RAW cow milk and human consumption page

[GeorgiaPeach]

I listened to the interview with Mark McAfee today on Real Food Summit about the benefits of raw cow milk and the problems with CAFO milk. It all sounds great, and raw is definitely the best option between the two nutritionally speaking. But I can't help but wonder if it is a two-option fallacy. Humans produce milk for their babies, and after the first two or three years, those babies get their nutrition from other whole foods like meats, veggies, and fruits. Cows produce milk for their babies. And each type of milk is specially made for the type and size digestive system it feeds. Human milk is completely compatable for humans and cows for cows. So why are humans the only ones who want to keep drinking milk after they wean? Whey and casein allergies aside, and lactose intolerance aside (which is less with raw), can we not skip the milk all together and get our nutrition and good bacteria from the soil and other whole food sources?

[June68]

Habit, I suppose. I drank milk with meals way into my 20s. And there's the whole cereal and Oreo thing, neither of which is worth a damn without milk. Maybe Primal eaters have a carry-over like that as well and keep it around. We haven't bought any since switching off of SAD though. No use for it.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Cuz it's freaking delicious. That's why.

[Finnegans Wake]

My cat drinks milk. Other animals probably would drink milk if they had access to it. The opposable thumb thing is really handy for accessing milk, and the whole thing about being able to raise livestock - I can't think of any other species that do that, so that right there rules out, say, armadillos having milk cow farms.

Bottom line nutritionally, IMO, is that if you enjoy milk and have no digestive issues, raw milk is the way to go, but you certainly can find complete nutrition without it. Sometimes if I'm at the farmers' market or one of my local farms and I see some for sale, I'll buy it and drink it down, but I go long periods without it.

[GeorgiaPeach]

Cuz it's freaking delicious. That's why.

Ok, ya gotta do better than that. Seems it is just not primal even if mark sisson says so. It defies the laws of nature.

[JBailey]

Has anyone read this book? The 10,000 Year Explosion - Home

I didn't shred through the science in it, just gave it a read through, and the gist is pretty interesting regarding human evolution post-agriculture. There is a section on lactose tolerance that was really fascinating in light of eating primally. It sounds like a good number of people literally evolved fairly recently (as in the allelle for lactose tolerance spread rapidly) in certain populations, giving them an edge in their habitats over other human groups. And people were pastoral before they farmed crops, so not quite a caveman thing, but not just for carb-farmers either.

So for some of us, eating dairy into adulthood is perfectly natural. Might as well run with it if it works.

[Crabbcakes]

Yes, you can. Two of mine remain dairy-free to this day (essentially from birth, yeah, except for breast) and are sturdy girls. I think that most of your answer lies in eating habits from home, and the rest is historical-sociological or whatever the proper discipline/branch of study this is.

Right along with agriculture, we discovered dairy. And I also think that the milky taste is a powerful draw for humans, in general, being mammals and all.

Some parents of autistic kids who feed their children no dairy, will tell you that dairy proteins have a drug-like effect on the brain, so that may account for some of the draw in some, at least.

[JBailey]

Lactose Tolerance and Human Evolution | Food & Think This explains the authors' bit about lactose.

[Artichoke]

I used to know a guy doing research on lactose intolerance. He told me milk drinking started in Turkey and it's possible to track movement from there through genes. He told me that if people don't have the milk gene they don't make the enzyme to digest it. There are huge swathes of the world which never drank milk or ate dairy products until they came in contact with the SAD.

In the UK raw milk can't be bought in shops, only from farms with accredited inspected herds. We don't have CAFOs and bovine growth hormones are banned so American milk is banned also. I can't buy American cheeses in my local supermarkets so maybe that is banned too ??? I have bought supermarket-own brand Canadian Cheddar though and weirdly it tastes far better than the stuff I ate in Toronto.

[GeorgiaPeach]

I used to know a guy doing research on lactose intolerance. He told me milk drinking started in Turkey and it's possible to track movement from there through genes. He told me that if people don't have the milk gene they don't make the enzyme to digest it. There are huge swathes of the world which never drank milk or ate dairy products until they came in contact with the SAD.

In the UK raw milk can't be bought in shops, only from farms with accredited inspected herds. We don't have CAFOs and bovine growth hormones are banned so American milk is banned also. I can't buy American cheeses in my local supermarkets so maybe that is banned too ??? I have bought supermarket-own brand Canadian Cheddar though and weirdly it tastes far better than the stuff I ate in Toronto.

Wow! That's very telling! I wish they'd ban it here too. I think my family came from non-dairy eating peoples. Most of us are native american, but the water is kind of muddy on my dad's side. We all thrive well on meat and veggies.