Taking a moment to delurk and maybe contribute abit on this subject.

First off, I DO eat abit of dairy but I don't believe dairy is paleolithic.
In
small and occasional doses, it doesnt appear to cause ME problems.

Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) in meat and milk I dont believe is a problem.
Even when
there are detectable amounts in the meat and milk (rare), BGH is NOT
bioactive
in human beings.  Furthermore, stomach acids denature the hormones (that is,
the
hormones are torn apart).

However... one of the effects of injecting milk cows with BGH besides the
desired
increase in milk production is a huge increase in the amount of Insulin-like
Growth
Hormone 1 (IGF-1) in the milk.  Curiously, unlike most other hormones
between species,
IGF-1 in cow and human are IDENTICAL.  Normally, IGF-1 taken orally would be
denatured
by the stomach acids, however there is good evidence to support the idea
that milk
may lower the acidity of the stomach enough such that considerable amounts
of IGF-1
can pass through the stomach and into the small intenstine where receptors
will uptake
the hormone.

IGF-1 is a VERY powerful growth hormone.  It has been linked with the
promotion of certain
cancers including some types of breast cancer.  The NOMILK site is abit
extreme and I
think over-the-top (the founder, Robert Cohen, is a vegan I believe), you
can glean some
useful info from it.  In particular, look under the subheadings for IGF-1
and Growth Hormone.  http://www.notmilk.com/

   Wade Reeser


-----Original Message-----
From: Paleolithic Eating Support List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Fredrik Murman
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 8:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Yoghurt and its dangers...


On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 05:21:16 -0800, Mary French <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Fermentation basically just removes the lactose.  That's why many people
>who are lactose intolerant can handle well fermented yoghurt or kefir.

Are you absolutely sure? Maybe the fermentation bacteria also transform
growth hormones?

Fredrik