For the past couple of days, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a little “wedding pre-game” party over here. For us! Our whole family + a few very close friends are coming over and we can’t wait to shower them with a backyard feast. Both Pete + I are of Sicilian descent, and our families still eat with the omnivorous gusto of their heritage; forget international cuisine, they want simple, fresh, local meats, cheeses, and vegetables, and no one will ever turn down a lasagne. AND, dessert…ALWAYS dessert. Something creamy and sweet to finish, every time.
These little Butterscotch Budino w/Salty Caramel-y Seeds is one of the recipes on the table for our celebration, and you’d better believe that I’m not leaving out a single drop of locally sourced,
Yep, that’s right. There are certain places where real dairy, sourced with integrity, belongs. And in this Butterscotch Budino w/Salty Caramel-y Seeds is just one such place!
Our skepticism around milk – and dairy – has come to rise because there is a population of people who have a difficult time digesting these products. We’ve heard that they cause indigestion. We’ve heard that they cause *inflammation” But the truth is that – when our digestive systems are weak, ALL FOODS will cause indigestion, and ALL FOODS will cause inflammation…not just dairy.
The *bad news* about dairy isn’t about dairy itself. It’s that as a society we’ve weakened our digestive systems to the point that we can no longer process it. The good news is that – in most cases, we can heal the digestive system to enjoy milk, dairy, ice cream and butter again, and there are great reasons to tackle the task. Milk – straight-up dairy milk, produced consciously – has numerous benefits that *mylks* simply can’t touch:
Real milk is deeply nourishing containing high amounts of minerals, proteins and fats
Real milk aids in sleep, and soothing the nervous system
Real milk cools the digestive system and can reduce inflammation in the body, when the body is able to properly digest it.
Alternative mylks can’t shine a candle:
Almond milk is also cooling but lacks the critical protein and fat. But, nuts create a histamine reaction in the body, which is not soothing – instead it amps the body defenses.
Oat milk is cooling, but lacks the protein, fat and minerals.
Soy milk is cooling, but lacks the fat.
The not-great news is that if your body and digestive system are already having a hard time digesting your life and your nourishment, then you’ll also have a hard time digesting milk AND getting these benefits. Then, and really only then, does milk appear in studies to contribute to severe disease or to amplify menstrual cycle symptoms or other complicated conditions associated with circulation, and assimilation.
Milk is a wonderful tonic for:
busy days
sleepless nights
athletes in training and in recovery
While milk and dairy products have managed to earn a bad rap in the United States, in India – the birthplace of Ayurvedic medicine – milk, and all products that come from cows are considered sacred. India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of cow’s milk, but you won’t likely find anyone drinking milk from a glass — it’s far too precious and special for that.
Milk’s special significance in India goes back to Hindu mythology and the legend of the Samudra Manthan, the churning of the ocean that brought forth the drink of immortality, the Amrit, and also the goddess Kamdhenu, which manifested itself as a wish-granting divine cow. Hindus, who make up 81% of India’s 1.3 billion people, consider cows to be sacred embodiments of Kamdhenu.
Hindus use milk and its products for religious purposes because it is believed to have purifying qualities: ghee, or clarified butter, is used in lamps for rituals; milk is used to bathe Hindu idols on special occasions; sweets made from milk or ghee are used as offerings to gods. It accompanies so much of Hindu life, in rituals from an infant’s first food to the last rituals after death.
Milk also transcends religion: ghee is spread on flatbread, and buttermilk is used in the summer to soothe the stomach and cool the body from the inside out. Sweets made with milk are impossible to escape, and milky tea is the most popular way to begin the day.
All this said, milk in India, and milk in the United States, are two very different ingredients. Not just in the way that they are used and produced, but from the cows that produce them too….and this makes all the difference.
All milk is made up of water and solids. The solid components within milk are:
Lactose (milk sugar)
Fat
Minerals
Protein
All things that our bodies need and use! Most of us who notice difficulty digesting milk believe the difficulty to be lactose or casein. But for many of us, the answer is neither. rather, we’re likely having difficulty digesting a byproduct of the A1 protein during digestion, peptide beta-casomorphin-7 (or BCM7) – basically, our bodies produce this peptide when we digest the milk and that peptide can have adverse effects on our digestion, depending on the strength and health of our digestive system. Difficulty with this peptide is not universal, milk is not universally “bad,” and even the A1 protein that produces the peptide isn’t universal in all milk!
There are two types of beta-casein and, there are several different kinds of COWS that produce each:
A1 beta-casein. Milk from breeds of cows that originated in northern Europe is generally high in A1 beta-casein. These breeds include Holstein, Friesian, Ayrshire, and British Shorthorn.
A2 beta-casein. Milk that is high in A2 beta-casein is mainly found in breeds that originated in the Channel Islands and southern France. These include Guernsey, Jersey, Charolais, Limousin, Tharparkar, Gir, and Sahiwal cows as well as goats and sheep.
90% of the cows in India are Tharparkar, Gir or Sahiwal – indigenous to the region – and produce A2 proteins. The A2 protein doesn’t result in the production of the peptide BCM7, and thus, many of us have a far easier time digesting milk from cows that contains A2 (instead of A1) proteins. The majority of the cows that have been bred for industrial production in the United States are Holstein-Fresian, not indigenous to our land state, and these cows produce A1 casein.
For those that experience gastrointestinal distress when they eat dairy products (specifically milk,) these symptoms are likely to be lessened if not absent when A2 milk products are used, over A1, simply because our bodies are better prepared to digest the proteins, and the bi-products of digestion, from this type of milk.
When I buy milk for our house, I typically buy A2 dairy milk from the grocery store, or I buy local goats or sheep milk from the farm. All three of these make for a much more enjoyable digestive experience for all at the dinner table, and double for those coming back for dessert seconds!
Milk is a big digestive project for all of our bodies, because it’s so nutrient bound, so cooling and so heavy. To help our bodies to process, assimilate + utilize this incredible food, it’s best to:
buy A2 milk, or milk produced locally whenever possible
enjoy your milk warm or at room temperature, instead of cold to boost digestibility
consume with a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, turmeric or cardamom to help your body assimilate nutrients
consume occasionally, instead of daily as a medicine instead of a staple
enjoy with great gusto whenever this sacred tonic is available to you!
That's ok, just sign up or log in to see this recipe.
