subject: Listen Carefully - Pasteurized Milk Is Harmful [print this page] We can trace milk back 20 centuries or more to the time of Hippocrates, who was known as the father of medicine. This guy was a big advocate of the healing powers contained in milk and what he believed in has served us well up until recent times, when people started to talk about diseases such as tuberculosis, passed to humans through raw milk. In the 1900s, poor production processes led to a big deterioration in milk quality, as it was being fed to the growing population. Cows were raised in deteriorating conditions and had to eat grain which was fed to them as a byproduct from alcohol production. It's not surprising that this milk was poor quality, low in nutrients and not very beneficial to our immune system and good health. Infant mortality was an issue and tuberculosis was in evidence, so everybody pointed to this poor quality milk. Pasteurization followed, when raw milk was heated to high temperatures, destroying pathogens. This was applied to cattle herds that weren't certified and pasteurization in this way continued into the 20th century. It was still said that raw milk from healthy cattle was okay, so long as the all-important certification was in place.
The major problem with pasteurization is that it destroys many of the nutrients and microorganisms that give milk its undoubted health benefits, as initially revealed by Hippocrates all that time ago. Pasteurization destroys many of the enzymes needed to digest and reveal milk's nutrients and this enzyme destruction cause lactose intolerance, as seen in certain parts of the population. Important minerals such as calcium and vitamins such as B6 and B12 are altered or destroyed during this process of pasteurization. In summary of what is essentially a very complicated issue, excessive sterilization of the food and drink that we consume can often eliminate far too many of the important elements of bacteria beneficial to our digestion, detoxification and immunity.
Consider the quality of grass fed milk, as opposed to soy or grain. Factory farming is generally based on a bad process, as the farmers keep the cattle in unnatural conditions and feed them unhealthy diets that compromise their health and the milk quality, as well. Antibiotics are sometimes given to the cattle, hormones as well in many cases to stimulate the amount of milk that they give. When over production of milk is forced, the vitamins included in each gallon of milk decreases proportionately. Milk that comes from grass fed cattle is high in vitamins A and D, great for our health.
There has been a trend in recent times toward the production of organic food and drink, but that is not necessarily the answer either. While the USDA certifies organic milk production, some cattle are still fed grain instead of grass. Many organic brand manufacturers seek to ultra pasteurize milk, which destroys even more nutrients than processes that pasteurize milk, and is thus of even less value to us!
