The following article by Thomas Cowan, MD is from the Summer issue of the "The Health Journal" put out by the Price Pottenger Nutritional Foundation (PPNF) and is a publication I recommend highly. To subscribe write to PPNF P.O.Box 2614 La Mesa, CA 91943-2614. (619) 574-7763. Subscription is $35 - students $25. "As I'm sure most of you know by now there are very few subjects as emotionally charged as the choice of one's diet. Sexual relations, marriage and finances come to mind as similarly charged subjects and, like diet, we are all sure we know all we need to know about these subjects. The subject of milk, as I have discovered during the past four years, when properly viewed will challenge every notion you currently have about what is good food and what isn't. The story of milk is complex and goes something like this. Back in the preprocessed food era (i.e. before about 1930 in this country) milk was considered a highly prized food, especially for children. Not only was there an entire segment of our economy built up around milk but, as I remember, each house had its own milk chute for the delivery of fresh milk directly to the house. It was unquestioned that milk was good for us and that a safe plentiful milk supply was actually vital to our national health and well-being. It was also a time (now I,m referring to the early part of the century) when many of the illnesses which we currently suffer from were rare. As an example, family doctors would often go their whole careers without seeing a patient with significant coronary artery disease, breast or prostrate cancer, whereas current doctors can hardly go one month without encountering a patient with such a illness. Furthermore, as scientists such as Weston Price, DDS, had discovered, there were pockets of extremely healthy, long-lived people scattered about the earth who used dairy products in various forms as the stapple of their diets - further evidence that milk and its byproducts were amongst the most healthful foods man has ever encountered. If we fast forward to the 1980's, we now find an entirely different picture. For one, there have been numerous books written in the past decade about the dangers of dairy products - the most influential being a book by Frank Oski, MD, the current chairman of Pediatrics of Johns Hopkins University and perhaps the most influential pediatrician in this country. It's called "Don't Drink Your Milk". In it Oski pins just about every health problem in children to the consumption of milk, everything from acute and chronic ear infections, constipation, asthma, eczema, and so on. Secondly, just about all patients I have now in their initial visit proudly announce that they have a good diet and that, specifically, they don't eat dairy (which they pronounce with such disdain). One might well ask here where is the truth in this picture. Perhaps the experiments of Dr. Francis Pottenger in the 40's can help to solve this mystery. In these experiments of Dr. Francis Pottenger fed one group of cats a diet consisting of raw milk, raw meat and cod liver oil. Other groups were given pasteurized milk, evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk instead of raw milk. The results were conclusive and astounding. Those that ate raw milk and raw meat did well and lived long, happy, active lives free of any signs of degenerative disease. Those cats on pasteurized milk suffered from acute illnesses ( vomitting, diarrhea) and succumbed to every degenerative disease now flourishing in our population, even though they were also getting raw meat and cod liver oil. By the 3rd generation a vast majority of the cats were infertile and exhibited "anti-social" behavior - in short they were like modern Americans. Since the 40's the "qualities" of milk have been extensively studied to try to find an explanation for these dramatic changes. Studies have shown that before heating, milk is a living food rich in colloidal minerals and enzymes necessary for the absorption and utilization of the sugars, fats and minerals in the milk. For example, milk has an enzyme phosphatase that allows the body to absorb the calcium from the milk and lactase, an enzyme that allows for the digestion of lactose. Milk has a cortisone like factor which is heat sensitive (i.e. destroyed by heat) in the cream that prevents stiffness in the joints. Milk has beneficial bacteria and the lactic acids that allow these beneficial bacteria to implant in the intestines. All of these qualities are lost during pasteurization. Once heated, milk becomes rotten, with precipated minerals which can't be absorbed (hence osteoporosis), with sugars which can't be digested (hence allergies), and with fats which are toxic. Raw milk has been used in therapy in folk medicine - and even in the Mayo Clinic for centuries. It has been used in the pre-insulin days to treat diabetes (I've tried it - it works), as well as eczema, intestinal worms, allergies, and arthritis, all for reasons which can be understood when we understand just what is in milk such as the cortisone like factor for allergies and eczema. Another way we ruin milk is by feeding cows high protein feed made from soybeans and other inappropriate foodstuffs. Rarely is anyone truly allergic to grass-fed cow's milk. Fresh raw milk, from cows eating well-manured green grass is a living, unprocessed whole food. Compare this to the supposedly "healthy" soy milk which has been washed in acids, alkalis, ultrapasteurized, then allowed to sit in a box for many months. The Pottenger cat studies provide a simple but profound lesson for all Americans: Processed, dead foods don't support life or a happy well-functioning society. We must return to eating pure, wholesome, unprocessed foods. In my practice I ALWAYS start here - I encourage, insist, even beg people to eat real foods - no matter what the problem. Often with just this intervention the results are gratifying. SO, find a cow, find a farmer, make sure the cow (or goat, ILama, or whatever) is healthy and start your return to good health!" Best, Peter [log in to unmask]