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Healthy Dietary Fat: Alexandre Family Farm A2/A2 Milk
I gave up milk decades ago because it seemed to aggravate my asthma back then.
There is factory milk whichto me tastes like crap, and then there is the Good Stufff.
Alexandre Family Farm A2/A2 Milk is the only stuff I’ve found that satisfies other than some more local sources.
The 6% milkfat vs the thin and runny stuff from cows not eating or mooing right is huge. The high fat content is a feature, not a bug—saturated fat of the right kind is the best kind of fat you can eat*. I love spooning off the cream top on a fresh bottle. Their A2/A2 heavy whipping cream is unbelievably good also, ditto for the yogurt.
Milk is a very efficient superfood. It is a great source of protein, energy (from lactose), calcium, magnesium, phosphate, B vitamins iodine, and healthy fats, as well as all amino acids. The protein in milk is made up of Whey (1-2%) and Casein (6-8%).
Traditionally, the beta casein in cow’s milk was the same as the primary protein in human milk: A2 /A2 beta casein. A2/A2 beta casein protein is most natural to the human body and easily absorbed. However, over time, there was a genetic mutation in cows and an A1 beta casein variation resulted in cows with two types of proteins – A1 and A2. Unfortunately, the A1 beta casein can be difficult for humans to digest and is linked to many health issues. 14 years ago, Stephanie and Blake Alexandre determined to breed the A1 beta casein gene out of their herd of cows. The result today is that we have 100% A2/A2 cows producing 100% A2/A2 organic milk (A1-free).
Maybe the Alexandre Family Farm A2/A2 100% Grass-Fed is even better, but it is much harder for me to find. Its cream content varies by season.
* Never mind the unhealthy fats the medical profession tells you are good, an anti-scientific standard decided many decades ago by politicians and lobbyists. Talk to your doctor before changing your diet if you like, who will almost certainly recommend the food pyramid recommended by your government, which loves you to death. Lots of PUFAs for happy lab rats!
From Switzerland, Maurizio writes:
First of all thanks for your research, it is a valuable source of information. I often find myself reading confirmations about the findings from our own experience (me, similar to you, my wife ICU nurse and a very good friend MD, not of the supply chain medicine kind).
Now that you touch the subject of milk, these are my 2 cents:
- Genetically, most cows produce some A1 casein (about 20%), which is quite tolerable
- Only (that I am aware of) one Irish breed produces 100% A2 casein
- The actual issue is that here in Switzerland they feed most cows with what they call the Concentrate (basically corn and other stuff)
- The result is that the proportion of A1/A2 casein switches up to 80% A1.
- A huge number of people become Lactose intolerant…
- … or so they think
- Milk becomes extremely inflammatory
- The industry produces more fat and lactose free surrogate milk- I learned how A1 casein was banned from artificial milk for babies. Nevertheless, no one cares about A1 for adults
- Most of the research about casein was done in South Korea and otters Far East countries, apparently they definitely do not tolerate A1 casein.
I discovered a few years back a few Swiss producers that only sell milk from grass eating horned cows (the number is growing steadily). Horns are a guarantee that the cows had the option to roam free and are not closed in a farm, otherwise they tend to fight and injure themselves. We even tried to ban cutting horns from cows in a public referendum… but you known, sadly, the majority of people hardly care about anything.
To make a long story short, I always loved milk, I risked not being able to drink it anymore and now I can have as much as I want.
WIND: most cows (slaughterhouse or milk producing) are fed corn and soy and produce a totally different nutritional output when consumed, whether it is the fat in the meat or the fat in the milk.
Cows were designed by nature to eat GRASS (and forbes and sedges perhaps), NOT corn and soy. Garbage in, garbage out.
IMO, feedlot aka “factory” meat should be avoided for its inflammatory Omega 6 fatty acid profile. That is why I eat only grass-fed beef, though sparingly since I cannot afford it often. But marketing frauds with grass-fed beef are legion—all you can hope for is avoiding the rampant fraud of grass-raised and corn/soy-finished which can still legally be called “grass fed”; you are eating fat that is mainly corn/soy derived. What you want is grass-fed and grass-finished beef that has never been fed corn or soy.
It gets harder to know with chickens and chicken eggs. Many so-called “free range” or “pasture” chickens are fed corn and allowed to wander out of the barn into a bare-dirt enclosure. Only true free-ranging chickens that can feed off bugs/worms/snails/etc can produce the eggs and meat I knew in my youth—a radically superior product in taste and nutrition.
