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The Mysterious Medicinal Powers of Camel Milk

Dromedary drama among a vocal subculture of parents with autistic kids

For most of his life, Dan Garfinkel has hardly been able to visit loved ones in the hospital for fear of getting seriously ill himself. The 40-year-old real estate worker has a sensitive case of celiac disease, which damages the digestive system and causes a spectrum of nasty symptoms. It weakened Garfinkel’s immune system so that any exposure to a virus could send him to bed for weeks.

Besides a long series of medications, he tried alternative-healing methods: chiropractic care and acupuncture for his aching joints, kinesiology therapy for his muscles, Chinese herbal treatments for his indigestion and fatigue—all with disappointing results. Then he read about a young man in Vancouver, British Columbia, who had recovered from a parasitic infection by drinking raw camel milk.

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What's the Effect of Banning Flavored Milk?

Los Angeles schools say no thanks to sweetened milk. You can thank (or blame) Jamie Oliver.

Quite some time ago, the celebrity chef and health advocate Jamie Oliver performed the following stunt: He started filling a school bus with white sand to demonstrate how much added sugar was in the flavored milk consumed in one week in Los Angeles schools. In the end, the gigantic yellow bus was overflowing.

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Video: The Incredible Science of Cheese-Making

Take a look into the fascinating science of cheese—from MRIs to microbes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6yzLSByHQ

Americans eat about 33 lbs of cheese a year, and KQED Quest recently looked into our ever-evolving taste for salty, fermented blocks of milk in a segment on the "Science and Art of Cheese."

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Why Are Police Raiding Raw Food Stores

While raw food advocates might not have any science behind their beliefs, all food lovers should be worried about the government's recent crackdown.

While raw food advocates might not have any conclusive science behind their beliefs, all food lovers should be worried about the government's recent crackdown.

On June 30, armed federal agents stormed Rawesome Foods in Venice, California. Four officers had their handguns drawn, and video of the raid shows them skirting boxes of produce in a warehouse. The alleged perpetrators had put their stash in a back cooler. What was it? Raw milk, straight from the udder, and full of what one Rawesome employee said was vibrational nutrients.

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A Taste Test of Greener Milks


Putting aside for a moment the dietary arguments against drinking cow's milk—we're not calves, it's liquid meat, it's snot-producing, so hard to digest, etc.—conventional milk deserves vilification for many reasons. Conventional dairy's ethically repulsive and planet-reaming process involves more or less torturing cows to lactate year-round; pumping their ailing, grain-fed bodies with hormones and antibiotics right up until they become hamburger; butchering their anemic offspring for scallopine and pet food; and, last but not least, polluting our own water supplies with both their excrement and agricultural runoff. Oh, wait. That wasn't last. I forgot to mention that conventional milk is trucked hither and yon. But don't take my word for any of this; here's yet more information on the malevolent liquid that complements a slice of chocolate cake so nicely.

One way that milk lovers can sidestep these issues, at least in part, is to buy more sustainable forms of milk: certified (or in-spirit) organic and/or local. But if taste is the guide, as is so often is the case, is one of these morally better milks more delicious than the other? Or are they all just white, taste-neutral beverages?

Head to Grist for the full rundown of which milks are worth buying and which are not.

Photo by Jason Houston via Grist.

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