So a recent challenge was issued by my fellow
Weston A Price chapter leader from Florida,
Sarah Pope of The Healthy Home Economist to do a 10 day Milk Cure. I have been very intrigued with fasting on milk , after reading and watching blogs and videos done by the awesome
Matt Stone at 180 Degree Health and Anne Marie Michaels at
CHEESESLAVE . There are also some great links and articles at my favorite
Nourished Magazine . I know some of you are milk phobic because of your past experience with pasteurized milk. I get it….I also had not consumed mucous producing, hormone and anti-biotic laden commercial pasteurized/homogenized (damaged) milk for 20+ years. But RAW Milk from an organic certified and pastured dairy cow has amazing , healing and therapeutic benefits. And, raw cream and butter is an absolute delight when enjoyed fresh from the farm. I hope you live in a state where you can enjoy it legally. To locate a source near you check out
www.realmilk.com
This series on The Milk Cure has sparked much interest in reviving this age old remedy for improving vitality, bodily cleansing and even reversal of serious illness as practiced in the early 1900′s by the Mayo Foundation, a forerunner of the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota.
So, I am researched and ready to go on my Milk Cure challenge for 10 days. I started the weaning off of coffee 2 weeks ago at 1 cup and to 1/2 cup for the past few days.My hubby is on board with me also- does he love me or what? I plan to follow the challenge by gradually bringing in bone broth and a few easlily digested fruits/starches (i.e sweet potato, banana's)for a day or two at the end. This is not a diet of deprivation, but more of an over feeding of primitive and nutrient dense food. I would love for a few other DIVA's to join in, if you feel inclined. Please share your comments here and on the FB page if you jump in to the Milkapalooza!
I will be charting my weight, basal temps and physical experiences, to share. I plan to ease up on my exercise to only include ; yoga, walking, light weights. My body has some healing to do and this is in preparation for some of
Matt Stone's famous RARF'ing (MUCH more on that later as I am using this time to read ALL of his books)
I will also be sharing a beauty tip or two over the next 10 days, using milk in treatments for the skin and hair. Get that glow form the inside out.
So, without further delay my Primitive Diva's and Dudes. I present.........
The RAW Milk Cure 101
Raw milk has historically been considered a SUPERFOOD. It has been used both in the daily diet (often fermented) and by special groups with extra nutritional needs, like the elderly, pregnant or nursing women, warriors, and sick people. An ancient Babylon text tells how raw milk was used to drive out the demons of sickness, "Bring milk and laban [curdled milk] that man become as pure as laban; like that milk may he become pure."
For most of our ancestral history, raw milk was drunk fresh and warm from the cow (or other animal), but a lot of it was fermented, or cultured, into a variety of delicious products - yogurt, kefir, cheeses, lacto-fermented beverages, etc. - due to both the lack of refrigeration and primitive people's knowledge of the health benefits of "probiotics".
There are documented texts of medical doctors using a diet composed exclusively of raw milk to heal an incredible variety of diseases in the 1800’s - ranging from asthma and diabetes to colitis, obesity and tuberculosis. How does raw milk work to heal such a variety of very different disorders?
The Milk Cure/Milk Diet has often been referred to as a "healing spa". If the digestive system is the foundation of health in the body, and natural healing heals the entire body holistically, then of course you are going to see positive results in all aspects of your health. All of your organs and systems will heal and balance, over time, given the necessary tools. A therapeutic diet - and raw milk is truly the first, original therapeutic diet, provides the body with the tools to heal holistically.
In his book, The Untold Story of Milk, naturopathic physician Ron Schmid writes:
"According to late 19th century proponents, the 'secret' of the milk cure lies in the fact good raw milk is a food the body easily turns into good blood. In illness there is one or both of two conditions in the blood: insufficient quantity, or abnormal quality. The milk diet corrects both and, acting through the blood and the circulation, heals the cells and thus the tissues and organs. The muscles on a milk diet harden, almost like an athlete's, because they are pumped full of blood, as are the organs."
However, there are some rules that need to be followed. There are some crucial guidelines that need to be implemented to have success with the raw milk cure. Some of the doctors who used the raw milk cure with patients in the 1800's through to the 1930's used raw milk in conjunction with mild, easily digestible foods like fruit. But the vast majority swore by the need to consume only fresh, raw milk, and vast quantities of it.
One of the most prolific of these doctors, Charles Sanford Porter MD, published a book called, Milk Diet as a Remedy for Chronic Disease in 1905. In the book he relates how at least 18,000 patients had been on the raw milk diet under his care in the last 37 years. This was not some fad diet, or quick-flash trend. This was a solid, scientifically proven method for healing mild to severe disorders. In 1929, one of the founders of the Mayo Foundation (forerunner to the Mayo Clinic), J.E. Crew MD reported that he had been successfully using the raw milk treatment for the last 15 years. He said, "The results obtained in various types of disease have been so uniformly excellent that one's conception of disease and its alleviation is necessarily changed. When sick people are limited to a diet containing an excess of vitamins and all the elements necessary to growth and maintenance, they recover rapidly without the use of drugs and without bringing to bear all the complicated weapons of modern medicine."
Rules For The Raw Milk Cure
After perusing the writings of various doctors who worked extensively with raw milk treatments, here are the crucial implementation guidelines if you'd like to give the raw milk diet a try:
• Use raw, untreated milk from pasture-fed cows only - milk has the highest curative value in spring and early summer when cows are eating new, high vitamin grass. Do not use milk from grain-fed or barn-bound cows.
• Higher fat milk (from Jersey cows) is ideal. Be sure to use full-fat milk only (not 2% or skim).
• The average adult must consume at least 3 - 4 quarts of raw milk per day. You can consume up to 10 quarts per day, if you wish (note: 4 cups = 1 quart).
• Minimum duration of raw milk diet is 4 weeks to see good results. Follow with gradual food introduction of easily digested foods.
• You must rest during the diet-now is not the time to train for a marathon (Walking, Yoga, Stretching and gentle workouts are suggested)
• Do not consume any other foods or beverages whilst on the diet, except filtered or spring water.
The importance of strictly adhering to these guidelines is summed up in the words of Dr. Charles Sanford Porter, MD:
"It is wrong, if not positively dangerous, to attempt the exclusive milk diet on any amount of milk less than that required to noticeably stimulate the circulation and promote body growth. There is no halfway method of taking the milk diet for people who have much the matter with them. Enough milk must be taken to create new circulation, new cells, and new tissue growth, and cause prompt elimination of the waste and dead matter that may be poisoning the system. With milk alone, digestion and assimilation may go on throughout practically the whole length of the alimentary canal. The addition of even a cracker to the milk seems to cause the stomach to hold all its contents for hours without discharging much into the intestine."
How Long Do I Stay On The Diet?
Now you may be wondering how long you can safely stay on a raw milk diet. Amazingly, there is no limit. Raw cow's milk from pasture-fed cows is a complete, perfect food all by itself. In his book, The Untold Story of Milk, Ron Schmid ND, relates numerous stories of people who lived in perfect health for up to 50 years on raw milk alone. Here's just one of many examples; this is a letter from a man in Burlington, Iowa in 1913:
"I have lived on a strictly milk diet for the past forty-two years, not as a matter of choice, but from the fact that I am unable to take solid food of any kind, even a crumb of bread. At the age of two I took a dose of concentrated lye, which caused a stricture of the food pipe and since then have lived on a milk diet. I believe I have gotten along better than the man who eats. I am five feet, six inches tall, weigh one hundred and forty pounds, and am married and have four strong, healthy children. I take one quart at each mealtime and none between meals. My health is good, in fact I have never been ill in forty-two years."
Dr. Schmid goes on to give many different examples of people who have had excellent health living on nothing but raw cow's milk for 3 - 50 years. This is very liberating information! Imagine if elderly people in nursing homes were given raw milk instead of Boost, Ensure and processed foods? Imagine if people with obstructions and strictures were given raw milk, rather than surgery, or having their colon removed?
How To Introduce Raw Milk
People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are often very hesitant to try raw milk due to bad experiences with pasteurized milk and sensitivity to milk proteins (keep in mind these proteins have been denatured by the pasteurization process). So what's the best way to start and test whether you can take advantage of this amazing superfood? Here are the guidelines I suggest.
• Make sure you only use untreated, full-fat, raw milk from pasture-fed cows
• If you have been highly sensitive to milk in the past, then start by making yoghurt from the raw milk. Raw milk yoghurt is the most highly tolerated of all raw milk products. Eat a small amount of yogurt each day and gradually build up (see Raw Milk Yogurt Recipe below).
• If you like the yogurt and tolerate it well, then you can make a primitive yogurt drink called a lassi: Add a pinch of cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and your desired sweetener (stevia, maple syrup, honey) and stir to mix. Add some warm filtered water if the texture is too thick.
• If you want to drink the raw milk straight, it's best if you drink it in isolation from other foods. For example, have it first thing in the morning and don't eat or drink anything else with it - (all by itself, on an empty stomach).
• Warm the milk slightly to room temperature or lukewarm before drinking (but don't make it hot/boiling or you will kill the good bacteria and enzymes that facilitate digestion). Cold milk can be a shock to the system and harder to digest.
I drink raw milk straight, eat raw milk cheeses, raw milk yogurt, and make a shake from raw egg yolks, maple syrup and raw milk. If you'd like to source a raw milk supplier in your area go to: www.realmilk.com There are also lots of useful articles on the site if you're worried about safety issues, legalities, etc.
Further Reading:
RAW MILK YOGURT RECIPE
Traditional yoghurt recipes call for the milk to be heated to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, however, this destroys the beneficial enzymes present in raw milk. Therefore, I prefer to not heat the milk beyond 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43°C). However, this usually results in a runny yoghurt (not firm). If you're going to use your yoghurt in shakes, smoothies or lassis, this is fine. However, if you prefer to eat firm yoghurt, you will need to add gelatin to help firm it up. So the recipe here includes gelatin, but if you're okay with runny yoghurt, then follow the recipe as is, minus the gelatin.
• 4 cups raw whole milk
• 2 teaspoons of Yogurt Starter
• 1 glass quart jar with lid, sterilized
• 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
1. Pour 4 cups of milk into a saucepan and sprinkle gelatin over surface of milk. Let sit for 5 minutes while gelatin dissolves.
2. Over low heat, stirring constantly, slowly bring the milk to 110°F (43°C), or until you can keep your finger in the milk while you count to 10.
3. Put the yogurt starter into the wide-mouth quart-size sterilized glass jar. Pour in about 1/2 cup milk and stir to mix really well with the starter.
4. Fill the jar with the rest of the milk, stir lightly, and screw on the lid.
5. Wrap the jar in a towel and let sit in a warm place*, for eight hours.
6. Unwrap and place in the refrigerator. Allow yoghurt to set in fridge (about four hours). If you want an even firmer yogurt, next time add 1.5 or 2 teaspoons of gelatin.
*If you don't have a warm place, then put it inside your oven with the oven light on. Do not turn on the oven, just turn on the oven light and close the oven door. If you have a yoghurt-maker, use the recipe here and then follow instructions for your yogurt-maker for incubation - but still best to incubate for 8 hours.
