Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: In a world brimming with a huge variety of different milks out there, have you ever wondered why some of them settle with you a little bit better than others, or vice versa? Well, today we're going to get into the different types of milk, and what some of them do to you, and why some of them might be better than others, and the kinds that we enjoy the most. Welcome to the Duster Mud podcast.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: My name is Rich.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: And I'm Shelley.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: After 25 years in the United States Air Force, I was a fighter pilot and retired from Washington, DC as a colonel. I was a strategist in the Pentagon as well as an acquisitions professional. So went from fighter pilot to strategist to acquisitions. We decided to leave the Department of Defense and start a farm. So here we are at air to ground farms on our first generation regenerative farm. And today we're going to talk about a two a two milk, which is one of the things that we produce here on our farm.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: In our most recent farm video, we revealed our newest farm member and she is an a two a two Jersey milk cow. She is a heifer. She is currently bred, and we're looking forward to her having a calf for us sometime in the late fall time frame, maybe closer to December. I'm not exactly sure what her due date is at this point. However, we are really, really excited to have her on our farm and an important part of our lifestyle. Here is our a two milk.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: After that video, we got a question, and it was regarding what is a two a two, or what is a two? So we decided that we'd just do a quick chat about milk in general and then focus some on a two a two milk. Okay, glasses on. For this segment, we've got 13 milk varieties to cover with you in rapid fire fashion.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: So go skim milk virtually fat free with all the cream removed, offering a lighter option.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: 2% milk or reduced fat contains 2% milk fat balancing flavor and lower fat content.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Whole milk full fat milk with approximately 3.25% milk fat rich in flavor.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Raw milk is unpasteurized milk directly from the cow, retaining natural enzymes.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Pasteurized milk heated to kill bacteria without affecting nutritional value.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: High temperature, short time pasteurized milk pasteurized at high temperatures for a short duration to extend shelf life.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Ultra high temperature milk sterilized at higher temperatures shelf stable until opened.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Evaporated milk is canned milk with 60% of the water removed, often used during cooking.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: Sweetened condensed milk. I really do like that kind.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Sweet.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Thick sweet canned milk with sugar added.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Powdered milk is completely dehydrated milk, which is convenient for storage and transportation.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Lactose free milk treated to remove lactose, suitable for lactose intolerance.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Buttermilk. Traditionally, it's the stuff that's left over after you make butter. Nowadays, it's typically just a cultured milk.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: And finally, a two milk comes from cows, producing a two betacine protein. Easier to digest for some.
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: All right, so those are the basic types of milk. And what I would like to focus on is the proteins and the fats.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Oh, no, the proteins, the fats and the naturally occurring bacterias.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Okay, let's do it.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So the proteins, a one and a two, help us.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: It's a betacasein is the type of protein that it is. And they are just literally two different types of proteins. Historically, all cows were a two. And a long time ago there was a genetic mutation that occurred, and a one was the result of that mutation.
Now, milk that you find in the grocery store is typically a mixture of a one and a two. Most dairies, at least in the United States, most dairies do not test for the a one or a two beta casein properties from their cows. And most dairies have Holstein or Holstein freezian cows. And for them, it's about 70% to 75% of them are either a one, a one or a one, a two or a two, a one. So just saying that most of them have a mixture that includes a one betacine proteins in them. And with the a one betacine, it can sometimes give off a peptide during digestion. And that is a bcm seven peptide. Whatever.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Beta quesomorphin seven.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Right. It is a peptide that's released during the digestion of the a one protein. And it is an opioid like.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Right. Notice the morphine part in the name of the peptide.
That's the thing that binds to the receptors.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah. So it activates the opioid receptors within your digestive system. And the result of that is one, it slows down digestion. And some people are more sensitive to that slowdown than others. And for some people, that slowdown of digestion leads to bloating, gas, stomach pains, diarrhea. Like the patient constipation, it can act in multiple different manners and oftentimes leads people to really self diagnose as being lactose intolerant. There's a difference, though, between lactose intolerant and a one sensitivity.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Right.
They both present the same. Lactose intolerance will present with bloating, stomach pain, discomfort, diarrhea, things like that a one sensitivity presents with bloating, all of the exact same things.
There is testing that your doctor can order, though.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: That can determine what your problem really is.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: They can test if you are lactose intolerant. From my studies, at least as of yet, there isn't a test, like a medical test, that determines if you are a one sensitive.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: However, elimination works.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: You can do an elimination diet. That's right. The lactose intolerant, the folks that are truly lactose intolerant, their bodies lack lactase, which is required to digest lactose.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Those who are a one sensitive have lactase, so they are digesting the lactose. They're just very sensitive to that slowdown that happens in the digestive system due to those morphine like properties and activating those morphine receptors.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: If you've ever been on an opioid painkiller, probably your doctor gave you some colase, little orange pills that goes with that medication. And the reason is because that medication slows down your digestive system. Very similar to what the. A one protein within the milk.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: What does the colase do?
[00:08:22] Speaker A: The colase is a stool softener.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Oh, got it.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: So it softens your stool so that because your digestive system slows down so much with that, it's the same mechanism that's happening there. Got it.
But we don't take colase generally with just drinking regular milk.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: But it's something that they're finding out, and it's fascinating to know that that could just be a very simple fix. Find a different kind of milk. Right.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: So you mentioned fats, I think was the other thing.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah, fats. I would like to talk about that different.
We had some skim, some whole, some 2% and raw. And then there was the jersey milk at the. I don't think we've mentioned what's the fat in that.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Right. So skim milk, they remove as much of the fat as they can.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: So it's down, like very near, if not zero, then you have two. Well, I guess there's 1%. We didn't really mention that, but true. So it's 1% and 2%. Is 2% homogenized, of course.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: So you can't really tell what's in.
[00:09:29] Speaker B: It, which means that they mix it up really good such that it doesn't separate anymore. And then whole milk is 3.25% is what would be considered whole milk. Then a Jersey cow. Like what we have Jersey milk, pure jersey milk is anywhere between four and a half to 5% milk fat.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: And the milk fat is what we create the butter from. So once we've skimmed the cream, take the cream, shake it up, get that butter, get all of the fats to clump together and make that butter.
That's the milk fat that we're talking about. And a higher percentage of milk fat from our cows is super beneficial for us. Since we're ketogenic, we get a higher amount of fat from our cows. We can make more butter. Our cream is, I don't know, creamier.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Well, there's more of. Certainly, yeah, there's a.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: There's quite a lot of it.
So for us, the higher fat is hugely beneficial. We want that.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. And so the jersey was the breed that we went with.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Not to mention they're adorable.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: They are.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: They really are. It's hard to say no to them.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: It really is.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: You know, they're princesses.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: They are. And they're always hungry.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: They are. But they make good milk.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah, they do.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: So we let them be what they are.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: That's right. Okay, the last thing you wanted to talk about?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Oh, potential beneficial bacteria.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: So raw versus pasteurized. On that list, there were a lot of different pasteurized flavors. So we have pasteurized your regular from the jug milk. And then there was some high heat and then there was some ultra high heat. I mean, you can leave that stuff on the shelf till forever.
It has nothing in it.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Bacteria.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Bacteria wise, I mean, it is really shelf stable.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Raw milk comes with all of the natural occurring bacteria that are good bacteria.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yes. It has the enzymes and bacteria still in it. That's right.
It doesn't get cooked out, doesn't get pasteurized.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: That might sound a little scary or leery for some folks.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well, there's good reason. Because the United States government talks about how bad it is for you.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: That's true. If you go to the FDA website and the CDC website, you can read how bad raw milk is for you, dangerous, or, I'm sorry, how dangerous raw milk is or can be for you, and the risk that you take.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: There's really good reason that it got to that place.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: There is.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: So in the late 18 hundreds, as all of the families were leaving the farms and moving to the cities, they were taking their cows with them. And people still wanted to have milk, but they weren't living on the farms anymore. So the cows moved to the cities too, and they started living in really bad conditions and they started eating a very low nutrition brewers grain that was left over from beer and alcohol production. So they were getting really bad food living in really bad conditions. And the result of that was milk that was making people really sick. Sick. And they were dying.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: So what goes into the cow and their living conditions has an absolute direct effect on the milk that they produce.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
Especially their conditions. Man, it was bad. It had gotten bad. Well, pasteurization had taken Louis Pasteur, discovered it 40, 50 years earlier, and in the late 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds is when they found that they could do that same thing to milk. They could pasteurize it and get rid of a lot of the unhealthy bacteria that was there. Because of the poor conditions that the cows were in. Another option would have been move the.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Cows back to the country.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Move the cows back to the country.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: Unfortunately, at that time, there were no refrigerated trucks, so getting that milk into the cities was impossible because we couldn't keep it cold enough, long enough to get it to the people who needed it. So they were doing the best that they could with what they had to work with at the time. And instead of because we didn't have the refrigeration to move it, what they did was heat it, and they killed the bacterias that were hurting people. And it solved a whole lot of problems. And it was an amazingly good thing.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Almost instantly, for the early 19 hundreds.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Death rates were reduced significantly.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: So let's fast forward a little bit, though, to 2024, where we have technology beyond technologies.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: At this point, I think that we can maybe make a mentality shift is that on the small scale operations, you might be able to get away from the pasteurization in a safe manner and reap benefits from the raw, unpasteurized milk while still mitigating those health concerns that were valid in the early 19 hundreds are still valid. But because all the way down to us at the small farm scale, we can immediately get our milk cool, we can clean all of our equipment and keep it clean.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Right. I think then let's put the onus for the reasoning for needing to pasteurize our milk on operational, the way we're operating and not the milk itself.
[00:15:40] Speaker B: I think that's absolutely fair.
[00:15:42] Speaker A: Yeah. The milk is not bad for you. No, the milk coming straight out of that cow is very good for you. It's the thing between when it's in the cow's utter and into your refrigerator, it's the way it comes out. It's how the dairies are operating. What are the conditions that big scale let's do operational, rather than putting the blame on.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: I would agree with you. As long as the cows are being raised in healthy, clean environments.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: I'm going to tag that to the operational workings, the workings of the dairy.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah, you just said what comes out of the cow.
[00:16:21] Speaker A: Well, true. What goes in matters, too. So it's your operating standard.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: As long as the cow is in a healthy, clean environment, the environment which the milking is done is clean, the equipment is clean. As long as you're in that environment, then yeah, obviously the milk is safe.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Okay, so we're going to call milk safe, but there have been some deaths over the years due to raw milk.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Well, the studies that I saw looked at the best I can find from the CDC and FDA. They looked between 1987 and 2010. They claim there were three deaths, 23 years in that 23 year period.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Some others will dispute those claims. Like, if you look at Weston a price foundation, I believe that they dispute those claims and say that there were other factors involved. But as far as the government is concerned, that's the best time period study I could find. Was this.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: So outside of controlled substances in this country, it sounds like milk is one of the most regulated substances that we have, that is a food?
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Could be, yeah. I don't know.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: It's highly regulated. Maybe it's not the most, but it is highly regulated.
Alcohol is highly regulated. We have to be 21, at least in most states. Well, federally, I guess, to drink alcohol, consumed by whatever alcohol. Alcohol is pretty intense substance that is ubiquitous across our culture for use.
I'm not for it or against it, but it is a mind altering substance, behavior altering substance, and we use it pretty regularly. No state, I don't think, has the law that you can't have alcohol.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: But there are states within these United States, 20, to be exact, that it is not legal to sell raw milk.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Correct. So if you compare, like, if we're going to go there.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go there for just a second.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: You compare raw milk, which had potentially, arguably, at least three deaths across 23 years. If you want to compare that to alcohol, alcohol, if you don't consider drunk driving and accidents and stuff, alcohol is responsible for right around 95,000 deaths annually. If you do consider, like, drunk driving accidents, that bumps up another 10,000. So greater than 105,000 deaths annually. If you want to compare that alcohol to raw milk, then you're comparing 105,000 deaths annually to three deaths over a 23 year period.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Okay. But raw milk has been prohibited for the majority of the last century, so only three deaths. It's because people don't drink it, it's not consumed at the rate that alcohol is consumed.
Prohibition didn't work on alcohol, but it.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Did work on milk.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: And that's interesting, isn't, because prohibition, they tried it, it failed miserably. So, of course, alcohol was legalized again.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: But milk, it has been one struggle after another for people who want to consume and sell, buy, find raw milk in this country. So it seems like the people of the nation in this culture have said, okay.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: It's just interesting. It is that something that is so dangerous, we go, okay, and something that is nominally dangerous.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
Let's look at.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: I know it might be apples and oranges, but I think for beverage, they're both beverages that are, I don't know, regulated.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: There is one guy out in California, his last name was McAfee. I believe he went to the California House of Representative, Senate, whatever. He fought hard. And now you can have buy milk retail in the state of California, which is cool.
Maybe that was one of those cases where it sets precedent and maybe other states will follow. Who knows? Who knows? It's really strict in some states and less strict in other states.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: So in our state of Missouri, for our farm, we are allowed to sell raw milk off farm. We cannot sell raw milk retail through a store.
But it is legal for us to sell it from the farm.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah. In other states, you have to sell it. If you want to sell it, you have to sell it maybe as pet food. And that would be the only way.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: Or cow shares.
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Or cow shares. Right.
So anyway, those are the ins and outs of the raw milk sales.
Did I mention anything else that we were potentially going to discuss?
[00:22:09] Speaker B: We need to go back to our a two.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Okay, let's go back to our a two discussion.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: So we have mentioned, and often you'll hear us say, when we talk about our jerseys, we say they are a two. A two. And it's important to us. Neither Shelley nor I nor anyone in our family has an a one sensitivity. But there are people in our community that have a one sensitivities. And when we bought the cows, we bought them a two on purpose from the beginning in order to offer something that might not be available to other folks in our community that might need it. And what we found during our first season of milk was that we had quite a few families that needed a two milk.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Yeah. There was one lady, a friend of ours. She wanted to try it. She had not been able to have milk for quite a long time because she was just really sensitive to it and asked if she could try some. She tried some, and turns out, and she needs the calcium because us older women kind of knew. And so she tried it and it worked for. And she was just absolutely over the moon. Like, I can have dairy back in my life again because you guys are here and close.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah. I had written a blog on the differences between a one and a two milk, and a couple of people contacted us after reading the blog saying, I think I want to try this a two thing, because I've thought that I was lactose intolerant and maybe I'm not. Maybe I just have an a one sensitivity. And we had a mom contact us, her kids were having some problems with milk, and I think two of the three were able to drink the a two milk, and the third one still couldn't drink it.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: No, it's not guarantee that it's going to work, but oftentimes that is the answer.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: And it just brought us a lot of joy to be able to provide something that works for families and puts nutrition back into their refrigerator. We're going to go milk the cow anyway. We were going to have a cow anyway, right?
Why not have the kind that might service other people's needs even? Right.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: Well, yeah. It adds butter back into their life. It adds cheese back into their life. Yogurt, like all of the dairy products that they had not been being able to have, are now a part of their life again. So that was really neat. So that's why for us, we talk about a two is because for some people, it's a really big deal.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Right. If you're interested in seeing our newest princess on the farm, make sure you check out our most recent video about our newest arrival.
[00:25:05] Speaker B: I'll put it up as the end screen.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Okay, good. That'll be great.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: And we'd love to hear your a two a two stories. So if you have any experience with them, or if you're trying to work out whether you're lactose intolerant or a one sensitive, we'd love to join the community together to have the chat about this particular topic.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Is raw milk legal in your country or state? Are you allowed to get it? How easy is it for you to get it? Share that in the comments also. We love that kind of conversation.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: That'll be the fun one.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, thank you guys for hanging out with us again. And until next time, bye.
