Milk - good or bad ?

Question

i read in an article recently that milk comtains a lot of dead white blood cells from cows and that drinking milk is equivalent to eating pus from a cow's wounds !

is this just scaremongering ?

Answer 1

This is a sort of scaremongering to the extreme to try and put people off milk, the process is true but there are excellent health benefits to milk which I presume were not included in the article to try and put a bias point of view across. A cow filters blood through it's udder and uses dead white blood cells to manufacture the milk. Regulations stipulate that there can only be so many million 'pus' cells in milk, that is why we are Dairy Farmers must make sure that any cow which has mastistis, her milk mustn't be sent to the dairy.
True this does sound disgusting but this is the cow's process of making milk. It has to made somewhere and somehow and this is the way.
Pasteurisation kills any bugs etc, but to to put any minds to rest, my father-in-law has been drinking unpasteurised milk from the cow since he was a young child and he's now 84 and fit as a fiddle as are very many old farmers I know!

Answer 2

First, what is Pus?

Pus is formed by the collection of large numbers of white cells called
polymorphonuclear cells in a localised area of the body in response to
the presence of bacterial infection. These cells break down and
release chemicals that kill the bacteria as well as cause enlargement
of the blood vessels (inflammation) and attract more white cells to
the "fight."

So pus is just white blood cells.

Now, as for the “pus” finding its way into the milk ---

The milk collected from the cows is stored on the farm in a bulk tank.
The dairy farmer and inspectors routinely check this milk for
contamination before it is shipped out to be pasteurized for sale. If
it does not pass the test, it does not go out!

The contamination of the milk is measured in terms of the SCC –

“The SCC amount is the Somatic Cell Counts (number of white blood
cells …Leukocytes) per milliliter of milk (SCC/ml). A dairy industry
rule of thumb states that cows measuring less than 200,000 SCC/ml of
milk are considered healthy or not significantly infected with
mastitis. Cows measuring over 200,000 SCC/ml are considered infected
cows.”

That was the PER COW level. The BULK MILK level regulation is:

“Beginning July 1, 1993, the SCC level in milk quality regulations
must be less than 750,000 SCC to comply with the State and Federal
Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. A violation of the PMO makes the milk
non-marketable.”

http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/dairy/g1151.htm

“If your bulk tank SCC is 750,000 or greater, you are in danger of
losing your milk market. Since mastitis can be caused by man, machine,
and the cows' environment, all items must be checked to determine its
cause.”

http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/ansci/dairy/coping/mastitis.htm

Now understand, this is not level of bacteria in the milk, but the
level of the cows white blood cells in the milk IN A GIVEN BULK TANK
that is being measured. This is still not what comes to you.

The next thing that happens is that all of the milk is mixed with milk
of other farms as it is picked up and transported. This means the SCC
will vary depending on the SCC levels at all the all the different
farms. But, it will never be greater than 750,000.

Finally, the milk is pasteurized

“When you pasteurize a food (almost always a liquid), what you are
doing is heating it to a high enough temperature to kill certain (but
not all) bacteria and to disable certain enzymes, and in return you
are minimizing the effects on taste as much as you can.”

http://www.howstuffworks.com/food-preservation6.htm

And after this process the milk is tested once again and must meet the
following standards: (NOTE LETTER h)

MILK REQUIREMENTS

Article 203.- Milk characteristics shall be the following:

a) Normal organoleptic characteristics;

b) Free of foreign substances;

c) Specific weight: 1.028 to 1.034 at 20ºC

d) Cryoscopic index: -0.53 to -0.57 "Horvet" or -0.512 to -0.550ºC;

e) pH: 6.6 to 6.8;

f) Acidity: 12 to 21 ml of sodium hydroxide 0.1 N/100 ml of milk;

g) Nonfat solids: 82.5 grams per liter, as a minimum;

h) Free of blood and pus;

i) Free of antiseptics, antibiotics and neutralizers. Pesticide
residues and other harmful to health substances must not exceed the
limits established by the Ministry of Health;

j) Its microbiological requirements and fat content, will be those
determined by this Regulation in each case.

http://www.usembassy.cl/agriculture/fas8_9e.htm

So, after all that, your answer is NONE.

Milk goes through so many inspections and processes that it is free of
all contaminants by the time it gets to your table. So, unless you
drink straight from the cow, you (and nronronronro-ga) are free to
drink up!

Answer 3

If you belive everything you read you wouldn't eat or drink anything. Milk is full of calcium, good for bones nails and hair.
Eat & drink what you like, within reason, you've got to die of somthing.
LIVE FAST, DIE YOUNG. LEAVE A GOOD LOOKING CORPSE.

Answer 4

It's cobblers. Milk is VERY good for you. Without it, you would probably not get anywhere near enough Calcium. That leads to various health problems- the main one being Osteoporosis (yes, men DO get it)

Answer 5

Scaremongering. Utter quiet news day nonsense.

Answer 6

Milk is good, especially if you are a new born baby. It's also good for older folks. Those who need to watch their cholesterol may want to stick to the skimmed variety.

Answer 7

milk is awesome for you. that is the very definition of being a MAMMAL. don't stop drinking it just because some quack decided to try to make some inane comparisons about it.

Answer 8

Utter crap. milk is good for you, if it was pus it would stink and make you ill and calves wouldn't drink it, all baby mammals drink milk from their mothers - they wouldn't be genetically programmed to do this if it was bad for you would they?

Answer 9

Milk is good for you. It is very good for bones, teeth, nails etc.
Keep drinking it. Semi skimmed is the best. Low in fat.

Answer 10

MILK IS GREAT FOR YOU!

its just people scaring you off, people could say water is filled full of bateria and germs, but if it was we'd all be seriouly ill