Friday, October 12, 2007

MILK

someone in Africa read my blog today - how cool is THAT?!?!? I love the internet :) Hello out there to everyone reading, wherever you are :)

Milk. Well Ive always personally thought it was nasty - I called it cow pee when I was little LOL. So Ive always had a problem with it. I was allergic as a child and still dont handle it well straight, like on cereal, although I eat a lot of (too much) cheese.

Non-organic cow milk is full of hormones, antibiotics and devoid of the natural enzymes God created it with to aid in digestion and improve health. Basically they pump the poor cows with hormones so they make many times more milk than they are designed to. This leads to a lot of infections which leads to antibiotics. Ive even read that there is a lot of pus in the milk - gross!!!!!! Check out the site if you really want to know this stuff. warning: its sad :( MilkSucks.com

Its seriously worth it to buy organic although read my friend Green Republican's post about that - its actually best to buy local if you can.

Raw Milk is another option. People are scared to death of it and I admit I was too but Im coming around (I still pray a lot when I give it to my kids!). Basically they dont heat up the milk and pasteurize it. This means they dont kill the good bacteria that comes along with the bad and those handy enzymes are still there - which means many people allergic to mik can handle raw milk just fine (my son for example). The people we buy raw milk from are local and have a Grade A Raw Milk liscence. If you are fortunate to live in a state like Ca then you may find it in a store but some states, like TX, it is illegal. (dont even get me started!!!!) Check out RealMilk.com

Note: Its safest to give your kids raw milk if they eat a healthy diet and have a strong immune system. Its possible there is bad bacteria and if they cant handle it they can get sick (As you can from many foods of course!) Although I read somewhere once that if you dropped a Tsp of E.coli into pastuerized milk it would live but if you dropped it into Raw Milk the good bacteria would kill it right away. Pretty cool :)

Most of the time my allergic-to-dairy son drinks almond milk (we dont drink a lot of milk though). I usually buy him the unsweetened vanilla almond milk from the store. But I came across this cool YouTube video of how to make it yourself and Im definitely going to try it! (you need a milk bag) Im hoping my little one will like the homemade stuff because she doesnt like the commercial stuff.

Its interesting to me that no other mammal drinks milk after its weaned. I believe that we are not just "animals", we are made in God's image, however its an interesting thought. I truly dont believe babies "need" milk after they wean, its really a cultural thing (and a result of MILLIONS of dollars of marketing) that makes us think we do. I know I eat way too much dairy and Id like to cut it out completely ...I just LOVE cheese LOL (and no I dont buy raw or even organic cheese, cant afford it!) But Im going to work on it! :)

Great Article "Milk:It Does a Body Good?"

Is Raw Milk Safe for Babies?





3 comments:

Alli said...

Thanks for posting about this. I've been reading about raw milk. Personally, it still scares me to death, but I might be coming around. How does it compare with "conventional" milk, price-wise?

Rachel said...

Here in TX Raw milk is very expensive - we pay $9 a gallon. Its frozen in half-gallon containers though which is nice. Like I said, we dont just drink milk as a beverage very often so we dont buy much milk anyways. I have organic milk in the fridge for baking things like pancakes, muffins, etc. But the kids will have some raw milk with breakfast and lately dh and I have been putting it in the magic bullet with frozen fruit and stevia or sugar and making "ice cream" - yummmmm its good :)

Green Republican said...

$9 is a great price compared to up here! LOL It's $12 a gallon up here at Whole Foods. EEEK! I found a place nearby that sells directly from the farm... We've been so busy lately that I haven't had a chance to drive over there to check out their prices. Hopefully they're more reasonable.

Making almond milk is FUN! I soak the almonds for a few days until they just begin to sprout (changing out the water once or twice). Pour out the soaking liquid and blend in the blender with fresh water (search the internet for the correct ratio as I'm forgetting at the moment).

I sometimes pop off the hulls before blending, but I'm usually too lazy. Then I strain it with cheese cloth (wrap it into a ball shape and twist/squeeze it like mad) into a bowl - very messy process. Then I mix in stevia and/or honey and sometimes cocoa powder. A lot of work, but it is fun.

It's almost impossible to find raw almonds nowadays though... *sigh* Especially now that CA has passed a law making the sale of raw almonds ILLEGAL! Good grief!