Quote:
What we feed the chickens and the cats is RAW MILK.
Raw Milk gets bad press mainly because big agri-industrial dairies cannot get into the business (you just cannot produce huge quantities of raw milk, its logistically impossible), and they don't want people to find out how much better the raw product is because they cannot get into the raw milk market.
But raw milk is what our grandparents, and great grandparents, and great great grandparents drank. And back then, you almost never ran into anybody who was "lactose intolerant."
My wife is "lactose intolerant."
Well, she is -- UNLESS she drinks raw milk!
Most people who are "lactose intolerant" actually find that they CAN drink RAW milk. My wife is one of them, which is one reason why we go out of our way to get raw milk now that there is a legal way to do that in the state of Tennessee.
Here's what one website says concerning "lactose intolerance" and raw milk:
"Lactose, or milk sugar, is the primary carbohydrate in cow's milk. Made from one molecule each of the simple sugars glucose and galactose, it's known as a disaccharide. People with lactose intolerance for one reason or another (age, genetics, etc.), no longer make the enzyme lactase and so can't digest milk sugar (20). This leads to some unsavory symptoms, which, needless to say, the victims find rather unpleasant at best. Raw milk, with its lactose-digesting Lactobacilli bacteria intact, may allow people who traditionally have avoided milk to give it another try.
The end-result of lactose digestion is a substance called lactic acid (responsible for the sour taste in fermented dairy products). Besides having known inhibitory effects on harmful species of bacteria (21), lactic acid boosts the absorption of calcium, phosphorus and iron, and has been shown to make milk proteins more digestible by knocking them out of solution as fine curd particles (22)(23). "
http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/raw_milk_health_benefits.html
My chickens LOVE raw milk! They run from where ever they are at so that they can have first access to one of the bowls when I come out with the bottle of raw milk. Unless I pour a huge amount out for them, they will not stop until all the milk is drank.
My Maine Coon cat -- who is an indoor/outdoor cat -- drinks raw milk without any diarrhea or other problems. I've never tried to give my Maine Coon regular pasturized milk, but the raw milk works fine with her digestive system.
This new cat seemed to enjoy the raw milk too. I haven't seen any signs of lactose intolerance in her since she drank it, though she tends to "do her thing alot" and I don't have a whole lot of contact with her.
But like I said, my wife never thought she could enjoy a dairy product because her lactose intolerance was so bad. Until she discovered raw milk, that is.
