Milk

Human milk is composed of about 88% water, 7% lactose, 4% fat, 1% protein, various ions, vitamins and antibodies.

The ions are mainly sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and phosphate. Antibodies are mostly of the IgA (secretory) type and, together with the antibodies the infant gains from its mother via the placenta, are responsible for the infant's passive immunity in its first few months of life.

The composition of colostrum is quite different, with a much lower caloric content and an ionic composition more like plasma. It is said to contain more antibodies.

Breastfeeding infants is recommended for all mothers for the first few months of a baby's life.

Lactation is good.

"Don't Drink Your Milk!" is a small book written by the late Frank Oski, M.D. as mentioned above. He maintained that bovine milk was not only unnecessary for humans but also actually harmful. Many other experts agree that cow's milk is a nasty secretion best reserved for calves (who by the way are removed from their mothers so we can have their milk). Dr. Mercola lists the following problems which he attributes to consumption of cow's milk: "iron deficiency anemia, allergies, diarrhea, heart disease, colic, cramps, gastrointestinal bleeding, sinusitis, skin rashes, acne, arthritis, diabetes, ear infections, osteoporosis, asthma, autoimmune diseases and possibly even lung cancer, multiple sclerosis and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."

The federal government subsidizes the dairy industry in the US. The US Department of Agriculture donated $200 million in 1999 to the dairy industry despite the fact that the cost of milk is at an all time high. The US WIC program includes milk and milk products as part of the food package they distribute regardless of the ability of the client to digest it. US schools (that receive federal monies) are required by law to put milk on every lunch tray unless the parents provide a doctor's excuse note to not do this.

The natural age of weaning in humans is somewhere between 2.5 and 7 years as determined by research done by K. Dettwyler, an anthropologist and contributing author and editor of "Breastfeeding; Biocultural Perspectives".

Most people in the world become lactose intolerant as they grow past the natural age of weaning. Breastmilk is higher in lactose than any other milk so babies are not born lactose intolerant.

Cow's milk does not deserve a special spot in the Food Pyramid. All the nutrients we get from milk can be had from other foods and sunshine without the medical problems caused by milk. At best, milk should be viewed as a treat, not an essential nutrient. Commercial interests dictate government policy and the attitude that we need milk filters on down to become a deeply held belief.

Don't drink your milk.

Nearly all milk consumed these days is pasteurised. This quick industrial heat treatment kills any nasty bugs that might be lurking in the milk.

However many people, particularly no-nonsense rural types, prefer to drink untreated milk "straight from the cow". Without pasteurisation, milk tastes better and retains more vitamins and nutrients. There is also evidence that the anti-infection comparison is much less clear than commonly thought.¹

These ideas seem to enrage many health bureaucrats who consider untreated milk to be highly poisonous. It is banned in Scotland, Australia, Canada and some American states. In England and Wales, it may only be sold in farm shops and local milk round deliveries, where is also known as "Green Top"² There was another attempt to ban it here in 1997, but that seems to have run out of steam.

Unpasteurised milk is also important for the production of quality cheeses. Apart from the effect on chemical composition, heat treatment will kill living organisms that create subtle flavours.

1 - The Case for Untreated Milk, DR. B. M. PICKARD, Department of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, University of Leeds, Published by The Soil Association.
2 - A green-topped plastic carton from a shop will contain pasteurised semi-skimmed milk. A glass bottle with a green aluminium foil top will contain the real thing.

The books are exceptionally well produced; every photograph is laid out to exaggerate its beauty. A series of eight family portraits are presented in a foldout over a meter long. A photograph of Kim Phuc as a girl being burnt by napalm in the Vietnam War is separated with a semi-transparency from the photograph of her holding her baby, as though it is protecting him from the horror. Sometimes whole pages are dedicated just to a profound quotation, often from a famous philosophers but also from writers and engineers. The images are chosen for their content not their quality. Sometimes they are just snapshots that turned out well and others are professional prints.

It is pointless to try to describe the photographs. I have tried but I ended up writing an endless string of clichés. Although the images are all of moments we have experienced, these are more real, more perfect than our luke-warm existences. The images are so beautiful they make you shake. I close the book feeling an new emotion, a profound existential euphoria. It is the feeling of being human.

Some of the photographs, including the prize winners, are available online at http://www.milkphotos.com/

The books are easy to get hold of; as long as you live in Australia or New Zealand. There are no current suppliers for the USA, Britain or Canada.

Milk (milk), n. [AS. meoluc, meoloc, meolc, milc; akin to OFries. meloc, D. melk, G. milch, OHG. miluh, Icel. mjOlk, Sw. mjölk, Dan. melk, Goth. miluks, G. melken to milk, OHG. melchan, Lith. milszti, L. mulgere, Gr. 'ame`lgein. √107. Cf. Milch, Emulsion, Milt soft roe of fishes.]

1. (Physiol.)

A white fluid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals for the nourishment of their young, consisting of minute globules of fat suspended in a solution of casein, albumin, milk sugar, and inorganic salts. "White as morne milk." Chaucer.

2. (Bot.)

A kind of juice or sap, usually white in color, found in certain plants; latex. See Latex.

3.

An emulsion made by bruising seeds; as, the milk of almonds, produced by pounding almonds with sugar and water.

4. (Zoöl.)

The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster.

Condensed milk. See under Condense, v. t. --
Milk crust (Med.), vesicular eczema occurring on the face and scalp of nursing infants. See Eczema. --
Milk fever.
(a) (Med.) A fever which accompanies or precedes the first lactation. It is usually transitory.

(b) (Vet. Surg.) A form puerperal peritonitis in cattle; also, a variety of meningitis occurring in cows after calving. --
Milk glass, glass having a milky appearance. --
Milk knot (Med.), a hard lump forming in the breast of a nursing woman, due to obstruction to the flow of milk and congestion of the mammary glands. --
Milk leg (Med.), a swollen condition of the leg, usually in puerperal women, caused by an inflammation of veins, and characterized by a white appearance occasioned by an accumulation of serum and sometimes of pus in the cellular tissue. --
Milk meats, food made from milk, as butter and cheese. [Obs.] Bailey. --
Milk mirror. Same as Escutcheon, 2. --
Milk molar (Anat.), one of the deciduous molar teeth which are shed and replaced by the premolars. --
Milk of lime (Chem.), a watery emulsion of calcium hydrate, produced by macerating quicklime in water. --
Milk parsley (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant (Peucedanum palustre) of Europe and Asia, having a milky juice. --
Milk pea (Bot.), a genus (Galactia) of leguminous and, usually, twining plants. --
Milk sickness (Med.), a peculiar malignant disease, occurring in some parts of the Western United States, and affecting certain kinds of farm stock (esp. cows), and persons who make use of the meat or dairy products of infected cattle. Its chief symptoms in man are uncontrollable vomiting, obstinate constipation, pain, and muscular tremors. Its origin in cattle has been variously ascribed to the presence of certain plants in their food, and to polluted drinking water. --
Milk snake (Zoöl.), a harmless American snake (Ophibolus triangulus, or O. eximius). It is variously marked with white, gray, and red. Called also milk adder, chicken snake, house snake, etc. --
Milk sugar. (Physiol. Chem.) See Lactose, and Sugar of milk (below). --
Milk thistle (Bot.), an esculent European thistle (Silybum marianum), having the veins of its leaves of a milky whiteness. --
Milk thrush. (Med.) See Thrush. --
Milk tooth (Anat.), one of the temporary first set of teeth in young mammals; in man there are twenty. --
Milk tree (Bot.), a tree yielding a milky juice, as the cow tree of South America (Brosimum Galactodendron), and the Euphorbia balsamifera of the Canaries, the milk of both of which is wholesome food. --
Milk vessel (Bot.), a special cell in the inner bark of a plant, or a series of cells, in which the milky juice is contained. See Latex. --
Rock milk. See Agaric mineral, under Agaric. --
Sugar of milk. The sugar characteristic of milk; a hard white crystalline slightly sweet substance obtained by evaporation of the whey of milk. It is used in pellets and powder as a vehicle for homeopathic medicines, and as an article of diet. See Lactose.

© Webster 1913

Milk (milk), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Milked (milkt); p. pr. & vb. n. Milking.]

1.

To draw or press milk from the breasts or udder of, by the hand or mouth; to withdraw the milk of. "Milking the kine." Gay.

I have given suck, and know
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me.
Shak.

2.

To draw from the breasts or udder; to extract, as milk; as, to milk wholesome milk from healthy cows.

3.

To draw anything from, as if by milking; to compel to yield profit or advantage; to plunder. Tyndale.

They [the lawyers] milk an unfortunate estate as regularly as a dairyman does his stock.
London Spectator.

To milk the street, to squeeze the smaller operators in stocks and extract a profit from them, by alternately raising and depressing prices within a short range; -- said of the large dealers. [Cant] --
To milk a telegram, to use for one's own advantage the contents of a telegram belonging to another person. [Cant]

© Webster 1913

Milk, v. i.

To draw or to yield milk.

© Webster 1913

Milk (?), v. i.

1.

To draw or to yield milk.

2. (Elec.)

To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation; -- said of a storage battery.

© Webster 1913