Although not many people know it, pasteurizing milk destroys essential nutrients in the milk. How?
Pasteurization
Pasteurizing milk destroys beneficial bacteria along with the bad ones and destroys enzymes essential for nutrient absorption. Pasteurizing milk destroys all its phosphatase; this is essential for the absorption of calcium, and calcium works with Vitamin D, not only available through sunshine but is an essential nutrient in raw cream. Nature packaged a superb design for human sustenance in milk as it comes from the cow with all original essential nutrients — so long as it is not pasteurized. Heating any raw food destroys the active enzymes, so lipase (an enzyme unique to milk and needed to complete digestion of fats) is blasted along with many other essential nutrients that pasteurization destroys.
Homogenization
Homogenization is a process that breaks up fat globules in cream into very small particles which then do not separate from the rest of the milk. One of the reasons homogenizing milk became standard processing plant practice is that it allowed cheap Grade C milk (with little cream rising to the top) to be mixed with Grade B and valuable Grade A milk (with lots of cream rising to the top) to all be labeled as Grade A and priced accordingly. There is no known health or nutritional advantage to homogenization and quite a bit of science proving its harm — see The Milk Book, Chapter VII, "Udder Menace" by William Campbell Douglass II, MD. Some research suggests that this fracturing of the lipid (fat) molecule creates a free radical cascade that can cause allergic reactions and, through complex metabolic processes, even heart disease. (Others suggest that it is really the heating of the milk protein in the water fraction of the milk that provides allergic reactions, not homogenization.)
I never remember a time when milk (delivered pasteurized and homogenized by the milkman) didn’t make my stomach ache. My parents used to tease me with their stories of my unremitting colic as a formula-fed (corn syrup and milk sugar) baby and would regularly urge me, "Drink your milk". I had both eczema and aching legs as a child — both conditions that respond very well to raw and cultured milk therapy … even back then, I’ve since discovered.
Butterfield’s Farm was just across the street where we sometimes got cream so thick it wouldn’t pour. It was a legend for years, and all the family cherished it. I don’t know why it never occurred to anybody to get some farm-fresh milk to drink from Bill Butterfield and his sister, Ruby. When I left home, I did so without milk, and, truthfully, I didn’t give it much thought even after I got into eating healthy and organic a few years after.
So, it is with some wonder when I realize that more than 10 gallons per month of raw, organic farm-fresh milk and cream is what I absolutely require these days to nourish my family of three in all the delectable diversity that dairy offers. I am immensely grateful to have this ancient staple of life available, pure and unadulterated. It is a lifetime gift to know an organic dairy farmer, his family, and the "mothers" that give this white gold two times every single day. The Weston A. Price Foundation’s website can help you find a supplier for farm-fresh dairy near you. "It’s not easy", they say. "I can’t live without it!", I say.
- See Lynn’s The Key to Safe Raw Milk from Cows
10 Comments for "Pasteurizing Milk Destroys Essential Nutrients"
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Lynn Cameron
Comment posted on 01/27/08 @ 2:36 pm
Healthy Organic Mom asks,
“Why do they still do this?” It does seem to defy the furthest boundaries of good sense . . . until you follow the money into every tributary. This can happen when fear that is false-leading is promulgated through the media - fear that flourishes in absence of true facts. What raw milk enthusiast hasn’t had a well-meaning friend ask, “Isn’t drinking raw milk dangerous?” or “Is that safe? You’re gonna get sick.”
Both health and economic issues have more facets than my brief articles at WWOF have covered so far. Thanks to organic mom, we have another opportunity to get the issue out there for Q&A time. I’m hoping those who might be just tuning into the Campaign for Real Milk will be interested enough to read “Key to Safe Raw Milk from Cows” and follow the links there to further empowerment with facts.
At http://realmilk.org you can find a Sample Letter to Legislators that is powerful and concise with issues most folks haven’t even considered. My goal is to have you all Read it; Print it; Sign it; Send it.
Kind regards,
Lynn Cameron
George Vigil
Comment posted on 01/28/08 @ 12:55 pm
In case you hadn’t heard AB 1604 was killed, here in California. This was a new bill making it possible for organic milk producers to still produce organic milk. That leaves AB 1735 in force, meaning organic milk gets put out of business, while pasteurized milk is FORCED onto the population, even though, in my opinion, pasteurized milk is questionable as to if it is even any good for anyone.
Cathy Hohmeyer
Comment posted on 01/30/08 @ 11:36 am
Then tell us about ULTRA pasteurized milk. I know it is great to buy ’cause you know it will last forever in the fridge - which tells me there can’t be much live sustenance in it.
Diane Vigil
Comment posted on 01/30/08 @ 11:47 am
Welcome, Cathy. You have a point there. <grin>
Lynn Cameron
Comment posted on 01/30/08 @ 9:17 pm
Hi Cathy,
I’m glad you asked about this because folks might want to know, but it’s not pretty. Ultra-pasteurizing is bringing the dairy liquid to a 161 degree boil in less than a second or two. This is accomplished in a high tech facility where it’s put through thin tubes so that small amounts at a time can be jolted to 161 nearly instantly. This is very damaging to the milk proteins (casein), flash-folding the amino acids tightly together so they stick like glue (Elmer’s glue could be made from casein protein). This renders the proteins in milk indigestible in varying degrees in the digestive tract of humans and animals – some systems are more sensitive than others. As you point out, dairy products can be stored a long time with this increasingly popular industry standard - up to 120 days. This could be just one reason why pasteurized milk is dangerous to consume as an allergen – attacking undigested protein is a function of a healthy immune system. Ultra-pasteurized anything is devoid of life with a digestive code unknown to healthy human cells – hence it’s treated as a strange danger provoking a defense at worst and as sewage sludge at best.
Now, having said all that, I admit to sometimes drinking ultra-pasteurized heavy cream in my morning coffee when I have used up all my raw cream - a gallon of my non-homogenized milk yields around a cup of cream which is not enough for the family requirements. Milk, without cream (low-fat or skim) is primarily protein, and it’s the PROTEIN that is made indigestible in direct proportion to how hot and how fast it is cooked. Raw cream has all 18 essential fatty acids (saturated and unsaturated) metabolically available plus a whole lot more. Pasteurized cream is fat with barely half its vitamins left and less than half of its fatty acids intact, but, at least, it’s not plasticized protein.
George Vigil
Comment posted on 02/3/08 @ 12:42 am
It’s good to get a percentage on the pasteurized cream — less than half of the vitamins and fatty acids survive the heat. However, it’s very enlightening about the ultra pasteurized cream and what it is turned into. Sort of an anti-food. With each body being different, it’s hard to predict what will happen. The bottom line is that one is taking their chances when they consume ultra-pasteurized cream or milk. One gambles with one’s health as part of some unwitting experiment. Caveat Emptor — Let the buyer beware!
andrew
Comment posted on 05/5/08 @ 8:21 am
My question is this, is Milk the only source of ‘digestive enzymes’ such as phosphatase or is the body able to manufacturer it’s own?
I have read that enzymes contained in food which it is claimed by organic advocates as needed or required, are destroyed by the digestion anyways and not always compatible with human digestion (rather they rot fruit and vegetables) and that our bodies are capable of making our own enzymes.
Whats the real story? Is more always needed? is it better? is it better to the point where food posioning is a risk?
George Vigil
Comment posted on 05/5/08 @ 10:21 am
Hello Andrew,
My name is George Vigil. It is my understanding that raw organic milk has enzymes that help one’s body digest the milk. And so the live calcium is better obsorbed into your body, such as into the bones, making them stronger. Calcium also helps the nervous system.
In pasteurized milk, a vast majority of enzymes were gotten rid of. And so your body has a difficult time assimilating the “cooked” milk. The process of pasteurization has nullified a great deal of the nutrients in milk.
Your body also produces enzymes. These enzymes help break down the food you eat so that when the food passes through the intestinal tract, your body can obtain nutrients.
More enzymes are needed when you eat proteins, such as meats. But your body usually rises to the occasion and produces them. If your diet consists of a lot of meat, then you could tend to have too much enzymes produced and you come up with “heartburn”. The enzymes are acids and can burn your stomach and lower part of the throat called the esophagus.
Eating salads with your steak balances this out. Veges, such as salads, send a message to your body not to produce too much enzymes. This is assuming you’re not eating salad or steaks that are not full of chemicals used to preserve the food. Or chemicals used to kill bugs - called conventional grown food.
Chemicals such as preservatives keep the food from going bad and so are great for shelf life. But preservatives are NOT good for your digestive tract. Since the food is inhibited from breaking down by such chemicals the food will not break down so easily in your stomach. The food putrifies in your stomach. You could come up with all sorts of “uncomfortable” manifestations. Bottom line is your digestive system has been disrupted.
The bug spray is essentially poison used to kill insects. Such poisons disrupt your digestive system as well as other systems and at the very least make one feel uncomfortable. No matter what the so-called experts say, eating poison is bad for you. The bug spray used also kills the soil the food is grown in. How can you grow food that is supposed to supply nutrients to those people buying and relying on that food in dead or poisoned soil? It’s best to eat organic. Though you have to watch out for the definition of organic used. Some companies sell food that has some little organic food with the rest of it being grown conventionally. And anything goes with conventional food.
Regarding enzymes: “Is more better?” I have personal experience with taking enzymes and OVERDOING IT! I burnt my stomach in several places and it took some time for it to heal. So, in my opinion, easy does it with the enzymes.
If you eat foods with lots of chemicals in it, your systems go screwy. You might get the idea that you have lack of enzymes. You could feel lagard, slow or dull of thought. It might be that the chemicals used in the processing of foods has thrown your digestive system into a cocked hat - caused a severe disruption of your digestive system, affecting other systems in your body too. That has nothing to do with enzymes.
Eating food with vitamins and minerals intact with no chemicals used to process it is best. Your systems will straighten out themselves usually. It will pass, so to speak.
And raw organic milk is the stuff that REALLY makes the body grow strong.
Lynn Cameron
Comment posted on 05/11/08 @ 11:09 pm
Strong and SUPPLE, George. Among a vast array of benefits from unpasteurized dairy compounds is the Wulzen Factor, known about for a long time. My search at google tonight came up with over 1700 links to explain more about it.
This is the “antistiffness” factor present in raw animal fat that was discovered way back in the forties by Rosalind Wulzen. Boomers note - it protects against degenerative arthritis as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland (another name for aging).
It is well known by farmers and ranchers that calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms reverse when raw butterfat is added to the diet. Pasteurization destroys the Wulzen factor - it is present generously in RAW butter, cream and whole milk.
Since most Americans wouldn’t consider eating fish eggs, organ meats, blubber or sea animals and insects, and they dine seldom on fish and shellfish, raw butter and cream are our only source, besides eggs, for this actively important piece of the health puzzle.