Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Extra Step - Phase 2 - Continuing Education Raw Milk

The raw milk journey continues:

The Weston A. Price Foundation has a lot of good information on raw milk and its products.  There is a great page showing different recipes and different information on unheated vs. heated yogurt.  I have not yet tried any of these, but plan to begin as soon as I can get the bread, kvass, ginger ale, sauerkraut, kefir, butter stuff completely under control....

OK, that is never going to happen.  :)  So... probably next week will bring several yogurt recipes to the kitchen (focus, focus).  If anyone would like to try some of these and send me pictures and how it turned out, how you used it and ways to work it into your busy lives...... We would all appreciate it. 

Here it the article.

Also from the site is a good breakdown of raw milk in general and is a great overview.

I think my favorite site is the Modern Country Dairy site.  They have a lot of great stuff.  I found a good explaination for why lactose intolerant people can often drink raw milk.  This is on their page titled Top Ten Reasons for drinking raw milk.  Even if you have been there before, it is well worth going again.

A couple of quotes:

According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, "Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer."

Often people who consider themselves to be "lactose intolerant" are able to enjoy raw milk because it contains "lactase." Lactase is one of the enzymes that get destroyed during pasteurization. It normally would pre-digest the milk while in the stomach, thereby enabling the body to assimilate its nutrients. Pasteurization forces the milk to enter the lower intestines undigested, resulting in cramps and gas.
The difference is night and day. Supermarket milk is highly manipulated and engineered. It's pasteurized, or heated to about 161 degrees for about 15 seconds, which destroys the bacteria that cause food borne illness, along with the flavor of milk. Pasteurization by this method gives it a fairly long shelf life. [Milk is also] homogenized which smashes all the fat globules and makes it uniform and smooth, while wiping out all the thick lovely cream that floats to the top. Then that milk travels a long way, often thousands of miles, to get to us.
Raw milk is rich with enzymes and contains all 22 of the essential amino acids which are the building blocks of life, including phosphate. Phosphate is essential for the absorption of calcium and is plentifully present in raw milk but is completely destroyed by pasteurization
 Again, I would highly recommend this site. 

Figure out what is best for your family.  Make your decisions one at a time, and try to find a workable way to get the process in place.  If you live somewhere that does not allow raw milk, you might try to find a "co-op" or neighbor that has cows or goats and work something out.

The nutritional value of raw milk vs. homoginized and pasturized milk just cannot be overstated.  This is such an important item in the Nourishing Traditions... the Weston A. Price Foundation.... Nutrition and Degenerative Disease.... all of these wonderful resources consider raw milk from grass fed cows to be the backbone of health.

Please pass on what you have learned.  Remember that we are a community of friends, learning from each other, sharing joys and failures, helping to destroy our dependence on Agribusiness, Big Pharma, the Medical Industry........  In a community we support each other where we can, but are primarily responsible for our own family.  Step up to this responsibility, don't overwhelm yourself, make the best choice you can and keep moving.

The picture has nothing to do with milk.... The Junior Rancher and Baby Rancher are learning their States and Capitals this morning.  I just liked the picture.  We did have to interrupt this fine lesson so Grammie could kiss every "boo boo" Baby Rancher had. 


Best of Health to You
Cindy

4 comments:

  1. This quote made me laugh, "Kefir (which, by the way, does not rhyme with 'reefer'"

    Anyway, I'm going to try Maria's Raw Milk Yogurt. I'll let you know how it turns out!

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  2. Please take pictures... btw.. can I lift your picture of hot dogs and tortillas for the tortilla page? Mine didn't turn out as nice as yours.

    I might have asked you this already! If so, sorry. I am pretty much scatterbrained. But cheerful :)

    I love the quote too. What a great article. I'll pick a different recipe to try.

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  3. That was a really good article about heating/not heating yogurt. Very informative.


    "In days gone by, the Irish housewife typically soured fresh milk overnight by the dying fireplace in preparation for making soda bread the next morning."

    -Everything about that quote sounds so wonderful, even though I'm sure their lives were so much harder than ours.

    All this talk about raw milk is really getting me motivated to make some dairy changes. When I lived in Sonora the price stopped me & now in NV it will take some research to even find a place. I try to buy a 1/2 gal when I go to CA once a month but that does not last long.

    Also getting it out of my head that raw milk is not dangerous is still working its way out.

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  4. I absolutely loved that quote too. You might try looking into a coop. I am going to post something on that... probably in a day or two. There is a lot to it.

    Did you know that raw milk is the one food it is illegal to eat in several states?

    What's up with that?

    I'm with you.... still working out the raw milk thing :)

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