Should I be concerned? Bovine Growth Hormone in Milk?

[thechrismyster]

egads… if you throw your plastic toys away… send them this way!

seriously, tho… the problem isn’t with plastics that are hard and cold… (little tykes stuff, plastic teethers… that stuff is fine…)
i think the problem, from what i’ve read, is when you combine plastics and heat.
storing leftovers in plastic gladware is probably fine… if i was reheating them in the microwave, i’d take them and put the leftovers onto a dish…

plastics + heating = bad

plastics + cold = not so bad

and the soft plastics (pliable plastic containers, plastic wrap and the like… they are the ones most likely to leech chemicals into our foods when heated…

so the moral of the story… just try not to heat or reheat in plastics… but the cold stuff is probably safe.

 

[LynnieLew]

Pish Posh, these are our friends on CAF! We can talk to each other about anything! It is just as if we were sitting down for a cup of coffee and discussing something at our kitchen table.

Perhaps questions such as this should be posted on a scientific Web site, if you really want a reliable answer. It doesn’t seem like a Catholic forum could provide many scientific truths regarding bovine growth hormones.

 

[LynnieLew]

Carol Marie,
You had BETTER start moving! That is a long to-do list!

Carol Marie’s to-do list:

1. Buy raw-organic milk.
2. Throw away all plastic foodware & plastic baby toys.
3. Stop using hair products, make up & creams that contain parebens.
4. Contact plate manufacturer to make sure lead base paint wasn’t used.
5. Find cattle farm for kids to play at.

 

[LRThunder]

don’t be silly… the posters here at CA know all there is to know about everything!!!

(Welcome to the forums by the way! )

That’s because we all have probably stayed at a Holiday Inn Express at least once.

 

[AnnaTherese]

But you know, it works the other way too. I recall reading a study done in Germany where they found that kids raised on cattle farms were pretty much immune to the E Coli that so devastates urban populations here and there. They figured the kids on farms are exposed to cattle manure early on, along with the bacteria in it, and develop immunity; very young kids, evidently, being less affected by a mild infection than those who attain some age before exposure. That’s quite interesting. A substantial number of human diseases have cattle vectors or analogues.

.

I would tend to guess it’s because the farm kids probably drink the milk straight from the cow and therefore with all the enzymes and beneficial bacteria to kill off the ecoli. That’s probably why they don’t get infected. Some commercial farmers are a bit like politicians who talk all day about why we should support public schools, but then send their own kids to private schools. They’re no fools. They know the difference.

 

[thechrismyster]

the mystery deepens…

this was out today, seems like since the 80’s MENS hormones are also out of kilter…

today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2006-10-31T192336Z_01_KIM169763_RTRUKOC_0_US-TESTOSTERONE-LEVELS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study has found a “substantial” drop in U.S. men’s testosterone levels since the 1980s, but the reasons for the decline remain unclear. This trend also does not appear to be related to age.

The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1 percent a year, Dr. Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found. This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15 percent lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987. This also means that a greater proportion of men in 2002 would have had below-normal testosterone levels than in 1987… con’t at link above

 

[leaner]

We buy organic milk for many reasons – the biggest being the bovine hormones and antibiotics, etc. and all that other **** they put into it…what I’ve found is that organic milk tastes a whole lot better to us, and it lasts longer too – I buy 4 gallons every two weeks or more if we need it from Trader Joe’s b/c it’s the cheapest place I can find it. I pay $5.29/gallon. To me, it’s worth the investment; my kids drink a lot of milk and love it, and I use it alot in baking and cooking. I try to buy organic the things that get the most chemical treatment – for instance, strawberries are more heavily treated than broccoli, so I splurge on the strawbs and not so much on the broccoli…that’s kind of how I shop – I try to weigh the positives vs. the negatives and do the best I can with what I have; I’ve also found that sometimes you pay more for an item (like the cereal I bought yesterday) but it packs a better punch nutrition-wise than the cheaper cereal I bought last week…so to me, that’s worth the extra $.50 or whatever it is.

 

[ehanway]

I asked my daughter’s endocrinologist about this subject. I figured he should know what’s what in that area. He said that years ago cows were injected with estrogen. Now they are using a growth hormone. He said that it is a hormone that humans cannot absorb when ingested. It has to be injected to affect the system. He gave the example of children that need to have hormones for their growth have to have injections because an oral version of the hormone can’t be absorbed.
He didn’t seem to think regular milk would be a problem for the hormone aspect and given the price difference it helps the budget. I may end up back with organic though since the taste is better!
Elizabeth

 

[1ke]

The hormone implants and the antibiotics for cattle both simply tell the user not to use them so many days before slaughter. To my knowledge, neither meat nor milk are tested for either, and it’s simply left up to the farmer’s conscience whether he/she discontinues in a timely way. So it is quite likely some milk and meat has both things in it.

You are incorrect regarding the testing of milk for antibiotics. Every time milk is picked up from a farmer a sample is taken and is tested for antibiotics. The results are processed before any milk from that tank enters the processing plant. If it tests positive for antibiotics, the entire load is discarded. These are very strict federal regulations.

There is no requirement regarding discontinuation of hormones in dairy cattle prior to milking (this is actually counter-intuitive as the drug mus be given continually to the milking cow to produce the desired effect), however because the federal government has declared it safe there is also no testing to see whether farmers who say they are rBGH free are in fact rBGH free. In that regard, you are correct, it’s the honor system.

Our dairy is rBGH free because my husband does not believe in using it.

 

[1ke]

We buy organic milk for many reasons – the biggest being the bovine hormones and antibiotics, etc. and all that other **** they put into it…

There are no antibiotics in dairy products.

 

[1ke]

1. Buy raw-organic milk.

It is illegal to sell raw milk in many places. It is here in Wisconsin.

It’s also unsafe unless you know where the milk has come from and the conditions in which the cows are kept.

 

[MooCowSteph]

I remember reading in a book, I think called the Field Guide to Organics (cross posted in the natural living thread with a link) about hormones in milk, and how much is in milk versus a woman and it was about a half a percent as much as is in an average woman. I can’t remember the figures, but it was low enough that I stopped worrying.

Now, the pesticide residues hang out in the fat molecules, so be aware of that if you buy ommercially available whole milk. We buy regular skim…

And as for raw, it’s not nearly as dangerous as you would be led to believe. It is, however, very difficult for most to get their hands on. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092700108.html

 

[hasikelee]

Milk in my family has been a back and forth commodity.

First we drank it like crazy.

Then we went vegetarian for awhile as some kids were sensitive and/or allergic dairy.

Then we had a couple little kids added to the family and mom found out they benefited from milk so we started on it again.

Then there was a big drama and recall in Illinois of milk. Unfortunately mom was pregnant at the time and she became very sick from the milk. The doctor apparently didn’t think she would be able to continue the pregnancy. She did, but my brother was born without a thryoid. This was all attributed to whatever was wrong with the milk.

So we stopped all the milk drinking.

Then we had the 2nd youngest who benefits from dairy so we started up again, with the organic brand.

Phew!

As for the hormone debate, even if there is dispute that these hormones are causing a lower-age onset of puberty, there is no dispute that consuming these hormones at doses over a long period of time, along with whatever other chemicals are in that milk, DOES affect you somehow. The question for doctors and scientists to find out is exactly how.