#bc it’s not as digestible as raw milk but it’s more digestible than pasteurized cow milk

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8 Healing Foods that Boost Your Brain Health & Supercharge Your Stomach

Following the Probiotic Diet Eating Plan will promote the growth of beneficial bacteria and other microbes in your intestines while starving the bad guys, leaving you feeling energized.

You’ll notice that many of the healing foods I recommend have gone through a fermentation process, which means they were cultured through the intentional growth of bacteria, yeast, or mold, a process as old as biblical times. Since refrigeration hadn’t been invented back then—and foods weren’t known to have a “shelf life”—people in ancient times didn’t have the option of freezing food or storing any foodstuffs inside a cool box. Instead, they learned how to preserve foods for a short time through the process of fermentation.

Our ancestors knew the value of fermented food, if for no other reason than fermented foods kept them from starving between harvests. They fermented milk and vegetables not only to preserve these foods—don’t forget that you couldn’t run down to your local Walmart in 300 BC if you needed a gallon of milk—but to take advantage of the health benefits of fermentation. I would imagine that the Bulgarians of Metchnikoff’s day who consumed “sour milk” did so because they instinctively knew that cultured milk promoted intestinal health. Although they knew nothing about helpful flora, they listened to their gut and knew they felt better—and lived longer—when they consumed gourds of cultured dairy.

Healing Foods to Focus On

In general terms, here’s an outline of foods that you need to be focusing on when you’re on the Probiotic Diet:

1. Healthy meats

I strongly urge that you purchase and prepare meat from organically raised cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, and venison that graze on nature’s bountiful grasses and fish caught in the wild like salmon, tuna, or sea bass. Grass-fed meat is leaner and is lower in calories than grain-fed beef. Organic and grass-fed beef is higher in gut-friendly omega-3 fatty acids and important vitamins like B12 and vitamin E, and way better for you than assembly-line cuts of flank steak from hormone-injected cattle eating pesticide-sprayed feed laced with antibiotics.

Fish with fins and scales caught from oceans and rivers are lean sources of protein and provide essential amino acids in abundance. Wild-caught fish are a great source of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, which can reduce inflammation in diseases of the gut such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Wild-caught fish can be purchased in natural food stores and fish markets, but supermarkets are stocking these types of foods in greater quantities these days. Some of the best fish to eat are wild-caught salmon, high omega-3 tuna, sardines, mackerel, and herring.

2. Raw milk and cultured dairy products from cows, goats, and sheep

The consumption of cultured dairy is absolutely critical to the success of the Probiotic Diet. Raw milk provides important enzymes and good bacteria that are crucial to probiotic support for the gut. These enzymes and bacteria aren’t found in pasteurized milk since they’re inconveniently destroyed during the pasteurization process. Raw milk contains lactic acid bacteria that can kill certain pathogens and thereby prevent disease, and provide more calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and sulfur than pasteurized, homogenized dairy.

The best dairy products are the lacto-fermented kind—yogurt, kefir, hard cheeses (preferably aged), cream cheese, cottage cheese, and cultured cream. You can shop for them at natural food supermarkets in certain states, but the best sources of raw cultured dairy are found at local farms. (Visit www.RealMilk.com for a farm near you.)

Another advantage to eating cultured dairy is that those who are lactose-intolerant—and many with digestive issues such as irritable bowel syndrome are sensitive to lactose—can often stomach fermented dairy products because they contain little or no residual lactose, which is the type of sugar in milk that many find hard to digest.

Certified organic whole milk kefir, sold in ready-to-drink quart bottles, is a tart-tasting, thick beverage containing naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts that work synergistically to provide superior health benefits. Kefir is also a great base ingredient to build smoothies around: just add eight ounces of kefir into a blender, an assortment of frozen berries or fruits, a spoonful of raw honey, maybe some multi collagen or bone broth protein powder, and you’re well on the way to churning up a delicious, satisfying smoothie.

As for yogurt, if you shop at a health food store, I prefer you consume yogurts not made from cow’s milk. You’ll be better off purchasing yogurts derived from goat’s milk and sheep’s milk, which are easier on stomachs as well as less allergenic because they do not contain the same complex proteins found in pasteurized cow’s milk. Goat’s milk and sheep’s milk yogurts are readily available at natural grocers, although my personal favorite—the yogurt made from sheep’s milk—is more difficult to find in stock but can often be ordered if you ask the store dairy manager. If you are able to find raw cow’s milk yogurt, it can be wonderful for your health.

One thing I don’t like in Breaking the Vicious Cycle is that Elaine Gottschall never discussed the differences between pasteurized was better for you. In fact, she stressed that you should consume pasteurized dairy, presumably because of the conventional wisdom that pasteurization kills unwanted or deadly microbes when, in reality, heating milk to 161 degrees also destroys the beneficial bacteria and probiotics in the milk or yogurt product.

Mrs. Gottschall’s mindset—and I know this from having many over-the-phone conversations with her (we never met in person)—was that she wanted the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to be user-friendly for the masses. That’s why she recommended foods that you could pick up at any corner supermarket: conventional eggs, pasteurized and homogenized dairy, conventionally raised chicken and beef, and fruits and vegetables from “agribusiness”—the huge conglomerations that boost yields (and therefore profits) by using persistent pesticides and fertilizers that leave toxic residues in the fruits and vegetables you consume.

Mrs. Gottschall was also not overly concerned with artificial colors and artificial sweeteners, and she even said it was okay to “add a crushed saccharin tablet” to sweeten a glass of wine. I hold the opposite view: low-calorie artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose (found in those blue, pink, and yellow packets on restaurant tables) are practically poison in my eyes because of their alleged link to many health problems, including cancer. From all the studies I’ve seen, I think you’d be crazy to get within ten feet of them.

3. High omega-3 eggs

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Free-range eggs from hens that roam around a pasture instead of being caged throughout their short lives have the highest-quality protein of any food, except for mothers’ breast milk. But the main reason I’m a huge fan of eggs in the Probiotic Diet is because of their high concentration of omega-3 fats.

So what are omega-3 fatty acids? Omega-3s are a type of fat that the body needs to run the gastrointestinal system. They manufacture and repair cell membranes and hormones, balance the nervous system, and expel harmful waste products. They are essential to health because the body cannot naturally manufacture its own omega-3 fatty acids.

The Probiotic Diet is designed to increase your consumption of omega-3 fats and decrease your consumption of another fatty acid known as omega-6s. Omega-3s and omega-6s are the only two essential fatty acids (EFAs) that our bodies must have because they regulate body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, fertility, and conception. The problem is that ever since Élie Metchnikoff was alive, our diets have flip-flopped. We receive very little omega-3s (because we don’t eat foods like wild-caught fish and pasture-raised eggs) and too many omega-6 fatty acids because omega-6s are found in sunflower, safflower, corn, cottonseed, and soybean oils, which, in turn, are found in processed foods and refined grains. If your favorite meal is chicken nuggets and French fries, then you’re eating a ton of omega-6 fatty acids, and that’s not good for you or your digestive tract.

Since the typical American diet is weighted heavily toward omega-6 fatty acids instead of omega-3s, we typically have a ratio of 20 omega-6s to one omega-3, or 20:1. That’s way too high and increases the likelihood of inflammatory and autoimmune disease, which strains your terrain. Following the Probiotic Diet should greatly improve your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio to something like 4:1, which is the bull’s eye you want to shoot for.

4. Extra-virgin coconut oil and grass-fed butter

These two important foods have anti-microbial saturated fats that can work wonders for people with digestive disorders. Coconut oil is so beneficial to digestive health that years ago a person suffering from Crohn’s disease wrote “Dear Abby” and insisted that eating macaroons eliminated symptoms of the disease. She was talking about your standard-recipe macaroons, the ones with white sugar, white flour, bad oils containing omega-6 fatty acids… but she included six to eight grams of coconut oil! Just the addition of extra-virgin coconut oil to a recipe that would normally be anathema to the Probiotic Diet helped out someone with Crohn’s disease, and the reason why was because of the anti-microbial fatty acids in coconut oil.

Coconut oil, a miracle food that few people have heard of, has healthy fats that slow the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream, thereby keeping blood sugar levels on an even keel. It’s easy to add to your diet; all you have to do is think intentionally about adding extra-virgin coconut oil whenever you pull out a saucepan to cook scrambled eggs, glaze diced onions, or heat up leftovers. I even add a tablespoon of coconut oil to my Vitamix blender when I whip up a delicious smoothie for breakfast.

Extra-virgin coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids such as lauric, caprylic, and capric acids, which are anti-viral and anti-fungal. Since most people suffering from digestive problems have an overgrowth of yeast and potentially high levels of virus in their systems, this obscure food can work wonders. I recommend those with digestive problems consume two to four tablespoons of extra-virgin coconut oil per day. A side benefit of extra-virgin coconut oil is that it helps you balance your weight whether you are under- or overweight. Consuming extra-virgin coconut oil to the tune of four tablespoons per day is a great way for those who are underweight to pack on the pounds.

Grass-fed butter, or raw butter, is good for your digestion because it has compounds that help repair the gut lining. Organic butter also contains anti-microbial fatty acids, including butyric acid, which has strong anti-fungal effects in the digestive tract. The superb fatty acids in butter help heal the mucosal lining and provide an environment for beneficial microflora to colonize. Butter also contains glycosphingolipids, which protect you against infection.

5. Cultured and fermented vegetables and other “living” foods

Raw cultured or fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut, pickled carrots, beets, or cucumbers supply the body with lots of probiotics. Although these fermented vegetables are often greeted with upturned noses at the dinner table, these foods help reestablish natural balance to your digestive system. Cultured vegetables like sauerkraut are brimming with vitamins, such as vitamin C, and contain almost four times the nutrients as unfermented cabbage. The lactobacilli in fermented vegetables contain digestive enzymes that help break down food and increase its digestibility.

I’ll have a lot more to say about fermented vegetables in the next chapter, “Probiotic Foods from Around the World,” but let me put a plug in for three raw foods that are essential to the Probiotic Diet. They are avocados and chia and flaxseeds.

I’ll grant you that a lot of raw veggies can give you a problem if you have an acute inflammatory condition or an ulceration in the gut, but avocados and chia and flaxseeds are foods high in healthy fats such as monounsaturated fats (in the case of avocados) and omega-3 fatty acids from chia and flax. Indeed, chia’s fiber-rich seeds have the highest percentage of omega-3s of any plant, including flaxseeds. These three foods are high in protein, too, so if you’re a vegetarian, make sure you’re eating plenty of avocados and chia and flaxseeds. Natural food stores carry wonderful chia seed and flaxseed products.

6. Bone broth

Your entire gut lining is made up of collagen, which means you need to consume foods that support collagen production. Bone broth can help repair the gut lining, and it’s also easy to digest, because it’s in an amino acid form. Bone broth is high in proline, glycine, and hydroxyproline, as well as glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid— all of which help heal and reseal your gut lining.

7. Herbs and spices

Some cultures consume a lot more spices per capita than we do in a lot of westernized countries. Nutrient density-wise, herbs are powerful. Ginger is the ultimate healing herb for your gut. It’s slightly warming and anti-inflammatory. Peppermint is also excellent. You can consume peppermint as an essential oil, adding a drop or two to a smoothie or other recipe, to help cool and soothe the digestive lining. You can also add a little cardamon to your coffee or a smoothie, as well as consider taking licorice root and fennel.

8. Sprouted, soaked, or sour-leavened grains

I totally agree with Mrs. Gottschall that grains are problematic to those with gut issues. But there are ways to neutralize these disaccharides and that’s through consuming grains that have sprouted, been soaked overnight in water, or leavened with a sourdough culture. A whole grain sourdough bread, for instance, would have less disaccharides and be in a form that most people can tolerate. The issue with grains doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach.

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Raw Milk Benefits vs. the Law

Humans have enjoyed raw milk benefits for millennia. But now only 28 American states allow the sale of raw milk and it is illegal in Canada. Why is it outlawed and how can you enjoy the health benefits of unpasteurized milk?

A History of Raw Milk Benefits

As early as 9000 BC, humans consumed the milk of other animals. Cattle, sheep and goats were first domesticated in Southeast Asia, though they were initially kept for meat.

Animal milk primarily went to human infants with no access to breast milk. After infancy, most humans stop producing lactase, an enzyme which enables digestion of lactose. Cheese was developed as a way to preserve milk and to remove a majority of the lactose. A genetic mutation occurred in ancient Europe which allowed adults to continue drinking milk. This coincides with the historical rise in dairy farming, suggesting that lactase persistence is an effect of natural selection since dairy products were such an important survival food during those times. Currently, adults that can drink milk compose 80 percent of Europeans and their descendants compared to 30 percent from Africa, Asia and Oceania.

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Early germ-killing methods were developed to deal with milk-borne disease. One involved simply heating the milk to temperatures just below boiling, where proteins do not yet curdle. Paneer and ricotta cheeses involve heating the milk above 180 degrees, killing all bacteria and removing lactose at the same time. Aging hard cheeses for over 60 days also eliminates dangerous pathogens.

As it became a major food source, raw milk benefits battled the risks. Germ theory was proposed in 1546 but didn’t gain strength until the 1850s. Louis Pasteur discovered in 1864 that heating beer and wine killed most bacteria that caused spoilage and the practice soon extended to dairy products. When milk pasteurization was developed, bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis were thought to be transmitted through the liquid to humans, as well as other deadly diseases. The process became commonplace in the United States in the 1890s.

The Dangers

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims that improperly handled milk is responsible for more hospitalizations than any other food-borne illness. The agency claims raw milk is one of the world’s most dangerous food products. Pathogens such as E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Salmonella can travel in the liquid, as well as diseases such as diphtheria and scarlet fever. Especially susceptible are pregnant women, young children, elderly adults, and individuals with compromised immune systems.

“Raw milk can carry dangerous germs that are passed from the cow, goat, sheep, or other animal. This contamination could come from infection of the cow’s udder, cow diseases, cow feces coming into contact with the milk, or bacteria that lives on the skin of cows. Even healthy animals may carry the germs that can contaminate the milk and make people very sick. There is no guarantee that raw milk supplied by ‘certified,’ ‘organic,’ or ‘local’ dairies is safe. The best thing to do to protect you and your family’s health is to only drink pasteurized milk and milk products,” says Dr. Megin Nichols, Veterinary Epidemiologist for the CDC. 

Widespread industrialization is responsible for the growth of bacteria within milk. Even before the invention of refrigerators, the short amount of time between milking and consumption minimized the growth of bacteria and disease risk. When urbanites were allowed to keep cows, the milk didn’t have to travel long distances. Then cities densified and milk had to be transported from the country, giving it time to develop pathogens. It is reported that, between 1912 and 1937, 65,000 people in England and Wales died of tuberculosis contracted from drinking milk.

After countries adopted the process of pasteurization, milk was then considered one of the safest foods. The process increases milk’s refrigerated shelf life to two or three weeks and UHT (ultra-heat treatment) can keep it good for up to nine months outside of a refrigerator.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration debunks popular myths regarding raw milk. It advises that consumers should not consume milk, cream, soft cheeses, yogurt, pudding, ice cream, or frozen yogurt made from unpasteurized milk. Hard cheeses, such as cheddar and Parmesan, are considered safe as long as they have been cured at least 60 days.

Raw Milk Benefits

Advocates of raw milk dispute the dangers by claiming that benefits far outweigh risks. One study found that children who consumed raw milk had a lower risk of asthma and allergies.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods within the American diet, promotes raw milk benefits through its “Real Milk” campaign. It claims that, of the 15 milk-borne outbreaks listed by the FDA, none proved that pasteurization would have prevented the problem. The foundation also holds that raw milk is no more dangerous than deli meats.

Advocates claim that homogenization, the process that reduces the size of fat globules to suspend cream within whole milk, has unhealthy effects. Concerns include the uptake of the protein xanthine oxidase, which is increased by homogenization, and how it may lead to hardening of the arteries.

They say that raw milk can be produced hygienically and that pasteurization nullifies nutritious compounds, and 10-30 percent of heat-sensitive vitamins are destroyed in the process. Pasteurization also impacts or destroys all bacteria, whether dangerous or beneficial. Good bacteria include probiotics such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, which is necessary for culturing yogurt and cheese. L. acidophilus is also associated with reduction of childhood diarrhea, aided digestion for lactose-intolerant people, and a reduction in heart disease. In mainstream production of cheese and yogurt, milk is pasteurized then cultures such as L. acidophilus are added back in.

Immunoglobulins and the enzymes lipase and phosphatase are believed to be beneficial but are inactivated by heat. Immunoglobulins are antibodies used by the immune system to identify and neutralize pathogens. The enzymes are used in digestion. Food scientists counter this argument by claiming that many beneficial enzymes survive pasteurization and those found within raw milk are nullified within the stomach anyway.

Since ultra-pasteurized milk does not easily curdle, raw milk is especially prized for cheese, butter, and other dairy products. Pasteurized milk curdles as it should but some retail establishments only sell ultra-pasteurized versions of products such as goat milk or heavy cream.

State Laws

Raw milk hasn’t been illegal for long. In 1986, Federal Judge Norma Holloway Johnson ordered the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to ban interstate shipment of raw milk and its products. The FDA banned interstate distribution in final package form in 1987. Sale of raw milk has been outlawed in half the states. The CDC has documented fewer illnesses from raw milk in states that prohibit sales.

Currently, no raw milk products may pass state lines for final sale except for hard cheeses that have been aged two months. And those cheeses must carry a clear label that they are unpasteurized.

Individuals researching local milk laws should pay careful attention to dates on the articles. Many websites list states allowing retail sale and cow shares, but many laws have changed since then. The following information was obtained from Raw Milk Nation, in a report published October 19, 2015. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund urges followers to email or call if any state laws change so they can update their information.

States allowing retail sales to obtain raw milk benefits include Arizona, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington. Arizona, California, and Washington mandate that cartons contain appropriate warning labels. Oregon allows retail sale of raw goat and sheep milk only.

Licensed on-farm sales are legal within Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Utah also allows retail sales if the producer has majority ownership in the store, though cartons must carry warning labels. Missouri and South Dakota also allow delivery, and Missouri allows sales at farmer’s markets.

Unlicensed on-farm sales are allowed within Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont, and Wyoming, though Mississippi only allows goat milk sales. Oklahoma has a limit on the volume of goat milk sales. Mississippi and Oregon have a limit on the number of lactating animals. New Hampshire and Vermont limit sales volume. Delivery is legal within Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wyoming. And farmer’s market sales are allowed within New Hampshire and Wyoming.

Though sale may be illegal within several states, herdshares and cowshares are allowed. These are programs where people co-own dairy animals, providing feed and veterinary care. In return, all individuals share in the output, negating actual purchase of the milk. Some states have laws allowing these programs while others have no laws legalizing or prohibiting them but have taken no action to stop them. Cowshares were legal in states such as Nevada prior to 2013 but no longer are. Allowable states include Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Utah, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Tennessee also allows sale of raw milk for pet use only. Within Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming, cowshare programs must register within the state.

States banning raw milk for human consumption include Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia, and West Virginia. Rhode Island and Kentucky allow the sale of goat milk only, and by doctor’s prescription. Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia have no law regarding herdshares. Raw pet milk is legal within Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, and North Carolina.

Though sale of raw milk for pet consumption is legal in nearly every state if the producer has a commercial feed license, most states will not issue feed licenses for the sale of milk.

Obtaining Raw Milk Legally

Residents craving raw milk benefits may try to skirt laws. Though Reno, Nevada sits just minutes from the Californian border, stores within California often check identification prior to selling milk. Even cowshare programs within California do not allow Nevadans to participate because of the ban.

Within states that allow sale of raw milk only for pet use, residents often lie about intended purposes and consume it themselves. This is dangerous, especially if the person selling the milk intends it for animals and has not collected it hygienically. Purchasing “pet milk” then using it for human consumption also endangers the seller if the purchaser becomes ill and admits where they got the milk. Sellers can face prosecution when they tried to follow the law.

A legal way to obtain raw milk is to own a dairy animal. Jersey cow milk production is coveted among dairies because it is richer, creamier, sweeter, and higher in beneficial proteins. Farmers with smaller plots of land consider goat milk benefits while those with acreage can support high milk-yielding cows. But farmers owning dairy animals are cautioned to stay educated of local laws. Raw milk benefits are coveted and individuals may attempt to trade in states where bartering for raw milk is illegal.

Unfortunately, enjoying raw milk benefits legally is getting harder. States have loosened some regulations, such as cottage food laws, which regulate selling homemade food, but have tightened rules regarding milk. Often it isn’t worth it for farmers to sell their extra milk. If you have no space for a dairy animal, and cannot purchase the milk legally, choose pasteurized over ultra-pasteurized for purposes such as cheese. Yogurt and buttermilk, with live and active cultures, can replace probiotics lost within pasteurization.

Whether milk should be pasteurized for public health reasons, or whether raw milk benefits outweigh the risks, sale of raw milk isn’t likely becoming more liberal any time soon.

Do you enjoy raw milk benefits? Do you raise your own cows for milk or do you get it from local farmers?

Raw Milk Benefits vs. the Law was originally posted by All About Chickens