I Didn't Realize This Raw Juice and Raw Milk Stuff Was So Complicated, Till I Tried to Explain It
Sunday, July 22, 2007 at 04:42PM It’s easy to lose sight of just how far removed from real health many health-care workers are.
I’m back in Sarasota again, partly to tend to my mother, who has weakened a good deal since my last visit in April. She had a heart attack in early July and now is preparing to move into an assisted living facility adjoining the senior citizen apartment where she had been living for a little over a year.
During these past couple of visits, I have met a good number of health-care aides, who spend several hours a day with my mother, helping her dress, shower, and take her medication. One of the things I do each day I’m with my mother is to make her a vegetable juice drink. And each time I do it, I notice that the aide who happens to be there is extremely curious about juicing. They have questions about where I bought the juicer, what kind of vegetables I use, what other ingredients I could use, why fresh juices are good for you, and so on and so forth. (I’m going to ask Juiceman Junior for a commission pretty soon, because I’ll bet I’ve helped sell a few.)
Yesterday, an aide who said she was from Vietnam was on duty when I was making juice, and she launched into a similar series of questions. After I had explained about the juicer, my approach to making juice, and why I thought juices improve health, she began going in another direction.
She said she’s been in the U.S. about ten years, and is amazed by the kinds of situations she comes across in caring for the ill, especially in contrast to Vietnam. “So many people here in their fifties and sixties have serious conditions,” she said. I think she meant “chronic” conditions, since she described people having difficulties with endurance and mobility and requiring heavy-duty medication.
She said the food here is so different from what she was used to in Vietnam, and that she has read that there are hormones and antibiotics in the meat, and wonders if those might be factors in the chronic conditions. I guess since I seemed to know something about food, she inquired of me as to whether it is possible to find meat without hormones and antibiotics. I told her I try as much as possible to buy meat directly from farmers I know, and she wondered how you go about finding farmers. I told her she could begin by locating farmers markets, but that in the meantime, she could do okay by going to the local Whole Foods.
But I realized in explaining it that it is pretty overwhelming for someone who hasn’t read and investigated the subject, who is also struggling to pay a variable rate mortgage that goes up every six months or year, and whose healthcare training has consisted mainly of tasks like measuring blood pressure, administering injections, and providing first aid.
She’s not trained in nutrition, either for her patients or for herself. But she, and the handful of others I’ve met, are very eager to learn. It seems as if they could provide an important additional service to the people they care for. The only hitch could be that the agencies that hire these aides out might not be interested in providing such a service. After all, who wants all those patients becoming healthier?
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On a related note, I had to chuckle in reading the exchange involving Elizabeth McInerney, Steve Bemis, Linda Diane Feldt, and myself following my posting about raw milk standards a few days ago, concerning the impact of antibiotics on milk. I suddenly imagined customers at the grocery store inquiring with management about when the cows that produced the milk might most recently have received antibiotics and it seemed pretty ridiculous. The gap between what is useful to know about our food and what we do know seemed awfully wide. One of the amazing things about buying direct from farmers you know is that you can have exchanges of the kind we had here, inquire from others whose opinions you respect, and make somewhat informed judgments.
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And on another related note, there is a major article in today’s Boston Globe suggesting strongly that the movement to buy food locally really doesn’t help climate change, and in fact it may hurt by encouraging more energy usage than we realize. Nowhere in the article is there any mention about possibly improved nutritional benefits from food that is grown closer to home. In trying to reduce the benefit of locally grown food to some kind of mathematical equation, the analysis seems disconnected from reality. Maybe it’s a sign of growing concern among the major corporations about the strength of the eat-local movement?
Reader Comments (7)
A University of Missouri publication entitled “Feeding Poultry Litter to Beef Cattle” states, “Poultry litter can be used as a feedstuff, but it presents special consumer issues that must be addressed. There are currently no federal or Missouri regulations governing the use of poultry litter as a feedstuff; however, certain common-sense guidelines apply. Poultry litter should not be fed to dairy cattle or beef cattle less than 21 days before slaughter. The reason for this prohibition is that the residues of certain pharmaceuticals used in poultry production may be present in poultry litter.”
The extensive use of antibiotics has become a crutch and it is a serious problem in the livestock industry. I have personally chosen not to use them and have not used them for over 25 years. I have experienced no fatalities due to infection.
Mastitis does not spontaneously develop because some organism has invaded the udder.
A physiological impairment or imbalance, stress to the immune system and or stress due to trauma are what trigger a particular organism to become virulent. Antibiotics may or may not help. What is for certain is that they are not specific to any particular organism due to their wide spectrum nature and they will inflict considerable collateral damage which could very well lead to chronic problems.
In support of Linda’s statement, a cow’s average body temperature is 101.5 F. Bacterial action in the rumen is what maintains this temperature and if a cow’s core body temperature drops below a certain level she cannot survive. The Rumen is a large fermentation vat of 40 to 50 gallon capacity. There are 500,000 billion bacteria and 50 billion protozoa living and multiplying there in order to break down plant cellulose. Under natural healthy conditions it is a self sustaining system These small organisms have a number of unique characteristics which allow the cow to thrive in situations which would be impossible for other animals to live.
Although not stated as a cause in any official literature I believe that certain digestive conditions such as an “impacted rumen” are in part a result of a ruminants direct or indirect exposure to antibiotics.
I enjoy working with bees and have done so for the last twenty or so years. I’ve had as many as six working hives however one or two is now my limit and they provide us with more then enough honey. I ensure that the bees have an adequate supply of honey during the winter rather then feed them sugar water. Feeding sugar water to bees is akin to feeding soft drinks rather then breast milk to an infant Feeding sugar water to bees deprives them of necessary nutrients, increases the level of stress, weakens their immune systems and increases their vulnerability to disease, hence the need to add antibiotics (a common and routine management practice amongst apiarists) to the sugar water.
As in the dairy industry however, several types of antibiotics are used and the list is growing due to antibiotic resistance. Beekeepers have resorted to alternative antibiotics including extra label types. Extra label also referred to as off label means that the actual use or intended use of the antibiotic is not in accordance with the approved labeling.
Ken Conrad
I have also had similar conversations with curious people about diet and health habits. It happens all the time, usally waiting a while in line somewhere (especially at the Costco Pharmacy when I pick up my diabetes glucose test strips). But the circumstances are rarely conducive to real discussion and information exchange. One woman looked all over Costco to find me again to learn more about where she could find info about something we discussed while in line. I knew about stuff that she had never been told by her doctor (but should have been told, IMO). I've thought about keeping a couple of cards with me preprinted with my favorite informative websites and book titles, because I can't tell you how many times I have hastily scribbled book titles, websites, etc., on napkins, backs of business cards, whatever paper I can find in my purse, etc.
There are a *lot* of people hungry for something better than the status quo, but they just don't know where to look or what to look for. When, by chance, they run across someone who has made changes (with diet, with health care providers, with treatments, etc.) and achieved positive results and *isn't trying to sell them something*, I find it ignites interest to know more. It isn't easy to sift through all the info, especially online. But with a few well-aimed targets, I think the search becomes easier. I always tell them, though, don't just take my word for it that this or that is beneficial/harmful, do your own research, learn a lot about it, and come to your own conclusions after reviewing all the angles. But without a hint about where to start looking, some people have a hard time starting the search for a better way to take care of themselves/their family members. And I try to remember that not everyone is as interested in being "hyper informed" about their health, nor are they as capable at challenging their health practioners to think outside the box now and then so I don't offer info unless asked. We all know the line about the long journey starting with a single step. And wow, there are a lot of people desperately looking for a new direction for that next step!
I often suffer from information overload when it comes to cattle-feeding theory, especially dairy cattle. At the risk of sinking deeper into that hole, please tell me what you think about the following:
You said that you “have no problem feeding whole or milled grain to cattle.” But I understand that while naturally-fed (i.e. pasture-fed) cattle do get some grain while grazing, artificially increasing the grain to grass ratio lowers rumen pH, and starts a cascade of undesirable side-effects that diminish both cow health and milk and meat quality.
Any thoughts on that?
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Regarding anitbiotic use in cows: We should always discuss it in context, the same way that we discuss human health interventions. In both cases, prevention of morbidity comes first. If the cow is living right it is less likely to need an off-the-reservation intervention (like antibiotics). But even if we always work first on helping our cows live right, bad things will occasionally happen. There will always be a good reason to apply some sort of intervention. As long as those instances are rare, I think we can live well with them, especially if we follow some reasonable precautions when applying them, such as dumping milk for a period after antibiotic use. How long a period? That’s a good question, with many factors to consider (such as the antibiotic and the application method) but to me 6 months is a very, very long time, especially when balanced against the loss of raw-dairy related health benefits when the milk is not available. (Here I speak as a family cow owner—not someone who purchases milk.)
I think most of our concern should be about routine antibiotic use and other practices that emerge from unnatural animal environments (like confinement dairying).
Dave
I have a question regarding the "Locavore" article in the Boston Globe.
This is my thinking:
Supporting a local or regional food system would help establish more farms by increasing demand and eventually make farmer’s lives more financially viable, therefore allowing more farmers and a greater supply of food. Prices would come down, which would make local food consumer friendly, and would also encourage more people to buy local.
And my question:
Wouldn’t the extra profits eventually help support a more energy efficient food distribution system?
I would think that in the early stages there would be much inefficiency that would need to be worked out, but as more people support a local food system, the financial boost would allow opportunities to increase efficiency.
I’m hoping for this scenario unfold with raw milk in the Boston metro area…
Alex
I do believe the extra profits would help support a more energy efficient food distribution system--shorter shipping distances for the food and less travel for consumers.
I also believe there would be other positive benefits. For example, healthier consumers would mean fewer trips to healthcare facilities. Fewer medical supplies being shipped. Less paper and plastic gowns being produced. Lower air conditioning costs for operating rooms. And other energy-saving benefits we can't even begin to foresee.
I noticed, especially in the countryside, similar food consumption habits when I visited Thailand. People buy their foods at local markets, where they know the grower and seller. Unfortunately, the global fast-food corporations are trying to change things. The only places I saw obese Thais were in the local version of Pizza Hut and McDonalds (featuring a statue of Ronald McDonald out front in the traditional Thai Buddhist welcoming pose). Watch out!