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.
