Milk: Complete Nutrition by Nature
Milk is controversial as ever. I’ll assume that if you’re reading this you don’t see milk as an inherent villain, but often rather the victim of industrial processing. What other food source naturally contains all three macronutrients, enzymes, probiotics, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, immunoglobulins and lactoferrin? I can’t name one. This is not to say that milk is perfect for everyone, but the fact that ruminant animals can convert pounds of otherwise undigestible grasses into this nutrient-dense whole food is something we should relish and respect.
Raw Milk: The Unprocessed Form
Raw milk is becoming more popular and accessible, but it seems there’s still a lot of fear and unknown regarding what raw milk actually is. The assignment of the label “Raw Milk” rather than “Milk” almost implicates we are drinking an unclean product, rather than an unprocessed product. No doubt that the labeling alone contributes to the dubiousness that consumers still carry.
I previously held the false assumption that I was lactose intolerant or dairy sensitive. Switching to raw dairy dissolved this presumption, and I know I’m not alone in this experience. In learning how the majority of milk and dairy is produced, it became clear why so many of us struggle to digest conventional dairy. Most dairy, and certainly the majority (if not all) sold at your local supermarket, is a heavily processed food.
How is “Regular Milk” produced?
It was only when I began building relationships with farmers that I learned that Milk, when not in its raw form, is an extremely processed food. Thus, going forward, I will refer to all milk that’s not Raw Milk as “Processed Milk”. To best explain what Raw Milk is, I will first describe what it is not: pasteurized, homogenized, fortified, sad.
Before diving into these steps, I will acknowledge the good intention behind such processing. Raw dairy can make some people sick if pathogenic bacteria is present. However, such risk can be fully prevented by raising healthy animals and maintaining sanitary milking equipment. In today’s age, farmers can easily obtain the knowledge to ensure healthy animals, conditions and subsequent product. Couple this with the ease and availability of milk testing and I am left questioning the supposed modern “threat” of raw milk.
Then again, in remembering how the majority of dairy in this country is produced— by sick, caged, cornfed, mastitis-ridden, overcrowded cows knee deep in cow poop— it is easy to understand why such intense processing for the industrial version of dairy is “necessary”.
We’ve reached a point in our society where we associate sterility with safety. Perhaps we can instead question why “harmful” bacteria might be in our milk to start with. Picturing a conventional dairy farm will answer this question with little effort. How can such an operation not produce pathogenic milk? And yet, rather than restructuring (or renouncing) such operations to yield healthy cows, we’ve resolved to equate “bacteria-free” with “safe for human consumption”.
If milk is produced under conditions in which it is only safe after processing, I certainly don’t trust the nature of that product.
Step 1 of Processing Milk: Pasteurization
Pasteurization is simply the process of heating to kill all bacteria (good and bad, if you subscribe to that outlook) present to yield a nearly sterile product. All Processed Milk, be it organic, grass-fed, non-GMO, etc. is always pasteurized. Milk can be “pasteurized” (heated at 161° Fahrenheit), “vat pasteurized” (heated at 145° Fahrenheit), or “ultra-pasteurized” (heated at 280° Fahrenheit) which is the most common.
Pasteurization takes what was once nature’s enzyme-rich, natural probiotic and turns it into a near-sterile (or for many brands, totally sterile) white liquid. Beyond that, pasteurization denatures some of the proteins present in milk and inhibits many of its naturally occurring vitamins12.
Lactase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose (milk sugar), is destroyed in the pasteurization process. It is suspected that this is why individuals who once thought they were lactose intolerant can tolerate Raw Milk just fine. Lactase is destroyed in the pasteurization process, but is present in Raw Milk. Thus, drinking Raw Milk provides the very enzyme needed to break down its naturally occurring carbohydrate. How neat that this whole-food delivers the very enzyme needed for the body to utilize this food’s nutrition.
Pasteurization is of vital importance in the industrial dairy model. Not only does the process safeguard against pathogens that may have made it into the milk due to crowded conditions and unhealthy cows, but it also creates a product resilient to long journeys. Processed Milk has an extensive journey before a carton of it reaches your fridge. After being collected from the udder, Processed Milk must leave the dairy farm and be driven to a processor, then to a packager, then to a distributor, and then to your grocery store. This excludes the steps involved if liquid milk is to be turned into something else, like buttermilk or protein powder. Killing off all biological activity is the industrial answer to prolonging its shelf-life to not spoil during these processes.
While pasteurization fits into the industrial model, is this model conducive to health? If we are producing a product which subjects our animals and land to illness and stress, how do we not inflict the same on ourselves by extension?
Step 2: Homogenization
Homogenizing milk is the process of turning the fatty portion of milk (cream) into teeny tiny globules that perfectly integrate into the rest of the liquid so that you’re left with a homogenous (hence the name) white liquid. Just like oil in water, the milk fat in Raw Milk naturally rises to the top.
Homogenization requires putting milk under very high pressure to break down the fat molecules. Like pasteurization, this unnaturally high pressure process also denatures proteins3. It also often frees xanthine oxidase, a milk fat enzyme which remains bound in Raw Milk. When this enzyme is set free in homogenization, it “can penetrate the intestinal wall in humans, enter the bloodstream, and damage the heart and arteries, creating scar tissue. In response, the body may release cholesterol in attempt to lay a protective fatty material on the damaged and scarred areas, which can lead to arteriosclerosis” (Belanger)4. Such research findings leave me to question if the health problems associated with diary are falsely attributed to dairy as a whole, when it’s rather a processed dairy issue.
Step 3: Fortify and Stabilize
Pasteurizing and homogenizing milk yields a very sad and lifeless liquid. The industry’s solution to manufacturing a food item void of nutrition is to add a bunch of synthetics. This is not an uncommon practice in the food industry at large. The notion that we can strip a food down to nothing, re-add isolated vitamins made in a lab and then pretend that such a franken-food is commensurate to its original nutrient-dense source bewilders me. It reveals an arrogance unaware of the impossibility of outsmarting nature.
Have you checked the ingredients on your milk label? Vitamin D3 and A are common fortifications— do you know where those synthetic vitamins are being made or how? Are you aware that synthetic Vitamin D3 and A are not the same form as their naturally occurring counterparts which they aim to mimic? Again, I stress that we cannot pretend that lab-made nutrients are tantamount to their naturally occurring counterparts.
To stabilize Processed Milk, various gums, oils and other lab-made chemicals are often added to maintain the homogenized texture and prolong shelf life. The additives alone highlight the fact that what can and should be a naturally occurring healthy whole-food is more often an industrial processed food not dissimilar to a bag of chips.
A word on Protein Digestion: A2 versus A1 Beta-Casein
You may have noticed that some grocery stores have started carrying cow milk labeled as “A2”. This label is reflective of what type of cow the milk came from, rather than how it's processed. Some individuals find they are able to digest dairy once switching to A2 varieties. In other words, some are unknowingly “A1” intolerant rather than lactose intolerant.
Casein and whey are the two proteins present in milk. There are a few different versions of casein, but historically the major protein type produced by all dairy cows has been beta-casein A2. “A2” simply refers to the specific genetic version (or structure) of the casein protein chain. In recent history, a mutation emerged which gave rise to dairy cows that also produced beta-casein A1 protein.
To clarify: while both A1 and A2 are expressions of the beta-casein protein, there’s a slight difference in the amino acid sequence (or protein chain) order. Thus, currently, dairy cows either are pure beta-casein A2/A2 producers (“A2 cows”) or beta-casein A1/A2 producers (“A1 cows”).
Goats, Sheep, Water Buffalo, Camel and Human milk all solely contain beta-casein A2, not A1. The beta-casein A1 phenomenon is only present in dairy cows. Does Goat Dairy sit better with you? Perhaps A2 is why. Remember that A2 does not indicate raw dairy, it only signifies the beta-casein protein version. Raw A2 cow dairies do exist, so give that a try if you think that might sit better with you.
Support your local farmer!
My conclusion may come as no surprise: support your local raw dairy farmer. Buying local means less transport, more money in your local economy, and greater transparency. Plus the taste of fresh milk is next to none!
While some mainstream grocery stores are starting to carry raw milk, you can also use the Raw Milk Finder to track down a source near you.
Belanger, Jerome, and Thomson Bredesen. Storey's Guide to Raising Dairy Goats, Storey Pub, North Adams, MA, 2018, p. 26.