At 07:45 AM 4/13/01 -0400, matesz wrote:
>-Charles Alban said:
>Natural yogurt must be great food -- people in Armenia, Georgia, Turkey,
>etc., consume a lot of it and live to great age (or was that soviet
>propaganda?) I still think it is true, having traveled in those areas.
>
>My reply:
>The yogurt consumed by health native populations came from pasture fed
>animals, whose milk was richer in vitamins, minerals, and beneficial fatty
>acids; it was made from unpasteurized, unhomognized milk, which is healthier
>for the consumer.  Modern milk from grain fed, hormone and antibiotic-fed,
>confined animals, and yogurt from pasteurized or homogenized milk poses many
>health risks.  Btw:  When heating milk to make yogurt, you are not
>pasteurizing it, you are merely warming it, or in some cases bringing it to
>a boil.   Further, one can make yogurt without heating milk (Don and I did
>it years ago when we lived on the west coast and had access to raw milk).

Bringing the milk to a boil does pasteurize it, or have I forgotten
something?  It is good to know it's "tradition" and not necessary!

As for the grain-fed, etc...  Maybe it's just where I grew up, but in
Maryland, there are quite a few dairies, and they all are pasture-fed
except for a couple of months in the dead of winter when there isn't any
pasture!  It looks to be the same around here in Colorado.  Where are these
confined cow dairies?  I'm not suggesting they don't exist--I'm just
wondering where, and why?  I remember as a kid one of the first signs of
spring was the odd taste the garlic grass gave the milk!

Now the hormone and antibiotic, definitely a problem.  But I also thought
most of the hormones were growth hormones for calves raised for meat, not
the dairy cows...  not all, most.

Dianne
who's finding this is a more complicated issue than it appears!