Joe Mercola Jumps Another Shark! Er, In A Pool Filled With Pasteurized Milk...

[HuckleB]

"But his latest post up at---where else?---the Huffington Post is patently dangerous. It is entitled, "Why You Shouldn't Drink Pasteurized Milk". If he had gone into the high caloric content of milk, the possible uses of alternative sources of calcium and other nutrients derived from milk, etc., it might have been an interesting piece. But instead it is a plea to drink "raw" (unpasteurized) milk. To those of you who already do this, I apologize for my next statement; it's aimed not at you but at professionals who should know better: WHAT A FEROCIOUSLY STUPID IDEA!

Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a temperature that kills most of the pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria. And milk, no matter where it comes from, is a great medium for growing pathogenic bacteria. Since pasteurization became common in the U.S., milk-related illnesses have dropped from about 25% of food-borne illnesses to almost none. That's a good thing. And that was back in the day when the milk came from small family farms, the very places that raw milk enthusiasts say we should get our milk from to avoid illness.

The toll from raw milk --- According to the CDC: "During 1998--2005, a total of 45 outbreaks of foodborne illness were reported to CDC in which unpasteurized milk (or cheese suspected to have been made from unpasteurized milk) was implicated. These outbreaks accounted for 1,007 illnesses, 104 hospitalizations, and two deaths (CDC, unpublished data, 2007). Because not all cases of foodborne illness are recognized and reported, the actual number of illnesses associated with unpasteurized milk likely is greater."

...

rom a rhetorical standpoint, it's not possible to prove a negative. It may be that somewhere, somehow, some day, a preponderance of the evidence will show dirty milk to possess significant benefits unavailable from pasteurized milk. If that does happen, there will presumably be a push to make raw milk safer via some technology, such as irradiation. But current evidence shows no benefits from raw milk, and plenty of risk. There are no benefits to weigh against these substantial risks. Additionally, there are no recorded risks introduced by pasteurization. So why not do it?

..."


--------------------------------


How does Mercola convince himself of the crap he pushes? And what editors at HuffPo give him an audience to push his scam-artist baloney?

:mad:

[JuniperLea]

1. There are editors at HuffPo?

Who knew?

:shrug:

[HuckleB]

2. That would explain a lot.

[hlthe2b]

3. I was infuriated when I saw that... Fortunately some of the comments

seemed to be calling him out on his irresponsibility..

[HuckleB]

4. I'm glad to hear that.

I avoid the comments on health stories at HuffPo. It's often much too frightening.

[hlthe2b]

7. It is always the same group that buys into this kind of crap...

They are convinced vaccines are the bane of human existence, that anything from a "health food store" is automatically safe and better than any traditional medicine or product and that everyone who works in health delivery, public health, or research has been bought off by big Pharma. :shrug:

[HuckleB]

25. It does seem like a club, or even a religion, rather than, well, an actual look at the world.

[tabatha]

5. I am going to be blown out of the water for this.

But my child was given raw milk as a toddler and beyond. Now on the few occasions I eat cheese, I eat cheese made from raw milk. Given the choice of raw and pasteurized, I would choose raw. Btw, I have not had the flu in 10 years.

All Africans, until colonialism, drank raw milk. And I am sure in many other countries, raw milk is still used.

[HuckleB]

6. Anecdotes are great, and, yes, lots of people have had raw milk and lived.

Even I've done so, as a kid on my grandfather's farm. I have also been in a rather nasty automobile accident, in which, at 18, I was dumb enough not to be wearing a seat belt. I walked away. My passenger, also sans seat belt, walked away, too. I'm not going to use that as a justification to refuse to wear seat belts however.

BTW, how does that justify the things Mercola wrote? If it's not meant to defend Mercola, what is your point?

Cheers.

:hi:

[tabatha]

8. I was not defending Mercola.

I just wanted to present another point of view - hopefully that is allowed. I wanted to defend raw milk. I only heard of Mercola some decades after I gave my child raw milk.

Btw, I noted one of the comments on Huff Post about how a child's ear problems disappeared after switching to raw milk. Most of the children the same age as my child had ear problems; mine did not. Many had to have tubes placed in their ears. Thankfully, mine did not.

I also know that Africans have always had healthy teeth and bones, that is, before they started to eat refined, processed and treated food introduced by whites.

[HuckleB]

9. All good and well.

Again, anecdotes such as the one about ear problems are a dime a dozen. If I change something tomorrow, something that's been a problem in the past is going to change, because things do change. That doesn't show causation.

[tabatha]

12. Agreed.

However, from my own personal health experiences and experimentation, I have drawn my own conclusions about what is good and what is not good for me. What Mercola or anyone else has to say, is of interest only if I have seen that information elsewhere. Such as Vitamin D; Mercola trumpets it all the time, and he is correct. Doctors now test for Vitamin D levels, and suggest supplements if too low.

Heating food destroys some nutrients. That is a well known fact. Refining food removes nutrients; that is also a well-known fact. Hence, I tend to go for rawer, less processed (would never eat white rice) and lightly cooked food.

[HuckleB]

13. MD's are not doing anything in regard to vitamin D because of Mercola's BS.

Further, your generalizations on heat and food have some basis, but they don't get to the actual, science-based heart of the matter.

Your generalizations about Africa in the post before actually make me wonder. Are you equating the pasteurization issue with changes in food types and supply in Africa? It doesn't add up.

[tabatha]

15. Hmm, comprehension.

"MD's are not doing anything in regard to vitamin D because of Mercola's BS."

That is not what I said. What I said was Vitamin D levels are important. Many doctors are testing patients for Vit D levels.
Mercola touts it and he is correct for doing so. But the two are unconnected and I never implied that they were connected.
I know of a cancer patient who is taking Vitamin D on doctor's orders, and I am sure that MD does not read Mercola.

"Further, your generalizations on heat and food have some basis, but they don't get to the actual, science-based heart of the matter."
I was not intending to go into a long scientific explanation about my summaries - there are plenty of highly professional sources on the web. But, the summaries are for the most part correct. There are some instances where cooking allows better absorption of some nutrients. One of the first things I learned when starting to cook, was to never throw away the water in which vegetables were cooked - save it and use it for gravy, because many nutrients leach into the water.

"Your generalizations about Africa in the post before actually make me wonder. Are you equating the pasteurization issue with changes in food types and supply in Africa? It doesn't add up."
No, I think you are reading more into what I said. Maybe, I should be clearer
a) Raw milk has been used for centuries, in fact longer than pasteurized milk has been used. It is still used today without problems in places like Kenya, some parts of Europe, Asia and other places I don't know. There is a Wikipedia page on the subject.
b) The western diet of refined and processed foods is causing problems wherever it is followed. Obesity and diabetes in the US, obesity in third world/first world southern Africa. I have seen indigenous people devastated by diet change - Aborigines in Australia, Native Americans in the US who have the highest rate of diabetes in the US, and the native peoples of southern Africa.

There is a quote I read from an historical book about observations by early settlers about the health of the natives that they encountered that I wish I had the time to find. It is hidden in a book that is 1355 pages long. The book is here:

http://www.amazon.com/Frontiers-Africas-Creation-Tragedy-People/dp/0679401369/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275622892&sr=8-1

When I have discussed Africa and Africans on this board, I have come to realize there is a huge disconnect because of completely different experiences, that sometimes flummoxes me in trying to find a way to bridge the gap. Maybe I should write a book one day about the "cultural shock" that some have described when moving from one country to the other.

[HuckleB]

18. Nice spin.

You began by denying that you are defending Mercola. SInce then, you've been jumping at every chance to pump the guy up.

And now you make a baseless personal attack to get out of it.

BTW, I addressed a red herring that you offered about Africa. Nice spin on that one, too.

[LeftyMom]

10. Ear problems are largely hereditary.

Either one is structurally predisposed to them, or one is not. As far as I know nobody in my family has ever had a childhood ear infection. It's not because of anything any of us eats (we eat very different diets,) it's because we don't have ears that are prone to backing up and getting infected. :shrug:

Also, Africa is a giant continent with multiple climate zones where people currently do and always have had very different diets depending on what will grow locally and on local cultural variations. You can't make any generalizations about the health or diet of Africans as a homogeneous generalized group (which they're not either biologically or culturally) any more than you can about Eurasians or North Americans, and anybody who has tried to make a health argument for any product to you based on the health or diets of Africans generally is either deliberately misleading you or an absolute ignoramus, so I would suggest that you ignore their advice in the future.

[tabatha]

11. That is some generalization you just wrote.

I have read a lot about the health of indigenous African people, and observations made by people who lived in earlier centuries. While obviously there are differences - I have always maintained that life is a matter of statistics - I can categorically state that the health of Africans exposed to a western diet is for the most part worse than when they had access to good food and a healthy lifestyle. Obviously, if they did not have access to it and some have not in drought, etc, conditions, they would not be healthy.

"The East African Maasai tribe known for their tremendous endurance, strength and beautiful physiques consume plenty of raw milk along with its fermented products. Fresh milk is a staple food for these still primitive Maasai. The milk contains more total fat and cholesterol than standard milk in the United States. However, the Maasai have low blood cholesterol and are free of cardiovascular and other chronic disease".

Certainly, there are structural reasons for some ear infections - however there are also dietary circumstances, some of which lead to wax build-up. And to deny that is to limit one's understanding of the many possible causes of problems. I find it some perplexing that I had never heard of ear problems among children until my child's contemporaries. However, I did not associate it with diet at that time. For a number of reasons of direct experience, I now believe that there are some links.

I do not get advice from any one source. I have read 50 or more books on health, and have reached my own conclusions. Many of these conclusions have also been borne out by direct experience of my own health decisions.

[LeftyMom]

22. You're still lumping Africans together, then using one unattributed quote about the Maasai.

Many African groups did not develop significant animal agriculture and thus would not have included dairy in their food package. This, naturally, would include hunter-gatherer groups such as the Pygmies and the Khoisan. Other groups did not add dairy to their diets to any significant degree, or added it relatively late in their history, because of regional unavailability or unsuitability for rearing cattle, primarily due to diseases spread by insects.

FWIW, the Masaai famously drain and consume the blood from cattle as well. If you're going to use them as a dietary model, that's probably something to keep in mind.

[hfojvt]

23. Americans used to drink raw milk too

many got TB from the milk and died.

http://www.medicinenet.com/tuberculosis/article.htm

"There is a form of atypical tuberculosis, however, that is transmitted by drinking unpasteurized milk. Related bacteria, called Mycobacterium bovis, cause this form of TB. Previously, this type of bacteria was a major cause of TB in children, but it rarely causes TB now since most milk is pasteurized (undergoes a heating process that kills the bacteria)."

[HuckleB]

14. LINK TO THE ARTICLE QUOTED: I FORGOT IT IN THE OP!

http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2010/06/not_just_stupid_but_dangerous.php

[tabatha]

16. One interesting quote from that article

"Pasteurization of milk makes no sense. The industrial processed milk produces heat milk to destroy the natural antimicrobials lactoferrin and lactoperoxidase. These are so effective, they are actually sprayed on deli meats and deli meat plastic wrappings. Also pasteurization kills the bacteria that naturally sours the milk, converting lactose to lactic acid, which preserves the proteins and extends the shelf life, whereas pasteurized milk rots in 3 weeks."

My experience in southern Africa was that the milk was always soured by the African people - in fact a college friend and I used to duplicate this and sour our own milk. This milk could also then be used to make cheese.

I also visited farms where the milk went straight from the cow to the fridge. I never heard of problems from that milk.

Here is an article about soured unpasteurized milk:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amasi

Amasi (so called in Zulu and Xhosa, and "maas" in Afrikaans) is the common word for fermented milk that tastes like cottage cheese or plain yogurt. It is very popular in South Africa. Amasi is traditionally prepared by storing unpasteurised cow's milk in a calabash container (igula in isiZulu) or hide sack<1> to allow it to ferment. The fermenting milk develops a watery substance called umlaza; the remainder is amasi. This thick liquid is mostly poured over the mealie meal (maize flour) porridge called pap, or drunk straight. It is traditionally served in a clay pot (ukhamba in isiZulu) and eaten with wooden spoons.<1> Amasi is also produced commercially using Lactococcus lactis subsp lactis and L. lactis subsp cremoris and is pasteurised before distribution and consumption, with a shelf life of 21 days at 4°C. When produced as such, amasi may be an ideal vehicle for the delivery of probiotics.<2>

It is also popular with Indians who use it to make a cucumber salad served with biryani, or as the main ingredient in raita.
Amasi in South African culture

* Traditionally, Zulus believe that amasi makes a man strong, healthy and desired. During taboos (e.g. menstruation or when there has been contact with death) the affected person must abstain from amasi. Milk is hardly ever drunk fresh ('green milk'), but it is sometimes used to thin amasi which has gone too thick to be used.<3>

* The Zulu expression kwafa igula lamasi translates to the calabash of sour-milk broke, i.e. our last hopes were dashed.<4>

* Nelson Mandela mentions how he cautiously left a comrade's apartment—his hiding place in a white area when he was wanted by the Apartheid government—after he overheard two Zulu workers comment that it was strange to see milk on the window sill (left out to ferment) because whites do not drink amasi.

NOTE - this raw milk was not even refrigerated.

[HuckleB]

17. So you are defending Mercola's scienc-less baloney with more anecdotes.

Got it.

[SidDithers]

19. He's got his fans, even here...

But this is why I don't go to HuffPo anymore.

Thanks for posting.

Sid

[HuckleB]

20. I still don't get how or why HuffPo does what it does in regard to science.

[RadiationTherapy]

21. Mercola has promoted raw milk for years now.

Your last question is the appropriate one.

[Peacetrain]

24. To pasteurize raw milk.. it is brought to 160 degrees and held for 15 seconds.

There is no magic in raw milk.

But as you state, there a numerous pathogens.

Besides ants that milk other bugs, Humans are the only species that continually drinks the milk of another species.. and drinks it well into adulthood.