[quote yeoman]Homogenized milk is BAD
http://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/heal...-Water.htm
I don't wish to be contentious, but I think that a great deal of skepticism is justified with respect to that article. The author does not cite any published research. She does say that it is more involved than she wants to get into for that particular article, but it would have been easy and desirable for her to have linked to other articles that do lay out the scientific evidence for her claim - especially since it runs counter to a basic understanding of how the body digests fats. Bile salts in the duodenum, in conjunction with enzymes, are very effective in breaking down fats into small enough bits to be absorbed in the small intestine. It strikes me as doubtful that homogenization significantly adds to the amount of fat ultimately absorbed when one drinks whole milk. If the digestive system were not very adept at absorbing fats we would have much more fats coming out the other end with not particularly pleasant results.
This is what the author of the article claims as credentials:
"Deb Bromley is a former science and technology researcher and the President of NatureGem Nontoxic Living(
http://www.naturegem.com), an organization devoted to promoting awareness of toxins in our food and environment that can cause disease, and providing access to nutrition information, natural remedies, and alternative health resources. She was formerly a researcher at the NASA Lewis Research Center, a professional staff member of Cleveland State University, and a Corning research contractor. Additionally, she was the operations manager for the Battelle Memorial
Institute Midwest Technology Transfer Center, and an editor for a major Cleveland-area regional newspaper. Ms. Bromley studied environmental health and behavioral science at the New York Institute of Technology"
Initially this sounds at least moderately impressive. But notice some of the details - she "studied" at the New York Institute of Technology; no mention of any degree or advanced degree (especially as one would expect from someone who does scientific research). A Google search shows no mention of her in connection with the NASA Lewis Research Center (which is not normally an institution that does research on nutrition), and no mention of her with respect to Battelle Memorial Institute or Cleveland State University. Now, that does not mean that she didn't do something at those places, but one would think if she did some research of merit there would be at least some mention of her. In fact, I could find no instances of her doing any published research at all. All of her contributions seem to come under the auspices of "NatureGem Nontoxic Living" (of which she is the "President", and as far as one can tell, the only member). If you look at the disclaimer in tiny letters at the very bottom of the "About us" web page you see this: "Much of the information presented on the NatureGem web site is based on personal research, experience, and resulting opinion."
I don't hold anything inherently against "alternative" views of medicine - my future daughter-in-law is studying to become a Naturopathic Physician - but I do think we need to be cautious about just taking information from someone just because they make it sound somewhat plausible by using certain kinds of terminology.
If you don't put much weight in what leads me to be skeptical, even taking the article at full value it would be a simple matter to just drink low-fat or non-fat milk to avoid the SUPPOSED problem of high cholesterol from drinking homogenized whole milk that the author posits. That's a long way from "homogenized milk is dangerous".
I definitely got carried away here - some extra time to delve into something not all that significant just for fun on this Sunday morning (after taking the dog on a three mile walk and vacuuming the house). :-)