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The “cow milk is for baby cows” argument against dairy does not match the reality of how humanity survived and thrived long before the advent of agriculture.
A school of thought that “cow milk is for baby cows” and that it is unnatural for humans to be drinking it has become somewhat of a catchphrase by plant-based aficionados in recent years.
In two of the radio interviews I’ve done over the years, this point was specifically addressed as a counterpoint to my discussion of the health benefits of drinking grassfed raw milk.
No doubt this notion is bolstered by the ever-increasing rates of allergies to processed dairy. Thus, more folks are wondering if dairy should be consumed by humans at all.
The vegan community also espouses this line of thinking on the principle that consumption of animal foods is fundamentally and morally wrong.
Certainly, this is a valid point to ask and the answer I have typically given is that healthy cultures consumed raw dairy for centuries.
In fact, dairy is one of humankind’s foundational foods. It supported the vibrant health and high fertility necessary to survive and thrive.
What’s more, dairy was critical to the survival of the human race long before we ended our nomadic roots and began cultivating plants.
Swiss of the Loetschental Valley
To the Traditional Swiss living in the isolated Loetschental valley, raw dairy and, in particular, butter was a sacred food.
This was not a pale supermarket butter. Rather, it was a golden alpine butter made from the rich, beige cream of cows grazing on thick grass.
The children raised on this nutrient dense, raw butter had strong physiques, wide faces with plenty of room for their teeth, and a high resistance to disease.
There wasn’t a single case of tuberculosis in Loetschental despite this illness raging elsewhere in Switzerland during the early part of the 1900s.
The young men raised on this nutrient-dense traditional diet based primarily on dairy with plenty of raw, deep yellow to orange butter were so superior in physique, strength, and character that the Vatican favored them over all others to serve in the Papal Guard.
The Maasai of Africa
During his travels in the early part of the last century, Dr. Weston Price examined five cattle-keeping groups in Africa who were still subsisting upon a completely ancestral diet.
These included:
- Maasai of Tanganyika
- Muhima of Uganda
- Chewya of Kenya
- Watusi of Ruanda
- Neurs tribes on the western side of the Nile near the country of Sudan.
These groups were largely following a carnivore diet consisting primarily of meat and milk.
These dairy-consuming peoples were very tall with even the women averaging over 6 feet in height in some tribes.
All displayed marvelous physiques and perfectly straight, uncrowded teeth. Six tribes had no dental decay whatsoever.
Clearly, the basis of milk in the diet was a critical component of the vibrant health enjoyed by these ancestral people groups.
Dairy Sustained Humans Before Agriculture!
Now, strong evidence has emerged that humans consumed dairy even before the advent of agriculture and civilization itself.
Before humans ever cultivated fruits, vegetables, and grains in prehistoric Africa, they were actively utilizing dairy cattle to sustain themselves.
While these early dairy farmers did not appear to drink fresh raw milk, they did use it to make butter, cheese, and yogurt.
Julie Dunne of the University of Bristol, the lead author of this important archaeological study, found the first direct evidence of dairy being of prime importance in the diet of the prehistoric people of the African Sahara.
These people used cattle for their milk many thousands of years ago. This was long before the cultivation of plants in this region.
Milk is one the very few foods that give us carbohydrates, fats and proteins in one go. So being able to use milk like these people did would’ve made an enormous difference to their health. It would’ve provided food for life. (1)
Archaeologists found the initial evidence in rock art images. These pictures illustrated domesticated cattle from the Wadi Imha, in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains of Libyan Sahara.
Scientists have dated these images between 5,000 and 8,000 years old.
Additional evidence came via analysis of organic residues from pottery fragments. They were excavated from the Takarkori rock shelter in Saharan Libya.
Fully half of the vessels inspected were used to process dairy products! (2)
While it seems implausible that dairy cattle could have once roamed the Sahara given its harsh and arid conditions today, Dunne notes that this region was completely different 10,000 years ago.
In fact, it was much wetter and greener than most people realize.
So the next time someone uses the “cow milk is for baby cows” line, casually mention that in the location of humanity’s earliest roots, people sustained themselves using dairy as a staple food.
This was long before humans began cultivating plants!
(1) First dairying in green Saharan Africa in the fifth millennium BC
(2) Once-Green Sahara Hosted Early African Dairy Farms
@Tijana you of course are free to choose not to drink raw milk if you like and I’m sorry for your ordeal, but as for me, the miniscule risk (and it is miniscule compared with other foods) compared with the huge benefits I have observed in over 10 years of drinking it from over a dozen farms is clearly worth it. I wonder if you got e coli from cantaloupe like the outbreak of e coli in cantaloupe last year that killed dozens of people … would you stop eating cantaloupe for the rest of your life? Just wondering as it seems pretty extreme reaction to ban a complete food group and drink a factory food instead to a wholesome unprocessed food like grassfed raw milk.
Tijana, I’m so sorry that happened to your family.
That us fascinating! We are dairy-free (except ghee) for allergy reasons, but I wish we could have yummy, grassfed raw milk!
I agree it’s a pretty stupid argument, however thousands of years ago (and even 50 years ago) there was also no such thing as E coli 0157:H7.
Personally we sourced a local supply of raw milk earlier this year. I had been thinking about it for quite some time and was happy to finally find one. The farm was very clean, the family fed their own small children raw milk, they never skimped on sterilizing or cleaners. It was as clean as could be. Then their cows grazed on some immature pasture grass and got E coli 0157:H7. By the time this was confirmed there were several people ill, including my 2 year old (who up until then had consumed half a gallon of raw milk a week) and several other kids, some of whom barely made it out alive. My son had bloody diarrhea about every 30 mins to an hour for four or five days, accompanied by severe stomach cramps. Then just after the diarrhea stopped he got Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (the potentially life threatening complication that can cause the kidneys to shut down). Fortunately he had a fairly mild case of HUS and didn’t need to be hospitalized, unlike some of the other kids who were in hospital and on dialysis for a month. Then on top of that we had to get stool samples for the health department every other day and he had to be isolated from other kids (no school or daycare) until he was no longer excreting the E coli. This took another 6 weeks or so.
Believe me when I say that you don’t want to mess with this strain of E coli. I used to think that the benefits of raw milk outweighed the risks, but after going through what we went through I wouldn’t give it to my kids again. And I understand that you can get sick from anything, spinach, strawberries, you name it, but after that experience I just can’t in my right mind make the same choice for my kids. I get pasteurized (non-homogenized) grass fed milk that I use to make kefir, but for drinking and cereal and such we use home made almond milk now.
I agree it’s a pretty stupid argument, however thousands of years ago (and even 50 years ago) there was also no such thing as E coli 0157:H7.
Personally we sourced a local supply of raw milk earlier this year. I had been thinking about it for quite some time and was happy to finally find one. The farm was very clean, the family fed their own small children raw milk, they never skimped on sterilizing or cleaners. It was as clean as could be. Then their cows grazed on some immature pasture grass and got E coli 0157:H7. By the time this was confirmed there were several people ill, including my 2 year old (who up until then had consumed half a gallon of raw milk a week) and several other kids, some of whom barely made it out alive. My son had bloody diarrhea about every 30 mins to an hour for four or five days, accompanied by severe stomach cramps. Then just after the diarrhea stopped he got Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (the potentially life threatening complication that can cause the kidneys to shut down). Fortunately he had a fairly mild case of HUS and didn’t need to be hospitalized, unlike some of the other kids who were in hospital and on dialysis for a month. Then on top of that we had to get stool samples for the health department every other day and he had to be isolated from other kids (no school or daycare) until he was no longer excreting the E coli. This took another 6 weeks or so.
Believe me when I say that you don’t want to mess with this strain of E coli. I used to think that the benefits of raw milk outweighed the risks, but after going through what we went through I wouldn’t give it to my kids again. And I understand that you can get sick from anything, spinach, strawberries, you name it, but after that experience I just can’t in my right mind make the same choice for my kids. I get pasteurized (non-homogenized) grass fed milk that I use to make kefir, but for drinking and cereal and such we use home made almond milk now.
I thought the advent of agriculture was 10,000 years ago?!?!
Very interesting indeed.
interesting early farmers didn’t drink the raw milk, but used it to make butter, cheese, etc. i love raw butter and cheese, but don’t enjoy the taste of raw milk. maybe it’s because i identify with my early ancestors.
My chickens love clabbered milk as well!
I hear it all the time from vegans on Food, Inc. One person had a comeback that we are the only species smart enough to do it and that other animals would also if only they had thumbs!