A few nights ago, I taught a cheesemaking class and some of the conversations during the class got my mind spinning…
I know there is a lot of controversy over whether or not humans should be consuming dairy as adults. And, frankly, it is an absurd debate. Any dispute focused on what our digestive tracts are designed to do is doomed for failure. I’ll let you in on a secret – our digestive tracts are not designed to eat almost anything we humans consume! However, the irony is that our bodies are built on diets containing nutrition from these very foods we have no business eating.
Critics of the dairy industry rightly claim:
- It is unnatural to consume dairy products as adults,
- Humans are the only animals that drink milk as adults,
- We are the only animals that drink the milk from other animals,
- 68% of the world’s population experience some level of lactose intolerance,
And, it is within this context that we ask ourselves, “Are humans designed to consume dairy as adults?”
The answer . . . ABSOLUTELY NOT . . . but, it’s a ridiculous question in the first place.
The answer to it does nothing to answer the real question we are all really trying to answer which is, ”Can dairy be a safe and nourishing part of our human diets?”
Now that’s a good question to ask and answering it requires a completely different approach.
Why? Because we are humans.
What’s the difference with us?
Why can’t we humans answer both questions in the same way? Well, it is simple. We began to outgrow our digestive tracts almost 3.5 million years ago! Beginning with stone tools and later innovative developments such as fire, hunting, fermentation and a long list of other technologies and cultural/behavioral approaches to food we were able to transcend our physical limitations. We were no longer restricted to only eating foods that we could access with our hands not limited to accessing the nutrients from those foods with our incredibly inefficient digestive tracts. We humans rely upon technologies that we have developed over millions of years to PROCESS FOOD OUTSIDE OF OUR BODIES BEFORE IT GOES INTO OUR MOUTHS!
These food processing technologies do three things:
- Make food safe
- Make food nutrient dense
- Make food bioavailable
In the past, it all started with stone tools and rubbing two sticks together and today continues as the magic we make in our kitchens when we use our steel knives, blenders, food processors, stoves, juicers, sous vides, and dehydrators. If we are using these tools and technologies correctly we are not just making food that looks, tastes and smells good, but also continuing a 3.5 million year long tradition that began with our Australopithecine chef ancestors who were transforming food in ways that then, in turn, transformed us!
If we ask the question, “How can we transform dairy in the safest, most nutrient dense and bioavailable food possible for my adult human body?” the answer is . . . fermentation.
And, to learn to overcome our physical limitations as adult humans we can take important lessons from ourselves when we were infants and possessed everything we needed to safely derive the maximum amount of nutrition from the milk we drank from our mothers.
When infant mammals (including humans) drink milk from their mothers it travels to their stomachs where it is impacted by three enzymes that work to maximize the safety of nourishing capabilities of the milk. The enzyme lipase helps to digest the fat in the milk. The enzyme lactase works to bread down the sugar, lactose, in the milk. And, the enzyme chymosin coagulates the milk to slow down its travel through the digestive tract. Since the milk is no longer a liquid it remains longer in the stomach providing time for the lactobacillus bacteria to ferment and chemically and physically transform the milk into a state that safely provides nourishment more easily to the infant’s body. As soon as the infant mammals begin to consume solid food they begin to cease the production of chymosin and, in the case of most of us humans we suppress the production of lactase as we get older. This is a recipe for disaster for many adult humans when we try to drink a glass of milk.
The real question we should be asking is
”Can dairy be a safe and nourishing part of our human diets?” and, if so, “HOW?”
The Answer
Before we consume dairy we must overcome our physical limitations by transforming it in the ways that we naturally did inside of our bodies as infants. By fermenting dairy we rely on the same lactobacillus bacteria to chemically and physically transform the milk. And, do you know what the lactobacillus bacteria feed on? Yup, you guessed it, lactose! In addition to all of the nutritional benefits, the process of fermentation also produces an end product that contains little or no lactose whatsoever! This completely changes the argument surrounding lactose intolerance… And, if we want to fully mimicked what happened in our stomachs when we were babies we could add the enzyme chymosin to the milk (also known as rennet) and coagulate the milk and make cheese!
Yes! That’s right. Infant mammals make cheese in their stomachs when they are infants. And, when we make real fermented dairy products such as clabber, kefir, yogurt, fermented butter, creme fraiche, and even cheese we are transforming something that can be argued we have no business eating as adults into a food that not only provides safe nourishment but an amazing eating experience that delivers incredible flavors, aromas, textures and cultural messages.
Paul
Fantastic post, Bill. I love your work, please keep doing it!
Bobsy Boo
This is a great read! Thanks for writing this. As for adults who are able to digest straight milk, I guess they are just the lucky ones!
Marsha Moore
Thank you, Bill, great post! I am keen to learn how to ferment milk and make cheese…and share with others this fascinating information.
Juli
Hello,
I recently discovered a farm here in the Netherlands that sells raw milk.
I’ve been buying it weekly and my hungry teenage boy has been drinking about a litre a day and loves it!
Is this a bad idea?
Years ago we both had a lactose intolerance test and the results were negative.
Is it therefore safe to say we can drink raw milk or is it still not recommended and should we only be consuming the fermented products?
Neither of us have any digestive or other negative symptoms from the milk.
Thanks so much!
Juli Skyum
T Mitchell
Maybe the other question is where the vast majority of people in the US purchase their food and the sources: fermented or unfermented. Most people don’t have access to backyard cows. So even fermented products are likely coming from factory farmed sources. Most of Maryland’s crop income is from greenhouse and nursery products (flowers, ornamental shrubs, young fruit trees), commodity crops—grain and soybeans and poultry. Farmland in lower eastern shore areas under threat;: acreage loss due to salt water intrusion. Food waste is running 40 percent nationally, seed to shelf. We have a lot of problems in food equity and justice, with the USDA having stolen land from black farmers. Food sources are an interesting topic to study. I’m personally making plant based cheeses with good success.
Christine Johnston
Yes, I agree, but I would think Maryland farmland faces devastation from more than just salt water intrusion. Pesticide usage, over fertilization, and genetically modified crops are threatening the land as well as us. The farming I’ve seen in the Chestertown area is big business, and although I want farmers to be wildly successful, I don’t want that to come at the expense of my family’s health. Many of my family are ignorant about healthy food. MSAK’s approach is a new answer to the puzzle of how to eat healthy. Spread the word!
Christina
Thank you so very much for the encouragement!!
Lynne
Thank you Bill that was a really enlightening post. I make my own kefir milk, and drink a glassful most days, I do wonder if I can use it in cooking, or will the heat destroy it goodness. 🤔
Christina
So glad that you enjoy kefir too! Yes, heating to high temperatures will kill the beneficial bacteria so best not to heat and just enjoy!
elmas çongar
Love it that you do not come with harsh boundaries but the logic and history behind things…. With all the “no dairy” saga still I could not stop consuming dairy. I always thought it is my ancestry (Caucasian / Abkhaz for the most part) and probably it was because we live on dairy products and usually live healthy and long! Living to your 90’s even 100’s is common but one thing our culture “did not” have is sugar! If we speak of Caucasian cuisine what they have for dessert is so simple and naive compared to my Turkish side that is loaded with diary or pastry sweets so living in Turkey for the past 150 years people in my family have developed a lot of thyroid and hypoglycemia.