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����Another fantastic article from Mel Siff - taken from his Yahoo group, which still has enormous amounts of valid information its archives - check it out at health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/ or just grab the highlights at melsiff.com and then search through the various categories in the column on the left.

Milk advertisements have so long proclaimed that milk is a healthy food, that

it is a “complete food”, that it provides an excellent source of calcium, and

that one should drink it for preventing osteoporosis that most people believe

all of this to be true. On one side, we have been exposed to endless TV

commercials with healthy-looking people displaying parts of their faces

smothered with milk, and parents have come to believe the dairy industry

marketing claims to such as extent that most children are forced to drink

milk or have it on their morning cereals. Bodybuilders and many athletes

have been convinced that various milk derivatives such as whey serve as an

unrivalled source of highly concentrated protein.

On the other side, from the anti-milk lobby, we have heard that milk

consumption is associated with a great increase in the incidence of allergy,

stomach disorders, heart disease, cancer and various other diseases.

Who is correct? Can we really accept the biased proof of the healthful

aspects of milk from the huge dairy industry with its vested interests

everywhere? Equally well, can we trust that the anti-milk activists have not

grossly exaggerated the dangers of milk? Haven’t many of us, especially in

the strength and sporting world consumed huge quantities of milk since our

earliest years, without any obvious ill-effects? Isn’t the greater incidence

of heart disease and allergy among those who drink milk not due to other

possible factors?

As a dedicated and passionate milk product lover, I was convinced for much of

my life that the anti-milk lobbyists were way off track and were probably a

bunch of skinny runts who never drank large quantities of milk to help in

their quest for size and strength. However, more recently I began to

discover that both factions may be correct. Yes, milk may be both good and

bad for you, whether you are “lactose intolerant” or not!

My first clues came when I noticed how differently I responded to drinking

raw milk and pasteurised milk back in S Africa, then later when I drank milk

in the USA. I always found that certified raw milk tasted better, was very

easily digested even in large volume, and never putrefied when left

unrefrigerated, but simply became pleasantly sour, like a good yoghurt. I

simply could not understand why I consistently could not tolerate milk in

amounts greater than a cupful in the USA, until I noticed that the milk that

I drank in S Africa separated into a thick creamy layer at the top, unlike

the far less palatable milk in the USA. Then I noticed that all the milk

that I bought in the USA was “homogenized” and also found out that the

pasteurization process here may not be carried out under the same heating

conditions as my sources in S Africa.

I also noted that the milk here does not and cannot go sour, but putrefies

and becomes impossible to drink after a few days out of the refrigerator,

suggesting that it contains none of the natural bacteria which allow it to

become sour and palatable.

My feint suspicions grew far stronger that milk of itself may not be the

problem. Instead the way in which it is prepared may be the real problem, as

is the case with all other foods. That would explain quite simply why and

others have responded so differently to raw milk, pasteurised milk and

*pasteurised and homogenized* milk - clearly the processing involved must be

playing a central role in the whole affair. That should be not at all

surprising, since we all know that other foods can be overcooked, dried out

when reheating after storage in the refrigerator, become tough by poor

preparation or marinating, taste very different when microwaved compared with

roasted, and so forth. Often the digestibility can also be profoundly

affected by the manner of preparation. Why should milk be any different?

Before I go any further, here are some technical details about pasteurisation

and homogenization:

Now, the major rationale behind pasteurisation is that it eliminates the risk

of contracting TB (tuberculosis), but the statistics have never shown that

pasteurised milk is any safer than certified raw milk. On the contrary,

studies have shown that pasteurised milk often contains a percentage of pus

from the cow’s udders (at least it is pasteurised!).

If one wishes to use certified raw milk in many States in the USA, you just

do not have that freedom of choice, because it is often legislated against on