MILK PROCESSING (NZ)

I was reading this the other day and thought it would interest others that like milk.

SECRETS OF THE FOOD INDUSTRY By Alicia Melrose and Pip Martin for A Vital Journey, an internet course on health and nutrition, run by Belmont Park Retreat.

MILK PROCESSING

Milk processing plants are big factories. In NZ, milk is collected by tankers with samples taken by the driver for quality testing. Stringent rules cover the temperature and rate of chilling: the milk must be at 8 deg C within 4 hrs. At the factory, the milk is filtered in enormous silo vats, then separated in centrifuges into fat, protein and various other solids and liquids. These are reconstituted to set levels for whole (3.5% fat compared with 4-8% in real milk), low fat and no fat milks. What is left over will go into butter, cream, cheese, dried milk, and a host of other products. Low-fat milk has dried milk (denatured) protein added to make it seem more like milk.

Milk to make this milk powder is sprayed out from a pipe at the top of a huge silos – by the time it hits the ground, giant heaters have turned it to powder. Unlike the cholesterol in fresh milk, which plays a variety of health promoting roles, the cholesterol in non-fat dried milk is oxidized.

This rancid cholesterol promotes heart disease.

Low fat milk and skim milk mean a lot more money from the butterfat by selling it for ice cream. Skim milk is sold as a health food, but the truth is that butter-fat is in milk for a reason to allow absorption and utilization of the vitamins and minerals in the water fraction of the milk. Along with valuable trace minerals and short chain fatty acids, butterfat is our best source of preformed vitamin A. Butterfat also contains re-arranged acids which have strong anti-carcinogenic properties.

In the States, the milk is pasteurized at 161°F (71.7 deg C) for 15 seconds by passing it quickly over super- heated stainless steel plates. (In NZ these details are regarded as commercially sensitive information.) If the temperature is 200°F (93C) it is ultra-pasteurized. This will have a distinct cooked milk

taste - it is sterile and can be sold on the grocery shelf forever. In other words, it doesn’t even have to be kept chilled. The bugs won't touch it.

As it is cooked, the milk can also be homogenized by a pressure treatment passing it through a fine filter at pressures equal to 4,000 pounds per square inch. This breaks down the fat globules to such a small size that they remain suspended evenly rather than separating out and floating to the

surface. This subjects these good fats to rancidity. Also, after homogenization, proteins are not well-digested and are absorbed into the bloodstream intact. Homogenization has been linked to heart disease and atherosclerosis.

Enzymes in raw milk include lactase for the assimilation of lactose, galactase for the assimilation of galactose and phosphatase for the assimilation of calcium. Dozens of other precious enzymes are destroyed in the pasteurization process. Without them, milk is very difficult to digest. The human

pancreas is not always able to produce these enzymes; over-stress of the pancreas can lead to diabetes and other diseases.

Much of the significant amount of vitamin C present in raw milk, plus B6 and B12 is destroyed by heating.

A NOTE ABOUT A1 / A2 MILK – The Devil in the Milk

These two types of milk are available in a few NZ supermarkets. The difference is in a mutation in a tiny protein fragment in some European cattle (especially some of the Friesians) where the peptide proline is replaced by histidine. All milk was, once a upon a time, A2 milk. When we digest

A1 milk, a powerful oxidising opioid (narcotic) is produced. There is evidence that this A1 beta-casein gene is implicated in many illnesses including heart disease, Type 1 diabetes, autism and auto-immune disease. Politics and vested interests have so far ensured people continue to have

doubts about the importance of A2 milk. Nevertheless we believe raw milk is still hugely better than pasteurized.

ENZYMES

All cell processes require enzymes of which there are over 5,000. Enzymes are present in raw foods to initiate digestion in the mouth and stomach. Every food has its own specific enzymes. Other digestive enzymes are assembled in our salivary glands and pancreas.

In 1922, Dr Laird wrote: “In living cells, the dynamic, driving power … is found in their enzyme contents”. Grains, beans, nuts and seeds have enzyme-inhibitors best deactivated by germinating or sprouting. The enzyme content of lacto-fermented foods like sauerkraut is vastly greater than that

of raw food. Accompany cooked meals with a fermented condiment, and chew foods well. Note that not all foods should be eaten raw. Chinese medicine requires that raw foods be eaten by people with strong digestive fire. For people with poor digestive function, a program like the GAPS

diet which begins with gentle cooked food like bone soups, may be very beneficial. Cruciferous vegetables eg broccoli, cabbage may be better steamed to deactivate progoitren’s, especially for people with low thyroid function. Cooking carrots and tomatoes increases the antioxidant

availability.

New research, Gut bacteria are what we eat, (Nature, 7th April 2010) shows that our gut microbes, which help humans degrade otherwise indigestible plant material, acquire some crucial digestive enzyme genes from the bacteria in the food we eat. “The human digestive tract harbors trillions of

bacteria, many of which establish lifetime, symbiotic relationships with us. The food we eat nourishes our gut flora, and those bacteria feed us with the by-products of their digestive activities... But the food sterilization techniques commonly used might affect the environmental tuning of the human gut function...” states the article! Irradiated food anyone?

Enzymes are killed at 48°C. The food industry places little value on enzymes saying they are broken down anyway during digestion. However the massive amount of work by the distinguished and much-awarded Dr Frances M Pottenger in the 1930s-1950s, on cats, guinea pigs and cows showed what happens to animals fed on cooked foods (particularly milk). They became more and more diseased and died. Another trial on 16 calves in Scotland in 1940 produced the similar results. The multiple enzymes present in raw milk are essential for the digestion of milk. Dr Pottenger and his work were attacked in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) 1984 in a contrived article

“Unpasteurized Milk - The Hazards of Health Fetish” by those attempting to outlaw all sales of raw milk. Michael Schmidt in Canada recently raised two calves – on pasteurized and unpasteurized milk. After 8 weeks changes became evident. Manure from the pasteurized milk calf was runny and grey or white. Its hair was dull and easily pulled out. It was lethargic and after 5 months fears for its survival lead to butchering of both animals. The raw milk calf weighed 200kg, the pasteurized calf 115 kg. Its testicles were 30% smaller. The depth of colour of the liver and kidney from the raw milk calf

amazed the vet. The stomach contents of this calf were solid without disagreeable odour. The other calf had stomach contents which were runny and smelled disgusting.

FOOD SAFETY

The modern sequel to this is the latest round of arrests of American farmers selling raw milk and confiscation of their cheeses etc, along with the legislation approved by Senate (2/12/10) giving further huge control to the FDA. A Radio NZ interview about the lengths some New Yorkers go to to

obtain raw milk from Amish farmers who are persecuted by the FDA? http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/twu/2011/02/19/raw_milk_smuggling

The USA Food Safety Modernization Act is being hailed as a "breakthrough" achievement in food safety, but it will hand vast new powers and funding to the FDA so that it can “clean up” the food supply and “protect” all Americans from food-borne pathogens. http://www.naturalnews.com/030587_Senate_Bill_510_Food_Safety.html#ixzz16vdfeL6V

Mike Adams writes: There's just one problem with all this: It's all a big lie. Most deaths from food poisoning are not caused by fresh produce.

We need to be vigilant to ensure our right to access the foods we want to be able to buy and eat in NZ. Proposed food regulations plan to classify raw milk as a Grade 3 food – the most hazardous category. However the right to buy raw milk will be preserved. What about E.coli and salmonella etc?

There is much written on this topic (see the WAPF website). One recent experiment involving adding these bacteria to organic certified raw milk from Organic Pastures Dairy milk in California showed the organisms could not be found in the milk next day. Raw milk has natural antibiotic properties.

There is much skull-duggery and misinformation about raw milk. There are also genuine concerns about milk not properly collected and handled. NZ regulations are stringent with high penalties. The milk companies themselves also impose high penalties for non-compliance. NZ milk supplied to Fonterra is rigorously tested daily. Smaller raw milk suppliers also have rigorous testing.

In 1936, Edwin Jordan in the USA wrote: “The character of pasture was early observed to affect the kind and abundance of the species of bacteria found in milk; the lack of pasture in more recent years has been demonstrated to have a profound effect”. Dr Crewe, a founder of the Mayo Clinic,

used a diet of 4 weeks on raw milk in the treatment of a wide variety of serious chronic diseases and he reported no problem even with patients who were very ill.

MILK ALLERGIES

Many people, cannot tolerate the ‘milk’ sold on the grocery shelves. But real milk is usually very beneficial and doesn’t cause problems for most. This milk is not pasteurized or homogenized and is becoming much more available in NZ through rapidly growing Milk Clubs or Farm Shares.

Let me know what milk you drink and how and when you have milk?