COMMON MILK MYTHS
Milk is bad for you. Casein is a cancer protein. You need milk for strong bones! Pasteurization is for your safety and the safety of your children.
Is it good for me? Is it going to give me cancer? Good god, if I quit drinking it aren't my bones going to be in terrible shape?
First off. Milk is not inherently bad for you. Like all foods, not all people can consume milk--even in its raw, whole food form. But that doesn't mean it should be condemned for everyone, when in fact, it can be a wonderfully nutrient dense option for the rest of us.
Most of the digestive problems people have with milk have to do with the extensive pasteurization, homogenization, and further processing which damages the integrity and nutritional value of the milk.
Pasteurization is the heat treatment of milk to kill bacteria to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Milk is pasteurized at 161°F for 15 seconds for high temp pasteurization, and 145°F for 30 minutes for low temp pasteurization, and 280°F for 2 seconds for ultra-high temp pasteurization.
Homogenization is the extraction of the fat content of the milk to then break down and replace what was removed with levels of zero fat (skim milk), 1%, 2%, and 3.5% (whole milk). This process is difficult to do for an individual in their home kitchen, and the basic reason for it is to sell/use the cream for things like butter. It is also used to create a more consistent taste and texture for the sales of milk and milk products. (Real milk or raw milk collects the fat on the top in a layer of fat and cream and should be shaken before using).
Pasteurization is used today as a prevention against food-borne illness. This isn't so much out of protection for you as a consumer as it is to protect the food industry and the production of cheap, poor quality milk.
The modern dairy cow is a freak of nature. It was inbred to produce more milk to produce more cash, and they are quite literally milked to death (by infection or slaughter). The milk is often contaminated with antibiotics given to the cow due to its poor health, and even puss from udder infections from things like severe mastitis from over milking and growth hormones. A lot of companies stopped using the growth hormone bGH, rbGH, or bST, but that doesn't mean that the cows producing that milk are more healthy because of it. Many companies have stopped using this product on their cows because the consumer cares. Labeling that they don't use this growth hormone is a marketing feature for the producer because the consumer purchases it.
Pasteurization is a way of protecting the food industry from the poor treatment of these cows. Raw milk is not dangerous, but raw milk from abused animals that have been bred for unreasonably high milk production is full of nasties that you would not want to consume. It could make you very ill.
Even with pasteurization, milk does still make people ill with food-borne illness. More people have become fatally ill from pasteurized milk than raw milk in the last 20 years. (Keeping in mind part of that has to do with the laws of numbers, more people drink pasteurized milk). An incident very recently was a listeria outbreak from certain Blue Bell Ice Cream flavors.
Raw milk from a farmer taking care of traditional cow breeds (like Jersey cows) and using the appropriate sanitation methods can give you an unbelievably nutrient dense food whose nutritional makeup hasn't been compromised or destroyed by high heat levels and further processing.
Real Milk is a great websight for finding raw milk from local farmers in your area if you are interested. The Untold Story of Milk is a book on the history of milk production in the modern world and while I haven't read it (yet), I have heard great things about it.
Casein also isn't a "cancer causing protein." This is primarily quoted from the China Study due to an increased chance of cancer in rats who were given casein isolates. What not many people understand is that these rats were receiving an incredibly nutrient deficient and unbalanced diet for these tests, they were being fed synthetic isolates of these proteins which is harmful to any immune system no matter the type, and the integrity of it being true casein and not an entirely different or contaminated protein altogether is debatable. Also, the rats being given plant based proteins were not thriving and substantially healthier, they usually died only a few days later and were far more mentally unstable prior to death than the rats who ate casein. All the rats were sick. None were thriving.
Oh. And casein is in breast milk. Meaning the optimal food for our health as infants when we are going through some of the most intense development of our life has this protein. I feel like this protein isn't out to get us but is maybe just being utilized poorly by unhealthy bodies.
All the pro milk (real milk) cheering I've been doing doesn't mean milk is the only place to get these nutrients. It's just convenient and delicious. Calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and other trace minerals can be found in other things like sunshine and green, leafy veggies. These are the nutrients that build strong bones. The reason milk can be so beneficial is because the cow has done the energy conversion for you from nutrient depleted soils (due to over working) which is useful if you have a compromised immune system, live in a cold climate, or just don't want to eat salad all the time. Milk is packaged with the nutrients that work together in your system. As someone who is a fan of convenience, it just works for me. That doesn't mean that if you don't drink milk you will suddenly break your ankle on your run from brittle bones. These nutrients are readily available in many foods and many diet options.
I buy raw milk from a farm. But I also sometimes buy yogurt made from pasteurized milk of grass fed cows and Kerrygold Butter (since raw milk sales are strict and limited). I used to buy Organic Valley's Grassmilk which is not homogenized but is pasteurized at low temp levels. After finding my system tolerated raw milk far better, I have (almost) entirely switched to only raw dairy. My dairy, pasteurized or raw, is always from healthy cows.
Ultimately, the decision is up to you. Drink milk. Or don't. Both can be food and both can be food-like products.
