Stop Artificial Sweeteners in Milk!

Down in Lake Havusue City, Arizona there is a serious disruption in the ground of the cemetery.  No, it isn’t the dawn of the dead; it is my poor father spinning in his grave.  Dad was a dairyman from the cradle up.  He milked cows on the farm, worked at creameries (that is where they make butter, for those of you not familiar with the, “job”), dairy plants, as a state dairy inspector and finally as a federal butter grader. 

            I grew up knowing that a, “short-timer” was a machine used to pasteurize milk.  It brings milk up to 161 degrees Fahrenheit and keeping it there for only 15 to 30 seconds before rapidly cooling it.  This kills most of the microbes in the milk, affecting the taste only for the real milk connoisseurs out there, and making it safe for virtually every consumer.   Pasteurization, developed by French microbiologist Louis Pasteur, (who says the French or a vestigial organ on humanity) has been around since the late 1800’s and has unquestionably saved innumerable lives.

Homogenization is a more recent and purely cosmetic change in the marketing of milk.  Being born in 1946, homogenization was not standard in my childhood.  The milk delivered to our door had a thick layer of cream floating on the top.  Mom would skim that off for use in coffee and cooking.  On the coldest days of Minnesota winters, the milk, (delivered to a wooden box on the front porch) would freeze.  It would form a solid column, expand and rise straight out of the glass bottle with the paper lid of sitting on top like a beanie.  About that same time, more and more dairies took to, “homogenizing” the milk.  This forces the milk through small sieves that break up the cream into molecules that are dispersed throughout the milk.  The nutrition and butterfat are there, but they are disguised in the whole milk. 

Since I have mentioned butterfat (Makes you think of roly-poly, healthy little babies doesn’t it?  It should!), let me point out that whole milk is only 4% butterfat, as opposed to 2% or that horrible blue stuff called, “skim” milk of less than 1% butterfat.  Milk truly is nature’s most perfect food.  It is our first food and is designed to nourish us for a life time.  But now there is an effort to corrupt this food and it comes from the very people who should be protecting the wholesomeness of milk.  The International Dairy Foods Association, and the National Milk Producers Federation have, for three years now, been petitioning the FDA to drop the requirement to label milk (and other dairy products) as, “artificially sweetened” when such things as aspartame have been added. 

 Here is where my poor father starts kicking up the dirt over his grave.  This attempt to adulterate milk with sweeteners is unnecessary.  It is nothing but a marketing ploy by an industry trying to get back some of the market share it has lost to artificial milks.  Why not promote milk for what it is, healthy food?  Why not tell parents that if you don’t pump your kids up with sugar from the, “get go” that they will appreciate natural flavors?   Why not frankly state that fighting obesity starts with intelligent choices not giving in to bad taste (in every sense of the word)?  Milk is good food, just as it is.  It is very good for us, just as it is.

Milk should contain milk, period.  Nothing should be added and certainly not without clear labeling. 

Hey, Dad, I’m drinking my milk and keeping the faith.