The Moms, The Cows, And The Poop

Cows are incredible. They poop. Their poop is amazing. They lactate. That stuff is amazing. I lactate, too. But that bit’s not for you.

In 1862, French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, now widely known as the Father of Germ Theory, completed his first test of a process that heated liquids enough to kill most bacteria and molds inside. "I intend to establish that, just as there is an alcoholic ferment, the yeast of beer, which is found everywhere that sugar is decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid, so also there is a particular ferment, a lactic yeast, always present when sugar becomes lactic acid."* Sanitation in Mr. P’s day was not as wonderful as it is today and germ control was key to getting a foothold on the health of the public. Because of his work, Joseph Lister (sound familiar?) took off on his developments in antiseptic methods in surgery. This idea truly did change everything.

But, like every good idea, we need to always question the validity of the thing and have the relevance conversation. Is this practical now? Is it doing more harm than good? Because of developments in complimentary areas, are we able to render this supplement obsolete? Science rocks, but it changes. And so do our needs. For example, those functioning on mobile phones usually don’t need a landline, it’s superfluous. For our family, we have a laptop and Netflix so the pricey duo of television and cable are unnecessary (that’s a HUGE passion of mine—I double dog dare you, and nearly beg you, consider trading in your television to invest in your skills or passions).

Personally, after researching instability in vitamins and the effects processing and homogenizing (which rearranges the fat and protein molecules, ridding milk of the cream-line, to break the fat globules into smaller pieces so they’ll be suspending in the milk instead) have on the fantastic nutrient quality of foods, I find that we are killing a good thing, billions of good things to shave off a bit of risk, which is a different ballgame now. A major contributing factor to the ever-prevalent American diseases is what we’ve exchanged for shelf-life. The American diet revolves around these faux-gods of convenience and sterility. I shudder at Safeways now and have befriended farmers. When food is hardly touched, its taste and nutrient quality are as nature (I say: as God) intended it for our bodies. There is very little fossil fuel involved in walking into your yard or onto your patio or driving to your favorite farm or Googling “CSA near me” for your food. Less gas equals less money. There is a belief, a stigma, that organic and unprocessed is expensive and pretentious…but oh, what a mistaken belief. We are always trading something for cost. Organic farming takes WORK and attention to detail. It’s about symbiosis and perpetuating a healthy ecosystem for ourselves and children and so on. We’re sick, our bees are dying in droves, our children are going through D.A.R.E. programs at school while on ADD/ADHD meds after having been pumped with Cap’n Crunch and Gatorade and sat in front of a screen for hours on end, our animals are confined to cages where they cannot turn around or stand up or breed or eat the foods they’ve been designed to eat… this is preposterous, disturbing, and wrong. THIS is wrong. Lifestyle must be re-evaluated if we are going to live, and live well. People often dislike change because it’s an adjustment. People dislike being challenged because it feels like an attack. We are being attacked, however, in our folly, in our acceptance of Big Food. Dig in. Learn about your food. Surely you’ve heard a bit. Surely you love food. Imagine how good it could be, and how your body will pay you back.

I bring up the cows for a few reasons. One: cows are awesome. Healthy cows are the best. Happy cows are healthy cows. Eat the good, happy, healthy ones. Eating less cows, and only the good ones, will heal you and your planet in great ways. Let’s reduce this methane, demand meats without antibiotics and animals that eat what they were intended to eat. Look for grass-fed AND FINISHED beef. Look for PASTURED meats (they were free-roaming). Know the terms. Be aware too, because the Big Food folk love to play games with terms and lobby for their interests, not necessarily yours. Monsanto just started work on GMO grass, so, good gracious, get to know the cattle rancher nearest you. The other reason I bring up cows: I intensely love genetics. What can’t we learn from genes? Also I love dairy. I am a second-time nursing mother and nursing my son still at nearly two years old, so learning about mammals tendency toward the benefits of milk, at least early on, adds to the wonders and facets of health, physically, emotionally, and sociologically. The fermentation processes that Pasteur worked with to further develop the Germ Theory naturally take place in the gut of most adults today. Lactose intolerance is an inherited condition that begins to develop around age four when, as physical anthropologists tell us, we are intended to be completely weaned from mother’s milk. The enzyme that digests milk shuts down in most mammals soon after weaning. In the gut (a truly fascinating epicenter of whole-health really) of a person with lactose intolerance , the sugar molecule lactose just floats around in the intestine and eventually ferments…and well… things happen, things we like when cows do it but not so much when we are in the second-comer to a still-warm porcelain resting spot. Milk-drinking adults are an EXCEPTION to the norm (look at you, all exeptional, give yourself a pat on the back). It took thousands of years, but we domesticated cows, loved them for the beautiful things they gave us, and soon isolated herding populations began to adapt a fancy new, and glorious (for us— YAY, icecream!) gut-trick, where our special enzyme stuck around. It’s a deviant gene on Chromosome 2. Our cute little rebellious lactase-persister is named SNP C/T13910. Aww. It should be on a Tee shirt, for sure. Or at least embroidered on something.

In our home, we’ve tossed out processed foods: white flour, white sugar, HFCs, 5+ ingredient anything, store-bought milk, conventional f & v, and the like (ask, I’ll do my best to give you a relatively exhaustive list). We participate in a herd share from a local farmer and enjoy insanely delicious raw milk and the full benefits of the folate, thiamine, vitamin C, water-soluble B-group vitamins (and other such things) that haven’t been cooked out of them. We eat whole, organic, traditional and as local as possible (some exceptions, which we educate ourselves about: chocolate and coffee—ALWAYS FairTrade). We eat grass-fed and ethical. We want to know WHERE our food came from and HOW that land and those animals were treated. Our teeth are in wonderful shape (I haven’t used anything with fluoride in years and the children never have). Our bodies are healthy and energetic. Our brains are excited and hungry for ignition in our passions. Mind you, we are generally exhausted from the raising kids thing, we are happy and enthusiastic, none-the-less.

Do one thing today: Google CSA. If you get to enjoy your rebellious SNP C/T13910, look into a herd share, too. You’ll be pumped. Find a cow and her farmer near you. Meet her, rub her neck a bit and thank her for eating grass and pooping (the cow, not the farmer)… after all, her poop can make that soil a happy place for the delicious things you’re going to enjoy within the next few hours. Eat with intention. Eat with people. Eat for good.

   -->For some wicked-good insight and delight, watch Food, Inc. and read “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan and “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”by Barbara Kingsolver!

~THANK YOU CURTIS HAWLEY FOR THE COW POOP MEME IMAGE!~

*Manchester, K.L. (2007). "Louis Pasteur, fermentation, and a rival". South African Journal of Science 103 (9-10): 377–380.