Is there really puss and blood in milk?!
Is there really puss and blood in milk?
I got REALLY grossed out by a vegan friend of mine who said that there is alot of puss and blood in milk- I have been drinking soy milk ever since. Has anyone else heard of this?
Answers:
Milk approved by the USDA meets allowable somatic cell counts (essentially an allowable level of blood & pus that determines the quality of the milk), so yes there is blood & pus in milk.
It is not propaganda; it's merely a fact.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/somatic_cel...
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ceah/ncahs/...
what the hell is puss?
no - you're friend is horribly mistaken. What a way to convert others to her way of thinking and eating!!
That comment is completely gross!
I am not saying the methods of milking a cow on a dairy farm are not hurtfull, and I know there are processes the milk goes thru, but I highly doubt the USDA approves blood and puss for human consumption.
It's just scare tactics by your vegan friend.
Also, with pasteurization, any harmful bacteria are destroyed.
That is total nonsense..
Typical vegetarian propaganda...
I'm sorry, but it is just another ignorant vegan statement which is not true, and an attempt into getting you to be a vegan!
I am sure that there can be PRIOR to pasteurization but once it is shelf ready it is no longer dangerous.
Personally, I drink rice milk as soy is toxic and has a lot of studies to back that up. there is something that happens in the heat processing of soy that brings out toxins that are dangerous for people. Try the rice dream milk instead.
My opinion on cows milk is people are not meant to drink it. That is for baby cows, not humans. It is a gross concept to drink it if you think about it..
I've never heard such a thing. That's one of many urban myths concerning food.
I'm a vegetarian and I don't believe any of that.
Milk is probably the most common food in the world, do you think they would risk selling milk that's not 100% clean and safe?
I live out in farm country, and I can tell you that milk like that would never, ever be approved for human consumption.
If a farmer saw that in his milk he wouldn't bottle it, he would call in a vet, 'cause the cow would be diseased or something. Puss and blood in milk would be completely abnormal.
Puss only occurs around infections, and blood in milk (from any animal, cow, goat, or human) is abnormal, more so than if someone saw blood in their urine.
There isn't even a risk of it being in milk prior to pasteurization, because you can't pasteurize that stuff. Pasteurization kills bacteria, it doesn't remove impurities. If milk is contaminated, it isn't used, simple as that.
Your friend is wrong.
No, actually, there's not.
Mastitis is a disease that can infect dairy cows udders and can lead to pus and blood potentially being in milk. Dairy farmers carefully keep an eye on cows and test milk regularly - the milk than goes through several points during processing to make sure it is pus free, even after pasteurization.
One of the FDA requirements for milk to be marketable is that it is "free of blood and pus."
Enjoy your milk.
i heard that too. I drink alt of soy milk too and organic milk.I hope someone can tell us if they know.
Growing up in Alberta, Canada and knowing a lot of farmers. I can say the answer is NO!! And if when getting the milk from the dairy cattle all the milk from each cow is put into a separate container before it is put into the main vat, and the producers follow a strict regime of standards in order to sell the milk.
But if you are not convinced just check out the link and it will lead you to the experts
http://images.ask.com/pictures?q=how+is+...
I know people can make convincing arguments when they believe in something strongly. You have to step back for a moment and think about what they are saying. Don't ya think if there were a lot of puss that milk would smell really bad and curdle quickly and if there were a lot of blood, wouldn't it change the color??
PETA propaganda, for the most part.
If somehow blood and pus were to make their way into milk regularly in significant amounts, don't you think you would see and taste it? Blood has a rather strong flavor, and I would particularly think it would be noticeable going up against something else that doesn't, like milk. Milk probably has far fewer "nasty" things in it that just about anything else we eat or drink, as there's not much room to hide in a thin, white, mild-tasting liquid. Your vegan friend (and everyone else), on the other hand, most likely eats insects and the waste products of various critters daily without ever noticing. It's no big deal -- we live by eating other things that were once alive, whether animal or vegetable.
Don't fear the milk!
--
Okay, edited to add the following links in response to what some later posters are claiming below:
Chocolate used to hide blood in milk debunked:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/chocm...
And from Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/milk... ), regarding so-called pus levels in milk, etc.:
"[edit] Controversy surrounding milk and milk production
A number of advocate groups have sprung up protesting that milk presents a health threat. While whole and other fattened forms of milk contain a large amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, factors which are known contributors to the risk of heart disease and many individuals are lactose intolerant, no study has concluded any causal health risk to normal individuals consuming moderate quantities of skim and fat-free varieties of milk.
"Common claims cited by anti-milk advocates:
"White blood cells in Milk- Milk contains varying levels of white blood cells, depending upon the health of the source animals; controversy surrounds whether these are simply somatic cells or, in an alternate form, pus.[18] In the United States, one to seven drops of these cells are in every eight-ounce glass of milk, varying by state, according to guidelines set up by the Food and Drug Administration and statistics reported by the dairy industry.[19] Only one state out of all fifty, Hawaii, has a cell count lower than the dairy industry's recommendations; seventeen states produce milk that would be illegal to sell based on somatic cell limits in Europe.
No study has ever conclusively demonstrated that the levels of white blood cells found in normal milk actually pose any health risk to normal individuals. The concept of pus in one's milk is somewhat revolting, but evidence for an impact on health is not existent.
"'Bovine Growth Hormone(rbst) -Since November 1993, with FDA approval, Monsanto has been selling recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST)--or rBGH--to dairy farmers. Bovine growth hormone is administered to cattle in order to increase their milk production, though the hormone also naturally fosters liver production of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). The deposit thereof in the milk of rBGH-affected cattle has been the source of concern; however, all milk contains IGF1. The IGF1 in milk from rBGH-affected cattle does not vary from the range normally found in a non-supplemented cow.[citation needed] Elevated levels of IGF1 in human blood has been linked to increased rates of breast, colon, and prostate cancer by stimulating their growth,[20][21] though this has not been linked to milk consumption. The EU has recommended against Monsanto milk.[22] In addition, the cows frequently contract an udder infection known as mastitis, partly responsible for the aforementioned prevalence of blood cells in dairy products.[23] Milk from rBGH-affected cattle is banned in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan due to the mastitis problems. On June 9, 2006 the largest milk processor in the world and the two largest supermarkets in the United States--Dean Foods, Wal-Mart, and Kroger--announced that they are "on a nationwide search for rBGH-free milk [5].'
"No study has indicated that consumption of rBST-produced milk increases IGF1 levels, nor has any study demonstrated an increased risk of any disease between those consuming rBST and non-rBST produced milk. The FDA has concluded that no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows. [24]"
And no, I personally don't think vegans or vegetarians are out to get the rest of "us." I do think they have other reasons to push their agenda(s), however, such as concern for animal welfare (which is admirable). Unfortunately, I think they are also sometimes (wittingly or unwittingly) guilty of using exaggeration, sensationalism, and just plain misinformation to try and convert others to their point of view regarding using animals and animal products.
As for what we're *meant* to consume, as human beings? If we aren't "meant" to consume milk/dairy, we should also remember to be careful to avoid grains (which we'd never be eating if not for farms), domesticated fruits (with their heightened sugar content), honey (I mean, that's basically insect milk afterall), all processed foods, whatever else we wouldn't be able to eat if not for modern agriculture, and anything which needs modern tools or appliances to be prepared and eaten. Unless you're on a Raw Wild Caveman Self-Gathered/Caught type diet of some kind, you might actually...die someday?
http://www.azcentral.com/health/diet/art...
http://answers.google.com/answers/thread...
The first article contains unbiased information about the milk industry. The second one answers your question.
There is some pus in milk prior to pasteurization, the Dairy council has set limits on the amount that is okay for market. If the pus has discolored the milk in any way shape or form the milk is typically used to produce chocolate milk, mind you this is still healthy according to the standards set by the industry.
In 1993, the same time they were introducing a new hormone (RbGH), which would unnaturally expand the cow's udder, causing ulcers, both on the interior and exterior, the Dairy council unexplainable increased the amount of pus cells (white blood cells) allowed per milliliter. They increased this amount by more than 300% of what was allowed in 1992.
Today, fewer dairies are using RbGH, but the dairy council hasn't lowered the accepted levels of pus, prior to pasteurization. After pasteurization all milk should be fine, or chocolate anyway.
For Fuzouko (the poster above me) she made a good argument but the links she sends us to are opinion, not supported by any organization. Anyone can post in Wickipedia, and anyone could write the "debunking" of the urban legend.
The information I give, says that there are standards set by the FDA, and USDA which must be met. This does not say that milk can not be discolored and still meet those standards. Would a business man throw away a product if it met the standards set by the governing board? Certainly not.
If the milk is discolored, and safe, then they would do something with it to throw off the customer. It is safe, but now flavored and colored.
The links I present should be read by all, one is from the dairy business, explaining the standards, the other is a newspaper article from a Chicago paper, which if bias existed there would support an industry close to it's fan base.
Milk is safe, if you use the standards set by those who produce it, and make money off of it,
Firstly, thanks to Toph for putting a factual answer on here ... unlike most people who just say that can't be true because you were raised on milk ... why must everyone believe what they are told, and assume it to be totally true? Think outside the box, people. Most vegans/vegetarians REALLY aren't out to get you. Did you ever think maybe they were trying to help you be healthy? And that is how you repay them.
This is my favorite paragraph from this column is right here:
"Then why does such a large portion of America continue to buy dairy products when they go shopping? Corporate brainwashing and propaganda, that's why! Obviously words like "pus" would turn most educated consumers off, so the mega dairy industry continues to spend billions of dollars each and every year to glamorize the drinking of milk and convince us that it's the only worthwhile source of calcium, and that without it, our bones are going to become brittle and crumble like the great walls of Jericho. This is a huge lie! And we're talking about some of the same companies that tried to convince us that Agent Orange and PCB's weren't going to be harmful to us either. Take my advice, you want a good source of calcium, go eat a bowl of organic broccoli!"
Read the rest at the link!
We are the only species on the planet that drinks the milk of another species. We could be putting gorilla milk on our cereal or having zebra milk and cookies. Why cows' milk? Using the animal that produces the largest quantity of milk but is more easily housed than an elephant means more money for farmers. It has nothing to do with health or nutrition.
Diary products have been linked to a host of other problems too, including acne, anemia, anxiety, arthritis, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, headaches, heartburn, indigestion, irratable bowel syndrome, join pain, osteoporosis, poor immune function, allergies, ear infections, colic, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, autism, crohn's disease, breat andprostate cancers and ovarian concer.
Let's pretend for a moment that cows' milk is healthy for humans. Even if it were, by the time factory farms were done with it it wouldn't be. Dioxin, one of the most toxic substances in the world, is often found in dairy products. When you consume dairy products, you are ingesting the same antibiotics, pesticides, steroids, and hormones you would if you ate meat directly. Cows are injected with bovine growth hormone. Their udders, under normal conditions, would supply about ten pounds of milk a day. Greedy farmers have thier cows producing up to a hundred pounds of milk a day! There is no gentle farmer milking the cow with a bucket between his feet. Cows are milked by machine: metal clamps are attached to the cows sensitive udders. The udders become sore and infected. Pus forms. But the machines keep on milking, sucking the dead white blood cells into the milk. How freaking gross is that? To get rido f all the bacteria and other stuff, milk must be pasteurized. BUT pasteurization destroys beneficial enzymes and makes calcium less available without even killing all the viruses or bacteria. Hell, even radioactive particles are found in milk!
So you say "Don't the government and U.S. Department of Agriculture protect us from all this?" Hell no! Sickeningly high levels of pesticides found in dairy meet government standards. Records from the Food and Drug Administration show that "virtually 100% of the cheese products produced and sold in the U.S. has detectable pesticide risidues."
Milk is not a reliable source of minerals. You get much higher levels of manganese, chromium, selenium, and magnesium from fruits and vegetables. Fruits and veggies are also high in boron, which helps lessen the loss of calcium through urine. Consuming high amounts of dairy blocks iron absorptio, contributing to iron deficiency.
A simple way to get adequate calcium is by including the following foods in your diet: fortified grains, kale, collard greens, mustard greeens, cabbage, kelp, seaweed, watercress, chickpeas, broccoli, red beans, soybeans, and raw nuts. Fifteen minutes of direct sunlight every day aides in Vitamin D absorption, which means stronger bones!
Apparently your friend likes conspiracy theories.
Its true. Commercial milk and meat both contain blood, pus, urine, feces, bacteria, parasites, growth hormones, steroids (the vitamin D in commercial milk is a steroid) antibiotics and other medications that are given to the animals because they develop diseases from being kept in horrid conditions. Rice milk is a good alternative, but a great source of dairy is raw milk from a food co op or local dairy. I make homemade cheeses using vegetarian rennet. Chocolate milk was invented by the milk industry to cover up traces of blood in milk from overmilked cows. You can google for more info-there are many studies, inspections, etc. to support the facts.
yeah I heard of it and read of it also. Obviously the farmer-seller and retail store-seller is never going to say it because it would hurt their sales. It's like them denying that they are still using rBGH after public opposition. The story about continued rBGH use came out of Florida. They can deny it, but there is something bad in the milk. It's not what it used to be. Maybe too much antibiotics and steroids if not pus and blood. I grew up on milk. It was my favorite drink. But I can't drink it any more because it's not the same anymore.
No, not true. At least when it comes to the organic milk I buy from a local farm here in NY.
I dunno where this information is gotten from; I certainly wouldn't believe EVERYTHING that PETA says.
nopes!
yeah there really is. swollen udders..ew. good thing almonds dont have udders :) i'd be grossed out
WHOEVER SAID THAT LIED TO YOU. JUST THINK OF HUMANS. WHEN WE BREAST FEED A BABY ARE WE GIVING THEM PUSS AND BLOOD? NO!YOUR FRIENS AN IDIOT WHO WANTS TO MAKE INTO A VEGITARIAN BECAUSE THEY ARE
Everything you know about cow's milk and dairy is probably part of a Dairy industry MYTH.
Cow's milk is an unhealthy fluid from diseased animals that contains a wide range of dangerous and disease-causing substances that have a cumulative negative effect on all who consume it.
MILK'S BASIC CONTENTS
*ALL* cow's milk (regular and 'organic') has 59 active hormones, scores of allergens, fat and cholesterol.
Most cow's milk has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins (up to 200 times the safe levels), up to 52 powerful antibiotics (perhaps 53, with LS-50), blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses. (Cow's milk can have traces of anything the cow ate... including such things as radioactive fallout from nuke testing ... (the 50's strontium-90 problem).
BACTERIA
Cow's milk is allowed to have feces in it. This is a major source for bacteria. Milk is typically pasteurized more than once before it gets to your table... each time for only 15 seconds at 162 degrees Fahrenheit.
To sanitize water one is told to boil it (212 degrees F) for several minutes. That is a tremendous disparity, isn't it!
Keep in mind that at room temperature the number of bacteria in milk DOUBLE around every 20 minutes. No wonder milk turns rotten very quickly.
PUS
ONE cubic centimeter (cc) of commercial cow's milk is allowed to have up to 750,000 somatic cells (common name is "PUS") and 20,000 live bacteria... before it is kept off the market.
That amounts to a whopping 20 million live squiggly bacteria and up to 750 MILLION pus cells per liter (bit more than a quart).
1 cup = 236.5882cc 177,441,150 pus cells ~ 4,731,600 bacteria
24 oz (3 glasses) = 532,323,450 pus cells ~ 14,220,000 bacteria
(the "recommended" daily intake)
The EU and the Canadians allow for a less "tasty" 400,000,000 pus cells per liter.
Typically these levels are lower... but they COULD reach these levels and still get to YOUR table.
There's no blood in it but there have been cases where puss has been found. Normally if the cow has puss they will inject it with a antibiotic to make the puss go away, but then that goes into your milk and makes you immune to it. There isn't puss though but a lot of milk does contain antibiotics. The reason is because a cow won't produce enough milk for the farmers likeing so he will inject it with a drug to increase milk production but that drug will make the cow sick producing puss, then the antibiotics come into play. Which is way worse than the puss because your body will become easily immune to them and when you get really sick antibiotics won't help you because you're already immune. Soy milk is better for you in the long run because there are stricter guildlines, anyone can inject anything into a cow... hope that helped.
I found this on a website that had all kinds of info about milk from several sources, including milk producers. There are all kinds of things allowed in our food, from hair to rat droppings to pus, as long as it falls below the standards set forth by the FDA. This is not limited to meat and animal source products... something to keep in mind when buying any processed food.
"Milk contains varying levels of white blood cells, depending upon the health of the source animals; controversy surrounds whether these are simply somatic cells or, in an alternate form, pus. In the United States, one to seven drops of these cells are in every eight-ounce glass of milk, varying by state, according to guidelines set up by the Food and Drug Administration and statistics reported by the dairy industry. Only one state out of all fifty, Hawaii, has a cell count lower than the dairy industry's recommendations; seventeen states produce milk that would be illegal to sell based on somatic cell limits in Europe."
yes i drank some milk once and i spit it out and it was not milk, but yellow puss, i never drank milk again, still ate some cheese, i don't know how come i'm so stupid
From the 'White Lies' campaign documentation:
In addition to saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein, a wide range of undesirable components occur in cow’s milk and dairy products. The modern dairy cow is prone to both stress and disease. In the UK, cows suffer from a range of infectious diseases including brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, foot and mouth disease, viral pneumonia and Johne’s disease. As a result of an infectious disease a wide range of contaminants can occur in milk. Mastitis (inflammation of the mammary gland) is a widespread condition affecting cattle in the UK in which all or part of the udder suffers from an infection caused by bacteria entering through the teat (MDC, 2004). Mastitis may be referred to as subclinical (no symptoms) or clinical whereby symptoms include swelling, pain, hardness, milk clots or discoloured milk. The cow responds to the infection by generating white blood cells (somatic cells) which migrate to the affected area in an effort to combat the infection. These cells, along with cellular debris and necrotic (dead) tissue, are a component of pus and are excreted into the milk.
The number of somatic cells in the milk (the somatic cell count) provides an indication of the level of infection present. The somatic cell count usually forms part of a payment structure to farmers with defined thresholds of concentration determining the qualification for bonus payments or penalty charges (Berry et al., 2003). In the European Union the somatic cell limit is a maximum of 400,000 cells per ml in bulk milk (Dairy Products (Hygiene) Regulations, 1995). This means that milk containing 400 million pus cells per litre can be sold legally for human consumption. So one teaspoonful of milk could contain up to two million pus cells! It could be even worse, as concerns have been raised about the efficiency of cell counting techniques (Berry et al., 2003).
Mastitis effects the quality of milk in many ways; the total protein content is decreased, the amounts of calcium, phosphorus and potassium content are decreased, the taste deteriorates (becomes bitter), and the levels of undesirable components rise. These include enzymes such as plasmin and lipase, immunoglobulins (Blowey and Edmondson, 2000) and microbes. Mastitis is treated with antibiotics delivered directly into the udder. These drugs can also end up in the milk, so milk from treated cows must not be marketed until the recommended withholding period has elapsed (MDC, 2004). Mastitis occurs in around 50 per cent of cows in the UK (Blowey and Edmondson, 2000).
Milk contains many biologically active molecules including enzymes, hormones and growth factors. In 1992, Pennsylvania State University endocrinologist Clark Grosvenor published an extensive review of some of the known bioactive hormones and growth factors found in a typical glass of milk in the US. The list included seven pituitary (an endocrine gland in the brain) hormones, seven steroid hormones, seven hypothalamic (another brain endocrine gland) hormones, eight gastrointestinal peptides (chains of two or more amino acids), six thyroid and parathyroid hormones, 11 growth factors, and nine other biologically active compounds (Grosvenor et al., 1992). Other biologically important proteins and peptides in milk include immunoglobulins, allergens, enzymes, casomorphins (casein peptide fragments) and cyclic nucleotides (signalling molecules). The concern here is that these signalling molecules that have evolved to direct the rapid growth of a calf into a cow may initiate inappropriate signalling pathways in the human body that may lead to illnesses and diseases such as cancer.
All milk produced by mammals is a medium for transporting hundreds of different chemical messengers. It has been suggested that milk actively communicates between the maternal mammary epithelia and the infant’s gastrointestinal system directing and educating the immune, metabolic and microflora systems within the infant (German et al., 1992). Indeed, research indicates that many of these molecules survive the environment of the infant’s gut and are absorbed into the circulation where they may exert an influence on the infant’s immune system, gastrointestinal tract, neuroendocrine system, or take some other effect. This has evolved as a useful mechanism between mothers and infants of the same species, but the effects of bioactive substances in milk taken from one species and consumed by another are largely unknown. The concern is that the bioactive molecules in cow’s milk may direct undesirable regulation, growth and differentiation of various tissues in the human infant. Of particular concern for example is the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) which occurs naturally in milk and has been linked to several cancers in humans (see IGF-1).