What's Kefir? A Healthy Food!

Have you ever tried kefir? My journey with making this wonderful food is just beginning.

First, here is a bit about what kefir is. Then on to my amusing personal kefir story.

Kefir is a cultured milk product similar to, but more liquid in consistency than yogurt. Kefir grains are living cultures that ferment milk. My understanding is that the fermentation process digests the lactose and proteins, making milk easier for the ultimate consumer to digest and assimilate. For people who are milk intolerant, this pre-digestion may make it possible for them to comsume kefir. Once fermented, kefir can then be made into cheese and other edibles.

The origin of kefir is considered to be in the Caucasus Mountains, possibly in North Ossetia. (Yes, near South Ossetia, the area of recent political unrest and ethnic cleansing -- primarily driven by U.S. interests in oil. Were you aware of that??) The people in this region have cultured and consumed kefir for over 1,000 years. They are renowned for longevity and good health. It is said that the tribes-folk regarded kefir as the drink of the Prophet. (Source, and for more details: Dominic "Dom" Anfiteatro, information follows.)


Introducing Dom, the World's Acknowledged Kefir Expert

My introduction to Dom occurred through a friend. (Thanks Jo!) He is both the kefir expert and the very best source for kefir grains. My first visit to Dom's website was . . . astonishing. The volume and depth of information will astound you. He knows his stuff.

http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html

I recommend spending time on his website. A printed version of some of this information can be ordered then downloaded or sent by mail: Kefir! A Probiotic Gem Cultured with Probiotic Jewels: Kefir Grains! (I encourage people to purchase kefir grains and the book from Dom, supporting his continuing work with kefir and health for the benefit of the world.)


Sandra's Adventures In Kefir Land

Having read Dom's detailed instructions, I felt pretty confident in beginning my journey with this wonderful and health-supporting food. However, when the grains arrived, I discovered that reading just isn't the same as doing. A few days ago, as I laboriously hand-sorted kefir grains from the kefir, the following came to mind, . . .

Making Kefir is NOT for the Faint of Heart

(Though in actuality, since consuming kefir has been known -- for centuries -- to have a substantially positive benefit of improving health, making kefir could potentially be VERY good for those who are physically challenged in the heart department. I couldn't really say one way or the other.)

All joking aside, at least initially, making kefir does take a bit more devotion and time than I was expecting. And though I had READ what kefir is like, when I finally had the real stuff, it bore little resemblance to what my mind had imagined.

Today, precisely a week after I first put kefir grains to revive in milk, I have a system for making kefir somewhat figured out, and I have come to love drinking kefir. I would say that making kefir is most definitely a worthwhile endeavor, and the end product is wonderfully enlivening and vital.


For those who may be contemplating the possibilities of making kefir . . . it is helpful to know in advance what you are getting into . . .

What Being a Keeper of Kefir Grains is Like

I now compare making kefir to being a person who has pets. Have you ever heard that it is the pet or pets in a household who are in CONTROL of the household? Have you seen signs saying that the person living there does the bidding of the cat (or the dog)?

If you have a dog, you feed Rover every day, and you keep water in his dish. Regular walks and the occasional bath are definitely recommended. Beyond tending to those basic physical needs, we all know that EVERYONE is happiest if Rover also gets plenty of love and attention.

Well, keeping kefir grains is somewhat like that, though definitely on a smaller scale. To a certain extent, my life now revolves around caring for and feeding my kefir grains. To keep them living and growing, the cultured milk (kefir) is strained away from the grains once a day, and fresh milk is added. Containers and utensils are washed to keep contaminating chemicals or foreign bacteria from killing the culture. Every couple of hours, I stir the mixture to put the grains in contact with fresh milk. Eventually, I will remove some grains and freeze or dry them for future use, because they will have multiplied. And because I am leaving for a week soon, my husband Ken has been designated the babysitter of the kefir grains, keeping them happy during my absence.

On a more personal level, I have a relationship with my kefir grains. Occasionally, I let them go too long before straining, and the kefir becomes thick in consistency. Straining then takes more effort and time. Because my culture is quite young, I want to keep as many grains in the culturing jar as possible, so I pick through the kefir by hand to find the grains that escaped through the holes of the strainer. When doing this, I actually find myself talking to them (occasionally even out loud). I tell them that anyone who wants to keep living in the jar needs to make themselves known and allow themselves to be retrieved. (Any that remain in the kefir will be . . . eaten! Which is perfectly acceptable. They are highly beneficial for health, providing a wealth of fabulous probiotics and nutrients.) After the grains are back in the jar and fed their milk, I frequently tell them, "Okay guys, multiply!"

I am not a pet owner, but I imagine that the fond feelings and the tender treatment that I give to my kefir grains are right in line with how people relate with their pets. Yes, kefir grains require attention and love. And I find that they are very much worth the effort.


Real Kefir vs. Commercially Produced Kefir

Real kefir, cultured with living kefir grains is NOT AT ALL like commercially available kefir. I was expecting something resembling what I had previously purchased in the store. What I got had absolutely NO resemblance to that white-liquid-in-a-carton. As far as I am concerned, their only similarities are that they are both liquid forms of milk, and that they both contain cultures of bacteria.

It is important to note that real kefir grains are quite different from the powdered kefir cultures that are commercially marketed to people desiring to make kefir. I imagine that grocery-store kefir is made with culture powder. Powdered cultures will never multiply or become real kefir grains, so continuing to make kefir requires additional culture purchases. Assuming that I keep my kefir grains healthy, I will have cultures forever. In fact, I will accumulate extra, which can be given away. The nutritional profile of the 'kefir' that is produced with powders also differs from that of true kefir. For more information, see Dom's website.

Reading that kefir is slimy in texture and consistency just did not fully clue me in. In fact, it really is quite slimy and stringy, in a liquid kind of way. My telling you that may produce a preconceived impression of what it is like, one that is perhaps a bit negative. Face it, the words 'slimy' and 'stringy' just do not convey a particularly positive image. But in fact, kefir's texture is acceptable, at least for me. Any initial anticipation of unpleasantness was quickly dissipated once I actually drank the kefir. My husband also seems to enjoy it. (While I am gone, will he continue drinking kefir on his own? That will be the true test.)

Lactic acid produced during fermentation gives kefir a slightly sour taste. Depending on how it is made and stored, kefir can also be a bit frothy. Fruit, herbs, and other food ingredients can be added in preparing kefir for consumption. I have yet to make smoothies and cheese. I look forward to this with anticipation. Dom gives quite a few recipes. For now, I am quite happy with straight kefir.


Raw Milk & Kefir

I think my kefir cultures quite rapidly went from dried to fully revived, more quickly than my reading of Dom's material led me to expect. Certainly part of this is due to the very high quality of Dom's cultures. And the raw milk that my kefir grains have been fed from day one will most certainly have contributed.

Go here for one of several postings on this blog about Raw Milk, its numerous benefits, and the issues associated with its availability.


That's My Kefir Story

For now, that's it. I may provide further installments, as the kefir adventure continues.

I'm going to have a glass of kefir, and experience the rush of aliveness and vitality that always follows.


Healthy Food to You!

Sandra Lynn Lee
Spiritual Alignment Consultant
Certified Healing Codes Practitioner
Miracle Inspirations, LLC
www.MiracleInspirations.com
sandra@MiracleInspirations.com

Everything in this newsletter is provided for informational and educational purposes only. If you have health concerns, please contact a qualified health care provider.

To go to the Breathe - Life's Inspirations With Sandra blog.

To go to the What Are the Issues 2008 blog.

Copyright 2008 Miracle Inspirations, LLC. All rights reserved.

Do You Trust 'Em With Your Health?

I have posted the June issue of Breathe - Life's Inspirations with Sandra. It addresses many food-related issues. Please go to the Breathe blog to read it.

Thank you.

Sandra

Raw Milk - A Health Freedom Issue

Now, you might say, "Why would anyone want to drink raw milk? What's the big deal?"

Before I get into more detail about this, here is a video of a young man who is passionate about his raw milk. There are many people like him who CAN'T drink pasteurized milk. He shows us that raw milk isn't just for white upper class people.

Raw milk is for everyone -- for you, for me, for the guy walking down the street, and for your children and grandchildren.

This wonderful young man absolutely understands what is going on, and he does a terrific job of explaining it.
Sandra

The Demise of Raw Milk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ZO3B2butg&NR=1

So, now that you have watched the video, do you understand a bit about why anyone would want to drink raw milk?? Now, back to the more in depth milk story.

Humble dairy cows were major contributors in helping the United States of America grow into a great nation. Raw milk and dairy foods supported people in becoming healthy and strong. The commerce of this country developed upon a foundation of small family farms and their dairy cattle.

Sadly, in recent decades, pasteurization of milk has become the rule, with tragic impacts on people's health. And family farms have been all but completely replaced by factory farms producing 'foods' that, rather than supporting optimal health, are resulting in nutritional deficiencies, toxicity, and disease within our population. This is a sad state of affairs.

Sandra's Personal Milk Story

I grew up drinking what I thought was milk. But it was actually pasteurized and homogenized milk, which I now understand is not actually real milk. No wonder I didn't like it! Once I was past childhood and providing my own food, I always thought of myself as not liking milk. I never drank milk, though I did eat cheese and butter.

Pasteurized milk isn't actually even food; the body is unable to properly digest and assimilate it. Food is supposed to provide nourishment for the body, and what is commonly thought of as milk does not accomplish this. At the same time, it actually harms the body! As far as I am concerned, pasteurized milk is inedible.

Now that I know about Real Milk, I drink about a gallon a week. I love it, you might even say that I cherish my freedom to drink milk. Fortunately, raw milk is available in stores in Washington State. This is not true in all states. For information on what to do about this, keep reading . . .

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming

For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

After you read the material below, go to the next blog entry for More About Raw Milk.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.

Now, to provide you with true Milk education, . . . Here is eye-opening information from A Campaign for Real Milk, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Sandra

In recent years, I have learned a tremendous amount from the Weston A. Price Foundation, about milk, and food in general, and about what people need to be healthy. Consider joining the Weston A. Price Foundation through their website.

The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein,* bred to produce huge quantities of milk--three times as much as the old-fashioned cow. She needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production.

*Please note, there are farmers who produce excellent "Real Milk" using older lines of Holsteins and Holstein crosses. It is the modern commercial Holstein, bred only for quantity, not quality, and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, that should be avoided. Know your supplier! Ask questions!

Buy only milk from old-fashioned breeds of cows, such as Jerseys, Guernseys, Red Devons, Brown Swiss or older genetic lines of Holsteins, or from goats or sheep.

(Or, depending on what part of the world you live in, from llamas, camels, mares, water buffalo, or reindeer!)

---

Real feed for cows is green grass in Spring, Summer and Fall; stored dry hay, silage, hay and root vegetables in Winter. It is not soy meal, cottonseed meal or other commercial feeds, nor is it bakery waste, chicken manure or citrus peel cake, laced with pesticides. Vital nutrients like vitamins A and D, and Price's "Activator X" (a fat-soluble catalyst that promotes optimum mineral assimilation, now believed to be vitamin K₂) are greatest in milk from cows eating green grass, especially rapidly growing green grass in the spring and fall. Vitamins A and D are greatly diminished, and Activator X disappears, when milk cows are fed commercial feed. Soy meal has the wrong protein profile for the dairy cow, resulting in a short burst of high milk production followed by premature death. Most milk (even most milk labeled "organic") comes from dairy cows that are kept in confinement their entire lives and never see green grass!

Buy only milk products from herds allowed to graze on green pasture.

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Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection. And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease suspected of causing Crohn's disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected. Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds. Clean raw milk from certified healthy cows is available commercially in several states and may be bought directly from the farm in many more. (Sources are listed on www.realmilk.com.)

Demand access in all states to clean, raw milk. Boycott processed milk!

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Homogenization is a process that breaks down butterfat globules so they do not rise to the top. Homogenized milk has been linked to heart disease.

Use only milk with "Cream on the Top."

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Average butterfat content from old-fashioned cows at the turn of the century was over 4% (or more than 50% of calories). Today butterfat comprises less than 3% (or less than 35% of calories). Worse, consumers have been duped into believing that low-fat and skim milk products are good for them. Only by marketing low-fat and skim milk as a health food can the modern dairy industry get rid of its excess poor-quality, low-fat milk from modern high-production herds. Butterfat contains vitamins A and D needed for assimilation of calcium and protein in the water fraction of the milk. Without them protein and calcium are more difficult to utilize and possibly toxic. Butterfat is rich in short- and medium chain fatty acids which protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. It contains glyco-spingolipids which prevent intestinal distress and conjugated linoleic acid which has strong anticancer properties.

Buy only full-fat milk products.

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Powdered skim milk, a source of dangerous oxidized cholesterol and neurotoxic amino acids, is added to 1% and 2% milk. Low-fat yogurts and sour creams contain mucopolysaccharide slime to give them body. Pale butter from hay-fed cows contains colorings to make it look like vitamin-rich butter from grass-fed cows. Bioengineered enzymes are used in large-scale cheese production. Many mass produced cheeses contain additives and colorings and imitation cheese products contain vegetable oils.

Boycott counterfeits.

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Pasteurization laws favor large, industrialized dairy operations and squeeze out small farmers. When farmers have the right to sell unprocessed milk to consumers, they can make a decent living, even with small herds.

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A Campaign for Real Milk is a project of The Weston A. Price Foundation
PMB 106-380, 4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington DC 20016
Phone: (202) 363-4394 | Fax: (202) 363-4396 | Web: www.westonaprice.org

__________

Go to the next blog posting for More About Raw Milk.

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming
For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.

More About Raw Milk

My mother, Carolyn Lee wrote the following article based on the material in the references at the bottom of this posting. We have her to thank for putting a tremendous amount of time and effort into doing this. She does this for the health and freedom of all Americans.

If you have not yet read the other posting Raw Milk - A Health Freedom Issue, I recommend doing so. You can access it here.

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming
For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.
Sandra

Health Freedom: the Battle over Milk

"Congressman Ron Paul introduced HR4077 on November 7, 2007, a bill to 'authorize the interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products in final package form for human consumption when the milk or milk product originates in a State that allows the sale of unpasteurized milk and milk products in final form'.

The purpose of the bill is to initiate the elimination of the federal regulation (21 CFR 1240.61) that prohibits raw milk and raw milk products for human consumption in interstate commerce. This regulation has hindered the ability of raw milk dairies to market their products; and it has made it more difficult for consumers to find sources of raw milk.

As the FDA's warnings increasingly fall on deaf ears, the regulation looks more vulnerable to a challenge. Getting rid of it would remove a major obstacle to prosperity for small dairy farms. HR4077 has been referred to the House Committtee on Energy and Commerce." (Wise Traditions, vol. 9, number 1, Spring 2008, p. 90)

Milk: Nature's Finest Health Food
Human societies on six continents have been nourished by the milk of various ruminant animal herds for thousands of years. Many made butter and cheese. Most of them consumed their milk in some fermented form, such as clabbered (soured) milk, kefir, or yogurt. In fact, one could say that these wonderful animals, who have the astonishing ability to turn indigestible grass into a glorious foodstuff for humans, have enabled entire civilizations to grow and prosper.

When you do a little research, you find that untreated, unprocessed milk, preferably from a grass-fed cow (or goat), has wonderful growth-promoting and healing properties. After all, isn't that what mother nature created milk for, to nurture and protect the young of many species? That's why breast milk is recommended for babies. Of course, new mothers who are poorly nourished produce poorer quality breast milk, as we are what we eat. (You can find a great deal of information about the proper nutrition for expectant mothers and new mothers at the Weston A. Price Foundation website, if this is a subject that interests you.)

In fact, it was the medical community that fought the hardest to preserve their patients' access to raw milk in the early days of the battle over milk, as fresh, whole milk was a highly recommended cure for many illnesses in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Milk was recommended for patients suffering from tuberculosis, heart disease, edema, obesity, high blood pressure, prostate problems, diabetes, all manner of gastric disorders, worms, allergies, to name just a few of the conditions helped by raw milk. Present-day health practitioners have added asthma, autism, neuralgia, brain and nervous disorders, paralysis, ulcers, periodontal disease, and liver, kidney, and bladder diseases to the list. Raw milk is curative because it contains essential amino acids (proteins) very similar in composition to those in human milk; various important enzymes; growth factors; immunoglobulins (antibodies); anti-bacterial factors; anti-viral agents; plus every vitam in and mineral known to be needed by the human body.

Has anyone ever died from drinking raw milk?

The answer to this question can be found on p.27 of Joann S. Grohman's book, Keeping a Family Cow, c. 2006, Coburn Press:

"But to keep things in perspective, when it comes to the safety of raw milk, it's reassuring to know that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which has tracked disease from many sources for many decades has no record of anyone of any age dying as a result of having drunk unpasteurized milk.

Untreated (raw) milk has considerable bacteriostatic activity (it destroys bacteria all by itself). When promptly chilled, contamination would have to be massive to cause illness. Once soured by harmless or benign acid loving bacteria, as for yogurt or cottage cheese making, or by ordinary room temperature souring (clabbering) when exposed to air, the acidity goes to work on the harmful bacteria, knocking them out rapidly. During the aging of hard cheese they are also destroyed."

Modern Factory Dairy Farming
Now, if unprocessed milk -- or raw milk -- from grass-fed cows is such a perfectly natural and healthy food, why is the government so intent on preventing consumers from buying it? Why all the resistance at the state level, nationwide? Why all the intimidation of raw milk farmers? What is really going on here? Why is the federal government so insistent that the U.S. milk supply continue to be pasteurized, when clearly pasteurization is no longer necessary, due to modern technology and sanitation procedures? Could the answers be money and corporate control of our food supply? I think so!

You see, dairy farming just isn't what it used to be. It's factory farming, in confined operations, just like pig and chicken farming nowadays. Giant conglomerates produce more and more of this nation's milk, with many operations holding thousands of cows, often in overcrowded conditions. Their cows live in the most unnatural conditions possible for a ruminant animal who mother nature designed to eat grass, then lie down in that grass for hours to digest that meal and to sleep. They eat grains and other feedstocks that their digestive systems weren't meant to handle. Most have to sit or stand on a cement floor for the greater part of their shortened lifespans. They're pumped full of antibiotics, because they often get mastitis, an infection of the udders, and have laminitis, a painful inflammation of the hooves, because of the hours they spend on hard concrete. Now, how nourishing do you think th eir mik is going to be?

Thomas Jefferson would truly be appalled, if he could see how we Americans have turned our backs on our family farmers, whom he considered to be the backbone of this country. We have allowed the small landholder, the caretaker of ten to thirty acres, to be displaced by large agricultural corporate interests whose intent is the absolute control and ownership of this entire nation's food supply. It's up to us, individually and as a collective, to take that power back from them. We will all pay the price of less and less choice, and poorer health, if we don't.

The battle over raw milk is a key component of that struggle. Right now, most dairy farmers are not permitted to market their milk freely. They are forced to sell their milk to consortiums, under government-regulated, fixed contracts. This must change. Also, in 1986, an FDA ruling banned the interstate shipment of raw milk, butter, and cream across state lines. This is the ruling that HR4077 attempts to overturn. Finally, at the present time, officials in every state are pushing for laws banning all raw milk sales, strongly supported by the CDC and FDA, citing false, misleading, and erroneous data.

It has been demonstrated that a thirty-acre farm can be completely self-sustaining, ecologically beneficial, and provide its owner with a generous living and the local community with healthy food, if the farming methods now being taught to small, grass-feeding farmers are employed. This is a threat to the mega-corporations. They can see the consumer moving more and more toward local farmers and small-scale sustainability, and they are using our government, as they always have, to give them the edge. If they can keep the independent, small farmer from selling his wares to the public, they can squeeze him out of the food production loop and put him out of business for once and for all. Only the voices of millions of consumers can stop this from happening.

How can you help?

Tell your Congressperson to support Ron Paul's bill, HR 4077. Ask him/her to co-sponsor it. Be sure to send them this information first, and ask them to look into the truth of the matter.

Tell your local and state legislators to sponsor legislation guaranteeing consumers in your state access to certified raw milk, if it is not available at this time. Make the effort to educate them as well. After a century of falsehoods, and propaganda about the benefits of pasteurization, you can't expect cooperation from public officials at any level of government until they are better informed.

Fortunately, that information is readily available from the following organizations:

1. A Campaign for Real Milk, realmilk.com;

2. The Weston A. Price Foundation, westonaprice.org; and the

3. Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, ftcldf.org.

Please consider making a donation to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Raw milk farmers are under attack nationwide. They need legal assistance badly, as do other small family farmers. And we need them desperately, as they are our best hope for clean, nourishing, unprocessed, and locally-grown food in the future.

Recommended Reading:

The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows, and Raw Dairy Foods,

by Ron Schmid, N.D., c. 2003, New Trends Publishing, Inc.

Keeping a Family Cow, by Joann S. Grohman, c. 2006, Coburn Press, Dixfield, Maine.

Milk Diet as a Remedy for Chronic Disease, by Dr. Charles Sanford Porter, M.D., and additions by Heather A. Zimmerman, c. 2005, published by God's Whey, LLC. (262) 692-3086.

The Raw Truth About Milk (formerly The Milk Book: The Milk of Human Kindness is not Pasteurized), by William Campbell Douglas II, M.D., c. 2007, Rhino Publishing, rhinopublish.com.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 8th edition, by Weston A. Price, D.D.S., c. 2008, the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, price-pottenger.org, (619) 462-7600.
_________
If you have not yet read the other posting Raw Milk - A Health Freedom Issue, access it here.

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming
For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.

V: Excellent Videos About Raw Milk

All of these videos are excellent. First we have two videos (thanks to Dr. Mercola and mercola.com) talking about Monsanto's bovine growth hormone, how it is banned in many countries, and how people in America are seeking rBGH-free milk products. These first videos are not specific to raw milk in particular, but are definitely relevant to this discussion. Producers of milk intended for consumption raw will raise only healthy cows, absolutely free of added hormones.

The next video features a fantastic young man who is passionate about his raw milk. There are many people like him who CAN'T drink pasteurized milk. He shows us that raw milk isn't just for white upper class people.

Raw milk is for everyone -- for you, for me, for the guy walking down the street, and for your children and grandchildren.

This guy is terrific! Just a down-to-earth normal guy straight talkin' about stuff that is real. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" I got a kick watching his other videos on YouTube. He has read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a book I've written about on this blog, and Pottenger's Cats. He knows his stuff!

(Here he is on grass fed beef. "Stay away from that commercial stuff. That stuff will kill you." Go man! Killer Burgers and Toxic Steaks. And straight talk about eggs. Though organic and 'free range' eggs do not necessarily come from chickens that get to wander around outside. Sandra's comment)

When it comes to milk, he absolutely understands what is going on, and he does a fantastic job of explaining it.

So, first we have videos about bovine growth hormone, then a bunch about raw milk.
Sandra

Did You Know All the Drugs in Your Milk?

Dairy products from cows treated with Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST) could sharply increase the risk of cancer and other diseases, especially in children.

The chemicals are already banned in most industrialized nations, and it was approved in the United States on the backs of fired whistleblowers, manipulated research, and a corporate takeover at the FDA. This film (split into two parts above) includes footage prepared for a Fox TV segment that was canceled after a letter from Monsanto's attorney threatened "dire consequences."

The Demise of Raw Milk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ZO3B2butg&NR=1


Raw Milk and SB 201, the bill currently being debated in the California legislature. See a variety of testimonials before the legislature, both personal stories and statements by expert witnesses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5FoFoFNeCk

The Whole Truth About Milk: Raw vs. Pasteurized
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr5pl6lgjJ8&feature=related

The Whole Truth About Milk -- In this video Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy describes what happens when we drink pasteurized milk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHcyAH0rOPE&feature=related

Raw Milk Ninja, Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6AyznQDOfM&feature=related

Does MSG Lead to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's?

In October, 2007 I wrote about MSG and food ingredients that are known to contain MSG. Once you become a reader of packaged food labels, this is valuable information, and you may want to also read that blog entry. This January, 2008 entry contains none of that information.


Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills

In this book, Russell Blaylock explains how MSG and aspartame (Nutrasweet) damage the nervous system. As I was reading it, almost literally from the beginning to the end, I was exclaiming in horror with each turn of the page. For many years, I have avoided buying foods that contain MSG, because like most health conscious people, I had heard and read enough to know that it is harmful. But until I read Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, I didn't really understand. Well now I know, and it's ever so much worse than I dreamed was possible.

In this blog, I give some brief simplified details about what Blaylock explains in extraordinary depth. Though he conveys a tremendous amount of information, this book is still relatively understandable for the average person to read. He wants everyone to comprehend the importance of this material. I was actually quite surprised at how quickly I finished the book, because it is so easily understood.

Blaylock first explains how the brain works. He then explains how excitotoxins interfere with the normal functioning of the brain, and how they contribute to the development of degenerative conditions of the brain and spinal cord. Every person can be affected by this, from conception to death.


Why Read the Book?

Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and Lou Gehrig's Disease.

That's why. Reading the book will help you avoid having those wonderful conditions to look forward to in your personal future. Do you need another reason? How about protecting the healthy development and future lives of your children and grandchildren.

Eating MSG and Aspartame can kill brain cells. Do you and your children need your brains?


So, here I go. I am vastly simplifying here. Blaylock does a much better job of explaining all this in the book. Before I read the book, I knew none of this.


Why Are MSG and Aspartame So Dangerous?

MSG is a form of glutamate. Aspartame is a form of aspartate. They are flavor enhancers, meaning they make foods taste good. Food companies and restaurants want us to buy, eat, and buy, so they add these chemicals to make us want more, more, and more. When glutamate and aspartate are added in large quantities to the foods that we eat, the concentrations of these substances can then be dramatically increased in the brain.

Glutamate and Aspartate are amino acids (protein components) that are used as neurotransmitters (communicating molecules) by the brain and to a lesser degree, by the spinal cord. The body's highest concentrations of circulating glutamate are in the brain, because the brain needs it to function. The brain has several mechanisms for very carefully controlling the concentration of circulating glutamate.

What happens in the brain when glutamate is present? To shorten into a few sentences whole sections of the book, glutamate causes nerve cells, or neurons to fire repeatedly. This is part of how the brain develops and functions normally.

When glutamate is consumed in foods, the concentration of circulating glutamate in the brain can be very dramatically increased. Even small fluctuations in the concentration can disrupt brain function. With sufficient duration and/or concentration of glutamate in the brain, the neurons die. Basically, the neurons are excited to death. That is why glutamate is called an excitotoxin.

Not all neurons use glutamate as neurotransmitters. It is primarily glutamate using neurons that die as a result of excessive excitotoxin exposure. Non-glutamate neurons will survive even when glutamate neurons right next to them have died.

Aspartate is an excitotoxin that affects the same neurons in the brain as glutamate, so for the sake of simplicity, I mention only glutamate.


The Brain's Protection Mechanisms

Because the concentration of circulating glutamate is so critical for normal brain function, the brain has several ways in which it keeps this concentration under control.

BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER

This is the brain's first level of defense, keeping out most of the glutamate that is circulating in the blood from food sources. However, numerous conditions can make the blood brain barrier ineffective in performing this protective function. That makes these conditions risk factors for increased susceptibility to excitotoxin damage.

Risk Factors for Increased Excitotoxin Exposure and Damage:
- Head impacts
- Strokes
- Hypertension
- Brain tumors
- Infections
- Increased core body temperature and Fevers

PUMPING MECHANISMS

There are a couple of pumping systems in the brain that protect against excitotoxin damage. One pumps out excess glutamate. The other would require too much explanation to go into here.

An important piece of information about these pumps is that they require a lot of energy. Energy in the body primarily comes from glucose. When glucose is low, then energy is low.

When energy is low, the pumps stop working. This results in increased glutamate concentrations and increased damage to neurons. Therefore anything that results in low glucose levels is a risk factor.

Risk Factors for Increased Excitotoxin Exposure and Damage:
- Hypoglycemia
- Anything that increases your usage of energy, thereby depleting the supply of glucose
- - Injury. The body consumes a lot of energy in repairing the damage.
- - Illness. The same as above.
- - Excitotoxin exposure. This makes the pumps work, using up a lot of energy.
- - Exercise. Exercise is healthy, but it does deplete energy reserves. When you consume foods and drinks during or after exercise, any excitotoxins in them will be more likely to enter your brain and damage neurons. Do your sports drinks contain aspartame or MSG??


Babies and Children

The developing brains of children require glutamate. Many neurons require glutamate to function and to build new nerve connections. I won't go into all of the details here. It is this section of the book that I found most horrifying, because of the devastating impact that excitotoxins have on neural development. Until the late 1960's MSG was added in large amounts to baby foods. And when pregnant mothers consume food and drink containing glutamate and aspartate, it goes to the baby.

Suffice it to say that for an assortment of reasons, babies, both in utero and after birth, and children are more susceptible to damage to their developing brains than are adults.

Depending on when the exposure occurs, glutamate and aspartate can severely impair the development of the endocrine system. The endocrine system controls all of the body's functions, so when its formation is impacted, a whole host of malfunctions can occur, including but not limited to delayed development, learning disorders, autism, and psychological conditions.

Doesn't it make sense that if something kills brain cells, you don't give it to babies and children, with their developing brains?

Avoid MSG and Aspartame (Nutrasweet) if you are pregnant.

Avoid giving glutamate and aspartate containing foods and drinks to children, INCLUDING TEENS.


Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Lou Gehrig's Diseases
and other Degenerative Neurological Conditions

Excitotoxins are not the sole factor that results in individuals developing these conditions. But excitotoxins are major contributors. Depending on each individual person's particular genetic makeup, lifestyle and diet, incidence of injury, and state of health, the likelihood of developing these conditions varies. These conditions are different in how they manifest physically because they each have specific areas of the brain or spinal cord where nerve degeneration has occurred.

In all of these conditions, the neurons that are affected use glutamate as a neurotransmitter.

80-90% of neurons have to die before the individual will experience symptoms of disease.

So by the time you have a diagnosable condition, the degeneration of neurons has been occurring for many years, perhaps even beginning in utero and in childhood.

Obviously it is much more complex than this. There are multiple chapters in the book dedicated to addressing these conditions.


Avoiding Excitotoxins

Does it make sense to minimize your exposure to MSG and aspartame, knowing that they can kill brain cells? Stop eating excitotoxins now, and you can slow or prevent future degeneration.

Some food ingredients contain both glutamate and aspartate, and potentially other excitotoxins. As a general rule, aspartame is primarily contained in beverages, sugar replacements, and diet foods. And MSG/glutamate/glutamic acid is in just about everything else. So if you 1) avoid the types of foods and beverages that tend to contain aspartame, and 2) avoid anything that you suspect contains MSG, you will be pretty safe. It is very difficult to completely avoid added excitotoxins if you 1) eat any packaged foods, and especially if you 2) eat in restaurants.

If you minimize your excitotoxin intake, your body's natural protection mechanisms should be able to take care of the rest, minimizing future damage.

Read the October, 2007 Food, Glorious Food blog for list of ingredients that are known to contain MSG. That still doesn't really cover all of the territory for aspartame and other excitotoxins, but it is a good start.


Eat Whole Fresh Foods!

Of course, making your own food from fresh whole ingredients is always best! But when that isn't a viable option, it's valuable to know how to make intelligent choices.

Sandra Lynn Lee
Spiritual Alignment Consultant
Certified Healing Codes Practitioner
Miracle Inspirations, LLC
www.MiracleInspirations.com
sandra@MiracleInspirations.com

Everything in this newsletter is provided for informational and educational purposes only. If you have health concerns, please contact a qualified health care provider.

Copyright 2008 Miracle Inspirations, LLC. All rights reserved.

King Corn

I was listening to public radio while driving. They interviewed two men who made a documentary called King Corn. Because I was driving, I didn't take notes. When the radio story was beginning, I didn't realize that it was going to be so excellent. I couldn't find a recording of the interview on npr.org. So you get what information I remember. In this blog, I call these two men 'the authors.'


Growing an Acre of Corn

The authors spent a year learning about corn, and what is involved in producing and using it. An Iowa farmer allowed them to plant one acre of corn on his land. They made a documentary King Corn, which is supposedly coming out in theaters. I recommend watching the documentary when it becomes available.


Corn is in Everything We Eat

When you read package labels, it is obvious that High Fructose Corn Syrup is an ingredient in many many foods. On the radio, they listed a variety of other ingredients that originated as corn but have names that disguise this origin.

One thing that astonished me was the statistics they gave about the percentage of the beef that we eat that is really corn. Say you eat a hamburger. Between the corn that was fed to the cow and the corn-ingredients that are added in processing, it is a ridiculous percentage. I wish I had stopped the car and written the number down. Even when you eat a steak, you are still getting a lot of corn - that is if the cow was raised in a feed lot, i.e. a factory farm. Before this project both authors were frequent consumers of hamburgers, I believe primarily from fast food restaurants. Because of what they learned, the authors have now modified their diet to exclude hamburgers.


What is Involved in Growing Corn

The authors learned all of the details associated with growing corn. You don't just go down to the field and plant the stuff. Their journey began long before the placing of seeds in the ground. They spent very little time actually working in the corn field. Most of their time was spent learning about and dealing with everything else involved.

Farm Subsidies

Production of staple food commodities is highly subsidized by the United States government. (My brief search shows this to be less so in Canada.) These subsidies guarantee that farmers receive dollar amounts that are determined by the number of acres that they have planted, rather than by the market price for the food. This results in the production of vast surpluses of commodities like corn, soy, and wheat.

Because of farm subsidies, the authors received money well before they actually began growing corn. The amount is paid per acre, so they didn't receive much. The interview did not mention if they later received more.

Fertilizer

Prior to planting the corn, the soil was injected with nitrogen fertilizer. I was astonished to hear that the nitrogen for fertilizer is concentrated out of the air. Huge quantities of fossil fuels are burned to produce this nitrogen. I assume that liquid nitrogen is used.

A Note About Ethanol for Use in Fuel Mixtures

A lot of ethanol is produced from corn, for use in automobile gasoline. Supposedly we do this to conserve on fuel. But fossil fuel is burned to condense the nitrogen for making fertilizer to grow the corn! Even if other crop materials are used for making ethanol, if they are fertilized, then it does NOT really save fuel. Wikipedia says that about half the gasoline used in the U.S. contains ethanol, and that its use is expanding in other countries.

Corn is Not Edible - Industrial Material

The interview jumped straight from the innoculation of the soil with fertilizer to describing the mature plants; no details were given about the actual planting, the intervening months, the harvesting, or the transporting of the final crop.

The plants were tall, lush, and healthy looking. The authors pulled ears off to eat, expecting it to be like the sweet corn that is sold in grocery stores. Instead it is all bland starch. They described it as an industrial material that is basically inedible. It is designed to be processed. No wonder it makes cows sick. This is what is in processed foods! Sounds delectable, huh?


What Happens to the Corn?

The authors traveled around the country, learning about all of the ways in which their corn would be used.

A Cow's Life

Feed-lot life for cows is pretty dismal. The authors saw cows crammed into pens, with no room to walk around. The cows stand amidst all of their feces and other waste. Yuck.

Cows eat lots of corn, particularly in the later stages when the 'farmer' is fattening them for slaughter. Corn makes cows sick. Because of this, they are given antibiotics. Apparently, if cows ate corn all the time, they would die. They are fed corn to fatten them up, antibiotics keep them 'alive,' and they are slaughtered before the get so sick that they die.

Does this make you think twice about eating that burger?

I suggest that you get pasture fed meat, whenever possible. The quality is so much better that it is worth the money and effort.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Huge quantities of corn are processed to produce high fructose corn syrup, an ingredient in an astonishing percentage of packaged foods. The authors went to extensive efforts to observe the process of producing it. But they were never allowed inside a production facility, and in fact, they never even saw the final product. They still don't know what high fructose corn syrup looks like.

Do you find this as horrifying as I do?? The fact that observers were completely forbidden tells me that corn must be so highly processed and altered that industry doesn't want people to know what is happening. After all, high fructose corn syrup is put into so many foods that it is difficult for someone to completely exclude it from their diet.

Corn, the industrial material, is processed into many other ingredients that are added to food products. I'm sure the process of making them is equally horrendous.


Eating Corn Free

The authors went one month without eating corn. It was extremely difficult to do. They described becoming so desperate that when they found foods that they could eat, they would binge on them.

Even if the ingredients list on a food label does not mention ingredients that obviously come from corn, this is no guarantee. Such packaged foods may still contain corn, because some ingredients are not listed on the label. I think food manufacturing companies find ways to do this, because some consumers avoid certain ingredients. In other words, reading labels still doesn't give you a guarantee that ingredients you wish to avoid are absent from the foods you buy.

Of course, avoiding consuming corn would have been easier if the authors were starting with fresh whole foods and preparing their meals, rather than eating packaged and restaurant foods. To me, this is obvious. They did not mention if they had tried this at all.

Because of what they learned during their corn-growing year, the authors have stopped eating some foods, including hamburgers. And the farmer whose land they planted has chosen to retire and stop farming corn, perhaps partly as a result of working with the authors.


I Hope You Found This Educational

That's it for my King Corn story.

Eat Whole Fresh Foods!

Sandra Lynn Lee
Spiritual Alignment Consultant
Certified Healing Codes Practitioner
Miracle Inspirations, LLC
www.MiracleInspirations.com
sandra@MiracleInspirations.com

Everything in this newsletter is provided for informational and educational purposes only. If you have health concerns, please contact a qualified health care provider.

Copyright 2007 Miracle Inspirations, LLC. All rights reserved.