Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows, the Ultimate Sacred Food

1. Wise Traditions 2009

2. Honoring the Sacred Foods Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows, the Ultimate Sacred Food Ted F. Beals, MS,MD

3. Honoring the Sacred Foods Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows, the Ultimate Sacred Food Ted F. Beals, MS,MD

4. There is nearly unanimous agreement, supported by unquestioned science that breast milk is the best food for the newborn baby.Suckled milk is designed to be the only source of nutrition and water for a significant period of growth and critical development in the newborn.Likewise there is overwhelming agreement that milk should be a consistent component of our diets throughout life. Wise Traditions 2009

5. I have seen nothing that disputes these statements.Not in the dozens of Power Point Presentations, Media Releases, Editorial Comments, Invited Review Papers, Staged Milk Safety Conferences, and Invited Professional Association Declarations Wise Traditions 2009

6. Over untold generations of human development the persistent consumption of milk has become integrated into the complex relationships we have with the microflora of our bodies. Wise Traditions 2009

7. Historically the consumption of milk conferred significant competitive advantages to communities that incorporated milk into their society Wise Traditions 2009

8. Some values of traditional diets/foods becomes more understandable as our understanding of the complexity of the natural interactions/dependency we have with our environment becomes known Wise Traditions 2009

9. Setting the Record Straight • Milk was initially pasteurized to keep industrially produced milk from spoiling before it could be delivered. It was about shelf-life then and it continues to be about shelf-life! • Initial opposition to mandated pasteurization was from industry and physicians • The principle zealots for mandated pasteurization were independently wealthy individuals with personal horrific experiences, not physicians and scientists. • The campaigns to force pasteurization of milk where, and continue to be based on fear, not on sound science. • Requirements to pasteurize milk were instituted as a political compromise to a highly controversial debate that waged for decades. (and obviously continues) • Following this compromise those obsessed with pasteurization systematically wrote the history to reflect their fear-based arguments as fact. And with time their campaign rhetoric has become “dogma”. Wise Traditions 2009

10. It is obvious, but needs to be constantly repeated; If milk had been hazardous to the individuals in communities that consume it, the drinking of milk would have disappeared centuries ago. Wise Traditions 2009

11. Unique components integrated into a functional, complete and nutrient dense food Lactose – Twice as much sugar as would be possible if monosaccharides. Ready for digestion by enzymes into both short-term and sustained energy sources.. Caseins – thousands of different proteins, containing all the essential amino acids, packaged into huge spherical micelles that concentrate and protect those proteins, with embedded calcium and phosphorous in just the correct ratio Fats – Abundant lipid with all essential fatty acids ready to be digested and assimilated, but protected by a living membrane envelope containing critical enzyme systems, cofactors and defensive systems Beneficial bacteria – To aid optimal and rapid digestion, colonize the intestine, inhibit other bacteria and enhance defense systems Perfectly designed But, never intended to be heated or pulverized. Wise Traditions 2009

12. Milk is inherently hazardous A kill step is necessary to make milk safe Pasteurization stopped the deadly epidemics Pasteurization kills pathogens Pathogens must be totally killed in milk because bacteria grow rapidly in nutrient dense milk Pathogens in raw milk make people sick Children and the public must be protected from contagious raw milk drinkers The reported outbreaks are just the tip of the iceberg Don’t forget……..milk is inherently hazardous Residual dogma originating from the fear campaigns to promote pasteurization Wise Traditions 2009

13. 1.Milk is inherently hazardous • They say all fresh milk contains pathogens • There is conclusive evidence that raw milk from farm tanks sampled prior to transfer to dairy processing plants consistently contain pathogens. • With private testing, coupled with increased regulatory testing, a different pattern is emerging from fresh milk intended for human consumption. Wise Traditions 2009

14. Prevalence of Pathogens • Pre-pasteurized milk -- 10 -30% (at least one pathogen) • Milk intended for human consumption, fresh and unprocessed -- stacks of negative reports and a handful of reports with presumptive presence Wise Traditions 2009

15. 2. A kill-step is necessary to make milk safe A ‘kill-step’ WAS NOT necessary over the millennia that milk has been a primary food. A kill step may be “necessary” when milk production becomes dominated by management practices that focus on maximizing quantity, minimizing costs, and losses sight of the consumer’s health Wise Traditions 2009

16.  3. Pasteurization stopped the deadly epidemics • The dreadful epidemics of the turn of the 20th century were caused by contaminated milk Typhoid, Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Undulant fever Infant mortality • Pasteurization rid the US of the epidemics Wise Traditions 2009

17. Wise Traditions 2009

18. Examination of the original reports of “milkborne” incidents documents that the principle source of these milk-problems was the milk-handlers, NOT the milk itselfCorrective actions involved sanitation and removing people who were infected or carriers.In fact, pasteurization of the milk would not have prevented these incidents Wise Traditions 2009

19. Monthly Infant Mortality prior to and following establishment of Municipal Milk Stations The original reports make the point that the milk at these stations was Certified Milk (raw), not pasteurized milk as current literature implies Dramatic reduction AFTER available milk at Stations Wise Traditions 2009

20. 4.Pasteurization kills pathogens • Pasteurization is NOT a “Killing Step” • Any form of pasteurization reduces the number of microorganisms. • Pasteurization is not selective for pathogens • Far more importantly, pasteurization (heating over time) has profound effects on the highly designed constituents of milk. Wise Traditions 2009

21. Milk can be as safe as other foods without pasteurization • Milk comes with built-in mechanisms to discourage bacteria growth. • You do not need a “killing” step if you can successfully minimize the presence of virulent bacteria. • It is essential that the process of collecting and supplying fresh unprocessed whole milk is managed so as to minimize the chances of dangerous contamination • The existing factors in fresh unprocessed milk that combat infections must be encouraged so they are not overwhelmed, Wise Traditions 2009

22.  5. Pathogens must be totally killed in milk because bacteria grow rapidly in nutrient dense milk Even if there is only one pathogen in the milk it will rapidly multiply into huge numbers. Therefore, there must be a zero tolerance for pathogens. Wise Traditions 2009

23. If the presence of even one bad bacterium is unacceptable because pathogens multiple rapidly in milk • Why is it that the initial step in all culture techniques to determine the presence of pathogens in milk is to transfer to a specially formulated enriched growth environment ? • Because unless you enhance the special formulations to allow pathogen growth and suppress the growth of all the other bacteria, you can not isolate the pathogen from fresh milk. Wise Traditions 2009

24. Doyle & Roman Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 44 (5), page 1155, 1982 Wise Traditions 2009

25. Display Format can be very deceiving Percent decline in Campylobacter jejuni: Day 1 = 8% Day 2 = 31% Day 3 = 62% Day 4 = 93% Day 5 = 99.69% Day 6 = 99.98% Day 7 = 99.998% 93% gone 93% gone Wise Traditions 2009

26. --------------- 50% gone Doyle & Roman Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 44 (5), page 1155 ------------------- 93% gone -------------------------------------------- 99.997 % gone Wise Traditions 2009

27. 6.Pathogens in raw milk make people sick {A very, very brief primer on naming bacteria }

28. There are at least 6,000 different named bacteria and estimates are that this is less than 1% of the actual number of different kinds out there. Wise Traditions 2009

29. Bacteria with “official” status are given a genus and a species official name. Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) Campylobacter jejuni ( C. jejuni ) Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes ) Salmonella spp. ( many species )

30. Escherichia coli O157:H7 • The “O” and “H” are categories of serotypes based on different surface features of the bacteria • Different researchers use different characteristics and when one of these becomes common then gets official designation Wise Traditions 2009

31. In reality there are large numbers of different subtypes of each common named pathogen Subtypes Serotypes (functional - based on reaction to antibodies) Genotypes (genetics - based on DNA analysis) Virulence types (behavior – based on activity) Phage type (susceptibility – based on killing) Wise Traditions 2009

32. “Finger-print” Patterns Genotyping Wise Traditions 2009

33. Wise Traditions 2009

34. Bacteria have their own microenvironment • Phage infect bacteria (these are like viruses) • Bacteria and phage have developed complex interrelationships. • Phage are capable of transferring genetic material between bacteria, even different bacterial species. • Many of the virulence factors in bacteria are traced to residual DNA from phage and similar entities. Wise Traditions 2009

35. The point is that the characteristics for distinguishing and naming bacteria are not the same as the characteristics that enable a bacteria to cause people to get sick A crude but perhaps understandable analogy You can group people by size and hair texture, eye color and even favorite restaurant type. And its possible that there was a murderer that was short, with curly long hair, blue eyes that really like sushi. But certainly short sushi lovers with long curly hair are not all murderers And the reason is that murdering is a behavior that is not linked to all those distinguishing characteristics Wise Traditions 2009

36. 7.Children and the public must be protected from contagious raw milk drinkers • Recently the FDA has started adding the comment that they are finding outbreaks in which people are becoming sick, that didn’t drink any of the suspect milk. • Conclude that these folks where infected by those who did drink the suspect milk, became infectious and passed it on to their contacts. • They conclude that this adds further fuel to their argument that raw milk outbreaks are a public threat. • Secondary infections are certainly possible in any case of bacterial enteritis with diarrhea. • However, milkborne outbreak investigations show that if this occurs it is extremely uncommon. • For a contrast: outbreaks of Norovirus are almost entirely secondary infections Wise Traditions 2009

37. Making a mountain out of a mole hill 76 million people become ill each year from consuming food (CDC) CDC, bacterial cases in 2007(confirmed and suspected etiology) • 7,031 total cases • 678 hospitalized; • 11 deaths(3 from milk that was pasteurized) • 32 illnesses attributed to raw fluid milk (0.5%) • 2 hospitalized (0.3%); and • no deaths Wise Traditions 2009

38. 8.The reported outbreaks are just the tip of the iceberg • This is a newer argument. • CDC documents that most illnesses are not outbreaks and are not detected. • They extrapolate this general observation and conclude that raw milk outbreaks are under reported. Wise Traditions 2009

39. First need to recognize unusual cluster of illnesses • Based on recognizing abnormal clusters of illnesses • Alerts from County Health Departments through State surveillance systems. • CDC surveillance data-gathering projects • FoodNet -data from designate centers across US • PulseNet –isolates investigated from designated laboratories Wise Traditions 2009