by Sean Croxton
Can milk get any more complicated?
Sheesh, for something that’s marketed to do a body good it sure has quite a few skeletons in its closet.
Before we dive into this controversial topic I should say that I won’t be able to answer your questions as to whether what I am about to write – and what you are about to see in the video below – has anything to do with the raw milk you may consume, since I do not know the source of such milk.
The best thing for you to do is ask your dairy farmer if his/her cows are A1 or A2. There is testing available to determine this.
I first learned of the relevance of A1 and A2 milk during my radio show with Jordan Rubin a few months ago. Listening to him speak about it, I knew that it was certainly a topic of great importance. However, I didn’t quite grasp the magnitude of it until I pulled Keith Woodford’s Devil in the Milk off of my bookshelf this past weekend.
The video below is just the beginning of what Woodford so scientifically outlines in The Devil. It is almost unbelievable how a single alteration in a string of amino acids can quite possibly lie at the root of so many serious health problems including heart disease, type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism, schizophrenia, and more.
As unbelievable as it may seem, Woodford leaves little doubt that A1 milk has a hand in these conditions.
I hope this video doesn’t freak you out too much. I highly encourage you to take action and learn more about this topic. Woodford’s book is a great place to start. I’ll see what I can do about getting him on the radio show.
Please leave your comments and questions below. I will answer as many as I can.
Happy Friday, peeps!
Sean Croxton
Author, The Dark Side of Fat Loss
Do you know if Canadian Cows produce A1 or A2. Also in Canada cows are not subject to hormones and antibiotics. Would regular homo milk be good to drink? Or has to be Raw?
Sean,
so how could somebody living in the US, (Los Angeles, CA) get A2 milk from Asian or African Cows? call me stupid but that sounds impossible because by the time that Milk gets shipped here it will be old (especially if its organic)..
are we just out of luck in getting some A2 milk if we live in the states? i dont think I’ve seen any milk cartons that advertise where the milk comes from and i shop at whole foods all the time.
from what I remember, at least here in Australia, Jersey cows produce mostly A2 milk, so if you can find out if the breed of Cow is a Jersey cow that may help.
Are the peptides broken down in the same way when digesting A1 vs A2 cheese, yogurt, kefir, etc as when digesting milk?
Does this information also apply to raw milk? Are you going to stop consuming it if so?
Are these detrimental effects only documented for humans, or has it been seen in calves/other animals as well?
Is this nature’s way of telling us that we are only meant to consume human milk?
Is there any way to modify that 67th piece in the chain?
I am one of those who experienced this kind of symptoms/shocks (getting high + aggressive after consuming dairy) back then when I had stomach and duadonal ulcers. The root cause for my troubles was a small piece of wire that was stuck right above my left tonsil causing chronic inflammation. Every time I consumed self made yogurt my mouth developped ulcers.
The only milk product I consume at the moment is home made ghee. I prefer it over coconut oil for I always get a sour taste in my mouth when frying meats and herbs with coconutoil.
Why is it a problem that the A1 beta casein breaks down more easily than A2? Wouldn’t A1 and A2 naturally be broken down into their amino acid states through digestion anyways? I would think the body would have a very hard time absorbing a 7 chain peptide versus 7 much smaller amino acids.
There are several breeds of European cows in America. The Guernsey cows have the highest probability of producing A2 milk (96%) followed by Brown swiss, Ayrshire, Jersey, and Holstein (35%).
Thanks! I’ll try to find it
Isn’t casein an alcohol soluble protein?
If you eat your cheese with a glass of wine, or dip it in vinegar would that increase the chances of you digesting it propperly?
How about sheeps or goats milk/cheese? Is that safe to eat?
@Eric
It seems like it is the A1 casein that is binding to your morphine receptors, while the A2 casein gets split at different sections of its aminoacid chain.
If you have a bad digestion you may get allergic reactions from both kinds of milk, yet as far as I get it, it is the A1 casein that will make you feel “high/schizophrenic/autistic”. I have troubles with most kinds of hard digestible proteins (nuts, mushrooms), yet I only get a real shock from casein or gluten.
This is also the reason why I would never take milk-kefir in order to fight bad gut flora. It is not the so called “die-off reaction” that makes you feel dizzy, but the casomorphines that flow into your bloodstream as soon as the candida pops off your leaky gut.
I never noticed a “die-off reaction” when drinking coconutjuice-Kefir.
I think I got it now.
A1’s ß-casein is simply the sticky one.
Since it only needs one more Amino Acid to become complete again it will try to get it from any surface it can stick to.
The reason for A1’s popularity in western diet must be because it gives cheese its typical elastic dried glue-like consistence. (just like glutenmakes bread more “chewy”)
If you take A1 cheese and compare it to goats/sheeps cheese you will notice that the latter is way more easier to rubb into small pieces, while A1 cheese is more like a plastic sheet.
Thus, I assume A2 cows cheese being more like sheeps’ cheese.
So, if this sticky molecules from A1 yogurt now stick to your mouth and throat (and I guess anybody noticed the white tongue he gets from consuming dairy) all it really needs is a bit of inflammation like the bleeding gums you get from undigested milksugar, or leaky gut from the candida sitting on your tongue, and…
BOOM!
You get your allergic shock.
The “glue” will enter your bloodstream without your body even getting the chance to digest it propperly inside your stomach, since the leak is in your mouth!
When clearing soured butter yesterday I noticed something very interesting.
While the white milk-proteins usually would lift and float atop of the ghee when I clear normal butter, this time around with the soured butter almost all of the protein stayed at the ground sticking to the walls of my stainless steel chalice, thus I assume that fermentation allone already causes the A1 casein to become that sticky ß-casein.
My heart is sinking…
My 15 year old, when he was a toddler, was “addicted” to milk… I could not get him to stop drinking less than 5-6 cups of it a day… until it caused him to get severe encopresis, requiring surgery, then he quit cold turkey, and hasn’t had more than 1-2 glasses since he was 4 years old. (Yes, I suppose I could have stopped buying it for him, but it was “good for him!” Right? And he’s a very strong willed child!)
3 weeks ago he was diagnosed with T1 Diabetes.
I can’t help but think it isn’t a coincidence!
Hi Sean ~
Thank you for the Awesome report on A1 vs A2 in Milk.The Public is waking up to the difference thanks to people like you.Here in Seattle Wash,we distribute A2 milk through http://www.emilkman.com .The specific brand we use comes from http://www.pureeiredairy.com .They claim to be the only 100% Organic & Grass Fed Dairy West of the Rockies.Let us know how we can help you get the word out.Looking forward to hearing more of your reports…Keep up the Awesome Reporting !! Rod
I’m not sure exactly what kind of cows produce the milk in Canada. Although there are no hormones, there would still be A1 beta casein in the milk, which MAY cause a problem. Pasteurization may cause increased BCM7 in milk by way of the heat denaturing and breaking down the protein. I cover this in today’s video. It is uploading right now.
Thanks for responding, Ron!
I talk about this in today’s video (should be up in about 45 mins). Cheese – whether A1 or A2 does not seem to be a problem due to the cheese making process. There is no research on yogurt. And I have not come across any info on kefir. I would guess the kefir is as good as the cow. Of course, kefir from A2 cows would be preferable. Still trying to figure this thing out.
Depends on the type of cow the raw milk comes from. We also have to keep in mind that the state of your gut is of high importance in terms of absorbing a rather large peptide molecule. If the gut is healthy, risk is rather minimal. It’s just hard to come across someone with a healthy gut these days.
I think Nature is okay with us drinking milk, since the original milk (A2) does very little hard (consider the Massai of Africa). Unfortunately, this mutation combined with poor gut health has presented a problem.
Interesting you mention this, Peter. A treatment for ulcers used to be a Sippy Diet consisting of milk. What was found was that this diet significantly increased heart disease. This may be due to the fact that the stomach/gut was leaky (because of the ulcers), allowing BCM7 to pass into the bloodstream, where it could oxidize cholesterol and damage arteries.
Good question. Not all peptides are broken down into amino acids. Many peptides stay on the intestinal tract and are excreted with the feces. BCM7 is a rather large molecule, which should not pass through the intestinal wall, BUT most people have some form of excessive permeability of the gut (for many reasons). That’s why it passes through. So this is not just a milk problem but a also a reflection of generally poor gut health in our society.
Thanks, Rod!! Great speaking with you today!
Very interesting, Kat. I spoke about this in today’s video (uploading now). Babies tend to have leaky guts. This allows large peptide molecules to pass through their gut lining. The reason for this is to let these peptides from breast milk across the lining. This is a good thing, since human beta casein is different from bovine.
When A1 is introduced to babies, they absorb the BCM7 and it may have the opiate/addictive effects on the child.
Many people with T1 diabetes have antibodies to BCM7.
Woodford writes about this extensively in the book.
SC
Peter – I just checked and it appears that the protein in goat’s milk in A2, so if you have access to goat’s milk, go for it!
I watched four minutes of this video and it was boring. We already know pasturized milk is bad for us. Haven’t you seen the cow pictures, one that had drunk P milk and the the other who had drunk unpasturized milk?
What further proof does a person need?
Thanks Sean for bringing this up. I work with a holistic nutritionist and we are trying to get to the bottom of some health issues. It has been suggested as I am mostly Paleo to give up my raw milk from pastured, organic Jersey (A2) cows. I definitely will cry like a baby doing so, therefore the procrastination. It’s the only thing that I have not elimated from my diet. I am wondering what Mark McAfee of “Organic Pastures” thinks of this, I believe he has some of the Holstein breed cows (highly used in commercial dairy = A1 milk, big producers), it looks like he has other breeds as well. I absolutely love Mark McAfee and his message, but is he putting out A1 or A2 milk? I am a bit confused on the European cow as being the A1 producers, I think that the Gernsey, Brown Swiss, Jersery breeds are considered European breeds and I thought those breeds were the A2 producers. I will probably get the book as this is a very, very important topic for me.
Thanks a bunch,
Annie
Love the video! I drive an hour to get fresh raw milk. Can I buy in quantity and freeze it or does that change any of the qualities I seek in milk. I tastes a little different like the cream kind of clumps together but I don’t know.
Thanks,
Corey
I commented on a forum that milk can make you in to a stoner. No one really responded to the comment, it stuck out as usual as strange and I felt bad about saying it. I’ve followed the blood type O diet which recommends eliminating milk off and on for about 10 years. I haven’t drank regular milk in years but started dabbling with kefir and yogurt in the mid 2000s due to some wrong info I got about how kefir can heal the gut and also reports that started in mid 2000s about milk products & increased fat loss. Let’s just say that when I drink kefir on a daily basis I can become so immobilized that I might just lay in bed, hardly do anything all day, and become really lethargic and tired, just like Peter D’Adamo says in his books. I btw am not a drug user but this was just my general observation this last go around with the kefir. I can’t think of anything significant that was accomplished those couple of months; I might as well have been high the whole time.
Hi Sean
I am the author of ‘Devil in the Milk”
I post updates on the A1/A2 milk story at http://keithwoodford.wordpress.com
Keith Woodford