3/27/2010

Milk.

It does not matter if you like to drink milk or not, odds are that you consume cows milk on a daily basis, it might be the cream in your coffee or cheese or any one of countless other forms that we ingest.

There are several websites that point out that drinking cows milk, the product of a 1,000 plus pound  animal that is not human, is not good for humans.  They say that the fat and calorie count is appropriate for a calf, not a baby human .  On the surface that makes sense to me. (side bar: Though I have no children... that I know of, I am a firm believer of moms breast feeding for at least the first few weeks and I also think you should save the cord blood. While on the subject it seems to be fast becoming common practice to take newborns blood for DNA.  That a bit to much "Big Brother" for me; you can refuse this  At the very least ask your doctor about it.  Say they learn to predict if your baby has have a pre-disposition develop certain diseases, your child will be tainted for life and may have a hard time getting health insurance.  If you haven't already guessed, I'm no fan of big government.  I'm not a republican or a democrat, I do believe that smaller government is better.  Look at every thing they run, do they make a profit, no.  I am a firm believer in free market capitalism.  Shit!  I try like Hell to not let politics intervene in this blog.  I'm dropping the subject!

Back to milk...

Don't get me wrong, I love cheese!  If and when I retire, I hope to open a cheese shop.  I love cheese!  The other day Lisa and I were at whole foods.  Unbeknown to me there was an elderly woman within earshot when Lisa asked me If I wanted to get some raw milk Jarlsberg cheese, to which I answered "buy some? I want to make love to it"  The elderly woman cracked up!

Something is wrong here.  Some cultures around the planet eat lots of cheese and live long, healthy lives.  Why is our milk worse?  Once again many hours of reading led me to a possible answer.  In the US, we pasteurize and homogenize our milk.  Why do we do this?  As far as I can tell their are two reasons: One: the conditions that most dairy cows are kept in are so bad that disease is a very real concern.  So they pasteurize the milk to kill bacteria.  They also Homogenize the milk.   Homogenize comes from Latin: To make the same.  Simply put it means that the molecules of fat/cream are bigger then the molecule of the milk. So they force them through tiny screens so that the fat molecules stay in suspension.  That is why the cream no longer rises to the top.

From what I have learned, the only reason to do this is to cover you ass if you have shitty practices in place.  Fresh, raw milk is worlds better than the processed crap sold in most stores.  I'd still prefer beer over milk but what do I know?

Raw is not bad, if you get it from a local and conscientious source. If you are a milk fan you will probably have an orgasm when you taste "real" milk.  Think about it.  When you were a nursing baby, was your mothers milk the homogenized and pasteurized?  Of course not!  Same goes for every mammal on the planet.  Homogenization and pasteurization are not necessary, they are ways to extend the shelf life and correct bad farming and storage practices.

Do you use "half and half" in your coffee?  Do you know what each half is?  Have you noticed that some are labeled: pasteurized and others are labeled: Ultra pasteurized? Do you know the difference?  It is the temperature and time that they are heated.  What is the difference?   Storage time before opening, thats it. Ultra pasteurized will last longer, unopened in the fridge.  Once you open either one the spoilage clock starts.  Buy a half pint of each.  Open and taste them, I will bet that you will agree that the pasteurized tastes better than the ultra pasteurized.  Totally natural fresh raw milk and cream (they come in the same bottle) taste soooo much better.

By the by, I know that you know about skim, 1%, and 2% milk, but do you know the fat content of whole milk?  It averages 4%.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading,
Bald Bill