What is in the Milk You Drink? An Eye-Opening Education, Part II

Shocking Facts About Factors that Control the Quality of Milk and Dairy Products

In Part I of the article, I discussed the effect of cow’s breed on butterfat cream and Vitamin A content, Grazing and feeding method on Vitamin A, D, E, K, and Hormones on cow and milk health. Let’s continue with factor number 4:

1. Pregnancy: In commercial dairy farms in the US, cows are usually kept pregnant nine months out of a year (often through AI, artificial insemination), and milked ten months out of a year: Seven months during pregnancy and the three months after delivery before next cycle of pregnancy starts, as seen in chart below. In contrast, in some other countries pregnant cows are not milked after month three of pregnancy. For example, Mongolian pasture-raised cows are milked five 5.5 months a year (3 months in early pregnancy and 2.5 after freshening or delivery).The combined effect of artificial and frequent pregnancies and prolonged milking during pregnancy in the US, can be stressful to the heifers and to the humans consuming the milk. Japanese researchers (Ganmaa and Sato) have shown that unlike their pasture-fed counterparts of 100 years ago, modern dairy cows are usually pregnant and continue to lactate during the latter half of pregnancy, when the concentration of estrogens in blood, and hence in milk, increases. Today, the main source of animal-derived estrogens (60–70%) in the human diet is milk and dairy products. Hormones in pregnant cow’s milk such as free and enzymatically deconjugated estrogens in the third trimester of pregnancy are some 27 times higher than that in milk in first trimester of pregnancy (60 ng/L). Data have confirmed the high potency of estradiol as a growth factor in promoting cancers.The high levels of estrogens consumed with milk in the US may explain strong epidemiological relations between milk/dairy consumption and incidence of breast, ovarian, testicular and prostate cancers. Multiple-regression analysis (SMRA) identified meat as the factor contributing most greatly to the incidence of breast cancer, and Milk as most closely correlated with the incidence of corpus uteri cancer and ovarian cancers, followed by animal fats and cheese. The analysis revealed that milk PLUS cheese make the greatest contribution to the incidence of ovarian and corpus uteri cancers. The authors conclude that “Among dietary risk factors, we are most concerned with milk and dairy products, because the milk we drink today is produced from pregnant cows, in which estrogen and progesterone levels are markedly elevated.” In fact, Mongolian children fed with American milk instead of Mongolian milk had artificially spiked high hormone levels in their blood.Separate research has shown women with higher (commercial) dairy consumption had significantly lower ovarian reserve compared to those with lower dairy intake, suggesting correlations with infertility and miscarriage. Chinese researchers have shown possible association between hormones present in dairy products with the incidence of breast and prostate cancer.
2. Vaccines: Dairy cows, even those in organic dairy farms, are heavily vaccinated. Some of these vaccines are shown to be fatal and associated with horrific disruptions to the cow’s immune system, and the milk quality. For example Clostridial vaccines were linked to cases of anaphylactic shock, acute pulmonary edema/hemorrhage and death from severe interstitial pneumonia and hemorrhage after injection. Respiratory vaccines (e.g., SomnusTar PH) have been linked to fatal pulmonary hemorrhages and Capripox vaccines are linked to Vaccine-induced lumpy skin disease-like lesions, skin necrosis leading to euthanasia (slaughter) to reduce animal suffering. PregSure BVD (bovine viral diarrhea) vaccines by Pfizer are strongly linked to Bleeding calf syndrome, also known as bovine neonatal pancytopenia (BNP), a fatal disease in young calves characterized by severe bleeding from the skin, orifices, and mucous membranes. It is caused by the calf’s immune system failing to produce blood cells and platelets due to the destruction of its bone marrow, often triggered by antibodies in the mother’s colostrum.
3. Antibiotics, heavily used on commercial dairy cows, are linked to serious gut health issues, diarrhea, weakness, kidney and liver damage, and antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans (consuming the milk), as well as potential for carcinogenic and toxic effects in humans consuming the milk. For example, certain antibiotic residues, such as those from sulfamethazine, oxytetracycline, and furazolidone, have been linked to cancer in the long term Although it is against the law to sell milk containing antibiotic residues, and milk from treated cows is supposed to be discarded until the required withdrawal period is over, strict enforcement of such laws are difficult so we may be regularly exposed to milk from antibiotic-treated cows. Antibiotic residues have been detected in 60% of conventional milk samples, including 37% that tested positive for sulfamethazine, which has long been outlawed in lactating dairy cows!
4. Stress of separation from calf, milking while pregnant, confinement and crowded factory farms: On most North American and European dairy farms, newborn calves are “forcefully” separated from their mothers within 24 hours after birth and then bottle or bucket-fed ‘waste’ milk that cannot be sold, or milk replacers that are less expensive than fresh milk. In contrast, under natural conditions dams begin to gradually wean their calves at 6–8 months. The separation is obviously very stressful for both the mother and calf. As with humans, when cows experience stress, their body releases glucocorticoid (steroid) hormones that will suppress their immune system. The forceful separation also deprives the calf from the beneficial immunoglobulins in the colostrum, increase mortality rates for calves and risk of mastitis for the dam (the painful inflammation and infectious disease of the udder).Furthermore, stress-related glucocorticoids and other steroid hormones, as well as synthetic glucocorticoids such as dexamethasone used in veterinary medicine for treatment of diseases in ruminants, could be found in the cow’s milk and meat (tissues) consumed by humans. Studies show that following treatment of the lactating Holstein cows by adrenocorticotropin hormone the milk cortisol level increased four-fold and that increase was due to sustained increase in plasma cortisol level. Other stressful conditions such as transport, neuronal diseases, diet changes, environmental alteration including temperature changes and hundreds other stress producing factors (such as crowded dirty stalls and confinement, etc.) might elevate the levels of Glucocorticoids in milk and result in hormonal disruptions to the human consumer.
5. Feed and additives: About 20% of all soybean harvest in the US is sent to numerous feed mills for confined dairy and beef cattle. About 40% of the U.S. corn crop is also sent to feed mills for domestic livestock such as dairy cows. Also, corn waste from corn-based ethanol production plants are sold as dried distillers grains (DDGs) to feed mills. Both corn and soybeans, unless organic, are heavily sprayed with pesticides (you can find out more about effect of pesticides on human health in my article ). As explained below, grains instead of grass and hay forage can result in lower Vitamin A and nutrient density in the milk. A quick AI search has produced the following chart. Also, Residues of the controversial and restricted-use pesticide chlorpyrifos showed up in 59 percent of the conventional samples. For harms associated with pesticides, you can refer to my article Do Pesticides Impact Fertility, Masculinity and Miscarriages? In the next part (Part III), I will discuss the effect of pasteurization, homogenization and feed additives on the quality of milk. Science today is mostly a sponsored business! Guided by conscience and not politics or profits, Ray Armat, Ph.D. is an independent polymath, farmer, educator and former NASA grantee who brings you simplified, uncensored, unsponsored insight and analysis.Subscribe

To be continued in Part III.

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