A McDonald’s ad, which is running in Finland cracked me up. It just goes to show you what we are up against when McDonald’s can advertise their milk shake as “real” because it has some milk in. Now let’s take a close look at the other ingredients in one of their shakes.
Vanilla Triple Thick® Shake:
Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream: Milk, sugar, cream, nonfat milk solids, corn syrup solids, mono- and diglycerides, guar gum, dextrose, sodium citrate, artificial vanilla flavor, sodium phosphate, carrageenan, disodium phosphate, cellulose gum, vitamin A palmitate.Triple Thick Vanilla Shake Syrup: Corn syrup, water, vanilla extract, caramel color, citric acid, pectin, sodium benzoate (preservative), yellow 5, yellow 6.
Nutrition includes 550 calories, 13 gms fat 8 of which are from saturated fat, 1 gm of trans fat, 96 gms carbohydrates, and 72 gms of sugar.
Aside from all the chemicals, extraordinary amount of sugars, preservatives, flavorings and corn syrup, it is made from pasteurized skim milk which has been cremated and drained of all nutritional value.
Real Milk is 100% full fat milk from humanely treated cows eating green pasture. The milk McDonald’s and all other conventional restaurants and institutions use is conventional milk (reduced fat) from confined factory dairy cows that are kept standing, kept pregnant, given growth hormones to stimulate massive milk production, given antibiotics due to the mastitis they get because of the over stimulation to their mammary glands, and worst of all fed GMO corn and soy — feed they cannot properly digest and which no one knows its effect on mammals and the meat and milk they produce.
Pasteurization heats the milk in order to kill pathogens. But if you get milk from healthy, happy cows on pasture, the milk inherently has all the elements necessary to eliminate pathogens.
Pasteurization:
- destroys enzymes needed to digest the milk
- destroys the many immune protective elements
- reduces vitamin content, particularly, Vitamins C, B12 and B6
- denatures milk proteins making them harder to digest thus more allergenic, particularly for young children
- kills beneficial bacteria in the milk, thus promoting more resistant pathogens
- is linked to colic in infants
Unprocessed milk contains numerous protective components:
- The following elements actually kill any pathogens in the milk: lactoperoxidase, lactoferrin, leukocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, antibodies, medium chain fatty acids, lysozyme, B12 binding protein, bifidus factor, beneficial bacteria
- The following elements prevent pathogen absorption across the intestinal wall: polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, mucins, fibronectin, glycomacropeptides, bifidus factor, beneficial bacteria
- The following elements strengthen the immune system: lymphocytes, immunoglobulins, antibodies, hormones and growth factors
While I would NEVER drink raw milk from conventional factory cows, clean raw milk from certified healthy cows is available commercially in several states and may be bought directly from the farm in many more. (Sources are listed on www.realmilk.com.)
Pasteurization laws favor huge factory dairy operations and push out small farmers. When farmers have the right to sell unprocessed milk to consumers, they can make a decent living, even with small herds. Healthy unprocessed milk is a commodity desired by many people who realize it’s remarkable health benefits.
Which milk would you like to drink? Make an informed choice.
Sources:
- http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html
- www.realmilk.com
- http://www.realmilk.com/rawmilkoverview.html
- Br J Nutr 2000: Anti-Cancer Properties of Bovine Milk
- Br J Nutr. 2000 Nov;84 Suppl 1:S155-9: Bioactive substances in milk with properties decreasing risk of cardiovascular diseases
