"One should eat to live, not live to eat."
  - Cicero

The April, 2012 issue of Actas Urologicas Espanolas,
the official publication of the Spanish Urological
Association (Actas Urol Esp. 2012 Apr;36(4):239-245),
contains a study in which dietary factors associated
with prostate cancer were evaluated. Researchers
compared the typical American diet (meat and potatoes
and dairy) to the "Mediterranean diet" (based upon
an eating plan containing an abundance of fresh
fruit and vegetables) and concluded:

"Diet risk factors have a role on prostatic carcinogenesis.
...Prostate carcinoma risk is reduced in persons on
Mediterranean diet compared with those on western diet.
The preventive effect of Mediterranean diet is due to
the great number and quality of phytochemicals with
antioxidant and antinflammatory properties..."

Scientists identified negative food factors as:

"..animal saturated fat, processed red meat, milk
and dairy products..."

Researchers identified protective factors which include:

"high daily ingestion of vegetarian products (cereals,
legumes, dried and fresh fruits, tubercles, vegetables..."

*  *  *  *  *

"The biggest seller is cookbooks and the second is
diet books - how not to eat what you've just learned
how to cook."
  - Andy Rooney

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

The March 15, 2012 issue of a German Journal,
Acta Dermato Venereologica provides new research
in the role that diet and nutrition play in zits.

Doctors at the Department of Dermatology,
Environmental Medicine and Health Theory,
University of Germany wrote:

"Recent evidence underlines the role of Western
diet in the pathogenesis of acne. Acne is absent
in populations consuming Palaeolithic diets with
low glycaemic load and no consumption of milk or
dairy products."

Undertanding acne gets no simpler.

Scientists conducted to controlled studies
and determined:

"Epidemiological evidence confirms that milk
consumption has an acne-promoting or acne-
aggravating effect."

Acne occurs when steroids (androgens) stimulate the
sebaceous glands within the skin's hair follicles.
These glands then secrete an oily substance called
sebum. When sebum, bacteria and dead skin cells build
up on your skin, the pores become blocked, creating a
zit.

What do you expect? When teenagers combine their own
surging hormones with dietary saturated animal fat,
cholesterol, steroid hormones, dead white blood cells,
and cow pus, they're gonna get zits. The good news:

The cure is an easy one: NOTMILK!

"As pointed out by Dr. Jerome Fisher, 'About 80 percent
of cows that are giving milk are pregnant and are throwing
off hormones continuously.' Progesterone breaks down into
androgens, which have been implicated as a factor in the
development of acne...Dr. Fisher observed that his teenage
acne patients improved as soon as the milk drinking stopped."

Don't Drink Your Milk, by Frank Oski, M.D., (Director,
Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School
of Medicine)

Squeeze an acne pimple and out oozes greasy white, mucousy
pus.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows 750 million
pus cells in every liter of milk (about two pounds) produced
in America.

The dairy industry refers to these pus cells as "somatic
cells." The somatic cell count (SCC) is measured in thimblefuls
(milliliters). If milk contains more than 750,000 pus cells in
ne thimbleful (ml), the milk is rejected.

In Europe, regulators allow 400 million pus cells per liter.
France and Italy are known for their magnificent cheeses.
Perhaps that's their secret:Less pus!

A two-slice portion (2 ounces) of greasy cooked Canadian bacon
contains 33 mg of cholesterol and 4.8 grams of fat. Compare that
to a two-ounce portion of mozzarella on a slice of pizza
containing 35% more cholesterol (44.5 mg) and 2 1/2 times the
amount of fat (12.26 grams).

Greasy-gooey delicious pus-filled pizza. [lots of pus, hormones
and glue]

If you eat pus with hormones, cholesterol and fat, what will
happen to your face?

GOT ZITS?

"Acne usually begins at puberty, when an increase in androgens
causes an increase in the size and activity of pilosebaceous
glands....if a food is suspected, it should be omitted for
several weeks and then eaten in substantial quantities to
determine if acne worsens."

Merck Manual, Merck & Company, 2000

HOW MUCH CHEESE DO AMERICAN'S EAT?

In 1970, the dairy industry produced 2.2 billion pounds of
cheese. The population of the United States was 203 million,
which translates to 10.8 pounds of cheese per person. By 1990,
America's population had grown to 248 million, but Americans
were eating more cheese, 6 billion pounds worth!

That's an average of 24 pounds per person. In 1994, according
to the USDA, the average American consumed 27.7 pounds of cheese.
America's rate of cheese consumption is skyrocketing. Today,
America's per-capita cheese consumption has passed the 30-pound
per person level.

"Acne is an end-organ hyper-response to androgens...These data
show that sebaceous glands are stimulated by androgens to
varying degrees and support the theory of an end-organ response
in acne."

British Journal of Dermatology, 1998 July, 139:1

BEHOLD THE POWER OF PUS

Constipated by Camembert? Sickened by Swiss? [lots of pus,
hormones and glue] Phlegmed by port wine cheddar?

It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese.
Therefore, a pound of cheese can contain up to 7.5 billion
pus cells. Your next slice of American cheese can legally
contain over 468 million pus cells.

"Acne vulgaris is a self-limiting skin disorder seen primarily
in adolescents, whose etiology appears to be multifactorial.
The immunologic response involves both humoral and cell-mediated
pathways. Further research should clarify the role of complement,
cytotoxins, and neutrophils in this acne-forming response."

Postgraduate Medical Journal, 1999 June, 75:884

Got provolone? Got pus!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF GLUE

Eighty percent of milk and cheese protein consists of casein,
a tenacious glue. Casein is the glue that is used to hold a
label to a bottle of beer. Try to scrape off one of those
labels, then consider the effects of casein in your body.
Casein is the glue that holds together wood in furniture.
Behold the power of glue and behold the power of horrible
bowel movements.

Casein is a foreign protein and your body reacts to its
presence by creating an antibody. That antibody-antigen
reaction creates histamines.

Antihistamines (like Benadryl) are used to counter the
effects of histamines. Mucus and phlegm are produced as
a result of cheese consumption.

Imagine not eating cheese or any other dairy product for
just six days. An internal fog will lift from your body as
the mucus leaves. Eat just one slice of pizza on day seven,
and twelve to fifteen hours later, the mucus will return.

"Hormones found in cow's milk include: Estradiol, Estriol,
Progesterone, Testosterone, 17-Ketosteroids, Corticosterone,
Vitamin D, insulin-like growth factor, growth hormone,
prolactin, oxytocin..."

Journal of Endocrine Reviews, 14(6) 1992

Got Gorgonzola? Got glue!

BEHOLD THE POWER OF HORMONES

Every sip of milk has 59 different powerful hormones. Which
ones do you want your little girls to take? Estrogen,
progesterone or prolactin?

In her lifetime, as a little girl becomes a big girl then a
mature woman, she will produce the total equivalent of one
tablespoon of estrogen. Hormones work on a nanomolecular
level, which means that it takes only one-billionth of a
gram to produce a powerful biological effect.

Forty percent of the average American diet consists of milk
and dairy products. Last year, the average American ate five
ounces per day of meat and chicken and 29.2 ounces a day
(666 pounds per year) of milk and dairy products. Ice
cream, cheese, and milk contain powerful hormones. One pound
of cheese can contain ten times the amount of hormones as one
pound of milk. Nursing cows were never supposed to pass on
cheese to their calves. They were, however, designed to pass
on hormones, lactoferrins, and immunoglobulins in liquid
milk to their infants.

"We studied the effects of growth hormone (GH) and
insulin-like growth factors (IGFs), alone and with androgen,
on sebaceous epithelial cell growth...IGF-I was the most
potent stimulus of DNA synthesis. These data are consistent
with the concept that increases in GH and IGF production
contribute in complementary ways to the increase in sebum
production during puberty."

Endocrinology, 1999 September, 140:9

Got Romano? Got raging hormones!

There are four eight-ounce glasses of liquid in a quart
of milk. Depending upon how you sip your milk, there should
be between 20 and 30 million pus cells per mouthful.

I recently spoke at the Solidarity Conference at Penn State
University. I had a receptive audience that included one
dairy major. When it came time for questions, he boldly stood
and protested my calling milk "pus with hormones and glue."
In defending milk, this Penn State student said that there
was no pus in milk. Instead, he said that somatic cells were
actually dead white blood cells. He's right, of course. That's
what pus is! The pus that teenagers squeeze from the pimples
on their faces is an oily accumulation of fat and dead white
blood cells. Drink milk? Ingest pus.

The March 25, 2000 issue of the dairy magazine Hoard's
Dairyman contains the standards for the average level of pus
cells in a liter of milk sold in America. On page 226, an
editorial reveals that the United States average of 307,100,000
pus cells in 1996 increased to 318,000,000 in 1998. America's
dairy cows are being stressed, and the amount of pus in their
milk has increased by over 3%. I sometimes challenge milk
drinkers by asking them if they would drink a glass of milk
containing 1,000 pus cells. Hoard's reveals that the average
12-ounce glass of milk in America contains 112,899,408 pus
cells.

"... serum IGF-I levels increased significantly in the
milk drinking group... an increase of about 10% above
baseline-but was unchanged in the control group."

Journal of the American Dietetic Association,
vol. 99, no. 10. October 1999

American teenagers spend billions of dollars on doctors'
visits and chemical remedies that cannot work while they
continue to eat greasy pus ith hormones from one food group.

The cure is simple and inexpensive.

Want to look your best and have those zits leave in
30 days or less?

NOTMILK! Drink water.
NOT CHEESE! Eat fruits and veggies.
NOT ICE CREAM! Eat sorbet.

Got-zits? Eat a dairy-free diet and discover not-zits!

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Milk & Endometrial Cancer

I remember Janice Walters. She was born in
Cooperstown, New York. We were friends and
colleagues forty years ago in 1972, and we
did research in the field of neuroendocrinology,
and shared an arena in which we performed brain
surgery on Long & Evans hooded lab rats.

Three things stand out in my memory of Janice.
She was quite skinny, barely reaching 90 pounds
in weight. Janice could not hold her beer very well.
In those days, the drinking age was 18. One beer
got her drunk. Two beers got her silly. The third
thing I remember is that Janice was often in severe
pain during the two years in which our paths crossed
due to a continuous condition of endometrial bleeding.
The endometrium is the lining of a woman's uterus.

I thought of Janice early one recent morning while
searching and reviewing publications in peer-reviewed
scientific journals as I do each morning.

The following study will appear in the June 1, 2012
issue of the International Journal of Cancer (Ganmaa
D, Cui X, Feskanich D, Hankinson SE, Willett WC).

Researchers at the Department of Nutrition, Harvard
School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Channing
Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and
Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School examined
milk and dairy intake, comparing it to the risk of
endometrial cancer. The data that they reviewed was
compiled over a 26-year period from over 68,000
human subjects.

In their abstract, the researchers write:

"Estrogens have a central role in the etiology of
endometrial cancer. Milk and dairy products are a
source of steroid hormones and growth factors that
might have physiological effects in humans."

After rigorous review of the enormity of data,
scientists concluded:

"In conclusion, we observed a marginally significant
overall association between dairy intake and endometrial
cancer and a stronger association among postmenopausal
women who were not using estrogen-containing hormones."

On January 20, 2009, Notmilk reported the results of a
study which showed that higher intakes of vegetables
resulted lower incidences of endometrial cancer (EC).
See:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/notmilk/message/3148

Yet, not until today do we have a peer-reviewed study
showing that it's not necessarily what one eats, but
what one does not eat which makes the difference when it
comes to EC.

Notmilk had previously offered links to dairy consumption
and ovarian and uterine cancers...

http://www.notmilk.com/u.html

...and of course, to breast cancers:

http://www.notmilk.com/b.html

How many degrees of separation are there? In 1972,
we who were well versed in endocrinogy had no clue
that cow's milk contained so many of the same steroid
hormones which we were investigating. With six degrees
or six hundred or six thousand degrees of separation,
there might just be one Notmilk reader who knows the
fate of my friend, Janice Walters. I hope that her
endometriosis did not claim Janice's life. She would
be in her young sixties today.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Notmilk's New Raw Milk Philosophy

"The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt
thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words."
  - Proverbs 23:8

Every person deserves to change his mind, and I
am not an exception. In celebration of next
Sunday's Earth Day (04/23/2012), I am dedicating
myself to do all that I am capable of doing to
preserve America's precious future resources!

This past weekend, I visited a passionate group
of vegetarians and vegans in El Paso, Texas, and
on the long plane ride back (12 hours from airport
to airport to airport to home in the early morning
hours of Monday, April 16th), I came to realize
that raw milk might be a good idea for all Americans.
Let me explain.

After four children got violently ill from drinking
raw milk in Oregon while I was away (three kids were
hospitalized with kidney failure), I recognized what a
service the dairy industry actually provides for America.

Who imagined that raw milk would not really be nature's
perfect food for humans? Not the parent's of those
extremely sick kids, whose future health and longevity
have become compromised.

We just have too many people depleting precious
resources. Now that I've enjoyed raising three
lovely daughters, I have become a proponent
of zero population growth (ZPG) and what better
way to begin than by promoting the transportation
of raw milk over state borders?

I now recognize Ron Paul for the genius that he is!

What better way is there to shorten the future lives
of American consumers and keep them from depleting
our precious resources? I would much prefer that my
three girls survive to get their fair share of
future resources, and raw milk drinkers do not make
it after consuming raw cow's milk meant for calves;
so go for it, please!

Since Ron Paul is setting a great precedent by
being the first member of Congress to officially
promote illness and death for a select group of
Americans (raw milk drinkers) I have decided to
support Ron Paul for Precedent! This man gets
my vote come election time. I wonder whom he might
select for Vice Precedent? Perhaps Dr. Mercola,
who also supports the consumption of raw eggs
and raw meat.

For the sake of all strangers and neighbors who
really could not care less about you or your kids,
please begin drinking raw milk. As for pasteurized
milk, keep it in your refrigerator for many months.
The worse it smells, the more you should drink.

Should you get ill, take two penicillin pills
and call me in the morning. Should you not survive,
have your next of kin send me your address so that
I might send flowers. My plant of choice will be
the milkweed:

http://tinyurl.com/7jask24

The lovely pink and white petaled milkweed flowers
appropriately resemble the odorous up-chucked and
regurgitated contents of sick raw-milk drinker
tummies which often become tinged with clotted blood.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Early Sexual Maturity in Dairy-Consuming Nations

"Scientists now believe that the primary biological
function of breasts is to make males stupid."
  - Dave Barry

The March, 2012 issue of the Journal of Human Biology
contains a study in which cow's milk consumption was
associated with early sexual development.

Researchers in the Human Biology Program and Department
of Anthropology at Indiana University wrote:

"Milk has been associated with early menarche and with
acceleration of linear growth in adolescence...IGF-I is
a candidate bioactive molecule linking milk consumption
to more rapid growth and development, although the
mechanism by which it may exert such effects is unknown.

The scientists concluded:

"Routine milk consumption is an evolutionarily novel
dietary behavior that has the potential to alter human
life history parameters, especially vis-à-vis linear
growth, which in turn may have negative long-term
biological consequences."

The same month the above study appeared (March, 2012),
German Researchers reported in Nutritional Reviews that
nutrition is an "important lifestyle factor influencing
timing of puberty."

Scientists concluded:

"Early onset of puberty may confer adverse health
consequences...children with the highest intakes
of vegetable protein or animal protein experience
pubertal onset up to 7 months later or 7 months
earlier, respectively."

Try this today. Drive by a schoolyard. Take note
of other male drivers who sit in the privacy of their
own vehicles.

I call this behavior SHUTS in action. That's "Severe-
Head-Uncontrollable-Turning-Syndrome." Guys cannot
help themselves. It's an automatic response triggered
by male hormones. Young and old alike, I've been
watching this behavior for years, and wondering why
it exists. Cops, truck drivers, octogenarians. Men
stare at shapely figures. If they didn't, Sport's
Illustrated's "Swim Suit" issue would not sell.
Unfortunately for our society, grown men today are
staring at shapely 9 and 10-year-olds girls, both
in real life and on Internet sites.

Before human mothers give birth, their mammary glands
produce milk. However, this milk is not yet fit for human
consumption. This pre-birth milk contains enormous levels
of hormones which instruct mammary tissue to grow.

The same biological event occurs in other mammals.
Before cows give birth, their milk is taken and fed to
human children. Powerful steroid hormones are eaten by
little girls in the name of good health. These bovine
steroids include estrogen, progesterone, prolactin,
and oxytocin.

In 2012, little girls are made up of more than just
sugar, spice, and everything nice. These girls of the
twenty-first century are maturing earlier than last
generation's children, and something is very different
about their womanly physical attributes and behavior.
Could there be a food link to this mystery?

In 1970, according to the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), the dairy industry produced 2.2
billion pounds of cheese. The population of the United
States was 203 million, which translates to an average
of 10.8 pounds of cheese per person.

By 1990, America's population had grown to 248 million,
and Americans were eating more cheese, 6 billion pounds
worth. That's an average of 24 pounds per person. In 1994,
the average American consumed 27.7 pounds of cheese. Today,
the average American is eating 32 pounds of cheese.

Since ten pounds of milk are required to produce just
one pound of cheese, three hundred and twenty pounds
of hormone-rich milk are needed to manufacture that
thirty-two pounds of cheese.

Concentrated milk in the form of increased cheese
consumption means that concentrated steroid hormones
are being consumed.

Every sip of cow's milk contains 59 different bioactive
hormones, according to endocrinologist Clark Grosvenor
in the Journal of Endocrine Reviews in 1992. Milk has
always been a hormonal delivery system, providing
nursing infants with nature's perfect food for the young
of each species. Thousands of studies published in
respected peer-reviewed scientific journals report that
lactoferrins, immunoglobulins, and hormones in human
breast milk provide enormous benefit for nursing humans.

In other words, hormones in milk work to exert powerful
effects. Each species of mammal has a different formula.
Cow's milk contains hormones, and nursing on cow's milk
will deliver these hormones to the human body.

As a little girl becomes a big girl, then a mature woman,
she will naturally produce in her lifetime the equivalent
of only one-half tablespoon of estrogen. Hormones work on
a nanomolecular level, which means that it takes only a
billionth of a gram to produce a powerful biological and
behavioral effect. Should little girls be encouraged to
pop estrogen, progesterone, and prolactin pills each day?
If they eat cereal for breakfast and drink cow's milk,
that is just what they are doing. When they eat cheese
and ice cream, they ingest concentrated amounts of these
hormones.

Is early sexual maturity a bad thing, health wise? Dr.
Catherine Berkey, of Brigham Women's Hospital, Boston,
Massachusetts, examined data from 65,000 participants
in the Harvard Nurses' Health Study.

Her findings were published in the journal Cancer in
1999. Of the participants, 806 developed breast cancer
before menopause and 1,485 developed breast cancer after
menopause. Dr. Berkey's comment:

"Earlier menarche and taller adult height were predictive
of elevated breast carcinoma risk. Our work provided
evidence that breast [cancer] risk is influenced by
preadulthood factors, and thus prevention efforts that
begin in childhood and adolescence may someday be useful."

Is it possible to do a controlled scientific study testing
this theory? Such a study was actually performed on an entire
nation. There is one country where milk consumption was
unknown before 1946. In Japan, in every year since 1946,
20,000 persons from 6,100 households have been interviewed
and their diets carefully analyzed along with their weights
and heights and other factors such as cancer rates and age
of puberty (the last measured by the onset of menstruation
in young girls). The results of the study were published
in Preventive Medicine by Kagawa in 1978.

Japan had been devastated by losing a war and was
occupied by American troops. Americanization included
dietary changes. Milk and dairy products were becoming
a significant part of the Japanese diet. According to
this study, the per-capita yearly dietary intake of
dairy products in 1950 was only 5.5 pounds. Twenty-five
years later, the average Japanese ate 117.4 pounds of
milk and dairy products.

In 1950, the average twelve-year old Japanese girl was
4'6" tall and weighed 71 pounds. By 1975, the average
Japanese girl, after changing her diet to include milk
and dairy products containing 59 different bioactive
hormones, had grown an average of 4 1/2 inches and
gained 19 pounds. In 1950, the average Japanese girl
had her first menstrual cycle at the age of 15.2 years.

Twenty five years later, after a daily intake of estrogen
and progesterone from milk, the average Japanese girl was
ovulating at the age of 12.2 years, three years younger.
Never before had such a dramatic dietary change been seen
in such a unique population study.

Little girls do not take birth control pills. Sometimes,
their grandmothers take Premarin pills to prevent bone
loss. Premarin, which contains estrogen, is produced from
the urine of pregnant horses. Think logically. If horse
urine contains a form of estrogen which works on human
bodies, wouldn't cow estrogen work too? It does, and
little girls get their estrogen from cow's milk.

Little girls are born with bodies that are genetically
pre-programmed to transform them into women. By drinking
organic cow's milk from the healthiest dairy cows, little
girls become big girls long before Mother Nature intended
because of the natural presence of powerful steroid
hormones which instruct their breasts to grow larger
them the mammary tissues of their mothers and grandmothers.
Everybody seems to notice. Few make the logical connection.

Robert Cohen
notmilkman@...
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Pizza Trends

Question:

When comparing 2012 to 2010, are Americans
eating more pizza these days than two years
ago, less pizza, or the same amount of pizza?

The source for today's column is Technomic,
a market research company.

http://www.Technomic.com

In their April 12, 2012 report, Technomic revealed:

Two years ago, 26 percent of consumers ordered
pizza one or more times each week.

These days, that number has increased dramatically
with 41 percent of consumers reporting that they
order pizza one or more times each week.

Researchers surveyed 1500 consumers and found:

"...carryout and dine-in pizza occasions have
increased the most; 68 percent of consumers now
order carryout pizza once a month..."

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

"And who is responsible for this
appalling child slavery? Everyone!"
  - Mary Harris Jones

The United States Department of Labor follows
a set of rules, regulations, and statutes
which apply to child work laws. These federal
laws have been in effect for the past 74 years.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/childlabor.htm

In order to protect the children of parents who
own and operate farms, and to proterct the children
of migrant workers and illegal aliens who also work
on American farms, the Department of Labor is
considering the implementation of rigorous rules.

Such rules changes are the subject of great debate
within America's agricultural community.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/CL/AG_NPRM.htm

The Department of Labor intends to establish a
new set of rules which apply to kids working
dangerous jobs while living on dairy farms.

There is a powerful lobbying effort going
on by dairy industry leaders to enact laws
which govern the age that children can work,
and limitations regarding such work. For
example, 13 year-old boys and girls should
not be driving taxi cabs in New York City.
Nor should little boys and girls be driving
heavy equipment and working on construction
sites. Such laws should protect all children,
but the mothers and fathers of children who
operate dairy farms are seeking to use and
abuse their own kids so that they can be
unpaid employees on their own farms working
at-risk jobs.

One of the proposed rules before congress would
prohibit children from working heavy farm
equipment.

In America, only four percent of young people with
legal work permits are laboring on American farms,
yet, data of the Occupational Safety and Hazard
Association (OSHA) show that children who work on
farms are at extreme risk. It is a matter of fact
that 40 percent of childhood work-related deaths
occur on farms. More often thatn not, such
fatalities occur while underage kids are using
tractors, balers, thrashers, and other heavy
farm equipment.

These toys are appropriate for kids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGw4b4Oe-9A
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rokenbok?v=J_qyPWcsn3E

These toys are not appropriate for kids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnAcnEkwXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KIcueH3-Y4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4OI2kUg8aE

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Which Oil is Healthiest?

"Visionary people face the same problems
everyone else faces; but rather than get
paralyzed by their problems, visionaries
immediately commit themselves to finding
a solution."
  - Bill Hybels

Which oil is healthiest, olive, soy, or canola?
Which oil is healthiest, safflower, sunflower, or corn?
Which oil is healthiest, peanut, walnut, or grape?
Which oil is healthiest, flaxseed, sesame, or coconut?

Let me ask the same question another way:

Given the choice, which form of execution is best?

Death by Hanging?
Death by firing squad?
Death by the electric chair?
Death by lethal injection?
Death by oil?

I'll take the oil, please. It's slower than the
other options, but it is also absolute. Too much
oil of any kind is a slow-torture artery clogger.

Do we need fat in our diets? The simple answer is yes,
and fruits and vegetables and seeds and grains all
contain small amounts of oil. A varied plant-based
diet satisfies an individual's daily oil needs.

The United States Department of Agriculture extracted
oil from human cadavers and determined that 50% of our
calories should come from carbohydrates, 20% from
protein, and 30% from fat. I have no idea as to how
they determined their completely arbitrary numbers,
but the cadaver method makes about as much sense as
USDA's continued insistence that school children
need to drink daily pints of milk.

One gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories.
One gram of protein contains 4 calories.
One gram of fat contains 9 calories.

Using USDA's numbers, in order to maintain his or
her weight (multiply by 1.4), an average 150 pound
man or woman needs 2,100 calories per day (1050
calories of carbs, 420 caloriesof protein, and 630
calories of fat). That translates to: 263 grams of
carbs, 105 grams of protein, and 70 fat grams.

CONTROVERSY: The World Health Organization recommends
that that same average individual requires between
28-35 grams per day of protein, so you see how
controversial this issue can be.

If you want bad advice from knuckleheads, go to the
Internet and search YouTube. Here is one from a self-described "expert" which
had me screaming after the
first 45 seconds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtBVzDjQBOU

Everybody seems to have a different opinion. The most
intelligent nutritional advice comes from Dr. Douglas
Graham. Dr. Graham recommends an 80-10-10 diet. That
means the 150 pound person would eat 52 grams of
protein, 420 grams of carbs, and 23 grams of fat.

That is more in line with my thinking and is my
current diet. I believe that the greatest doctors
such as Neal Barnard, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell
Esselstyn, Joel Fuhrman, Doug Graham, Michael Greger,
John McDougall, and Dean Ornish, would also be more
in agreement with the 80-10-10 diet than USDA's
50-20-30. USDA's primary mission is to promote
the consumption of dead cows and milk and dairy
products. That explains the rationale for their
unhealthy advice.

So...how does one obtain 23 grams of fat or oil day?

Apples or other fruit? Sorry.
That proverbial apple each day is 86 percent water.
Add up the protein, fat, and carbs in one small apple
(100 grams) and you're eating less than one gram of all
of the above combined.

One notoriously fat-filled (200-gram) Haas avocado
(I've known vegans who consume 5-10 avocados each
day in the belief that avocados are healthy) contains
30 grams of fat.

So...how does one obtain the necessary 23 grams of fat?

Consider: One teaspoon of any of the above oils, be it
olive, corn, or canola, contains approximately 14 grams of
fat.

A 100-gram portion (3.5 ounces) of raw almonds contains
nearly 50 grams of fat, while dry roasted almonds contain
52 grams of fat. A 100-gram portion of green olives contains
15 grams of fat. The black olives contain 7 grams.

A 1-pint portion of vanilla ice cream contains 48
grams of fat.

I've seen dieters go heavy on the green salads from salad
bars, selecting dozens of the most delicious veggies and
then the negate all of the good by pouring 1/2 cup or
more of salad dressing. Salad dressing is their downfall.

Here's where lemon juice can be your savior, or oil-free
hummus, or fresh herbs. Just go easy on the oil. Two
teaspoons of oil satisfy one's daily oil requirement.
One-half avocado and one teaspoon of oil will supply
all of your daily fat needs.

So...which oil do I recommend, the soy or olive or canola
or safflower? My suggestion is to buy a bottle of the
least processed cold pressed super-duper extra virgin
(sounds like my high school years) olive oil that should
cost between $20 and $30 per liter. These oils are so
magnificent, that even their bouquets will add fat to
your thighs. They are available in fine gourmet shops
or online. Then, each time you have the urge to lubricate
your internal engine with oil as your food, use no more
than a teaspoon, and even that will be an extravagance.

My recipe for salad with an aromatic hint of olive oil flavor:

1) Make one salad.
2) Take one tablespoon of olive and gargle with it.
3) Discard olive oil.
4) Breathe on salad...

The least logical aspect of twenty-first century medicine
is that when an individual suffers a life-threatening event,
his physician usually has the knowledge to place a patient
on a cleansing and life extending diet, one that no longer
compromises the human body by filling it with illogical
fuels. The cure, doctors admit by their response to near
death experiences, is a simple as making dietary changes.

Why must one examine dietary changes after near-death
episodes? Would it not make sense to prevent death and
illness by eating healthy foods right from the start?

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's Reversing and Curing Heart
Disease book is for the sick and heart-compromised.
If we all hadthe vision to see, we would all be
included in that category, even our children.
Esselstyn's book spells out the simple dos and don'ts.
Dr. Esselstyn defines the cause and in doing so,
presents the cure.

While practicing medicine at America's number one
cardiovascular hospital, the Cleveland Clinic, Dr.
Esselstyn did everything in his power to make a
complete nuisance of himself. Imagine a hospital
treating more than 2 million patients each year?
Talk about a cash cow. Add an Esselstyn or two, and
remove hundreds of thousands of tests, procedures,
and surgeries. Esselstyn's work alone could have
cost the Cleveland Clinic a billion or more
dollars per year in cashflow.

One day, an creative administrator was hit with a
bolt of imaginative lightening. "Let's give Essy
two dozen of the most hopeless heart cases, the
ones who didn't respond to triple bypasses, balloon
angioplasty, or other procedures."

And so they did.

Esselstyn took on 23 males and one female, all given
virtual death sentences. The most remarkable of Dr.
Esselstyn's patients was a colleague, Dr. Crowe.
Esselstyn writes:

"After his heart attack in 1996, tests showed that
the entire lower third of his left anterior descending
coronary artery-the vessel leading to the front of the
heart and nicknamed, for obvious reasons, 'the widowmaker'
-was significantly diseased."

Caldwell Esselstyn's skill as a surgeon is obvious, but his
proficiency as a writer might be the best part of his work.
Although readers of his book have little or no skill in
assessing heart damage by reviewing coronary angiograms or
scans or x-rays, or other diagnostic tools, Esselstyn
skillfully translates the language of cardiologists into a
layman's understanding by presenting easily understood
photographs with arrows and highlighted commentary.

His book is a treasure map, and whether you are diseased
or in perfect health, you will find the secret treasure.

Secret, because, as he writes:

"In the United states alone, more than half a million people
die of it (heart disease) every single year...The United
States spends more than $250 billion a year on heart disease.
That's about the same amount the nation spent on the first
two and half years of its military venture in Iraq..."

Of Esselstyn's 24 patients, one did die. All of the others
survived through the duration of this twelve-year study.
Of the man who did die, Esselstyn writes:

"...He had been accepted into the study after sustaining a
massive heart attack during an unsuccessful angioplasty...
his left heart chamber was so badly damaged and scarred
that it was able to pump blood at less than 20 percent of
its normal capacity...After he had spent nearly five years
on the program, a follow-up angiogram compared four of
the areas where his arteries had narrowed. Two were
unchanged. Two had improved. Ten months later, he died
of cardiac arrhythmia...his heart, which was so scarred,
had literally electrocuted itself into arrest...As for the
rest of the group, all improved."

The survivors? Esselstyn confidently calls them "heart
attack-proof."

The 24 patients came to Dr. Esselstyn cumulatively having
suffered through 49 life-threatening cardiovascular events
in the years leading up to the study. Esselstyn writes:

"Among the fully compliant patients, during the twelve-year
study, there was not one further clinical episode of
worsening coronary artery disease..."

Six patients left the study, being unable to stay with
a vegan diet. For them, the call of the cheese and meat
represented the call of the wild. Of them, Esselstyn writes:

"In every one of them, the heart disease had grown worse.
They had suffered...four cases of increased angina, two
cases of ventricular tachycardia, four bypass operations,
one angioplasty, one case of congestive heart failure..."

Caldwell Esselstyn is a visionary. After challenging his
own colleagues and the millions of patients who spend
billions of dollars to suffer needlessly, Esselstyn
proposes:

"The collective will and conscience of my profession
is being tested as never before. Now is the time for
legendary work."

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www/Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Got Milk & Heart Disease? Little has Changed in 5300 Years

I recently read a fascinating report which
indicated that the entire DNA genome of a 5,300
year old man had been sequenced and published on
February 28, 2012 (New insights into the Tyrolean
Iceman's origin and phenotype as inferred by
whole-genome sequencing, Nature Commun. 3: 698).

I first wrote about the "Iceman" in 2003.

In 2009, a CAT scan revealed that partially remained
ibex meat was still in his stomach, having been eaten
two hours before the man's death. The Iceman was named
Otzi long after my original notmilk column appeared.
I had written:

The Iceman Had More Than Just Icy Blood In His Veins

Milk did not kill the Iceman, but his 25-year-old body,
preserved and mummified for more than 50 centuries inside of
a glacier, died with severe arthritis and heart disease. Did
all sheepherders suffer a similar fate as a result of their
dairy diets?

In 1991, the Iceman became an overnight sensation. The well-
preserved corpse of a 5300-year-old man was found in a
melting glacier between Italy and Austria.

Besides his stash of hallucinogenic mushrooms, and a torso
that was liberally ornamented with tattoos, the man's body
had many things to teach 21st century man about life long
ago.

Archeological coroners have determined many things about
the man's way of life. Teams of investigative forensic
scientists and paleobotanists have found microscopic
bacteria and pollens from hop blossoms, proving that the
man did not vanish in the middle of winter as had been
previously theorized. In fact, an arrow to his back and
other factors may be evidence that the Iceman was a
sacrifice.

This investigation and analyses would make for a
fascinating episode of the hit CBS TV show, CSI.

The 5300-year-old Iceman wore leather underwear and
outer garments fashioned from animal skins. One
conclusion shocked even the pathobiologists. That one
conclusion remains perfectly clear. Based upon stomach
contents (fibers of meat) and artifacts found in his
backpack, and a rigorous examination of the man's
internal organs, it was observed that the iceman had
"abnormally hardened arteries, due no doubt to his
unhealthily high-cholesterol and fat diet."

Although there is some controversy, one of the lead
investigators, Konrad Spindler believes that the man
was a shepherd. He believes that the Iceman perished
in a summer storm while searching for one of the sheep
that he herded. Apparently, his diet consisted of ovine
milk, and plenty of it.

The Iceman also had severe arthritis and diarrhea.
Perhaps sacrifice of a man with severe illnesses was
society's antibiotic pill. Such was the fate of
pre-historic men who drank diseased body fluids from
other mammals.

I read Brenda Fowler's ICEMAN. On page 151, the book
got very interesting for me. A CAT scan revealed that
part of the Iceman's brain suggested signs of a stroke.
Here is what the author wrote:

"The CAT scans revealed a heavily calcified region in
what was probably the man's abdominal aorta-the largest
artery in the body, at the point where it breaks into
the main vessels that go to the legs-as well as in the
carotid artery, which carries blood from the heart to
the neck. This was a clear sign of arteriosclerosis-
hardened arteries-a condition that occurs when plaques
adhere to the walls of the arteries, partly blocking
the flow of blood...but the iceman was not very old,
and zur Nedden was amazed at how much plaque had
already accumulated."

Milk and Heart Disease, see:

http://www.notmilk.com/h.html

The age of the man was estimated to be between 25 and 30.
Severe arthritis. Heart disease. Diarrhea. Milk drinker.

Makes sense to me. After all, a sheepherder would be
drinking lots of saturated animal fat and cholesterol
in the milk from the sheep that he herded. Very little
has changed in 53 centuries.

Robert Cohen
htt://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Snoring

While searching for second opinions for today's article,
I visited natural health web and typed in the keywords\
"snoring" and "diet".

http://www.naturalhealthweb.com

This is the first of many suggestions the site makes:

"Foods to avoid from your diet:

Dairy products! One of the main reasons which cause your
snoring is dairy products. Dairy products can increase
the mucus in your nasal passages, thus your airways
become narrow there by restricting the air flow."

I then visited a site called simple remedies:

http://www.SimpleRemedies.com

Here is what the site recommends:

"These are generally foods that should be
avoided by people who snore:

Fried foods
A number of baked goods like pizza
Dairy products like ice cream
Frozen foods
Chocolate"

Many events have been identified as snoring
triggers. Sleeping with the Boston terrier.
Cat dander. Dead skin cells. All varieties of
wheat products including bread and pasta, Smoking.
The common cold. One dietary cause of snoring
converts a gentle soft-blown kazoo kinda guy
into a crescendo of percussion from the 1812
Overture. Nothing so efficiently causes couples
to sleep in separate beds as does America's
notorious cheesehead diet.

Those who finance milk congestion studies often
have nothing to gain by demonstrating that dairy
consumption causes mucous. Such studies are often
poorly designed, lasting for only a few hours. Long
distance runners know. Opera singers know. Broadway
actors and actresses are told not to consume milk
or dairy products or their voices will become
"phlegmish." Long after exhausting performances,
the competitor entertains his or her significant
other with dietary residuals.

Eighty percent of milk protein is casein, a
tenacious glue and allergenic protein. Eat casein
and you produce histamines, then mucus. The
reaction is often delayed, occurring 12-15 hours
after dairy consumption. Few people note the ill
effects because milk and dairy products represent
40% of what the average American eats (about 666
pounds per American per year), and these proteins
are continuously eaten. By eliminating all milk and
dairy for just one week, most people note the
differences, which include better sleep resulting
from less snoring, more energy, better bowel
movements, clarity in thought, muscle, bone, and
back pain relief. NOTMILK means saying goodbye to
nasal congestion.
______________________________________________________

"In the challenge test, 10 hours after milk intake
the patient presented serous rhinorrea, sneezing
and nasal blockade."
  - J Investig Allergol Clin Immunol, 1998 Jul, 8:4
______________________________________________________

"Cow's milk is one of the most frequent food allergens.
Whole casein appears to be highly allergenic...85% of
the patients presented a response to each of the four
caseins. "
  - Int Arch Allergy Immunol, 1998 Mar, 115:3
______________________________________________________

"Symptoms of milk-protein allergy include cough, choking,
gasping, nose colds, asthma, sneezing attacks..."
  - Annals of Allergy, 1951; 9
______________________________________________________

Eliminate all dairy for one week, and snoring may very
well become a distant memory. Adding cheese to a healthy
diet is guaranteed to trigger the nightmares of snoring.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twetter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Stupid Scientist Tricks

"I had a dream de odder night,
When ebery ting was still;
I thought I saw Susanna,
A coming down de hill.
The buckwheat cake war in her mouth,
The tear was in her eye,
Says I, I'm coming from de South,
Susanna, don't you cry."
  - Stephen Foster, 1848

Scientist Susanna Larsson is an idiot.
I am being kind.

There is a word I wished to insert in front
of the word "idiot" but did not as this is
a family column. Instead, I use the G-rated
version and call her a "flaming" idiot instead.

Last week, American newspaper editors were infected
with Dairy Industry press releases reporting that
the consumption of skim milk results in a decreased
risk of strokes.

This past weekend, that cancerous lie metastacized
within the media and will be passed on to naive
newspaper and television watchers & readers who will
then infect their children with disinformation from
which they might never recover.

The actual study was published in the journal Stroke.
  ***Stroke. 2012 Apr 19***

"Dairy Consumption and Risk of Stroke in
Swedish Women and Men" by Dr. Susanna Larsson

In the spirit of "Lies, Damned lies, and statistics"
(Disraeli), doctor (and I use the term lightly) Larsson
reviewed data from 74,961 Swedish men and women who
had completed a 96-item food questionnaire and followed
these subjects for 10.2 years.

Dr. Larsson then concluded:

"These results suggest that low-fat dairy consumption
is inversely associated with the risk of stroke."

The result of her study conclusion which has been
reprinted by hundreds of American newspapers and
is now being heralded by the dairy industry:

"Low Fat Milk Prevents Strokes"

Why do I call this woman an idiot?

Four reasons!
__________________________

First Reason:

In May of 2009 Epidemiology: Volume 20, pp 355-360)

Oh, Susanna Larsson concluded the opposite of what
she'd conclude just three yars later in today's study:

"These findings suggest that intake of certain dairy
foods may be associated with risk of stroke."

__________________________

Second Reason:

Oh, Susanna Larsson is stroke crazy. She has found
a cash cow in comparing strokes to everything and
coming up with absurd statistical conclusions.

Like secret service agents working (undercover) in
Columbia, she is more than ready, willing, and
able to assist the local economy.

In 2011 (Stroke; 2011; 42: 908-912), she used her
talents to assist the coffee industry. Although
coffee/caffeine have long been implicated in strokes,
Oh, Susanna used the same data pool as she did in the
above experiment and instead of using data from
74,961 subjects, used data from only 34,670 human
lab-rats (for 10.4 years instead of the 10.2 years
of the above experiment) and (don't laugh) concluded:

"These findings suggest that low or no coffee
consumption is associated with an increased risk
of stroke in women."

In Israel, they sing, "Oy Vey, Susanna, now
don't you cowpoop me, cause I come from Tel
Aviv, with a banjo on my knee."
__________________________

Third Reason:

In October of 2011, Oh, Susanna published a
study in the Journal of the American College of
Cardiology claiming that women who eat two or
more chocolate candy bars each week have fewer
incidences of strokes than women who do not
consume the theobromine contained in chocolate.
Got Methyl Xanides?
__________________________

The fourth reason?

I have sent Dr. Oh, Susanna Larsson four separate
requests by email for her data comparing those
who used NO dairy to strokes. On four separate
occasions she has ignored my requests. The actual
study is not yet available in online journal-form
so I must wait.

Perhaps she will answer you if you come bearing dollars
as the dairy, coffee, and chocolate industry are
capable of doing. Please do not share this woman's
email with members of Obama's secret service
detail. They do not have the dollars necessary to
pay the traditional fee and will only insult Susanna
by negotiating a below-market price for her services.
Dr. Larsson's email:

susanna.larsson@...

What's next? I suppose that she'll soon compare
cerebral strokes to golf strokes and conclude that
there are different strokes for different folks
and that if you shoot par, you will not be assigned
a penalty stroke.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

New Case of Mad Cow Found in California

April 24, 2012.

"They're here!"
  - Heather O'Rourke, Poltergeist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9aENGodu5A

Let's assume for the moment that this was not
a California Happy Cow. Happy Cows, as you know,
are disease-free, or so we are told by USDA.
We are also being told that meat and milk are
safe to eat, so that sure must be a relief to
American consumers.

Before being sent to the rendering facility where
her body would have been ground into pet food for
companion cats and companion dogs, how much milk
over how many years did yesterday's Mad Cow provide
for California boys and girls?

A cow filters through her udder 10,000 liters of
pus, proteins, & dead white blood cells each day.

See:

http://www.notmilk.com/m.html

One cannot donate blood if he or she has spent more
than two weeks in England, home of the original
Mad Cow Disease outbreak.

If one cannot donate blood because the infectious
mad cow disease protein (Prion) can be passed in
the blood;

AND;

If Mad Cow Disease sometimes has a 40 year
incubation period;

AND;

Since Mad Cows are clearly in our milking
herd before their lethal diseases are detected;

THEN;

Do you still lack the wisdom and continue to drink
milk or eat concentrated dairy cheeses, butter, and
ice cream from animals you know to be diseased?

BUT;

The good news is twofold. First, dairy is delicious.
Second, once infected with the human form of Mad
Cow Disease, death comes rapidly.

The bad news? There is no bad news. Mad Cow
Disease can save our Social Security and pension
funds and give America a financially strong future.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Cowabunga!

"Cowabunga!"
  - Chief Thunderthud (Howdy Doody Show, 1954)

This week, Ottawa Senator hockey fans were dancing
in the streets. As the number 8 seed, they were up
3 games to 2 over my New York Rangers, the number
one seed, in the first round of the Stanley Cup
hockey playoffs. Oh, the humanity. I stayed up way
past my normal 6 pm bedtime to watch the Rangers claw
their way back to a deciding game 7 at home tonight.

Ask Americans to identify the number-one export of
Canada to the United States, and they might respond
"hockey pucks" or "Labatt Pilsner (Labatt Blue)."

Ask most Americans to name the capital city of
Canada, and they will respond with "Toronto"
or "Montreal." It's actually Ottawa, which also
made amazing non-hockey news this week.

Today, Ottawa, Canada has claims to another prize. It
is home to the greatest milk-producing hormone monster
in the world, a 1500+ pound Holstein named Smurf. In
her lifetime, Smurf has produced over 216,000 liters
of milk. The average cow produces about 35,000 liters
of milk before being sent to slaughter.

When the Pilgrims came to America, the average dairy
cow produced less than two liters of milk each day
(according to historians, Will & Ariel Durant). Smurf
has averaged 50 liters per day. In a few weeks, Smurf
will give birth to her eleventh calf. Ten of those
calves have been male. These calves were immediately
separated from their mother cow and ended up as piccata
and scaloppini.

Because of Smurf's enormous size, the milk she produces
is very rich in powerful steroid hormones. Little
boys and little girls who drink Smurf's milk consume
dairy doses of estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and
melatonin. Little girls who drink Smurf's milk end
up growing larger breasts than non-milk-drinking girls.
Little boys who drink Smurf's milk grow up to play
hockey for teams such as the New York Islanders and
Columbus Blue Jackets. They win hockey awards such as
the Lady Bing trophy.

Anyway...tonight will be a late night for me and I
plan to sleep late on Friday. May the better team win.

"Hockey is a sport for white men.
Basketball is a sport for black men.
Golf is a sport for white men dressed like
black pimps."
  - Tiger Woods

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Playing Chicken

"Boys, I may not know much, but I
know chicken poop from chicken salad."
  - Lyndon B. Johnson

Five Questions and Answers

1) What happens to every healthy dairy cow?

She has her throat cut and is then sliced
up and chopped and diced into portions of
meat which a typical American family eats.

2) What happens to every unhealthy dairy cow?

She has her throat cut and is then sliced
up and chopped and diced into portions of meat
which a typical American dog or cat eats.

She is also routinely fed to chickens.

3) What is happening on California dairy farms
as you read this?

Thousands of cows are being secretly quarantined
by USDA agents and being covertly killed and sent
to slaughter to then be ground and fed to companion
animals and chicken as feed because one cow
was discovered with Mad Cow Disease on April 24th.

USDA first reported that the cow showed absolutely
no symptoms of Mad Cow Disease, and was identified
as a "carrier" by pure chance. We now know that
bit of "damage control" to have been a lie. The
animal could not get up at the farm. It was a downer
cow, and that is often the first sign of Mad Cow
Disease. Yet, the animal was loaded on a trjck with
other creatures and sent to the renderering plant.

4) What temperature is necessary to kill the Mad
Cow Disease infectious particle, called a Prion?

Nobody knows for sure, but lab-generated heat
in excess of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit cannot
destroy Prions.

5) Will a traditional barbecue grill fire
deactivate a cow Prion which has been eaten
by a chicken and then devoured by a human?

Nope.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Gastroenteritis Death Rate Exploding

The April 25, 2012 issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association (JAMA. 2012;307(16):
1683) reports:

"The number of US deaths associated with
gastroenteritis increased from 7,000 in 1999 to
more than 17,000 in 2007, according to the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The primary driver of this trend was a 5-fold
increase in gastroenteritis deaths associated
with Clostridium difficile infections, according
to the data from the National Center for Health
Statistics, presented in March at the International
Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases."

JAMA and CDC blame the deaths on a bacterium found
in cow's milk called clostridium.

Is clostridium killed by pasteurization?
Not on your life (death)!

In the third edition of Modern Dairy Products,
author Lincoln Lampert writes:

"A drop of sour milk may contain more than 50
million bacteria...certain bacteria, especially
organisms belonging to the genera bacillus and
clostridium, have the ability to transform
themselves into small bodies called spores.
The word spore comes from the Greek word for
seed. The spore can often withstand drying, the
temperature of boiling water (pasteurization),
and the action of some germicides. When suitable
conditions return, the spore resumes its vegetative
form and the bacterium again returns to the usual
activities of its normal life cycle."

Other than death by gastroenteritis, how do
clostridium infections affect cows and humans?

Clostridium causes pain in the diaphragm and joints
of cows. This same bacterium causes the same aches
and pains for humans. Complain of muscle pain often
enough and your physician might refer you his
brother-in-law, Sigmund. The pain may not be in your
head. It's real, and the etiology can be traced to
contaminated milk and cheese coming from body fluids
of diseased animals which humans find so mouth-
wateringly appealing.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Laboring Under False Pretenses

"Exceptions are not always the proof of the
old rule; they can also be the harbinger of
a new one."
  - Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

Good news in Vermont: Half of the state's
dairy farm workers do so legally and are
paid fair wages including medical insurance.

Bad news in Vermont: Half of the state's
dairy farm workers, some 1,500 abused and
underpaid laborer, are undocumented and
illegal spanish-speaking aliens. Without
their blood, sweat, and tears, Vermont's
dairy industry would be no more.

If you think that there ought to a be a
law, you should know that there is.

If you believe that such laws should be
enforced, you should know that they are not.

If you are interested in the civil rights of
those who labor under false pretenses in Vermont,
please contact Vermont's Attorney General,
William H. Sorrell, 802-828-3173

Please send your emails to:

civilrights@...

Vermont's State Motto: "Freedom and Unity"

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Suddenly, Where are Sudden Infant Death Studies?

"In human intercourse the tragedy begins,
not when there is misunderstanding about
words, but when silence is not understood."
  - Henry David Thoreau

An email was recently received from a reader
who was highly critical of Notmilk for its lack
of providing 21st century studies on Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Yesterday morning, I checked the medical literature
to find just how many SIDS studies had been
published during the past three years. What
level of importance has the scientific community
assigned to the thousands of tragic deaths
occurring in cribs each year?

I accessed Medline and searched various issues:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed

During the past 36 months, I found 71,629 diabetes
studies. For scientific researchers, "diabetes" is
where the money is!

During the past 36 months, I found 42,127
breast cancer studies.

Then I got silly and typed in the word "thumb"
and found a ridiculously high 1,900 studies.

Just for the heck of it, I typed in the word
"halitosis". How many studies were performed
regarding bad breath? 195 studies!

So I went for the absurd and typed in "cooties"
in the search mode and found 129 studies. It is
a tragedy when somebody gets cooties. School
children make fun of those who get cooties.

Finally, I went for it and typed in "sudden infant
death syndrome AND milk". There were just three
studies done and published in the past three years.

One was performed on newborn lambs. (Effects of
postnatal smoke exposure on laryngeal chemoreflexes
in newborn lambs.) I wondered just how many mother
ewes smoked post-birth cigarettes in the same room
as their lambykins nestled in their cribs.

The second study title was: High-protein diet in
lactation leads to a sudden infant death-like syndrome
in mice. I wondered why humans should be concerned
with studies done in surf and turf restaurants on
creatures who have a completely different set
of digestive enzymes and lack gallbladders?

The third publication was one done with human
subjects. Yaay. One study in three years. The
subject was breastfeeding. Scientists found that
breast-fed infants had fewer cases of SIDS than
those laying alone in cribs sucking up a formula
made from cow's milk.

I call such research "duh moments".

It is clear that scientists have ceased to examine
sudden infant death, despite the fact that
thousands die each year needlessly and tragically.
Why? Could it be that the act of autopsy on a
two-month-old baby human is just too painful
for a researcher to endure?

Examine the previous Notmilk research and
you tell me why American society does not seek
to find an answer, while British journals
have discovered a truth that Americans would
prefer not to know:

"Hypersensitivity to milk is implicated as a
cause of sudden death in infancy."
  - The Lancet, vol. 2, 7160, November 19, 1960

"Those who consumed cows milk were fourteen times more
likely to die from diarrhea-related complications and
four times more likely to die of pneumonia than were
breast-fed babies. Intolerance and allergy to cow's milk
products is a factor in sudden infant death syndrome."
  - The Lancet, vol. 344, November 5, 1994

"Those infants who died of SIDS expressed inappropriate
or inflammatory responses suggesting violent allergic
reactions to a foreign protein. Lung tissue and cells
showed responses similar to bronchial wall inflammation
in asthma."
  - The Lancet, vol. 343, June 4, 1994

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Hunza Yogurt Myths

"Actually, the hunza lifespan is not
long and they do get cancer."
  - Bill Sardi

What is the origin of the acidophilus culture
which dairy processors add to yogurt? It does
not occur naturally in yogurt. In fact, the
probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus is actually
isolated from human feces.

The October 26, 2011 issue of the journal
Science Translational Medicine includes a
study in which Bisanz and Reid attempt to
unravel the mechanism by which probiotic
yogurt works. Or does it work?

The authors wrote:

"No matter what the advertisements are, or
are not, allowed to say, it would be good
to know if probiotic yogurt, in addition
to its nutritional value, has a beneficial
effect on the gut."

The authors conclude:

"The intake of yogurt supplemented with five
bacterial species...did not appreciably alter
the composition of the human gut microbiota..."

I am often asked:

"What about the benefits of yogurt? Isn't the
acidophilus added to yogurt good for you? Don't
Hunzas who eat lots of yogurt outlive every other
society?"

The truth is that the acidophilus bacterium added
to yogurt is not absorbed by the human body. It
doesn't work. It's simply an unethical marketing
lie used by dairy producers on a trusting public.
The Dannon Yogurt company scientists admit this
truth but Dannon executives continue to lie to
the public.

During the 1950's, teams of researchers "discovered
that Hunzas regularly ate yogurt and seemed healthy.
The Pakistani Muslim Hunzas living in one of the most
isolated areas of the world craved the new found
attention. One year after all of the excitement of
discovery, a group of 60 year old Hunzas mysteriously
became 75. The next year, they were 90. A few years
later, they were over the age of 100. The Hunza myth
(Dannon's lie) has been exposed in great detail in a
book by Wilcox & Suzuki, called "The Okinawa Plan."

Why would one small region of Pakistan, a nation
roughly the size of California, have the average
person living past age 100, while the average
expected age of a Pakistani at death is 64?

The Hunzas are not a small tribe living in a remote
mountain village with 12 goats and a few sheep, as
Americans have been led to believe. The mountainous
Hunza region of Northern Pakistan comprises a land
mass greater than the combined areas of Delaware
and Rhode Island.

Why would the Pakistanis of Hunza be any different
from those Pakistanis living in Murree, Quetta,
Ziarat, Swat, Kaghan, Chitral, or Gilgit? The truth
of the matter is that the people of Hynza are no
different. Pakistanis (including the Hunzas) eat
similar diets and drink similar water. The answer
to this mystery perpetrated by Dannon is that the
Hunza myth was invented, and it is pure fraud.

The Dannon Yogurt research foundation publishes a
newsletter extolling the virtues of their product.
Here are excerpts from a column written by Cathy
J. Saloff-Coste:

Lactobacillus Acidophilus

"In the mid-1980's acidophilus was first suggested to
have health benefits for humans (1,2)... Acidophilus
occurs naturally in the gastrointestinal tract but
tends to grow slowly when added to milk (yogurt),
leading to the risk of undesirable organisms. There
is no direct proof and no consensus among researchers
on whether or not added acidophilus in yogurt adheres
to or colonizes in the intestines(3)...Few human
studies have been performed. A recent study reported
that yogurt did not alter immunoglobulin secretions.
These results show no health benefits from yogurt
consumption.(4)"

1. Jones, et al,(1985) Effect of acidophilus yogurt
on serum cholesterol, triglyceride and lipoprotein
levels of healthy males. J. Dairy Sci. 68 (83-84)

2. Nelson, et al, (1984) Cholesterol uptake by
lactobacillus acidophilus, J. Dairy Sci. 67

3. Saavedra, et al, (1995) Microbes to fight microbes,
J. Pediatric Gastroenterol. 21, 125-129

4. Marteau, et al, (1996) Effects of Lactobacillus
acidophilus strain LA1 on serum concentration and
jejunal secretions of immunoglobulins and serum
proteins in healthy humans. In SOMED 21st Intl.
Congress on microbial ecology and disease, Paris,
October 28-30, 1996.

Thank you, Dannon!

So...let's set the record straight. What exactly
is yogurt? It's a delicious snack consisting of
jelly, starch, and flavorings with naturally
occurring pus, hormones, and glue. Marketing
geniuses have convinced consumers with a series
of clever lies that this high calorie food is a
healthy dietary option. It is delicious, just as
ice cream is delicious. Healthy? You can bet your
life that it is not.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Get Sick and Suffer

"I punish myself more than anybody else
does if I am stupid about my actions, and
I suffer, really suffer."
  - Eartha Kitt

There is no food in America that routinely contains
animal feces with the exception of milk and dairy
products. As a matter of definition, feces is always
in milk, as it drips down the legs and undersides
of mycobacterium-infected filthy creatures during
the process of harvesting their diseased body fluids
for human "food". That these products are pasteurized
does not detract from the true essence of what consumers
naively put into their mouths and stomachs.

The state of California allows up to 75,000 coliform
bacteria per liter of milk (about one quart). I have no
way of saying this nicely, dear readers. Coliform bacteria
come from the colon, the same place bovine feces come
from. A rose by any other name is still a rose, and
I assure you, if ever there existed in nature the very
opposite of a rose, it is the shit coming out of a cow's
colon directly into the milk consumer's drink.

Coliform bacteria in apple cider and in sprouts are
accidents. Rats and mice happen. Coliform bacteria
in broccoli or cantaloupe is always an accident.
Human processors are sometimes disgustingly unsanitary.

The presence of Coliform bacterium in milk and yogurt and
cheese is the rule and not the exception. Got milk? Got
bovine excrement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),
each day, 220,000 Americans get sick from
contaminated food and 25 die.

Are you a gambler? Next time you buy a carton
of milk, will you rely upon fate to decide your
family's health? Will the bacterial count in your
cheese or milk be high enough to add you to CDC's
list? Bacteria from the cow's udders are transferred
to that milk. Bacterial counts increase while the milk
sits in your refrigerator. In a week or so, you'll pour
sour milk down the drain. Is your faith strong
enough, or will you get ill?

What day of the week will you drink enough toxins
to cause you to become one of the 80 million
Americans who get food poisoning each year?
Are you a member of the average American family
of four? One of you will be stricken. Why increase
the odds by eating products that have been identified
as harboring dangerous germs?

Cases of contaminated milk and dairy products have
been well documented. Dairy represents forty percent
of what the average American eats. According
to USDA food consumption data, the average
American eats 5 ounces of meat and chicken each
day and 29.2 ounces of milk and dairy.

There have been thousands of recalls of dairy products
that were serious enough to make headline news.
One wonders how many incidents do not get into
the newspapers. Eighty million cases of food borne
illness should send a message to all consumers.
Drink body fluids from diseased animals, and
you too might end up with disease.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
htp://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

What Does it Cost to Feed Your Cow?

You have a cow in your back yard. Every day,
you feed her 46 pounds of corn, 37 pounds of
alfalfa hay, and 7 pounds of soybeans.

After she successfully digests those ninety
pounds of feed in her four-chambered stomach,
your neighbors hate you for the bouquet coming
from you property.

The United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has established a formula which applies
to the Average cow. That formula is called the
"feed ratio". USDA has determined that the
average cow is fed a daily ration of 51 percent
corn, 41 percent hay (from alfalfa), and 8
percent soybeans.

USDA applies this feed ratio to the average
price farmers receive for their milk. In April
of 2012, the monthly feed ratio was the lowest
in the history of the milk industry at 1.45.

What does this mean in dollars and (s)cents?

Farmers received 16.9 cents for every pint of
milk they produced, while the cost of feeding
the average cow was estimated at 11.7 cents
for each pint of milk produced.

Costs do not include the illegal lower-than-minimum
wage you pay an illegal alien from Mexico to shovel
manure. Nor does it include the illegal antibiotics
given to your cow. The most commonly found antibiotic
residue found in slaughtered cows is LS-50, a double
dose consisting of Lincomyocin and Spectinomyocin.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits
LS-50 use on lactating cows.

Costs do not include the $200 treatment the average
cow requires for Johne's disease, which causes
irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and
Crohn's Disease in over 40 million Americans. Costs
do not include veterinarian visits, trucking animals
to slaughterhouses, or forced payments which farmers
must make to pay athletes who do not regularly
drink milk to betray kids by posing for milk ads.
Costs do not include the bullets used to end the
life of male calves which generate less money for
the farmer than the cost to truck him to an auction
ring before he is sold for slaughter.

Every container of milk sold this year will
represent a loss to the farmers who produced
that milk. Without government welfare payments,
the dairy industry would immediately be out
of business.

Corn prices averaged $6.14 per bushel in April of
2012, while soybean prices averaged $13.80 per
bushel and alfalfa prices averaged $207 per ton.

In 2000, a dairyman averaged $12.32 for every 100
pounds of milk he produced. The cost of corn was
under $2 per bushel. The cost of soybeans was under
$5 per bushel. The cost of alfalfa was under $84
per ton.

Today farmers receive just 33 percent more for their
milk than in 2000, while their food costs have risen
over 200 percent! What also has gone up? The amounts
of diseases cows now get as well as the amounts of
antibiotics they must receive and...last but not least,
the amounts of powerful growth hormones found in milk.

One last thing...In 1970, the average American was
eating 10 pounds of hard cheese each year (produced
from 100 pounds of milk). In 2012, the average American
will consume 34 pounds of hard cheese produced from
340 pounds of hormone-richer genetically modified milk.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

My Excuse is That I was Very Stoned!

Sometimes it is fun to re-visit things we've
written in the past.

On June 26, 2006 I had a five hour spinal fusion
operation. Ten months later, I was in more pain
than before the surgery and learned that the
surgery had failed to fuse crushed discs, and that
I needed a second surgery. I have letters from
three doctors agreeing that if I did not have the
second surgery, I might never get out of the wheel
chair which had become my second home. I decided
not to have the surgery which would have removed
titanium rods and replaced the with a large piece
of cow bone. Can you imagine me with a transplanted
cow bone in my back? Shortly after repairing my
own back, I took up a new hobby in which all
participants must wear their age.

Five years ago on April 15, 2007 I was so stoned
that everything seemed funny. I had so many drugs
in my bloodstream, that I could have hung a one-word
sign on me, "Apothecary". I could have made a a very
good living selling just half of the pills which my
team of doctors were happy to prescribe. In any event,
I wrote and posted a notmilk column that day which I
re-examined a few days ago. I found it to be very
good quality material, so perhaps I should consider
returning to that state of consciousness. The column:

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Fortuitous Sunday Discombobulations
Notmilk Column of April 15, 2007

I've had more than my fill of global warming rumors
and conspiracy theories. If things were really as
bad as alarmists suggest, then the weather patterns
would be messed up. Since things remain stable, I'm
rejecting all talk of ozone layer depletion; El Nino,
La Nina, and environmental changes. Now, excuse me,
but I've got to launch the family canoe from my front
porch to my car in the driveway before the 80 mile per
hour gusts and hailstones the size of baseballs do
damage to my vehicle which is at the present time,
submerged in the Hackensack River, which, for the
moment, has become one and the same with my driveway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Boston Terrier (Tyke) just growled at me after I
found myself staring at her and wondering how some
Koreans could eat dog for dinner. Just as I was
wondering whether Korean restaurants offer doggy bags
for unfinished rin-tin-din-ners, my little pup snarled
again. Could she have been reading my mind?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My N.J. governor, Jon Corzine, is in a hospital after
refusing to wear a seat belt and having a near-fatal
accident on the Garden State Parkway. They closed the
road and landed a helicopter to evacuate him for many
hours of emergency surgery to repair a broken vertebra,
broken collarbone, broken sternum, broken femur, and
six badly cracked ribs on either side.

A New Jersey State Trooper was driving. There comes an
automatic $46 dollar fine in my state for neglecting to
wear a seat belt, and I wonder whether anybody had the
nerve to issue the Governor a summons. It is my
understanding that this is the first time a New Jersey
Governor was ever injured in a car accident. During the
previous administration, I've been told that ex-Governor
James McGreevey was rear-ended on more than one occasion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Somebody's sure to bring up the issue of family values
as a campaign strategy, referring to the Clinton
administration's horrible behavior with that Monica
Lewinsky scandal which got me thinking...The Clintons
never divorced, did they? When I consider the top three
Republican candi-dates, the key word applied to them
has to be "date," and these candidates have not been
so candid.

What is it, eleven marriages between the top three?
Seventeen? I lost track, and they've lost credibility.

Perhaps they should run in the state of Utah where
polygamy is considered as illegal as jaywalking. One
can get charged with a crime for either action in Utah,
but in that state, a transgressor must perform community
service for jaywalking. As for polygamy, it's a different
sort of service...a marriage service.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In yesterday's Notmilk column, I reported that New York
State farmers will collectively receive some $30 million
dollars in emergency subsidy payments. That averages out
to about $15,000 per farmer. What I neglected to tell
you is that April milk prices of $15 per hundred pounds
of milk are the highest prices that dairy farmers have
ever received during the month of April. I now wonder
whether there is an Orthodox Rabbi-Elf hiding somewhere
in New York Senate chambers, shaking his head while
muttering, "Meshugina schmucks, meshugina schmucks."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Forgve me for this column. If I delivered it on my daily
coast-to-coast radio show, I'd be doing a follow-up on
Al Sharpton's show.

Most people are not aware that Reverend Al got his start
working for fight promoter Don King. I am proud of my
friend, Gary Braverman, who once knocked Mr. Sharpton on
his butt for one of Al's obnoxiousisms...I blame my
out-of-control behavior on the drugs I'm taking. They
have temporarily taken over my good taste.

Years ago after my dad fell and developed a painful blood
clot, our family doctor wrote him out a prescription for
Percocet. Dad would take his 5 milligram pill and that
would numb him to sleep each day while he recovered.
Five milligrams per day! I am currently taking 110
milligrams per day. Let me not tell you now about the
shakes and sweats and overall discomfort from Oxycodin
and Oxycontin addiction. It is five degrees worse than
ugly. I look forward to one day rehabbing myself in a
boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

File this one under the "Things I never really wanted
to see" department. This morning, Italian animal rights
activists demanded that the Pope remove that cute little
hat he wears...you know, the one with the white ermine
fur trim. I understand the gesture, but if you'll excuse
the expression, there are other fish to fry. Leave Pope
Benedict XVI alone, please. This one will backfire.

Speaking of religion (dad advised me to never do this),
this morning at a 5:30 AM breakfast in Washington's
Catholic Diocese, a very sleepy President Bush needed a
wake-up cup of coffee, so he leaned over to Washington
D.C.'s Archbishop, Donald Wuerl, and asked, "Father,
could I get a little Joe?" A few minutes later, they
brought him an altar boy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My movie recommendation of the moment for you: The Gods
Must Be Crazy. This 1981 movie about a Coke bottle falling
from the sky in the Kalahari desert reflects the current
state of things within my own mind and within my own world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, last but not least...I have accomplished the
nearly impossible, solving the riddle posed by Doctor
Ted Geisel many years ago. It took me fourteen years to
do so, but I now know the response to the age-old
question which has remained unanswered until this very
moment. Here it is:

"When tweedle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle,
they call it a tweedle beetle puddle paddle battle."

And with that, I firmly take hold of the mahogany
handle of my Nimbus 2000 and fly off to grab a few
hours of badly needed sleep.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

El Cinco de Mayo

Mexico celebrates today as their day of independence, but
who did they gain independence from? Here's a bet you will
usually win. It was Napoleon and the French!

During the first week of May, 1862, Major General George
McClellan led 41,000 Union troops against Major General
James Longstreet's 32,000 Confederate troops near
Williamsburg, Virginia. There were over 3,800 casualties
during the fifth day of May in that Civil War battle.

At the same time America was fighting its war between
the states, Mexican forces were engaging an occupying
French army led by Napoleon III. On the 5th of May,
1862, the Mexican army was led by General Ignacio
Zaragoza Seguin and defeated the French in the battle
of Puebla. For 150 years, Mexicans have been celebrating
the fifth day of May (Cinco de Mayo) as their official
day of independence over tyranny and oppression.

Although I have sworn off drinking, I will make my
first exception of the year this evening. My last drink
occurred last October 23rd, and I remember it well.
The drink of choice was champagne, and I savored the bubbly
while toasting my daughter's marriage to her husband, Joe.

If you celebrate Cinco de Mayo, let your first Corona
be dedicated to Mexican laborers who are abused slaves
for America's dairy industry. By the fifth botelo de
cerveza, you may even forget their miserable plight...

If today's column offends your sense of justice,
please share it with a friend, who will in turn share
it with a friend. Together, we have the ability to
voice unity in outrage over injustice.

It is no secret to most dairy industry insiders that
tens of thousands of illegal Mexicans work on America's
dairy farms. They take low paying jobs that few Americans
want, and are abused by dairy farm owners in a nightmare
that began as their version of "The American Dream."

The October 10, 2005 issue of Hoard's Dairyman (The
National Dairy Farm Magazine, page 659) contains an
article titled: "Hispanic Workers and Dairy Owners
Share Employment Challenges." The article was written
by the authors of Cornell University's survey of
Hispanic dairy farm workers in New York State and
includes interviews with 60 dairy farm owners and
111 Hispanic farm workers. Seventy-five percent of
those Hispanic workers are from Mexico. The other
twenty-five percent are from Honduras. Dairy farm
owners listed their greatest challenge as:

"Language barrier."

Hispanic workers in this pathetic study were not
asked whether they entered the United States illegally.
However, the Hispanics' response to their own greatest
challenge is, and I kid you not,

"Crossing the Border."

Other Hispanic responses included:

"Language, Lack of Freedom, New Culture, Basic Needs,
Medical/Dental, Prejudice."

Prejudice? Let's begin with American immigration
authorities who look the other way so that Mexicanos
can be paid slave wages to shovel cow manure, get
sick from industrial pesticides, and perform other
demeaning tasks that few Americans want to perform
for less than minimum wage.

On October 18, 2005, America's chief of Homeland
Security, Michael Chertoff testified before Congress
that the 13 million illegal aliens and immigrants
living and working in the United States should all
be returned from whence they came. According to
Chertoff, some 900,000 Mexicans are deported to
Mexico each year. After signing a $32 billion
Homeland Security bill which included large increases
for patrolling America's borders, President Bush said,
"We're going to get control of our borders and make
America safer for all our citizens."

Did that apply to the tens of thousands (or more)
illegal Mexican dairy farm workers?

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton posthumously awarded
the Medal of Freedom, our nation's greatest honor, to
the widow of Cesar Chavez, farm activist who became
best friend to underpaid and abused migrant fruit and
vegetable workers.

During his lifetime, Chavez protested the plight of
Mexican aliens who worked California fields to grow and
harvest America's food. Some 50,000 of his colleagues
paid their respects at Chavez's 1993 funeral service.
Through his efforts, which included nation-wide boycotts
of grapes and lettuce, the United Farm Workers Union was
able to negotiate better wages and living conditions for
fruit and vegetable workers.

Where is the Chavez-type activist for America's Mexican
dairy workers? Sadly, there is no such person. Sadder,
abused dairy workers toil in near slavery with little
future and no friends in high places to change their
plight. What we need is a Chavez-style champion, not
to mention a boycott of that industry which abuses so
many who deserve so much more. Will no one champion
their cause?

Emma Lazarus wrote these words which are inscribed at
the base of America's Statue of Liberty:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

America needs a Cesar Chavez-type activist for abused
Mexican laborers, and his or her first action should
be a nationwide boycott of milk and dairy products.

As for drinking on Cinco de Mayo, I will be celebrating
tonight by drinking a glass of champagne at my youngest
daughter's wedding! Elizabeth and Justin celebrate the
first day of their marriage today.
:>)

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Elixirs of Life

"The only way that I could figure they could
improve upon Coca-Cola, one of life's most
delightful elixirs, which studies prove will
heal the sick and occasionally raise the dead,
is to put rum or bourbon in it."
  - Lewis Grizzard

From Wikipedia: "The elixir of life, also known
as the elixir of immortality and sometimes
equated with the philosopher's stone, is a
legendary potion, or drink, that grants the
drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth.
Many practitioners of alchemy pursued it."

*   *   *   *   *

I found this abstract to a scientific
publication to be of great interest and would
love to spend a day visiting such a place:

*   *   *   *   *

Journal of Ethnopharmacology
2012 Mar 27;140(2):368-78.

Ghana's herbal market.

van Andel T, Myren B, van Onselen S.

Source

Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis

ABSTRACT

"Medicinal plant markets not only provide a snapshot
of a country's medicinal flora, they also reflect
local health concerns and the importance of traditional
medicine among its inhabitants. This study aimed to
describe and quantify the Ghanaian market in herbal
medicine, and the diversity of the species traded, in
order to evaluate their economic value."

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

"Initial visual surveys on the markets were followed
by a detailed quantitative survey of 27 stalls in
August 2010. Market samples were processed into
herbarium vouchers and when possible matched with
fertile vouchers from the field."

RESULTS:

"We encountered 244 medicinal plant products,
representing 186-209 species. Fourteen species
were sold at more than 25% of the market stalls.

"Seeds and fruits that doubled as spice and medicine
(Xylopia aethiopica, Monodora myristica, Aframomum
melegueta) were in highest demand, followed by the
medicinal barks of Khaya senegalensis and Pteleopsis
suberosa. Plants sold at the market were mostly used
for women's health, in rituals, as aphrodisiacs and
against sexually transmitted diseases. An estimated
951 tons of crude herbal medicine were sold at Ghana's
herbal markets in 2010, with a total value of around
US$ 7.8 million.

"Between 20 and 30% of the Ghanaian medicinal flora
was encountered during this survey. Roots were less
dominant at the market than in dryer parts of Africa.

"Tons of Griffonia simplicifolia and Voacanga africana
seeds and Fadogia agrestis bark are exported annually,
but data on revenues are scanty. None of these species
were sold on the domestic market."

CONCLUSION:

"Our quantitative market survey reveals that the
trade in Ghanaian herbal medicine is of considerable
economic importance. Regarding the specific demand,
it seems that medicinal plants are used to complement
or substitute Western medicine. Further research is
needed on the ecological impact of medicinal plant
extraction."

*   *   *   *   *

"Botany and medicine came down the ages hand in
hand until the seventeenth century; then both arts
became scientific, their ways parted, and no new
herbals were compiled. The botanical books ignored
the medicinal properties of plants and the medical
books contained no plant lore."
- Hilda Leyel (author of Elixirs of Life, 1948)

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

How Much Protein Do We Need?

"You're in a mess, and in excess."
  - Billy Strayhorn

I am often asked this same question regarding the
amount of protein humans need to maintain good
health. My response usually includes the following:

"Go to any American hospital and you will find zero
patients occupying beds who are there because they eat
too little protein. On the other hand, investigate the
reasons people become un-healthy, and you will find that
in almost every case, the etiology (eat-y-ology) of most
dis-ease can be found in the types of protein people eat
(animal, containing too much methionine and cysteine)
and the gross amount (entirely too much for the human body
to process in an efficient manner)."

Dr. John McDougall writes:

"People Require Very Little Protein. The World Health
Organization (WHO) recommends that men and women
obtain 5% of their calories as protein. This would
mean 38 grams of protein for a man burning 3000
calories a day and 29 grams for a woman using 2300
calories a day."

In his magnificent book (The 80-10-10 Diet), Dr.
Douglas Graham makes a healthy argument that one of
those "tens" in his title represents the percentage of
protein needed by the average adult human. The other
ten percent is fat. Can you guess what food group is
reprecented by the 80?

See: http://www.FoodNSport.com

I have full respect for those men and women of medicine
and nutritional healers who have arrived at the same
logical conclusion.

"Everything in excess is opposed to nature."
  - Hippocrates

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Reading Your Adversary's Mind

"How long does it take to learn poker, Dad?"
"All your life, son."
  - Michael Pertwee

It is nice to know what your opponent is thinking
when you go head to head in a game of No Limit
Texas Hold'em poker. When I've played, I've never
cheated, but occasionally a sloppy player would
flash his cards at me or tell me exactly what cards
are in his hand by his actions which are called
"tells." A smile or subtle movement of the hand or
cough can be very revealing. Some "tells" are so
reliable, they are as if the opponent writes down
in black and white his past, present, and future
strategies.

That is exactly what the dairy industry did in a
recent issue of Hoard's Dairyman, the national farm
magazine. The subject was animal rights, and the
headline read:

"Animal Welfare Challenges We're Facing"

Without additional comments, here are passages
the dairy industry article:

*    *    *    *

"The public views the dairy industry very positively.
With a proactive approach and a few changes to our
practices, we can make sure it stays that way.

"What we need to look out for...The major welfare
issues facing our industry include housing and cow
comfort, castration, dehorning, branding, transport,
and slaughter. Tail docking, early removal of calves
from dams, and production-related diseases such as
lameness and mastitis are also problematic.

"Early separation of calves from their dams is
starting to receive attention and criticism from
animal rights extremists. While we know that calves
are immediately removed from their dams to facilitate
hygiene, improve colostrum intake, and reduce death
rates, the public could view early separation as a
traumatic and inhumane practice that causes distress
to both cow and calf. And research has shown there
are behavioral changes in separated calves and dams
that are signs of distress.

"Typically, people who promote animal welfare believe
that animal use is acceptable but that we are obligated
to care for the animals in ways that meet most, if not
all, of their needs. In contrast, animal rights
activists may find many uses of animals (for example,
the right to not be killed). Having a clear understanding
of these different perspectives is important because,
while farm animal welfare is a growing societal concern,
the motivation and reasons for the concerns are often
misunderstood."

*    *    *    *

In that same issue, editors included an ironic column
called "Farm Flashes" which referred to a painful issue
the dairy industry wishes milk consumers not to know.

The headline:

"Dehorning Calves Should Include Anesthesia"

This information is painful to read:

"If you've ever burned yourself, you know how
painful it can be. Imagine if someone held an iron
to you for 45 seconds! I'm sure you would appreciate
some anesthesia..."

The advice given was to "first straddle the calf
and feel the skull just behind the outside corner
of each eye where you will detect a divot. This
sunken area corresponds to our temples. The nerve
that supplies the horn with sensation runs right
through this soft spot. Take an 18-gauge 1 1/2-inch
needle attached to a syringe loaded with 3-5 cc of
lidocaine close to the bone, and deposit the rest
as you slowly withdraw the needle. Repeat for the
other horn bud, and allow 5 to 10 minutes for it
to take affect."

At this point, dairy farmers had to have been rolling
on the barn floor laughing. Zero out of 9.2 million
calves will be treated this compassionate way in 2012.
Lidocaine and syringes are unnecessary luxuries, and
5-10 minutes waiting time will turn a multi-hour chore
into an event lasting for many days when dozens or
hundreds of animals are scheduled for dehorning.
Dehorning is an assembly-line operation, and a standard
operating procedure for the dairy industry. Animal
welfare and dehorning do not go together.

Sadly, the less the public knows about dairy procedures,
the better it is for phony milk industry good will.

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Where There is a WILL There is a WAY

Let me describe the past 7 days of my life.

On Wednesday, May 2nd, I enjoyed a 52 mile bike ride.
Almost every part of me savored that experience. The
exception was my right ankle which developed a tiny
stress fracture.

By Thursday, I could neither walk nor drive. The
pain was localized to one tiny area and felt as if
a needle had been hammered into bone.

On Friday, I had to be driven to Boston in order to
attend my daughter Elizabeth's wedding. Traditionally,
dads walk daughters down aisles and then enjoy a
dance during the wedding celebration. I sensed I could
do neither.

Upon waking on Saturday, I was not coping very well.
The twenty-foot walk from my hotel room bed to the
bathroom took about ten minutes and was not pleasant.
Later that evening I would be expected to walk the
aisle and dance. All day long, I meditated upon the
challenges which awaited and used a recent book to inspire
me. The book was "Iron War" (written by Matt Fitzgerald)
which told the story of two men, Dave Scott and Mark
Allen, who endured extreme pain and suffering to finish
the greatest race in the history of sport, a 140.6 mile
triathlon in which for 137 of those miles they were
within a few feet of one another. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOVGVMiwPSA

I turned each sensation of pain into pleasure and
accomplished the aisle walk and father/daughter
dance with none of the 130 witnesses the wiser.

By Sunday, none of the pain had abated. I returned
home and rested.

Late Sunday, I recalled the wisdom of a friend, Dr.
Flora. Last year I had written a column about her
advice which rapidly healed two previous fractures.
The first time, I was hit by a car while biking, and
cracked the talus bone of my left foot. The second
time I fell in my driveway while clearing a 26-inch
snowfall and broke the pisamoid bone in my right wrist.
Each time, the injury was healed in three days. Each
time, I purchased a pineapple and papaya, juicing the
fruits, reserving the pulps which I applied to each
injured bone.

On Monday morning, there was still pain, but I
sensed a hint of healing by a factor of perhaps
ten percent.

On Tuesday morning, the healing was dramatic, and
I felt 50 percent better.

This morning, Wednesday, May 9th, I feel no pain
at all. Although it is now 1 AM, I am heading to
my 24-Hour fitness gym on Route 17 in Hasbrouck
Heights, New Jersey. I plan a light 2-hour workout
which will include a 1-mile swim, 30 minutes on a
stationary bike, and 30 minutes in the weight room.

Where there is a WILL, there is a WAY.
Where there is a WAY, there is a WILL!

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Truth or Consequences: The Dairy Industry is Correct!

"Everybody, sooner or later, sits
down to a banquet of consequences."
  - Robert Louis Stevenson

The dairy industry has replaced their milk
mustache advertising campaign with a series
of ads from athletes endorsing chocolate
milk as the perfect post-workout drink.

Is this true?Does chocolate milk work? Absolutely!

However, the dairy industry is not revealing
the full extent of the truth or consequences.

The fact is that there are about 4,700 mammals
in the animal kingdom, and millions of different
hormones in nature. There is only one perfect
match between two species; insulin-like growth
factor-I (IGF-1) in human and cow. Both contain 70
amino acids in their structure in the identical
sequence. Bovine growth hormone and human growth
hormone each contain 191 amino acids, but the
sequence of those amino acids differs between the
two species by about 35 percent.

Professional athletes taking IGF-I are suspended
or banned from competition.

IGF-I is most powerful of protein growth hormones.
Human growth hormone (HGH) was discovered in 1944.
IGF-I was discovered some two decades later. Had
IGF-I been discovered first, it would have been
named human growth hormone, as it is much more
powerful a growth stimulator than HGH.

IGF-1 has been identified as the key factor in the
growth and proliferation of every human cancer.

Does IGF-I work? You bet your sweet ovaries it does,
ladies. Gentlemen? You bet your sweet prostates that
IGF-1 accelerates the growth of existing cancers.

Who can confirm this? Once-Yankee slugger and IGF-1
user Jason Giambi, who coincidentally grew a pituitary
tumor after his use of the identical protein growth
hormone children enjoy in chocolate milk.

Who will be next? Perhaps your son or daughter who
has been sold an unhealthy bill of goods by dairy
industry ad men.

WebMD dotcom endorses chocolate for athletes,
explaining that chocolate milk outperforms
traditional sports drinks. WebMD is correct,
but consider: sports drinks do not contain
powerful human growth hormones.

Fitness Magazine reports:

"Downing chocolate milk after a tough workout can
help replenish exhausted muscles and significantly
aid exercise recovery, new research shows."

Notmilk wholeheartedly concurs with both WebMD and
Fitness Magazine. Growth hormones work, and function
quite well to do what they were designed to do.

The dairy industry conveniently omits "growth
hormones" when explaining "What's in it?" See:

http://www.gotchocolatemilk.com/science#whatsinit-1

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Coining a New Phrase: USDA-STUPID

"We are all born ignorant, but one
must work hard to remain stupid."
  - Benjamin Franklin

Today begins my use of a new phrase: USDA-STUPID.

From now on, when I observe something really, really
idiotic, I will compare it to the example set by
the United States Department of Agriculture for
the dumbest of dumb.

Today's Washington Post (May 11, 2012) reports:

"The federal government is spending $4 million to help
hook up farmers and low-income customers."

Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, has
announced that grants will be given to 4,000 farmers
markets vendors so that they can set up electronic
transfer systems in order to accept food stamps.

Food stamps at farmers Markets? How about accepting
food stamps at The Four Seasons? Perhaps Breakfast
at Tiffany's?

USDA bureaucrats believe that people who get food
stamps will spend their government benefits at
farmers markets in order to obtain the freshest
fruits and vegetables.

One problem with this theory for USDA-STUPID
bureaucrats...

Farmers markets are expensive. Look up "rip-off"
in your dictionary and there will be a photo of
a farmers market.

Supermarkets make their greatest profits from their
produce. I find that my local Korean grocer often sells
produce at half the price sold by every major local
supermarket. Do you want to pay 50 percent more for
fruits and veggies? Then shop at Whole Foods, where
the Mexican-grown produce is sprayed with DDT. Shop
at Whole Foods where USDA requires that every organic
banana is sprayed by the grower before getting on the
boat or airplane (this is regulated by APHIS).

Want to pay prices higher than Whole Foods charges
for produce? Then shop at farmers markets.

I love farmers markets. It is there that I am able to
find heirloom fruits and vegetables which never make
it to traditional markets, but the retail prices
are obscene.

Who on food stamps can afford to shop at a farmers market?

One USDA undersecretary, Kevin Concannon, stopped at the
State Farmers Market in Raleigh, North Carolina, and said:

"We're on a mission to help Americans eat better, and
what better place than to provide access, better access
to folks for farmers markets. And in particular for
low-income people."

Low-income people? This USDA-STUPID bureaucrat does
not have a clue how far low income people have to
stretch food stamps in order to exist. Farmers
markets are an expensive luxury, and investing
$4 million tax dollars for low-income people to
overpay rip-off prices for fruits and vegetables
is a USDA-STUPID program that will not work. USDA
is out of touch with reality.

"An intelligent hell would be
better than a stupid paradise."
  - Victor Hugo

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Vegan Human Milk Song

His first name is Vegan and his last name is
Smythe, and he's got talent (but his material
could use a bit of fine tuning). Yet, Vegan
Smythe is beginning a new down-under movement
and this Elton John/Benny Hill-like Australian
performer is making plenty of his mates quite
upset. The cows give him two hooves up!

Vegan Smythe's Notmilk song:

http://youtu.be/_Obicj26jhQ

Join Vegan Smythe's Facebook community:

www.facebook.com/vegansmythe

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk

Raw Milk Advocates

"Without health life is not life; it is only a
state of languor and suffering - an image of death."
  - Buddha

Raw milk advocates are passionate people.

A letter to the editor from one of them (Jay
Lancaster, Washington) in the May 10, 2012
issue of Hoard's Dairyman (The National Dairy
Farm Magazine) expressed his absurd passionate
and ironic duh-moment:

"Goodness, another article in Hoard's dairyman
beating up on one of nature's most perfect
foods - raw milk...Take the human error out of
the equation and you still have one of nature's
most perfect foods, or is it just smarter to
cook the human error and human good right out of
it? Look at the fat little calves sucking their
mothers and you be the judge."

Let us all be the judges, Mr. Lancaster.

Yesterday (May 12, 2012), at least ten people became
violently ill after drinking raw milk from a Fresno,
California raw milk dairy farm. Got campylobacter?
They do, and my guess is that they will never again
be raw milk advocates. Those who became infected drank
raw milk purchased from Organic Pastures Dairy. This
incident marks the fourth round of infections from
Organic Pastures in the past six years,

We've heard the name Mark McAfee many times before
when raw milk poisonings are reported. This farmer
in the dull is now requesting a formal hearing with
California Happy Cow regulators, claiming that the
ten people who consumed raw milk from his farm
coincidentally were also made sick by some factor
other than his campylobacter-infected bovines.

Last time, it was McAfee's E. coli. This time,
it was McAfee's campylobacter. Next time? Perhaps
Johne's-infected cows making more consumers
irritable...with appropriately-named irritable
bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn's.
See:

http://www.notmilk.com.c.html

Robert Cohen
http://www.notmilk.com
http://www.Twitter.com/TheRealNotmilk