Are you struggling with eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, acne, asthma, IBS, colitis or Crohn’s? You might be allergic to cows milk!
Cow milk is the number one allergy among children and can persist throughout adulthood. Until recently, scientists believed that cow milk allergy was relatively rare in adults, especially when there were no symptoms suggestive of food allergy.
But a recent article in Allergy and Asthma Proceedings reported that more than half the adult patients with presumed “milk intolerance” weren’t just intolerant, but actually allergic to cows milk, as shown by an allergy skin test. Forty-three percent of the of the study participants had allergy symptoms which involved the skin (hives, eczema) nasal passages or lungs (asthma), in addition to stomach complaints. 1
This means that many more adults are actually allergic to cows milk than we previously believed.
So what’s the big problem with cows milk?
Most people who are allergic to cows milk are actually reacting to A1 casein, which is a protein found in cows milk. A1 casein is highly inflammatory for some people, and inflammation is at the root of most diseases. A1 casein can contribute to gastrointestinal issues like irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s, leaky gut and colitis — as well as autoimmune related skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, rosacea and acne.
There are some cows that don’t produce A1 casein, like Jersey and Guernsey cows. But most cows in the U.S., Western Europe and Australia are Holstein and Fresian, which are A1 casein producers.
Cows milk also contains more than 20 other allergens that can cause allergic reactions. These symptoms – which are often confused for seasonal allergy symptoms – can range from hives and runny noses to abdominal cramping and colic in babies.
According to various studies, there’s a whole catalogue of other illnesses that can be attributed to cows’ milk, among them diabetes. A 1992 report in the New England Journal of Medicine corroborated a long-standing theory that proteins in cows’ milk can damage the production of insulin in those with a genetic predisposition to diabetes. 2
Major studies suggesting a link between cows milk and prostate cancer have been appearing since the 1970s, culminating in findings by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000 that men who consumed two and a half servings of dairy products a day had a third greater risk of getting prostate cancer than those who ate less than half a serving a day. In the same year, T Colin Campbell, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, said that “cows’ milk protein may be the single most significant chemical carcinogen to which humans are exposed”. 3
Frank Oski, former paediatrics director at Johns Hopkins school of medicine, estimated in his book Don’t Drink Your Milk! that half of all iron deficiency in US infants results from cows’ milk-induced intestinal bleeding – a staggering amount, since more than 15% of American under-twos suffer from iron-deficiency anaemia. The infants, it seems, drink so much milk (which is very low in iron) that they have little appetite left for foods containing iron; at the same time, the milk, by inducing gastrointestinal bleeding, causes iron loss.
So what can you drink instead? Goats milk!
Goats milk contains only A2 casein, which produces none of these inflammatory effects caused by A1 casein. Protein-wise, goats milk is the closes milk to human breast milk. One study suggested that goats milk, when used as the first protein after breastfeeding, is less allergenic for babies than cows milk. 4
Goats milk is also easier to digest, high in calcium, low in cholesterol, helps to address iron and magnesium deficiency, improves your skin, and is a safe and natural way to treat osteoporosis.
The goats knew it all along! ; )
