Milk Substitutes

So now you are probably asking what the heck am I supposed to drink? Water would be the optimum response to that question. But then what do I put on my cereal? There are many different milk substitutes on the market now. There is soymilk, almond milk, rice milk, multi-grain milk, potato milk, and my favorite, oat milk. Which one is best? Well that depends on your taste buds and what type of texture you like. Each one is different of course, and some have added sweeteners. Some are organic, and others are not. In my opinion, rice milk is very thin, soymilk is thicker – but has blobby soy on the bottom of the container. I like oat milk because it is similar in texture to the real thing, tastes good and is good for you. Amazake is another organic rice drink product that can be used in cooking, consumed like a beverage and comes in many flavors, and can be frozen and eaten like ice cream. Try as many as you can to see which you like the best. The products are very good, are good for you, and can, with very few exceptions, be substituted for regular milk in recipes, for cereal, drinks, etc.

Cheese

What about my cheese? I can’t live without cheese! I hear this one a lot! Another successful marketing campaign – cheese is a huge industry. And many people I have spoken to have no problem with letting go of the milk, but have a huge issue with letting go of their cheese. There are soy, almond, and rice cheeses available. Most of these are very good for baking, but not so great for just eating out of the package. If you absolutely have to eat cheese, we recommend organic mozzarella or farmer’s cheese or goat’s cheese. These cheeses have natural enzymes, and typically are not processed as much, and tend to be gentler on the digestive system.

Ice Cream

This is really a difficult issue for Washington as I think we are one of the top 2 states in ice cream production. What can you have instead? There is soy ice cream, which is very good and come in many flavors. There is rice ice cream and then there is sorbet. I make my own sorbet in a food processor. I take organic frozen fruit, and puree it and add in some oat milk or juice till it thins to the texture I want, and serve. It is delicious.

Butter

Finally, what about butter? Isn’t that ok? Butter is made from the cream off the top of the milk, and it has to have enzymes in it because that is what causes it to curdle, to become milk in the first place. Recently health experts have proven how bad margarine is for us, and now recommend that we go back to butter. Regular butter also contains a lot of salt to help preserve it and for taste, this salt is typically regular salt, which is inorganic and hard for our bodies to assimilate. Organic butter typically has sea salt which is organic salt and easier for our bodies to absorb. Another option to butter is Ghee, which is just butter that has been purified, in other words, all the impurities have been cooked out of it. It is considered to be a good choice for some people that are allergic to butter. However, if you really want to eliminate all dairy, try olive oil on your bread. If you keep olive oil in the fridge, which you should to keep it from going rancid, it will solidify, and then you can easily spread it on bread. I store mine in a nice square glass container in the fridge that I have easy knife access to for spreading. Try it, you might like it – most Europeans do.

Goat’s milk

So what about goat’s milk? Many people have tried goat’s milk – many when they were children and found out they were allergic to cow’s milk. Most people will tell you that goat’s milk tastes terrible. But I guarantee you they haven’t tried organic goat’s milk from goats that are only grass or grain fed. These goats have milk that is so sweet it is amazing! Goat’s milk has many advantages over cow’s milk. Goat’s milk is alkaline, is much more easily absorbed by our bodies, and leaves an alkaline ash in our bodies, which helps to neutralize acid in our bodies. The fat globules of goat’s milk are very small and resemble those of mother’s milk, and the casein in goat’s milk forms smaller curds which are more easily digested than cow’s milk. Goat’s milk is considered by many health professionals to be the next best thing to human mothers’ milk (which is also alkaline). We recommend it often to mothers who can’t nurse their babies. It is so much better for babies than cow’s milk or formula. To get organic fresh goat’s milk, you will need to contact local farmers, or check your health food store. You can also get regular fresh goat’s milk or packaged dry goat’s milk at most supermarkets.

Calcium – This is the biggest lie of all. Best put by Neal Barnard, head of the Washington, D.C. based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in an article in August 2000 of Discover magazine, “It would be hard to imagine a worse vehicle for delivering calcium to the human body.” It took me considerable work to find this original copy as all the online versions that subscribers have access to and all resources at the local library had – seemed to be mysteriously missing.

This milk-calcium connection all started with the lobbying efforts of the dairy industry. There are approximately 1000mg of calcium in 4 cups of milk. Using the theory of nutrition based on the famous 4 food groups, they stated that we need 4 cups of milk or the equivalent in other dairy foods. That’s how they came up with the 1000mg requirement. Unfortunately, milk is a very poor source of calcium. Why is this? This is because of the enzymes, and also the balance of calcium and other minerals within the milk. When you put calcium in your body it is important that there is an enzyme to help your body actually digest it. There isn’t any in the milk, so your body pulls enzymes from your liver, pancreas and stomach. But once we start to get older, these enzyme reserves are typically exhausted – so guess where your body gets the enzymes? Your bones – that’s right. Drinking milk causes osteoporosis. It does NOT prevent osteoporosis.

Minerals also need to be balanced in order for your body to absorb calcium correctly. As an example, mineral ratios are: cow’s milk has a 1 to 1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus. Mother’s milk has a 2 to 1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus. This is real apparent if you have had your blood work done recently. It is important in our bodies that we have the optimum amount of organic sodium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and other minerals to help us build bones and keep our body at a healthy pH level. When we drink milk, it throws off this healthy balance of these minerals and our pH, which prevents us from absorbing the right out amount of minerals optimally. In order to fully see the picture you will also need phosphorus levels too. You can see the free calcium index in a formulation with Potassium. The free calcium index will tell you the sum total of organic anions (organic buffers) plus albumin relative to total calcium. If free Calcium is high then there is more than likely an acid condition present that the body is working on and a tendency towards anaerobic metabolism. This is when calculus will form on teeth and arteries. Mg will raise serum Potassium levels and also reduce free Calcium by encouraging movement of excess Potassium from the inner cell to the plasma.

Plants are the best source of calcium. Many people that eat lots of vegetables get plenty of calcium. Why? First, because plants are balanced with the correct amount of minerals that our bodies need in the right ratios. Second because they contain enzymes. And third, the calcium they contain is just as high and more easily absorbed than milk. For example, a cup of milk contains about 250mg of calcium; a cup of bok choy contains 250mg; collard greens contain 290mg; and a cup of the herb valerian root contains a whopping 4200mg of calcium. Of course you wouldn’t take a cup of valerian, you wouldn’t have to in order to get the proper amount of calcium. But if you drink valerian tea or took a valerian capsule, this would be a good source of calcium – this is one reason why it helps to relax many people for sleep. (Remember our moms told us to drink milk to help us sleep?)

Most of the time people don't have calcium deficiencies; they have enzyme deficiencies and a lack of negative ions for proper metabolism in order to bind calcium for utilization. In other words, their pH is out of balance and they are most likely too acidic. Milk of course is acidic, so it makes this worse. Horsetail is one of the ultimate choices for calcium because it acts as a messenger to tell the hypothalamus what minerals are really being utilized and what is needed in the body. These minerals are taken up more efficiently and work in a form that is actually bioavailable to the body without creating excess calcium in the body.

Excess calcium – what is that you say? Examples of excess calcium are kidney stones, gal stones, bone spurs, hardening of the arteries, cancer, etc. Enzymes and a proper pH are required for calcium to be utilized correctly for bones and not create a calcium excess. If you don’t have the proper pH or enough enzymes present then you will create a free calcium excess in the body. 55% of the calcium in your body is bound and 45% is unbound. If this ratio is thrown off even slightly by adding excess calcium that cannot be bound, then you can create a calcium excess. Milk is the source of many of these problems in the majority of people. Enzymes, taking plant sources of calcium, and pumpkin seeds are valuable in reducing the levels of free Calcium.

In addition, the body can only handle certain amounts of calcium. The body can only utilize about 200 mg at a time of Calcium and that is if the digestive system is working optimally, which milk typically disrupts. If your enzymes and hydrochloric acid isn't functioning, well, then there is no way to get the Calcium where it needs to be. Calcium has a very dense structure and a heavy atomic weight. This means that a lot of ideal conditions in the intestines have to be present before Calcium is able to be absorbed into the right places. Most people drink milk and take Calcium supplements to strengthen bones, assuming that the calcium consumed will just automatically go there. It doesn't exactly work that way. The whole media hype on Calcium is just that - hype.

Calcium is the body's most abundant cardiac electrolyte and plays many important roles other than just bone development. Lack of Calcium is more likely due to it being used for acid conditions in the body and having it robbed from doing things like eating too much protein, refined sugar and drinking carbonated beverages like soda. Chronic inflammation will appear in low Calcium levels too. Mostly by just adding more Calcium to your system when you aren't absorbing it is going to create what is known as free calcium excess. This is far more detrimental than low Calcium levels.

We are far more Magnesium deficient than Calcium deficient.

Weight Loss

I am not exactly sure where this information came from, as I have been unable to uncover the actual studies that the dairy council refers to in their advertisements for this. I am guessing that it actually comes from the research that Dr. Robert Barefoot came up with to sell his coral calcium products a few years back. Unfortunately, his product, coral calcium, like all coral calcium, is just calcium carbonate. It is great for neutralizing stomach acid, but like milk is not a good source of absorbable calcium. When milk or calcium carbonate meet the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, it turns into calcium chloride which is a harsh mineral salt that can cause many digestive disorders including constipation or diarrhea.

Milk also feeds harmful organisms such as parasites and fungus, which can cause people to gain weight. And as stated before, making digestion worse can prevent someone from losing weight as well.

So really the facts are that milk is only an essential food for baby cows. It is NOT a good source of calcium. And it most likely will not help you lose weight.

Hopefully this information will pique your interest enough to get you to do your own research, or to at least stop you from drinking your milk.