People say the devil is in the detail…however, a new (as I happened to know about it recently!) book claims that the devil is in the milk! Yes, the book titled “The Devil in the Milk” by Dr Keith Woodford (Professor, Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University, New Zealand) provides unknown and hidden (hide and seek?) facts about milk by collecting evidences published in >100 scientific articles! By examining population studies, he shows the relationship between one of the proteins (A1 beta-casein) in the milk and a plethora of serious health issues such as autoimmune disease, heart disease, type 1 diabetes, autism, and schizophrenia.
Cows that produce A1 beta-casein in their milk are called A1 cows, and include breeds such as Holstein that are found in New Zealand, Australia, and other western countries, whereas cows that produce A2 beta-casein in their milk with a proline at number 67 are called A2 cows, and include older breeds such as Jerseys, African, and Asian cows (includes our well-known desi cows – Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar, Ongole, Kangayam, Malenadu Gidda, Vechur) that are found in most parts of southern Europe, Africa, and Asia. Hurrah! It’s easy to remember and there are no A3, A4, etc. for now!
Long long ago, all milk contained A2 beta-casein… until a mutation occurred in this proline amino acid, converting it to histidine in some European cattle around 5000 years ago. Cows that have this mutated beta-casein became the A1 cows (it is anybody’s guess why A2 came into existence before A1)! Proline in A2 milk has a strong bond (some bonds last forever! ) to a small protein called BCM 7, which keeps it away from getting into the milk. Hence essentially no BCM 7 is found in the urine, blood, or gastrointestinal (GI) tract of (old-fashioned?) A2 cows. However, histidine, the mutated protein, only weakly holds on to BCM 7, and hence it is liberated (without a hero, a plebiscite, and fighting any war of independence!) in the GI tract of animals and humans who drink A1 cow milk. BCM 7 has been shown to cause neurological impairment in animals and people (especially autistic and schizophrenic changes) exposed to it. BCM 7 interferes with the immune response, and injecting BCM 7 in animal models resulted in type 1 diabetes. Hence simply switching breeds of cows from A1 to A2 could result in amazing health benefits.
For people who think the “grass is always green on the other side”, it’s time to think about switching to A2 milk obtained from our desi cows!
NOTE: A few facts about proteins (to the uninitiated?): All proteins are long chains of amino acids. Beta casein is a chain of 229 amino acids in length.
Please also read my other blogs from my cowshed…