Does the A2 thing or raw milk thing matter more? It depends. LEARN MORE HERE.

How the fear of Mad Cow Disease lives on

written by

Marie Reedell

posted on

October 9, 2020

A customer asked a question about what organ meats we offer (check out a complete list with the status here). I take all customer questions seriously and do my absolute best to answer honestly and accurately. This particular question led me down a rabbit hole and to a fascinating and timely revelation. 

I called the meat processor. I asked what organ meats they could butcher for our customers. They needed to do some research themselves! 

You see, the USDA heavily regulates the meat industry to protect public health and safety. Here are the absolute basics of how it works.

A processor typically hires a consultant (yea, it’s that specific and detailed) to create a HACCP plan. The HACCP plan contains all the steps a processor takes when killing and butchering animals. 

The USDA then approves or denies the plan. If approved, they inspect the facility. A processor is “certified USDA” when they operate using an approved HACCP plan in a USDA inspected facility.

All of our meat is “certified USDA”.

There are certain parts of an animal that are not permitted for sale at all under USDA regulations. 

For example, the thyroid from a cow is never allowed for sale. And, any other organ or part connected to the spine (brain, adrenals, spleen, T-bone steak, etc) can only be processed if the cow is younger than 30 months (which is the case for nearly all of our cows).

Why is this? Mad Cow Disease!!! 

Mad Cow Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease thought to be caused by cows eating a specific protein. In rare cases, when a human eats nerve tissue from an infected cow, the human variant of the disease is transferred to them, even if the meat is cooked. If a human does get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), it is fatal.

The Mad Cow Disease epidemic hit its peak in Britain in 1993. Since there is no cure, over four million cows were slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease. Wow!

The epidemic stirred up fear internationally. Meat prices went up incredibly, and many people stopped eating hamburgers. 

Because of this outbreak, the USDA (and the WHO) enacted many regulations regarding screening, testing, and disposal of infected animals. And those rules exist to this day.

Here’s the kicker. Only six cows in the United States have been found to have Mad Cow Disease. Six! The first was in 2003, and the last was in 2018. And, in that time period, about 663 million cows have been processed.

So, tell me this. Is this level of caution appropriate? Of course, no food producer wants its customers to get sick. But, is this overly cautious, especially since the risk is close to none but the benefits of eating organ meats are many?

In New Jersey, there is a law prohibiting slurping. That’s right, slurping the last bit of a smoothie through a straw is illegal. Why? Because 150 years ago, slurping startled horses and that was dangerous in cities. This law is undoubtedly outdated (and also unenforced). But still. Let’s get with the times!

How long should we live with a specific fear? A few months, a few years, a few generations? How long will it take society to leave behind the fear of COVID, and how long will these new rules live with us?

Of course, there are no direct answers to these questions… only debate. And today’s profit-driven media only makes things more complicated. 

What I think is that with life comes risk. We cannot avoid fear. We cannot avoid suffering. It is as essential as love and happiness. 

As with all emotions, we take it as it comes and let it go when it passes. 

Just like the USDA requires expiration dates on food, I think the government should require expiration dates on laws. It would force our representatives to reassess what freedom, equality, and justice means as the world changes and we grow as a society.

Miller’s Bio Farm is fearless in its food production. We are constantly learning and questioning the status quo. Every week we share our journey with you, both the good and the bad. We are constantly forging a new (and I hope better) path forward.

Pastured Meat

Opinion

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Why it's nearly impossible to avoid maltodextrin in fermented dairy.

Why it's nearly impossible to avoid maltodextrin in fermented dairy.

If you dove deep on our website and clicked on a product to get all the nitty gritty details, you may have noticed the "Honest Disclosure" section. That's right. We believe you deserve to know everything about your food - the big, the small, the good... and even the bad. On most of our fermented dairy (cheese, yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, etc), you may have noticed a message saying that the freeze dried culture contains a trace amount of maltodextrin 😱 And you may have thought, "What!? I thought they made the most natural food around!" You're right. We do aim to provide you with the most natural foods around, from the farming practices to how they're made in small batches. We want you to have max nutrition and the least toxins possible. And honestly, we're not thrilled to have even a trace of a trace amount of maltodextrin in our fermented dairy. But, sadly, there's simply no way to do that nowadays, especially considering the demand for specific flavors, consistent textures, and a reliable food source. Like seriously, when it comes to maltodextrin, the only difference between Miller's dairy and any other dairy (whether from a supermarket or a farm) is that we did the research and are actually telling you about it. We don't need to. It's not required. But... you deserve to know. So, what's going on with maltodextrin? There's so much more to this story! Keep reading to be a smart natural food shopper and get all the info. What is maltodextrin anyway? Maltodextrin is a sugar, a very simple sugar. Scientifically speaking, it's "short chains of glucose units", a type of "oligosaccharide". Maltodextrin is 100% a lab-produced ingredient. They take a starch (a complex carbohydrate that your body would digest into sugar) and break it down using enzymes or acids. The result is a simple sugar. Labs are basically cutting that long, complex chain that makes up a starch into shorter, simpler segments.  Maltodextrin can be made from a bunch of different kinds of starches - corn, wheat, rice, potato, cassava, etc. In the US, it's most commonly made with corn. Depending on what the maltodextrin is derived from and how it's made, it can have different properties and uses.  It's most commonly dried into a white powder but can also be found in syrup form. Maltodextrin is used in food as a stabilizer, thickener, anti-caking agent, and bulking agent. I mean, it's in soooo many processed foods. It can also be used in livestock feed or healthcare products as an easily digestible sugar source. Maltodextrin does NOT need to be certified organic in healthcare products (supplements, etc). But, it does need to be certified organic in livestock feed and foods that are certified organic.  What would make maltodextrin certified organic? It's how it's broken down. According to OMRI (the Organic Materials Review Institute that approves things for organic use), maltodextrin made with acid is NOT certified organic. Maltodextrin made with enzymes is certified organic. Apparently they believe the enzymatic way is considered "natural". Why would people want to avoid maltodextrin? The FDA classes maltodextrin as a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) food additive. That being said, there are known risks to consuming maltodextrin, especially in larger amounts (which you can absolutely get from processed foods). Here are some potential negative health consequences of overconsumption of maltodextrin: High cholesterolWeight gainType 2 diabetesBlood sugar spikes (particularly in people with diabetes or insulin resistance)Imbalance of gut bacteriaAllergies or intolerances (to corn or wheat) with a range of side effectsExposure to GMOs (when derived from GMO corn) Keep in mind that any of the above side effects typically arise from consuming maltodextrin in large amounts. A trace amount usually won't negatively impact your health unless you have a severe allergy to it (or what it's derived from or made with). What is a freeze dried culture?  Freeze dried cultures are surprisingly old. They originated in the late 1800s as a way to preserve the best cheese and dairy cultures and share them over distances. But the technology didn't become really good and reliable until the mid 1900s. That's when they started becoming popular. The process to make them is fairly simple. Like, you can totally do it at home (maybe you've done it with sourdough starter...?). But... for best accuracy and use, freeze dried cultures are best for commercial use and are made in labs nowadays. Here's how it's done: 1- Strains of microorganisms are isolated and grown. The first cultures were made by letting raw milk grow wild. Then, each strain of bacteria, yeast, etc was isolated. This can be done with a particular solution or by putting fermented raw milk on a medium that only supports a specific kind of microorganisms. It's kinda like terrain theory here. Nowadays, labs generally aren't isolating their own cultures much. Instead, they're maintaining cultures separated a longtime ago.  It's kind of like culture makers are literal "micro farmers" growing microorganisms. But, instead of planting in the soil, they let each culture grow in pasteurized milk or a specific growing medium (like some kind of something scientific in a petri dish). And, it's 100% in a controlled lab environment. There might be one type of lactic acid bacteria multiplying in one tray and a certain kind of yeast in another.  2- Strains are freeze dried. Each isolated strain is usually freeze dried individually. A freeze dryer is a freezer... but with a vacuum that removes the air. Cool! You could freeze dry anything in a regular freezer, but it would take much much longer. The vacuum element of a freeze dryer makes it so any water turns right into vapor (or dries out) instead of turning to ice. 3- Strains are mixed together to make a specific culture "recipe". It's like a recipe. It might be 3 parts Bifidobacterium lactis, 2 parts Lactobacillus acidophilus, and 1 part Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. The specific strains mixed together are what give each fermented dairy product it's unique texture and flavor.  Other ingredients might be added for specific reasons. Sugars (like maltodextrin or sucrose) help keep the culture in good condition and aid it in coming back to life when used. Enzymes (like lipase) might be added to give better flavor. Or colors (like annatto or synthetic dyes) might be added for a desired yellow or orange color. Why is maltodextrin added to freeze dried cultures? In cheese cultures, maltodextrin has a double purpose. It's an anti-caking agent, keeping the culture as a powder... not an unusable clump. It's also a simple sugar that gives the culture something super easy to digest as it comes back to life. Without maltodextrin, freeze dried culture issues would be quite common. They would stop working or have spotty success. How much maltodextrin ends up in the final product? Maltodextrin is used in small amounts in a freeze dried culture. Maybe with some cultures it's more, but with ours, it's less than 1%. Just a little bit is needed.  I'm not sure about this with other dairy makers. But, I can tell you how much culture is in Miller's dairy items. For our cheese, about 1/2 tsp of culture is used in 1lb of cheese. For our fresh fermented dairy like yogurt or kefir, about 1 teaspoon of culture is used per quart of milk.  There are 96 teaspoons in a pound of cheese and 192 teaspoons in a quart of milk. So, culture alone is 0.5% or less of the final product. And, if maltodextrin is less than 1% of the culture, we're talking less than 0.005% maltodextrin. On top of that, once the culture is added, it eats up that maltodextrin immediately. I mean, that's the whole point. It's a quick simple food to get those freeze dried cultures active again. Let's say that only half of the maltodextrin is eaten by the cultures. Then there would be less than 0.0025% maltodextrin in the final product. Can we round that to zero...? You see where I'm going. This is why we are ok with the level of maltodextrin in our cheese cultures. We absolutely wouldn't choose it as an ingredient. But, as it stands now, the only cultures available have maltodextrin. If you know of one that doesn't, please let me know!!! If I'm NOT shopping at Miller's, how can I find out if maltodextrin is in my food? Maltodextrin is only required on an ingredient list if it's more than 1% of the final product. If it's less than 1%, then it's not required on a food label, because it's considered a "trace amount". 1% and 0.0025% are very different trace amount levels but are treated the same when it comes to labeling. In fact, when shopping for cheese cultures, maltodextrin typically isn't listed as an ingredient. The only way to find out is to look at the Safety Data Sheet or to call the manufacturer and cross your fingers that they'll talk to you. I think that most farms or dairy makers that get this question would simply say, "Nope, there's no maltodextrin." But, that's not the way we roll at Miller's.  A few years ago, someone who had a severe allergy reached out about this. It led me down a rabbit hole, talking to the scientists behind our cultures. And now, I'm sharing what I learned with you. Is there a way to make fermented dairy without maltodextrin, like a wild (not freeze dried) culture? Sure, wild cultured dairy is 100% a thing. It's like the sourdough bread of the dairy world. But... as the name implies, the final product can be a bit "wild". This is how we make our bursting kefirs. They're made with real kefir grains (a wild culture) that's been passed down in our community for generations. As this name implies, it can be explosive and super bubbly. It can be quite strong in flavor (not everyone's cup of tea). And it varies a lot from week to week. If we made cheese with culture we saved, it wouldn't turn out the same every time. We wouldn't be able to have a reliable cheddar and gouda and mozzarella... we'd just have one cheese that turns out a little different every time. If we made yogurt with culture we saved, it's a little more reliable. But, it still wouldn't give you the expected texture and flavor of the yogurt you're expecting. And, there would likely be weeks it simply didn't turn out right. Which Miller's dairy products contain trace amounts of maltodextrin and which don't? NO CULTURE = NO MALTODEXTRIN MilkCreamHalf & HalfIce CreamButter ColostrumGhee WILD CULTURE = NO MALTODEXTRIN Bursting Kefir FREEZE DRIED CULTURE = TRACE MALTODEXTRIN CheeseYogurtMild KefirCottage CheeseSour Cream What do you think? Are you ok with minuscule amounts of maltodextrin in fermented dairy? Why or why not? What trace ingredients are you most concerned about? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below to share your thoughts with our amazing community (no account required), or contact us to keep it private 😊 ----- Sources MaltodextrinWhat is maltodextrin and is it safe?Cheese Making Cultures FAQ Cultured Milk Starters

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Does the A2 thing or raw milk thing matter more? It depends.

Does the A2 thing or raw milk thing matter more? It depends.

What's up with soooo many people not being able to tolerate dairy these days? Could it be how conventional milk is being altered? Sure, switching to conventional "certified organic" milk that you can find in nearly any supermarket might help. You're eliminating some of the modern milk alterations. With organic, you're getting rid of the antibiotics. Antibiotics are routinely given to conventional cows to help keep them disease-free, even when in unsanitary or unnatural living environments (like indoors on concrete all the time). With organic, you're getting rid of hormones, which are given to conventional cows to make them produce more milk. More milk + the same amount of feed = more profit.With organic, you're removing some weird, unnatural stuff in the feed. This includes GMO fragments that might make their way into the milk as well as the awful chemicals like glyphosate used to grow GMO crops. But, keep in mind that "organic" does NOT mean chemical free. It simply means that any chemicals used are "approved for organic". Switching to organic is a great step in the right direction. But... what if you already did that and are still experiencing dairy issues? There are so many symptoms of dairy allergies or intolerances. They range from bloating to tummy troubles to nausea to brain fog. In this scenario, it's most likely one of two things, the lactose or the casein protein. There's a different solution for each: Lactose Intolerance → Can be solved with raw or cultured dairy Some people are "born to dance", some are "born to lead", and some are "born to rock"... but all humans are born to drink milk! I mean, breast milk is our first food after all! Babies are naturally designed to digest lactose (milk sugar). That means that, as a baby, you naturally produce tons and tons of lactase, the enzyme required to digest lactose, in your gut. But, over time, a human naturally produces less and less lactase. This is especially true if a human stops eating dairy or foods with the living microbiology present in raw dairy like lactic acid bacteria. After all, why would your body continue producing something if it's useless? Here's the good news. It can be reversed! You may be able to produce lactase again, you may be able to drink milk again, and may be able to eat cheese again. At least, this is true for many, many people. The living dairy microbiology in raw and fermented dairy (even yogurt or kefir made from pasteurized milk as long as it has live cultures in it) can jumpstart your body into producing more and more lactase. Pretty neat! A1 Protein Intolerance → Can be solved with A2/A2 dairy The A1 beta-casein protein is relatively new. A few thousand years ago, humans made cows in Europe pretty stressed. They moved them indoors in cities and started feeding them grain (the byproduct of making whisky and other stuff). And what do organisms tend to do under stress? Mutate! Unlike any other mammal, those European cows had a genetic mutation that makes them produce a new type of protein - the A1 beta-casein protein. Those cows made their way to the US. And now, basically all American milk has a mix of A1 and A2 beta casein proteins. Some people, especially those from eastern countries like India (where cows didn't mutate) or who drink pasteurized or boiled milk, might have an issue with A1 but can handle the A2 beta-casein protein just fine. Switching to A2/A2 milk is all they need to handle dairy again. It's important to note that the only way to know what kind of milk a cow produces is via a genetic test. We test all of our cows, and that's how we're sure our milk contains 100% A2 beta-casein protein. It's A2/A2! Do you have issues with dairy? Did raw or A2/A2 help? What solved your problem, or are you still looking for a solution?  I'd love to hear from you. Comment below to share your thoughts with our amazing community (no account required), or keep it private and contact us 😊

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100% grass fed and finished beef different from grain fed beef? Yes, it is!

100% grass fed and finished beef different from grain fed beef? Yes, it is!

Why grass fed beef? And, I'm not talking about that silly "grass fed" label in the supermarket, which doesn't necessarily mean what you think (read more on that here). I'm talking about truly pastured, 100% grass fed and finished beef. Feeding beef cattle 100% grass is the most natural way. Beef cattle are ruminants. That means they have 4 stomachs are are designed to graze and eat and digest plants... not fully grown seeds like corn and soy and canola or their oils. Eating 100% grass, ideally fresh from the pasture, is how cattle stay in their best health. When beef are fed grain, it creates a lot of acid in their stomach, lowering the pH. It creates an imbalance in gut microbiology, which can result in some pretty awful health outcomes for the cow (sometimes even death).  And of course, the healthier the animal, the healthier and more nutrient-dense the food it produces. 100% grass fed and finished beef is more nutritious than grain fed beef! Compared to conventional grain-fed beef, 100% grass fed and finished beef has: 3x more Vitamin E2.5x more Vitamin C2-3x more B Vitamins9x more Vitamin B310x more EPA3x more DHA10x more linolenic acid (alpha/gamma)2-4x more Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) And, grass fed beef has a much better omega 6/3 ratio, usually less than 3:1. Compare that to conventional beef, which has a ratio more than a 15:1. Wow! For some reference, humans should be eating a 4:1 omega 6/3 ratio for optimal health. But, the conventional American diet typically provides a 20:1 ratio. Ugh, no wonder Americans are so sick! Truly pastured, grass fed beef is more flavorful and has a better bite compared to conventional beef. When beef cattle aren't fed a bland diet of corn and soy and instead eat biodiverse, regenerately managed pasture, the meat has more flavor. When beef cattle have plenty of room to roam and exercise those muscles, the meat has texture to it. It has a bite.  When some people start eating grass fed beef, they're sometimes put off by the flavor and texture. They might describe it as gamey and tough. But, now that I've been eating grass fed beef for years, it's quite the opposite. Conventional beef is tasteless and boring and mushy. Do you choose grass fed and finished beef? Why? Is it because it's more humane, more nutritious, better tasting, or a combo of them all? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required) or keep it private and contact us 😊 ----- Sources Nutritional Comparisons Between Grass-Fed Beef and Conventional Grain-Fed Beef

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OUR VISION is to end sickness by enhancing health, nutrition, and happiness.

OUR PURPOSE is to inspire a generation of healthy children and reduce healthcare costs.


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