Why we're all confused by milk - Part 2

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Yesterday I posted about milk and the confusion caused amongst many of us when it comes to low fat v's full cream.

In the past I had always been a skinny cappuccino kinda girl. That is until recently.
I have swapped my skinny caps for full cream ones.
Why you ask? Well, it's part of my journey to quit sugar. As I mentioned yesterday, more often than not, low fat milk = higher amounts of sugar.
The other main selling point for me was the fact that full fat dairy fills you up. Plain and simple.
When the afternoon munchies hit I now reach for a piece of cheese over a piece of chocolate, and I feel full and satisfied until dinner.

So while my occasional take-away coffee has changed from skinny to full cream, I was intrigued when I started reading about the difference between unhomogenised and homogenised milk.

In short, homogenised means that the chemistry of the milk has been altered so that the cream won't separate from the rest of the milk.
Now, if the thought of a creamy layer on the top of your milk makes you think your milk is off, you're not alone. The other day my hubby opened a carton of unhomogenised milk and ended up binning it because he (actually, I have to admit, we) thought it had gone off...
The thing is, when our parents were growing up, the milk they used to drink every day was in fact unhomogenised. People would rush to be the first to get the creamy layer off the top of the milk bottle. And milk tasted so much better, none of this watery crap that we see around these days. We're talking full, creamy, rich milk that fills you up.

So what does homogenising entail you ask?
Well, put simply, milk is forced through tiny holes at very high pressure so that the fat molecules break apart.
As the much smaller fat molecules reassemble, fragments of whey and casein are included in their walls, some completely surrounded by a layer of protein.
As these chemically altered molecules tend to clump together, the next stage is to break them up.

Some researchers believe that these protein-heavy fat molecules can potentially increase allergic reactions due to the active enzymes that are no longer present.

Not only this, but the enzyme xanthine oxidase, in it's altered state (i.e. after it is homogenised), can enter the bloodstream and react against arterial walls, causing the body to protect the area with a layer of cholesterol... hmmm... not so good for the heart really.

Many people out there think that homogenised milk is nutrient poor. Before homogenisation was around very few people were allergic to milk. That is because of the active enzymes present. In unhomogenised milk there is exactly enough lactase to digest the lactose, protease to digest the protein and lipase to digest the fat. These enzymes also help the absorption of calcium.

Not meaning to confuse you any more, but many people out there are of the opinion that any kind of milk that comes from an animal is bad.
What about the antibiotics and growth hormones that can be given to cows and which, in turn, passes through to their milk? And that milk is then made into things like cheeses, butters and creams.

Ok, so I'm not willing to give up my dairy entirely just yet!
I'm just trying to get informed, and share what I have found out with you.

Many people who have now turned their back on cows milk opt for alternatives including rice, soy, oat and almond milk.
I'll be giving you a run down on these dairy-free-alternatives soon.
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