The Case for A2 Milk
By Laurel Hoffman
The mammalian body is comprised of several compartmentalized systems (circulatory, respiratory, nervous, endocrine, etc.) that must integrate and perform as a unit if the mammal is to function at optimum levels, reproduce vigorous offspring and have sustained wellness and longevity. While all of these systems are critical, none of them could fulfill their intended responsibilities without a healthy functioning digestive system. The digestive system operates on what can be viewed as an inner ecosystem whereby bacteria and other microorganisms utilize the fuel provided to them via the foods we or our animals eat, converting it into the fuel and nourishment that enables the entire system to work. If this initial fuel (food) is inadequate or toxic for whatever reasons, (contaminated, nutritionally deficient, genetically modified, over processed) the inner ecosystem is compromised and disease is the eventual and sometimes immediate outcome.
Donna Gates understands how this inner ecosystem works and has become keenly aware of how the foods people eat either promote or wreak havoc on their health and the health of their unborn children. Founder of Body Ecology, she is a nutritional consultant, author and lecturer who has dealt with numerous frustrations and struggles in finding the cure for her own candida-related health problems. This path has led her to her present mission, helping cure childhood diseases, one in particular is autism. Donna has always been interested in the use of food as medicine. A2 milk: may or may not fall into the medicinal category, is still a healthful food nonetheless. The purpose of this article to explain the relationship between candida, a fungal infection that upsets the inner ecosystem, with the ever increasing childhood disease autism and how foods such as A2 milk could be incorporated into the diet as part of the healing process. The reader will be given a definition and understanding of what meant by A2 milk.
Candida
Candidiasis is defined as any infection caused by a fungi from the genus Candida. The words yeast and fungi (or fungal) are regularly used interchangeably. Eight out of ten people have some level of fungal infection in their blood. Another report states that 80 million Americans suffer from Candidiasis. That figure is considered conservative. So who are these 8 million plus people? They are people that have a history of antibiotic use, those that eat a high sugar diet, women on birth control, and people that have been or are currently on cortisol/prednisone drugs. Anyone who fits into one of these categories is prone to fungal infections. Diabetics and those with high blood sugar will always have fungal infections as well as people with cancer. Often times a fungal infection will precede a more serious illness and then perpetuate right along with the new illness.
There is a level of fungal population in everyone’s gut. In a healthy inner ecosystem about 5% of the micro flora is yeast. There are beneficial yeast and pathogenic yeast. When a person takes antibiotics, all the beneficial bacteria in the gut are wiped out immediately. So now the bad yeast that remain have no competition for space and begin to rapidly multiply. They change form and actually grow tentacles. It’s like a Dr, Jekyll - Mr. Hyde transformation and they actually bore into the intestinal lining creating lots of infection sites. They move through these open infection sites along with other things like protein fragments that would normally remain in the gut. The intestinal lining that is supposed to be a barrier is inflamed and wounded at numerous places. These harmful organisms infiltrate what is supposed to be a formidable barrier and now travel straight through into the blood.
Fungal infections begin to thrive when the body becomes too acidic. Blood should be slightly alkaline having a pH of 7.46. If there is just a little shift toward the acidic side, these infections can grow like crazy and thrive as long as that condition remains. Eating the correct foods is critical to maintain that slightly alkaline pH so that fungal and viral infections of any kind will not grow in the body. Cancer cannot grow in blood that is slightly alkaline. Having blood that is slightly alkaline is essential for wellness. It is that simple and it is the same for children.
A yeast infection caused by Candida is similar to viral infections such as Herpes as it will not completely leave the body, but it can be kept under control. But when a person is under stress which weakens the immune system, or does anything to make the blood more acidic such as consuming a lot of sugar, it will rise back up again and be more acute. It is a chronic condition in most people and varies in intensity all the time. Most don’t realize they even have it, let alone realize that it is fluctuating. When the immune system is suppressed by chemotherapy, radiation, or emotional stress the infection literally becomes acute. When it is in its most acute form, it can kill you. Many people that go through radiation or chemotherapy for cancer actually die from a fungal infection, not the cancer itself. Giving cancer patients anti-fungal drugs can prevent that from happening. Unfortunately the medical community is not always very conscientious about doing that.
When a woman becomes pregnant, her body becomes very vulnerable. Her infant is also vulnerable and at great risk. During pregnancy, her progesterone level elevates as it is supposed to - that is what holds the baby in the womb. Her blood sugar (glucose) rises. This is nature’s way of meeting her increased demand for fuel for her brain and her baby’s brain. But if the woman already has a fungal infection in her body, all that extra sugar is now going to feed the fungus, making that condition acute. When a child is inside the mother and its little body is forming, any infection the mother has is given to that child. The mother’s blood creates the baby’s blood via the amniotic fluid. This acute infection that is in the mother’s system will infiltrate the baby’s body. Children are born with this infection continuously without anyone ever knowing about it. There is no protective blood-brain barrier in a fetus. In fact the blood-brain barrier doesn’t even start to develop until 6 weeks after birth. So the fungus that is passed onto the child can go to the brain, the lungs, the liver, or even the child’s spine. The toxins that a fungus secretes are considered some of the most dangerous. One toxin produced is acetaldehyde, which is the same substance created from consuming alcohol.
A live blood analysis is a way to identify the presence of a fungal infection. While there can be a variety of symptoms, one’s history is probably the best indicator; high sugar diet (do you crave sweets?), hormone imbalances, use of steroids or antibiotics – anything that causes the blood to become acidic. Candida is very prevalent in certain generations. People of child bearing age, generally speaking, have all been raised on antibiotics and as a consequence have systemic fungal infections in their blood. Many are totally unaware of having this condition.
Autism
Millions of children are being diagnosed with autism; in 1993 it was 1 out 10,000 children. In 2005 it was 1 out of 166. Autism is a pervasive development disorder characterized by impaired communication, extreme self-absorption, and detachment from reality. The good news is that if caught early and the parents are diligent about making the necessary changes in the child’s diet, the disease is reversible.
There are various issues associated with autism; a high mercury level in the body (vaccines being a culprit) is one. Donna Gates believes that the entire baby boomer generation most likely has high mercury levels so there must be other causes.
As stated earlier, a pregnant woman who is infected will Candida will pass it onto her unborn child. As Donna began to work with more and more autistic children, there was a clear pattern. 100 % of autistic children have fungal infections and so do 100% of the mothers. That is just too high of a statistic to say that autism is caused by mercury. Conventional medicine is stuck on the mercury issue. Mercury is a problem, as there is this dance that occurs between mercury and fungus. You can’t get rid of the mercury without getting rid of the fungus and visa versa. You basically have to rid the body of both at the same time.
A large number of people cannot eat dairy products. Autistic children are very dairy sensitive. The belief is that they are lactose intolerant. In reality lactose is a simple milk sugar and if there is the right amount of friendly bacteria, otherwise known as micro flora in the gut (digestive tract), then the lactose is assimilated by those friendly bacteria and complete digestion takes place without any adverse physical side effects. What may be a culprit is the inability to digest the fat in milk because a person’s liver doesn’t produce enough bile.
An even larger number of people have trouble with the milk protein called casein. In the process of making cheese, one ends up with curds and whey. In the curds of the cheese are the casein and the fat. The second protein, the whey contains the minerals. Donna has found that people do just fine using dairy products if the casein is removed. What is quite interesting is those who are dairy sensitive do fine on a whey concentrate product.
Ms. Gates feels it is tragic that any child be denied the benefits derived from milk. Immediately postpartum, babies have very rapid brain development, especially during the first two years. Brain development continues in humans until we reach our early 20s at which point it stops. There are components in milk that are very valuable for the developing brain; fat in particular. Milk contains valuable calcium and phosphorus, required for proper bone growth, along with other essential minerals. The fat in milk helps the body assimilate those minerals. What she finds just as tragic is that infants are consuming soy products, meaning that their little bodies aren’t digesting mom’s or cow’s milk from the start. Soy milk is a poor alternative. It suppresses the thyroid which brings energy down and it is loaded with estrogenic properties, which is not good for female or male babies.
A major reason babies are not able to digest their mother’s milk is because they lack the necessary inner ecosystem. This ecosystem is formed at birth as the infant moves through the birth canal and is inoculated with the mother’s bacteria. The bacteria are in the gut and are being fed and nurtured by the mother’s breast milk. This milk is very sweet and forms a very sticky, bedded mucous inside. The micro flora adhere to it and colonize. When a baby only receives its mother’s milk for the first three months after birth, this phenomenon of establishing the inner ecosystem can proceed unhindered. It is very critical that this inner ecosystem of beneficial bacteria be there and is healthy and vigorous in order that children as babies and as they grow and become adults can properly digest food.
The micro flora in the digestive tract does many things. They manufacture B vitamins and vitamin K. They protect us from parasites. They help to balance hormones. They extract minerals from the foods we eat. They retain those minerals in the small intestines where blood cells can pick them up and carry them throughout the body. This process keeps the blood slightly alkaline which is paramount for good health.
Many, many things the ecosystem does yet it is lacking in so many people and is not even established in the human baby anymore. People don’t even consider it. Parents aren’t taught about establishing the inner ecosystem in their newborn infant, or how critical it is if an infant is to have the natural ability to digest food, and everyday we are seeing the effects from that. Doctors aren’t taught about it either, so when a mother comes in and says that her baby is not digesting her breast milk, they don’t understand that the problem is not the milk. The problem is that the baby’s digestive tract is not digesting anything which at that point happens to be the mother’s milk. So out of pure ignorance the baby is put on a soy formula which as stated earlier has its own plethora of problems. Isn’t it peculiar that animal science is very aware and teaches about the physiology of the inner ecosystem of the ruminant’s digestive system?
Donna Gates developed The Body Ecology Diet 15 years ago and has been continually refining it. Her book by the same name is now in its ninth printing. Hundreds of thousands of people today around the world use the Body Ecology Diet. It is quite well known and recommended by medical professionals in both conventional and alternative practices. This gluten-free, casein-free diet is really a system of healing which was originally intended for patients who suffered from systemic fungal infections. It is still considered the best anti-fungal diet. She was puzzled though when her patients (including autistic children) would improve only to a certain point and then plateau, so about four years ago she went a step further and put the children on a gluten-free, casein-free, and sugar-free diet. They showed marked improvement with the new protocol.
Donna’s “BEDROK (Body Ecology Diet Recovering Our Kids) Program is designed to do just that. She takes coconut water which is very cleansing to the liver and aids in detoxifying the body and ferments it. The fermenting process removes the sugar and adds all these wonderful, beneficial bacteria. Her child patients will drink a pint or two a day and that helps cleanse the mercury from their bodies. She recommends to her adult clients that they eat sea vegetables to accomplish the same thing. Her company produces a product called Ocean Sun Extract. She also recommends herbs that help cleanse the liver by increasing bile flow. That is how toxins leave the body. They leave the liver in the bile and go into the stool. Enemas and colonics are good for both children and adults when their detoxification pathways are stuck and those poisons are unable to leave the body quickly. Children can actually be constipated as fetuses in the womb. They are born constipated.
Donna started her BECROK program with a group of 6 mothers and now works with over 600 families. At first she thought the idea of enemas would be rejected. Some started right away while others waited and watched. The reports came back about all this awful stuff that was coming out of these children. Sixty years ago every household had an enema bag in the closet. It’s what mothers and grandmothers turned to when children were sick. But once drugs came about, which happened with the baby boomer generation, we moved away from colon cleansing all together - which is a very ancient practice. It goes back to Biblical times and perhaps as far back as 6,000 years ago.
There are occasions such as the presence of a severe ear or strep throat infection when it is necessary for a child or adult to take antibiotics. The key is to recognize the negative effects as well as the positive and prepare for the negative. Make sure they are on an anti-fungal diet like the Body Ecology Diet and are consuming plenty of fermented foods. Fermented food should be a part of everyone’s diet from the moment we are born (or weaned from mother’s breast milk) to maintain a healthy pH level our systems.
It takes two healthy people to create a healthy child and that is the way autism can be prevented, because it is preventable. Donna recalls one client in particular that was Autistic. Thomas was three years old when he first came under her care. He was completely healed and considered normal in six months time. His mother cleansed her body of infections and toxins and restored her digestion to optimum levels. She gave birth to another child who is very healthy and strong.
A2 Milk
During a visit to Japan, Donna was drinking some milk and was amazed at how exceptionally good it was. It wasn’t like the milk she was used to. When she discovered it was in fact not the same milk she had been accustomed to and is known as A2 milk she began to research to learn more. She found out that a woman’s breast milk is A2; that goats, sheep and other mammals produce this - but not all cows. She found out the countries known produce it were Japan, India, France, Australia, and New Zealand. Learning and seeing this phenomenon of what A2 milk was over and over again, Donna began to seek out people who had cows that were producing A2 milk and nobody had a clue of what she was talking about.
In May of 2006, she went to Australia and in a grocery store something caught her eye. There it was in the dairy section, cartons of milk with A2 on the labels. She took some back to her hotel room and tasted it. It had the same light, fluffy, delicate texture like the milk she had in Japan. She decided to make kefir with it and was amazed at the beautiful kefir it made
Approximately 30% of the protein component in cow’s milk is beta-casein. Evidence does indicate that originally all cows produced milk containing only the beta-casein known today as A2. At some point in history, due to a genetic mutation a variant of this protein appeared giving rise to A1 milk.
The difference between ß-caseins A1 and A2 is a single amino acid. A2 has the amino acid Proline at position 67 in the strand of 209 amino acids linked together that form the protein, whereas A1 has the amino acid Histidine at position 67. A protein must be broken down into fragments in order for the body to process and digest it. These fragments otherwise known as peptides, and sometimes residues, are merely smaller chains of amino acids. During digestion of the A1 milk, a bioactive peptide, beta casomorphine 7 (BCM-7) is created.
Beta caseins are important in the assimilation of essential nutrients such as iron, calcium, zinc and copper. As they are digested they yield a multitude of bioactive protein fragments. Any variation in fragment structure changes how the body can digest it. The beta casein in human breast milk by virtue of the Proline amino acid at position 67 can be classified as A2, thus the formation of BCM-7 when A1 is digested is actually treated as foreign substance in the body triggering unfavorable reactions.
A wide range of studies suggest that milk that does not yield BCM-7 (A2) is associated with reduced risk of heart disease, reduced risk of type 1 diabetes, no antagonistic effects on certain neurological conditions, and improved immune response which is critical for newborn infants.
The BCM-7 protein fragment resulting from A1 beta casein digestion is known to have strong opioid (sedative, causing lethargy) properties. Numerous international studies have shown other effects of BCM-7 including the oxidation of LDL cholesterol leading to heart disease, the aggravation of neurological disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, and the disruption of the regulation of insulin formation leading to type 1 diabetes. Research has implicated BCM-7 to be transported across the blood-brain barrier; reaching the central nervous system in babies resulting in the apnea associated with sudden infant death syndrome.
Milk as originally produced by all cows was a very nutritious, health sustaining food for humans including children. Somewhere along the way, something changed and the milk that protected us from diseases and numerous other maladies now causes them. I have my suspicions of why this has happened. I can think of no other species of animal that has been so tampered with through single-trait selection as to create an animal that is more freak than natural in nature.
Eighty percent of the children who are autistic have blood type A. People with blood type A are known to be low in stomach acid which is needed to effectively start the digestion process. Those with type A blood typically do not to digest protein very well therefore they tend to be protein malnourished.
Japan has more than 60 years worth of research on blood types. Most Japanese, about 79% are blood type A. So there is this population of people, who by our knowledge should have problems digesting protein (milk), but they don’t and then there are these children who are not digesting their milk at all. Is this A2 milk a factor? There just isn’t enough information about A2 milk in this country.
There is a genetic test to determine if a cow will produce A2 milk. Bulls can be tested as well to see if they carry the A2 gene. Knowing that milk effects people differently we need to find out the full story behind A1 and A2 milk and put it to the test. People in this country drink cows’ milk without even realizing that two different forms exist. We have hundreds of thousands of children moving away from milk because their parents and doctors think it’s bad for them.
Donna Gates would like to see her children have access to this milk – after their inner ecosystem is established (they all have severe gut disbiosis). “Once we get that healed”, she says “I believe that the many people who think they can’t tolerate milk would be able to drink this milk.” She is very interested in finding producers who are willing to test their cattle, start deliberately producing A2 milk and work with her so that she can incorporate this food into her patients’ diets.
Body Ecology
The Body Ecology business was developed to teach people how to overcome fungal infections. In reality all people need basically the same things to be healthy and stay healthy. So the company specializes in teaching people about fermented foods; about the inner ecosystem and how vital it is to establish and maintain it using fermented foods. People are taught how they can make these life supporting foods in their own kitchens at home. Nutritional supplements can be beneficial and useful in restoring health but the company’s philosophy is very food based.
Body Ecology trains and certifies Body Ecologists. There are currently over 300 people certified providing education and support to communities and more being trained all the time. The course is based on 7 basic principles that need to be understood to master health. The company offers 4-day workshops in addition to its own line of nutritional supplements.
Ms. Gates started a foundation in 2006 called Before Birth and Beyond, whose purpose is through education prevent autism and other disorders. The plan is to educate parents; teach them how to clean up their bodies, rid themselves of toxins, get the body well nourished, get any and all infections under control, and create energy in the young women’s body to give life to a child. Financial contributions are welcomed and go to sponsor families in need of restoring health.
Donna’s passion is children and she would like nothing more than to be able to teach the world how to prevent all childhood diseases. She was the first to bring Stevia (the healthy alternative to sugar) into the country and promote it. She was one of the first to bring the knowledge of the benefits of coconut oil and kefir to the public.
Summary
Autism is becoming an epidemic among our children. Fungal infections are the silent pandemic disrupting the lives of children and adults. These and many other diseases would not be occurring if people consumed foods that truly nourished the body and the inner ecosystem that supports beneficial micro flora and healthy digestion. Whether they started at some point after birth or were imposed upon an innocent unborn child by its mother, digestive issues are the root cause to all disease. God intended food to support life, especially the life we do not see. I believe foods such as A2 milk will get us back on track to healthy minds, healthy bodies and a healthy world.
Find more information about A2 milk at www.a2milk.com. To learn more about Donna Gates, her company, books, or foundation go to www.bodyecology.com.
Take home message from Donna Gates
“Children are at risk even as a developing fetus inside the mother’s womb. We can’t afford to infect our children. We must nourish them well once they are born and make sure their inner ecosystem is established. That is their immune system. Seventy percent of the immune system is dispatched from the gut. We have the awareness, the knowledge, and the understanding of food and nutrition and I believe that people are ready to receive this information.”
“Louis Pasteur many years ago told us about the bad bugs he found in spoiled wine, but he never looked at the good wine and why it was fermenting properly. It contained huge amounts of beneficial bacteria. So we went way off on the wrong track and left behind a big chunk of important information and we’ve developed this whole entire medical and agricultural science based on killing things because we’re focused on what is bad for us. When all we have to do is look at how nature keeps herself perpetually young, vibrant and eternal because the good predominate. So that is what we have to do. Keep a lot of the good bacteria in your body and you will not be at risk from the bad taking over.”
Donna’s new book soon to be released is titled “The Baby Boomer Diet”. Its focus is geared towards the Baby Boomers and will equip them with the knowledge of how to stay young by keeping their bodies healthy. “We have our greatest mission ahead of us” explains Donna. “Baby Boomers are a mission oriented generation. We’ve always looked at things and when we determined that they didn’t work would tear them apart so that we could build them anew. We are a wealthy generation. We are huge in number; over 75 million of us in the U.S. Many are very affluent, highly educated and now we have 30, 40, or 50 years left to live. What are we going to do with our wisdom, our numbers and our influence? Our biggest tasks are ahead of us. When we came into this world is when everything went off track. We turned away from nature, indulged in a whole host of drugs, everything became stripped of all its nutrients (TV dinners, Wonder Bread, Diet Coke) and our children and grandchildren are paying the price.”
“Like the information that was revealed in Pottenger’s Cats by Francis M. Pottenger Jr. M.D., we are at the point where - the next generation born – we will not be able to bring them back. They will be the end of the line. They will be unhealthy and very few will reproduce. We are playing Russian roulette with our children and their children.”
“Our generation, before we leave this planet, must turn everything back around again; clean air, clean water, healthy food, real food, healthy animals, and healthy land producing healthy crops. It all has to be restored before we leave this planet if we are to feel good about our life here and the legacy we leave.”
