- The way that we produce and consume dairy today
is nothing like it's been for thousands of years
and has resulted in nutritionally inferior foods.
The cows are fed differently.
The milk is treated differently
and we even eat it differently.
The key to unlocking the potential
of this amazing resource lies in the past.
Hi, I'm Dr. Bill Schindler, food archeologists,
chef and Director of the Eastern Shore Food Lab
at Washington College.
Consuming dairy as infants has been a part of our diets
for almost 200 million years,
since our earliest mammal ancestors first appeared.
In fact, the very definition of mammals
refers to the presence of mammary glands
that we and other animals use to produce the milk
that feeds our young.
Milk is an incredible food designed to nourish animals
during one of the most nutritionally important times
in their life, early development.
[gentle music]
As infants, the milk we drink from our mothers
is completely alive and teaming with beneficial bacteria.
And interestingly enough, it's already
in the process of fermenting by the time that we drink it.
If you've ever had a baby spit up on your shoulder,
and it looked like cottage cheese
and smelled like provolone that's because it is.
As infants, we are literally transforming
milk into cheese as we digest it.
In fact, when we ferment milk outside of our bodies
using traditional techniques,
we are actually replicating natural processes
that happen inside of our bodies when we were young.
When it hits our digestive track,
it combines with a number of different enzymes,
such as lactase, which helps digest lactose,
or lipase, which helps break down the fat
and even chymosin or chymosin-like enzymes
that help coagulate the milk.
Coagulating the milk turns it into a thicker substance
so that it remains longer in our digestive tracks.
This allows it to chemically and physically break down
more fully so that more nutrients can be absorbed
and used by our bodies.
When mammals get older and begin to eat solid foods,
many lose the ability to produce the enzymes
that they use to digest the milk.
That's why so many humans experienced
some level of lactose intolerance as they get older.
However, our ancestors figured out how to safely
and effectively obtain nutrition from the milk
of other animals, even as adults.
[gentle music]
The archeological record suggests
that we started consuming dairy from other animals
somewhere between eight and 10,000 years ago.
Back then, it's believed that very few traditional groups
would actually drink milk.
Instead, they would ferment their dairy
into a number of different foods
including clabber kefir, yogurt, butter, and cheese.
When our ancestors did this, they relied upon
naturally occurring lactobacillus bacteria
to replicate the processes that took place
in their digestive tracks when they were infants.
This type of fermentation chemically and physically
transforms the dairy and results in a number
of different health benefits.
These include number one,
reducing or eliminating lactose
which many adults can't digest.
Two, increasing the probiotic content.
Three increasing acidity and creating a safe environment
that's hostile to pathogens.
Four, pre digesting the milk
and making it easier to metabolize.
Five, increasing the content of vitamins such as B and K2.
And six, it also improves the milk's flavor,
aroma and texture.
However, traditional dairy fermentation is both a labor
and time intensive process.
It is difficult to scale and impossible to rush,
while still creating the same quality
and nutritional benefits.
[gentle music]
As populations in urban areas grew in the 19th century,
drastically increasing the demand for milk,
many things about the way the milk was produced,
stored, transported and even consumed began to change.
For example, swill milk was created by pairing
distilleries with dairies so at the leftover grains
from the distilling process could be used to feed the cows.
These cows were fed diets they were not designed to eat,
lived in crowded, filthy conditions,
became sick and produced tainted milk.
To make it taste and look better,
all sorts of things are added to the milk
from molasses to animal brains.
Milk production, distribution, and consumption.
Eventually got to the point that it was making people sick
and killing them, especially infants.
In order to protect consumers, a relatively new invention,
pasteurization, was used to kill off pathogens
by boiling the milk.
On the surface, pasteurization sounds like a good idea,
especially when compared to transforming an entire industry
and the way in which most of the country
obtained, prepared and consumed its milk.
Simply boiling the milk is much easier,
more efficient and cheaper, but it's not that simple.
And at the end of the process, it is degrading vitamins
and killing the probiotics in milk.
In addition to pasteurization, we have adopted the practice
of homogenizing, our milk, which prevents the fat
from separating and cream, rising to the top.
Homogenization involves physically forcing the cream
through microscopic holes and metal plates
causing the fat molecules to explode and break apart.
This results in smaller fat globules
that don't separate from the milk.
Homogenization serves no safety
or nutritional purpose whatsoever.
The only thing that it does
is relieves us modern milk drinkers
from having to shake the gallon of milk
in the morning before we pour it on our cereal.
[gentle music]
The dairy aisle and our grocery stores today
contain hundreds of different products.
Everything that is except for the milk
that our ancestors consumed.
Most of our milk today comes from huge dairy farms.
Then it's pasteurized and separated into different parts
such as fat, skim milk and milk solids.
Then the milk's artificially recombined
to meet minimum standards and maximize profits.
Most modern fermented dairy products are made
from pasteurized milk and require the addition
of laboratory created bacterial colonies
to kickstart the fermentation.
Almost all of these fermented offerings
have been adulterated and contain unnatural editors.
Processed cheese, processed cheese food
and processed cheese products do not deliver the same safety
and nutrition that traditionally fermented cheese does.
In fact, many of the cheeses in our grocery store
labeled mozzarella are made using a shortcut method
of artificially introducing acid and they never go through
a fermentation process at all.
This is not the same milk that our ancestors consumed
and we're not consuming it in the same way.
And those two things make all the difference.
[gentle music]
We need to change things for our own health,
the health of our animals and the health of the planet.
There are a number of different things that we can do.
We need to reconnect with our food and take back control
by supporting small local dairy farmers whenever possible.
Purchase minimally processed milk.
For example, swap out homogenized milk
for non-homogenized cream line versions.
If you're buying pasteurized milk,
select pasteurize over ultra-pasteurized.
Learn to ferment your milk and make it into
a number of different traditional products
such as kefir, clabber yogurt, butter and cheese
in your home kitchen.
And if you don't do those things yourself,
support the people that do by purchasing
from small local producers that use high quality milk
and traditional methods.
It is impossible to transform any industry
on a global scale overnight, but that's okay.
Powerful change begins with the decisions that we make
on how we feed our own families.