allergy
Xanthine Oxidase
Multiple Sclerosis
Juvenile Diabetes
Cholesterol
Kidney Stones
Conclusion
Introduction
Milk provokes images synonymous of home and goodness. It conjures up the warm, fuzzy feeling of being cared for and protected. How often the universal mother of us all has reminded us to "drink all your milk" so we will grow strong and healthy. The white color of milk reminds us of purity and cleanliness. It's no wonder that most of us look on milk as the perfect food.
Contrary to popular belief, this picture is far from the truth. In reality, processed cow's milk is a chemical soup that is highly toxic and a negative fountain of youth for adults. To put it simply, cow's milk is not healthy for humans. It has been linked to a variety of diseases, including allergies, diarrhea, colic, and cramps in children. In adults, it is linked to heart disease, arthritis, autoimmune disease, allergies, and certain types of cancer such as leukemia and lymphoma. Most the world's population does not drink or use cow's milk. The reason is simple - cow's milk makes them sick.
Cow's Milk Is Designed For Cows
Milk is a maternal lactating secretion and a short-term nutrient for newborns. In the animal kingdom, a baby is weaned from milk when its body weight reaches approximately three times that at birth. All animals wean their off-spring at a fixed time peculiar to their species, except humans who continue to drink milk, if not their own mother's, then that of the mothers of other mammals.
The milk of mammals is species-specific. The milk of every species is unique and tailored to the requirements of that animal. Humans, as a species, evolved due to advanced neurological development and delicate neuromuscular control. Essential fatty acid forms an integral part of the human neurological system for memory and intelligence, while protein is the basic building block of massive skeletal growth needed in a calf for survival in the wild. Cow's milk is therefore designed for calves and not for human babies.
The primary type of protein in cow's milk is casein. There is four times more casein in cow's milk than human milk. It also has five to seven times the mineral content, but severely deficient in essential fatty acids when compared to human mother's milk. Human milk, on the other hand, has eight times more essential fatty acids, especially Linoleic acid.
Immune System
Cow's milk contains many proteins that are poorly digested and harmful to the immune system. When protein in our food is properly broken down by the digestive system into amino acids, it does no harm to the immune system. Some food proteins such as casein, however, are absorbed into the blood fully undigested, provoking an immune response. Repeated and persistent exposure to these proteins disrupts normal immune function, leading to a multitude of diseases.
One of the best screening tests and the first line of treatment for allergy and immune system dysfunction is removing dairy products from the diet. This has been shown to shrink enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Reports of marked reduction in colds, flu, sinusitis, and ear infections are commonly reported after discontinuation of milk.
Toxins
The 20th century diet of cows is rife with pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and traces of heavy metals, along with chemicals to enhance growth and productivity. Whatever a cow eats shows up in her udders, including grass, silage, straw, cereals, roots, tubers, legumes, oilseeds, oilcakes, and milk by-products, which contain a variety of chemical additives. This is a far cry from the grass fed free roaming cattle of the old days. Breeding methods now produce cows that generates three times more milk that the old-fashioned scrub cow.
Milk is an ideal storage medium for dissolved environmental chemicals. Most environmental contaminants are of the fat-soluble type and milk has about four percent fat. The water-soluble chemicals dissolve easily in the predominantly aqueous part of milk. Therefore, we find in milk all types of chemicals, fat-soluble and water-soluble, because milk offers both environments.
A lactating mammal excretes toxins through her milk. This includes pesticides, chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics. Chemicals fed to cows are transferred to milk and eventually into our body upon consumption of milk from such lactating cows.
Drugs such as hormones or antibiotics given to cows show up in the milk in short order. For example, antibiotics like penicillin given to cows to treat mastitis is responsible for the failure of milk to have "starter" reaction in cheese making. About one percent of milk today is unsuitable for cheese making due to high levels of penicillin.
The exposure to small levels of antibiotics in milk is also dangerous since it causes modification of "good" bacteria in the intestine leading to vitamin and mineral deficiencies and often "superinfection" - the increased tendency to contract infections.
Long-term exposures to low-levels of antibiotics are extremely harmful to health since these exposures produce drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Such is the case with a class of drugs known as sulfonamides used to prevent infections in cows. Low level exposure to sulfonamides produces resistant strains of bacteria and makes this otherwise useful drug ineffective.
Other environmental hazards in milk use comes from the radioactivity - from the sun and x-rays and, occasionally, from fallouts of catastrophe such as Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl. The fallout is the settling of the fission products of a nuclear reaction, in the air, on the ground, or below the ground. Such radioactive material can be carried by wind for miles and the fallout may last for months or years, dispersing throughout the globe.
Pasteurization
Processed milk from cow is commercially pasteurized to assure safety. Pasteurization also destroys some of milk's valuable nutrition, including almost all vitamin D, half of all vitamin C, and half to three-quarters of vitamin B-complex.
The essential enzymes and growth factors destroyed during pasteurization are irreplaceable, unlike vitamins A & D. For example, phosphatase enzyme in milk is necessary for the absorption of calcium. Pasteurization destroys this enzyme, rendering pasteurized milk a poor source of calcium that can be utilized by the body. Other enzymes destroyed include lactase for assimilation of lactose and galactase for the assimilation of galactose. Milk devoid of such enzymes are much more difficult to digest and acts as a stressor on our body.
In essence, pasteurization of the milk drastically changes the structure of the milk proteins (denaturization) into something far less than healthy than "nature's most nearly perfect food" we have been lead to believe.
Despite the disadvantages, pasteurization is perhaps the only way to assure safety of milk on a bulk-production basis. Without pasteurization, daily bacterial counts, weekly anaerobic tests, monthly bacteria cultures are needed to monitor the milk. In addition, regular blood tests have to be conducted on cows themselves every 60 days, and T.B. skin tests made every six months. It is obvious that this practice is prohibitively expensive.
Milk Promotes Calcium Loss
A major concern of those advised to stop drinking milk is, "What will happen to my teeth and bones?" The answer is astoundingly simple, "They will improve."
The majority of the world's population takes in less than half the recommended daily calcium intake of 800 mg a day and yet they have strong bones and healthy teeth. The notion that continuous ingestion of high amount of calcium in order to maintain strong bones and prevent osteoporosis must be dispelled. Studies have repeated shown that strong bone is more a function of optimum amount of magnesium rather than calcium from a nutrient perspective.
While milk provides calcium, it is ironic that milk also promotes calcium loss in the body. There are two main reasons for this:
1. Excessive proteins intake from cow's milk increase the need for minerals to neutralize the acid formed from digesting animal protein. Such minerals include calcium and magnesium. 99 percent of the body's calcium and 60 percent of the body's magnesium is stored in the bone. To neutralize the acidic environment, calcium are mobilized from the bone to the blood, resulting in a loss of calcium from the bone. In fact, calcium excretion and bone loss increase in proportion to the amount of animal protein consumed.
Milk and diary products are therefore acid forming substances. Acidic byproducts that accumulate in the body is one primary cause of accelerated aging and cancer. It is best for our body to be bathed in a slightly alkaline environment. The higher the diet consist of milk, meat, and poultry, the more protein is ingested, and the more acidic the body becomes. Vegetarians, for example, need about half as much calcium as meat eaters as they lose much less calcium in their urine.
In addition to reclaim of calcium from bone, animal proteins, due to the high sulfur content, alter the kidney's re-absorption of calcium, so that more calcium is excreted. Those on high protein diets such as meat and diary products lose about 100 mg of calcium a day.
2. Cow's milk also contains phosphorous. When calcium and phosphorus reach the intestine together, they compete for absorption. The more phosphorus there is, the less calcium will enter the body. Some phosphate compounds form insoluble calcium salts in the intestine. In addition, excess phosphorus triggers the release of parathyroid hormone, which sucks calcium out of bone. When combined with calcium, phosphorus also competes with and prevents calcium absorption in the intestine.
Not all calcium in the food enters the body. Many components of food such as phosphates, vitamin D, fiber, proteins, and hormones alter absorption of calcium in our diet. For example, Cow's milk contains 1,200 milligram of calcium per quart; human milk contains only 300 milligrams. But the total calcium absorbed in breast-fed babies is higher than in babies fed cow's milk. The phosphates and palmitic acid in cow's milk reduce absorption of calcium.
The calcium/phosphorus ratio is important for optimal use of all bone-building minerals. The ideal ratio is 2.5 to 1. Too much phosphorus will upset the balance, which could lead to progressive bone loss. The ratio in cow's milk is only 1.3 to 1.
You can get an ample supply of calcium from green leafy vegetables. Supplementation with calcium is an easy and inexpensive way to assure that you get enough. About 500 mg of calcium a day is all that is needed for strong bones, provided that you take 500 mg to 1,000 mg of Magnesium. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be one to one (1:1) or even two to one (2:1) for strong bones, according to many researchers in the forefront of anti-aging medicine.
Bovine Growth Hormone
The approval by the FDA to use recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST- better known as bovine growth hormone or BGH ) to increase milk production by 20-30 percent since 1994 is a cause for alarm. BGH is banned in Europe and Canada. Cows so treated have high levels of IGF-1 (the serrogate marker of growth hormone in the blood), from 2 to 10 times higher than normal cow's milk. While BGH milk contains no more IGF-1 than human breast milk, very few adults continue to drink human breast milk throughout life. Furthermore, pasteurization not only does not destroy IFG-1, but actually increases its concentration in BGH-milk.
BGH's other action on the cow includes decreasing the body fat and increase its lean body mass. This bodily composition is characteristic of a young and strong cow, and the intake of BGH is designed to mimic this state of health. Unfortunately, when BGH is given to adult and mature cows, the body fat is already contaminated with a wide range of toxins from grain-fed, hormone-enhanced, and antibiotic-laced diet since these toxins are normally stored it the fat. When the fat mass decreases, these toxins are transported into the cow's milk.
Once taken in orally by humans, IGF-1 from BGH enriched milk can enter the blood stream from the intestine and increase the risk of breast and prostate cancer. The widespread use of this genetically engineered product has been linked to the proliferation of breast, prostate, and colon cancer cells in humans. Selected studies have shown that men with an IGF-1 level between 300-500 mg/dl have more than four times the risk of developing prostate cancer compare to those with a level between 100 to 185 mg/dl. The risk is more pronounced in men over 60 years of age, where the risk of prostate cancer is eight times higher than control. The elevated IGF-1 levels were present several years before an actual diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Cancer
Studies have confirmed that milk fat is a recognized source of carcinogenesis. It is easy to understand how milk can become carcinogenic. First, the use of saturated fat in diet increases the incidence of cancer and milk fat is mainly saturated. Second, milk is an ideal carrier for chemical carcinogens. A French study (September 1986) conducted in over a thousand breast cancer patients also found that the use of butter is not a cause of breast cancer in women, and that yogurt actually reduces the incidence of cancer.
Take ovarian cancer as an example. Its incidence parallel dairy eating patterns around the world. The culprit seems to be galactose, the simple sugar broken down from the milk sugar lactose. Animals fed galactose develops ovarian cancer at a much higher rate than control groups. About 10% of the U.S. population lacks the enzymes to metabolize galactose. Unfortunately, the body does not sent us a signal us of such deficiency. This is unlike lactose intolerance, in which there are clear signs of digestive upset. You can be galactose deficient and not know it. It is much more simple to just avoid dairy altogether. This include yogurt, cheese, and other fermented dairy products.
The bovine leukemia virus is found in the majority of dairy cows in the United States. This virus is killed during the pasteurization process. Accidents do happen. An accidental "cross connection" between raw and pasteurized milk in a milk processing plant in the Chicago area in 1985 results in severe salmonella outbreak, killing 4 and causing over 100,000 ill. Virtually all animals expose this virus develop leukemia, including primates.
Allergy
Cow's milk is a leading cause of food allergy in America. Widely recognized symptoms include diarrhea, cramps, bloating, gas, iron-deficiency anemia, skin rashes, atherosclerosis, and acne. It is also linked to recurrent ear infection in children, insulin dependent diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Milk is a mucous producer. Poorly digested bovine antigens (substances that provoke an immune reaction) like casein become allergens in allergic individuals and is a common burden on the respiratory, digestive, and immune systems. Common symptoms of allergy include diarrhea, constipation, and fatigue. It is estimated that at least 50% of all children in the United States are allergic to cow's milk in some form.
Tension-fatigue syndrome is another most common symptom of milk allergy along with abdominal pains, repeated headaches, aching muscles and joints, or even bed-wetting. Children who suffer from milk allergy are often pale, have large circles under their eyes, and seem to have a "stuffed" nose all the time.
In fact, this is so prevalent a cause that one of the first steps in treatment of many cases of asthma, allergies, tension-fatigue, and sinus infections is the simple trial of elimination of all diary products from the diet for 3 weeks. Confirmation of milk allergy can be easily observed If the symptoms resolved when diary products are withheld but recur when diary product is taken in again.
Xanthine Oxidase
A protein enzyme called xanthine oxidase found in cow's milk poses health problems. Proteins are usually broken down after digestion. Small fat globules, which encircle the xanthine oxidase, are absorbed into the body when milk is homogenized.
Homogenization is a process where whole milk is mechanically whipped so hard its butterfat molecules separate from their natural clumps to float in perpetual microscopic suspension throughout the water. The flavor-bearing fat is distributed all over the water of the milk. The result from a naturally totally blah white liquid with a floating layer of rich, creamy, fatty goo, is a mildly tasty beverage with an absence of anything floating on top. The dairy industry food engineers invented this process to open a huge market for milk during the 1930s Great Depression.
Many research studies have concluded clear relations with this absorbed enzyme and higher risks of heart disease. The following excerpt from the journal Atherosclerosis (1989;77:251-6) sums it up succinctly: "Homogenized cow's milk transforms healthy butterfat into microscopic spheres of fat containing xanthine oxidase (XO) which is one of the most powerful digestive enzymes there is. The spheres are small enough to pass intact right through the stomach and intestines walls without first being digested. Thus this extremely powerful protein knife, XO, floats throughout the body in the blood and lymph systems. When the XO breaks free from its fat envelope, it attacks the inner wall of whatever vessel it is in. This creates a wound. The wound triggers the arrival of patching plaster to seal off that wound. The patching plaster is cholesterol. Hardening of the arteries, heart disease, chest pain, heart attack is the result.
Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a progressive neurological disease which produces disturbances in speech, vision, and muscle, all leading to patients becoming invalids and ultimately death. MS is found much more common in colder climates and rarely occurs near the Equator. MS is suspected of coming from milk harboring an undiscovered virus that attacks people who have vulnerable immune systems. The incidence of MS is significantly correlated with milk consumption in the U.S. and around the world, but the mechanism behind this correlation is not clearly understood. Hypotheses presented include alteration of the nervous system by milk and the presence of toxic or infectious agents in milk. MS is rare when mothers breast fed.
Juvenile Diabetes
Juvenile onset (Type I) diabetes results when the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas is destroyed. This type of diabetes is thought to occur in genetically susceptible individuals, when an unknown environmental factor triggers the immune system to attack the pancreas. Exposure to dairy products early in life may be an important triggering factor.
While the exact mechanism is not known, it is postulated that milk protein bovine serum albumin (BSA) somehow leads to an auto-immune reaction aimed at the pancreas and ultimately to impairment of the pancreas's ability to produce insulin. According to a 1992 report in The New England Journal of Medicine, a study of 142 diabetic children all had abnormally high levels of BSA antibodies. This research suggests that a combination of genetic predisposition and exposure to cow's milk leads to juvenile diabetes.
In epidemiological studies, children who did not receive cow's milk during the first three months of life had 40% fewer cases of diabetes than children who did consume milk. Animal research has provided evidence that at least two different cow's milk proteins can promote damage to the pancreas.
Cholesterol
The use of cow's milk for human consumption started about 5,000 years ago. Now dairy products make the single largest dietary contribution to what the World Health Organization calls the greatest epidemic of all time apart from malnutrition - heart disease.
There are about 35 grams of fat in a quart of milk. About 60 percent of milk fat is in the saturated form, and only 3 percent as polyunsaturated fat. If you drink one quart of whole milk per day, you will have consumed over one-third of your daily quota of fat as recommended by the American Heart Association.
The high proportion of saturated fat in cow's milk is responsible for the many deleterious effect of milk. It raises blood cholesterol, increases adherence of platelets, and causes thrombosis or blocking of arteries. Many research studies have shown that animals fed milk fat develop blocked arteries just like humans. Autopsies performed on children after accidents have revealed changes in coronary vessels believed to be precursors to atherosclerosis. Children with normal blood vessels are almost always primarily breast-fed, while children fed cow's milk or formulas based on cow's milk have diseased vessels.
Interestingly, cow's milk and human milk have almost the same concentration of cholesterol (about four milligrams per ounce). However, the quantity of cholesterol absorbed in the blood has very little to do with its concentration in milk. The amino acid taurine reduces absorption of cholesterol from human milk. Taurine binds with the bile acids needed for the absorption of cholesterol. Cow's milk does not contain enough taurine to block absorption of cholesterol. As a result, adults breast-fed as infants have lower cholesterol deposits in their vessels than those who were fed cow's milk in infancy.
The connection between milk consumption and heart disease was first suspected in 1967 and since then have been repeatedly confirmed by various tests. Next to soft drinks, there is nothing you can do which is more damaging to your heart and arteries than to drink cow's milk. Even cheese and butter are better than milk. Meat, the favorite scapegoat, does not even come close to damaging our heart and body as does milk. In fact, studies have shown that the chance of associating heart disease with diet are:
Butter - 50 percent
Meat - 58 percent
Eggs - 60 percent
Animal Fats - 76 percent
Animal proteins - 81 percent
Sugar - 84 percent
Milk - 91 percent
Milk is on the top of the scale, with better than 90 percent chance of increased incidence of heart disease.
Kidney Stones
Kidney stones are a common complaint in affluent societies. Bladder stones, on the other hand, are common in developing countries. This unusual distribution of stones is attributed to our diet. Diets rich in calcium and other minerals produce kidney stones, a mixture of calcium oxalate or phosphate. Bladder stones, ammonium acid urate, appear in nutritional deprivation when body proteins break down to release ammonia.
This is how milk increase incidence of kidney stones:
a. Meat increases absorption of calcium and makes urine acidic, both increasing concentration and precipitating calcium oxalate crystals in the kidneys.
b. Milk sugar and proteins increase absorption of calcium from other sources. Milk also adds vitamin D, which increases incidence of kidney stones.
c. Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption from diet and mobilization from the bones. The overall effect is increased calcium in the urine.
Dietary modifications can show remarkable reduction in kidney stones. Begin by adding more unrefined fiber, bran, whole wheat, brown rice, fruits, and vegetables to the diet. Avoid all refined carbohydrates and other processed foods, increase fluid intake, and reduce the use of meat. Finally, avoid the rich sources of calcium or oxalate. The high oxalate foods include: coffee, chocolate, peanuts, spinach, rhubarb, beetroot, etc.
Conclusion
Next to sugar, milk is the largest contribution to food-induced illness in the developed world. It is more appropriated classified as a cocktail of chemical and bacteria rather than wholesome pure food as it is promoted in the past century.
Despite the proof in the medical literature, the public, as well as the health professionals, remain oblivious to the dangers of milk. Milk supporters tout its superior nutritional value. It is true that two cups of milk give us 16 grams of protein, 600 milligrams of calcium, 0.8 milligram of riboflavin, 600 IU of vitamin A, and 200 IU of vitamin D. However, milk is not an exclusive source to supply this nutrition. Equivalent nutritive value can be found in three slices of natural aged cheese or two cups of yogurt, as well as various combinations of meats and vegetables.
Are these not better alternatives to milk? The risks that now hang over milk - risks of diseases and death are not worth taking.
There are, however, ways to modify milk to remove what creates its undesirable effects. According to Dr. David L. Freed, a renowned expert on milk, start by removing lactose and proteins to reduce the incidence of allergies and intolerance; floating fat to reduce the incidence of heart disease; xanthine oxidase to reduce heart disease and allergies; and hormones, drugs, pesticides, carcinogens, toxins, etc., to reduce the risk of cancer and chemical allergies. Once all of this is accomplished, milk can be drank safely, but most people would complain that the resulting crystal clear, water-like liquid does not taste as good as it is supposed to.
The average adult takes in about 180 gallons of liquids per year, including 50 gallons of water, 35 gallons of coffee, 35 gallons of soft drinks, 25 gallons of milk, 22 gallons of beer, 8 gallons of juice, 7 gallons of tea, and 4 gallons of wine/liquor. Out of all these liquids, only one fits well for daily continuous consumption in large quantity with anti-aging effect - pure filtered water. All the other liquids should be used sparingly as a social drink and not as a health drink or replacement of water.
Adults should reduce as much as possible dairy products, including skim milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. There are simply much better sources of obtaining the same nutrients other than from milk. A small amount of milk or milk by-products will not harm your body. If you have to take milk, get whole, pasteurized, non-homogenized milk from free-range cows fed with organic feed.
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