Got Hormones? 

During my young-mama years, I was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. This changed the trajectory of my life completely. Soon after the chemotherapy, I was on a path to explore how to ‘choose wiser’ in all my actions. Dairy became one of those adventures and ended up as a chapter in my book Little Changes.* Enjoy that chapter below. Over years since, I have removed dairy from my personal diet, but revere the actions and leadership of Wolfe’s Neck Center and their efforts with their Organic Dairy Research and Farmer Training Program, here in Freeport, Maine.

When my children were in their preschool years, I offered a choice of two beverages to have with dinner: milk or water. They always chose milk because water was, frankly boring, and there was the rare occasion when I would say “yes” and allow a squirt or two of chocolate syrup to flavor their milk. Chocolate flavored water just wasn’t the same. 

It seems as if the second my children were born, there was a huge emphasis put on milk. Breast milk is best I was advised for proper growth. Then it was time to move to whole milk because growing toddlers need the milk fat for proper brain development. At each child’s two-year appointment, I waited to see if the pediatrician would give me the green light to switch to skim milk, because then the toddler didn’t need the fat, but still needed the calcium. 

I’ve done my best to make sure my children get the calcium and dairy products they need, spooning yogurt into them for breakfast, peeling wrappers off string cheese, and letting them indulge in the frequent drippy ice cream cone. Now I am armed with recent reports milk from happy cows (organic dairy) contains 70 percent more omega-3 fatty acids and 50 percent more vitamin E than regular milk. Really that was probably all I needed to know to steer myself in the right direction, but it was learning about injected hormones that really shook up my milk journey.

So was I bothered to the FDA approved growth hormones for dairy cows in 1993? At this point it was more like a loud sarcastic, “of course!” Dairy farmers were injecting genetically engineered bovine growth hormones (rBGH or rBST) into cows to increase lactation, just one more par for the course in food sources. It wasn’t just the product of milk created by the cows, but products containing dairy products, yet using growth hormones to stimulate and increase lactation in cows doesn’t add a lick of nutrition to the milk. The incentive was (everyone now) back to the notion of more, more, and more. rBGH ramps up production, increases supply, and milk goes down in price by 50 cents a gallon. ?? CANT FIND IN STORES? YOU? It all sounds very win-win, doesn’t it? 

Mama cows may find this to be one situation worth crying over spilled milk. That’s because cows given rBGH experience higher rates of mastitis, a painful udder infection. I certainly can’t relate to having my beak trimmed or my tail docked, but I have dealt with my share of swollen, infected, lactating boobs. (For you men out there, may I add because I was nursing.) The fever and flu like symptoms from a localized mastitis infection relegated me to a weekend on the couch on more than one occasion. Any woman who has ever experienced this knows your breasts are so sore and tender you don’t even want anyone in the same room with you, for fear they may accidently launch spittle while talking and might possibly land on your sore chest, sending you into fits of swearing and tears. I have half the number of teats as a mama cow. If one infection is horribly painful, what must having three or four feel like? I certainly would have been swayed to modify my purchasing habits just on hearing how giving cows’ growth hormones increases pus from infected udders. Naysayers would point out I am not a cow and can’t know what a cow feels, but I assume they are not cows either. I appreciate the vote of confidence that I am not a cow, but as a sister lactating mammal, I can empathize. 

 But that isn’t the controversial side effect. Milk from rBGH-treated cows has much higher levels of IGF-1. It is a naturally occurring hormone – in cows as well as humans. It is the higher levels linked to increased risk of breast cancer and other cancers that is concerning. IGF-1 levels in milk from cows treated with rBGH can be up to 10 times higher. Many other industrialized countries— including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada-- ban the use of bovine growth hormones due to health risks to humans and harm to animals; even to the point rBGH dairy products from America are not welcome or accepted in the European Union and Canada.

The good news of course, is there are choices. As a late comer to the party, I can easily find milk, and some milk products, at the grocery store labeled “rBGH-Free” or “rBST-Free” or “No Hormones Added.” (You may find hormone free labels, but some argue an animal product cannot be truly hormone free.) By choosing the next level of milk, USDA Organic, I am offering products to my family that do not contain growth hormones, but also have stricter guidelines on how the mama cow was raised and fed. I am very grateful many dairies have removed rBGH products. This is just one more layer of exposure I could reduce, and solve without leading Bessie home and building a barn. 

* If you would like to purchase Little Changes from Amazon, I no longer set the prices. I encourage anyone to select a used version or Kindle.