Monday, March 7, 2011

~ Is Raw Milk Mucus Producing? ~

Answer - from Cheeseslave's March 5 Q & A The short answer is no. Raw milk (and raw dairy) contains lactase, which is the enzyme that helps us digest lactose. People who are lactose intolerant are lacking lactase so they can’t digest the lactose. This is why so many people who are lactose-intolerant have no problems drinking raw milk. (Excessive mucus production is a common sign of an allergic reaction). Here’s the long answer: According to nutritionist, David Getoff of the Price-Pottenger Foundation:
I’m a little bit tired of hearing the statement that dairy is mucus-producing because if you take 1,000 people who, when they drink milk or eat dairy products, it stuffs them up, and if you take another 1,000 people who, when they’re exposed to either a cat or dog (or something else they’re allergic to) that that stuffs them up, nobody is going to say that cats and dogs are mucus-producing. A lot of people are allergic to dairy, to cats, dogs or dust mites. The allergic reaction is called a histamine reaction in which case they get stuffed up, so a lot of people are allergic to milk! It’s not mucus producing any more than cats and dogs are mucus-producing. A lot of people are simply allergic to it.
He goes on to explain why so many people are allergic to milk (which is why they think it is mucus-producing) — it’s a long response but very well-written:
In general, there isn’t anything in milk that a large percentage of the population is allergic to…until we start changing it and altering it, otherwise known as homogenization and pasteurization. Raw milk shouldn’t be called raw milk, it should only be called milk. Nobody ever calls the broccoli that they buy in the store raw broccoli, or cauliflower, raw cauliflower. They just say broccoli and cauliflower, and if you cook it, you say it’s cooked. Well, we shouldn’t say raw milk, we should say milk if it’s raw and cooked milk instead of pasteurized (because you are basically bringing up the temperature that is starting to cook it). When you do that you destroy all the enzymes that are in the milk, and you also denature some of the proteins. Pasteurization alters the milk. A lot of people are intolerant of some of the changes that have occurred in this food that otherwise wouldn’t have bothered them. From my own impromptu research with a couple of thousand students and patients over many years, approximately 8 out of every 10 people who have a problem with milk or dairy, do not have the problem when it is consumed RAW. Pasteurized dairy causes one of a variety of problems depending on the person, and people do not realize that they do not have a problem with raw milk, they only have a problem after it’s been pasteurized and homogenized. So milk is not necessarily the issue. A lot of people know that they are lactose intolerant which is the sugar that occurs in milk. Lactose intolerance is not a milk allergy. It doesn’t mean milk is not good for them. It simply means that the milk sugar, which is called lactose, can’t be properly assimilated by the body because the lactase enzyme is either not there or is in an insufficient amount and therefore causes a problem. Lo and behold Mother Nature knows that the human body generally doesn’t do well with lactose. So she put plenty of lactase into the milk so it wouldn’t cause a problem, but we kill it all by pasteurizing the milk. Most people who are lactose intolerant can handle raw milk (as long as they don’t use it to cook with). When you cook with raw milk, you are raising the temperature even higher than the heat of pasteurization, so obviously, it is no longer RAW. Other people have a problem with denaturing of the protein in the milk, which, of course, does not occur until it is heated. This is another reason why people who otherwise could handle raw milk have a problem with pasteurized milk. Raw milk, in general, is much higher in quality than pasteurized milk because the cows are much healthier. What the public also doesn’t realize is that the bacteria is still in the pasteurized milk, it’s just dead bacteria, and, of course, that’s not good for us either. It’s toxic. Killing something (bacteria) doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it dead.

9 comments:

  1. That is so interesting! I have never tried raw milk but I would love to!

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    1. you are missing out on life! Raw milk, at room temp (not cold), is an awesome cure. I had incredibly bad Chrones, IBS, Auto-Immune problems. Raw milk after about a week (only eating raw meat other than the milk), all my symptoms went away pretty much.

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  2. Very good. I wanted to know milk (raw) produce mucus. Got my answer, as long as there is lactase in the milk, we are safe and we get all the good nutrients from it.

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  3. Great post! The only quibble I have is Mother Nature didn't put the lactase in cow's milk for humans, she put it there for calves. But that doesn't mean we can use and benefit from it!

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  4. Well unfortunately I must be allergic to raw milk then. I have been drinking 2-4 oz a day over the past two weeks. Haven't drank milk in 15 years due to lactose intolerance and wanted to give raw milk a try. Never have I produced so much mucous! I do believe raw milk is a very healthy food but there's obviously more to the story. Lots of people out there with leaky gut/food sensitivities perhaps, including me. So far I am not stuffy, no ear or sinus infections, but coughing up loads of mucous.

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  5. Yeah I have the same issue. I'd love to understand the reason. I'm not ruling out allergy, but I get similar mucous reactions to allot of creamy foods (eg raw milk, cooked milk, soymilk, eggs...)
    Also, it seems strange that the only apparent reaction is mucous production- there are no other reactions further down (eg stomach, bowels etc) and no apparent reactions on the tissue surface itself (eg. pain, swelling, burning etc...) this would imply that the autoimmune reaction is occcuring in a localised area as in a contact allergy (in the oropharynx?) with the only reaction being mucous. Does that sound right? Does anyone else experience this?

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  6. I tried unpasteurised Gruyere cheese over Christmas and ended up with a full blown cold after, I could feel the mucus building up in my chest. I also get swollen glands particularly if I eat pasteurised dairy on more than a couple of occasions.

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  7. There is something wrong in this article. I tested raw milk and it was the casein that was making me produce mucus. I literally drank mainly raw milk and ate fruits and my body started producing a lot of mucus within a week. It took 13 days for the mucus to go away. I didn't get any fever or cold. The casein protein is hard to digest in raw/cooked milk. I am going to try drinking raw milk again but not daily to give my body time to digest the stuff. I believe it is healthy in the raw form and I wish my body will allow me to drink it 2-3 times a day for as long as I want.

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  8. If you were only eating fruit and drinking the milk, I would say your body was detoxing and getting rid of all the mucous you already had built up in your body.

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