How much raw milk does everyone drink?

[Waldpfad]

I'm asking this question because I have a serious addiction LOL.
I was born prematurely, put in some artificial 'breeding machine' and fed stuff through hoses and tubes for the first 6 weeks of my life. I never had mother's milk.
I moved from central Europe to America when I was 23 years old and at the age of 39 found a local grass-fed raw goat milk farmer...yay!
My diet was sh*t pretty much my entire adult life, ya know after like age 12 or so when I got lunch money for school and my mother wasn't there to control what I shove down my throat.
My milk consumption is out of control, with no ill effects. I drink about 2-3 gallons of raw goats milk every week for the last 1.5 years. I can't stop. I crave it like mad and it feels nourishing. It's like something was missing my entire life and I'm finally getting it. It has tapered off some over the last 2 months though. I also ate liver (from whatever animal I could get it) for 8 straight months when I started eating Paleo/Primal. The liver cravings have stopped, the raw milk cravings are slowly going down, but are they ever going to stop completely?
I would love to stop drinking dairy all together because I'm afraid I'm getting some kind of imbalance from this massive milk consumption. Am I getting too much calcium that would make my bones brittle? Can I counter that with Magnesium pills?
And don't tell me to cut out milk cold turkey, I can't do it I've tried. By the 3rd day I'll turn wild, growl at people and piss on their car!
Many, many good benefits have come from drinking this raw milk, if only I wasn't so worried about this whole casein/calcium thing I'm reading everywhere.

How much milk is too much?

[cherimoya_kid]

Are you having any problems with your teeth or gums?  How is your digestion?  If it's truly not causing any health problems, I'd just let the addiction wind down on its own.Some people do seem to do pretty well on large amounts of raw dairy. 

[zeno]

Examine the other portions of your diet. Perhaps there is a deficiency and milk is satisfying some need, or is satisfying in general to which masks the true hunger.

[TylerDurden]

Well, cravings are usually a very bad sign, often being a sign of allergy to that very food.

Still, if you are desperate, try pumpkin seeds which are very high in magnesium and very low in calcium. I've know one person who over-consumed dairy who had no health-problems with it normally, but who got such magnesium-deficiency from over-drinking it, that he was almost hospitalised.

[RogueFarmer]

I was drinking a gallon a day for a while. Not quite that much anymore. I go back and forth though.

I was eating pumpkin seeds too, seemed to be good.

Tyler, you really think cravings are bad and not our bodies telling us what we need?

I had trouble getting what I felt like was enough milk for a long time, when I finally got as much as I wanted I felt so fantastic, still do over a year later.

[TylerDurden]

There was a big difference between my own cravings for raw dairy to which I was allergic to, and the rather more minor cravings I got from eating the raw foods I really enjoyed the taste of. I might eat the latter in large amounts at any one time, but there was no crack-addict-like addiction with them such as I had with raw dairy. When I consumed raw dairy, I would also start finding the taste of other raw foods to be less appetising, unlike with my favourite raw foods, etc.

[RogueFarmer]

I wonder if part of the craving for raw milk is because of the fact that it takes up more room in the stomach so it's harder to feel full if you are used to drinking large amounts of milk. For some time, when I had little or no milk, I would subsequently overeat other foods and feel sick afterwards.

I remember way back when I went to a homeopath and he asked me what my favorite food was, I couldn't tell him. Later he guessed "I know what it is, ice cream!".

He was right. I will gorge on two pints of my home made raw ice cream, it freakin rules. Makes me feel great too.

My ancestors for a long long time were dairy farmers.

Honestly though I prefer kefir to fresh milk most of the time. I enjoy fresh milk more when I am drinking mostly kefir too.

[Waldpfad]

Thanks for all the replies!
I am trying to cut down to 1/2 a gallon of raw milk a week over this winter and just start eating more lettuce again to get a few carbs in and hopefully eliminate some of this craving for milk. I think it is mostly the carbs that I'm after, I thought about it long and hard. Because the raw milk made it possible for me to stick with the primal diet in general, at the beginning of eating primal I gorged on nut butters and chocolate. I cut all that out because its said that beans(cocoa) and nuts contain a ton of O6 + phytic acid which isn't good for my teeth. Ramiel Nagel claims raw milk remineralizes teeth, but I've read posts from several people on these forums that actually got bad teeth and cavities from raw milk, so I'm not sure what to believe.
I think I'm compensating one carb for another. Problem is I do horrible on vegetables, I cannot digest any fiber whatsoever coming from veggies. Fruit, as long as I peel it and don't overdo it is okay.
What carbs are not so detrimental to health and won't have a ton of fiber? White rice?

I'm just beating myself up over this whole milk thing, the only other person I know that drinks as much milk as I do is my Dad. He is from the southern balkan region and they used to be goat and sheep herders. In no way is the milk craving carved into the DNA though, that would be silly, right? lol

Now off to the store to buy pumpkin seeds :-)
Thx for the tip.

[RogueFarmer]

I feel like you would probably more be craving the fat. What makes you think the milk is bad for you? Doesn't it make you feel good?

How is lettuce going to in any way at all replace milk lol?

[eveheart]

I cannot comment on the correlation of your early childhood experiences and your current craving for milk, but I'd think that, if milk agrees with you, it might not be something to freak out about, unless you are taking in many more calories than you need. I don't understand the lettuce-for-milk substitution. The bottom line is: it's just food, there is nothing to freak out about, you do not need to be perfect at eating.

I do not drink milk, nor do I eat lettuce. Culturally, milk has never been included in my cuisine. If I wanted to eat less of a certain food, I would choose another RPD-type food - for carbs, I eat fruits and organ meats. For fats, you can find RVAF sources other than milk, too.

[cherimoya_kid]

If you want magnesium, raw "dry"scallops have quite a bit of it, and it's very absorbable.   

Dry scallops are the ones that haven't been treated with sodium metabisulfite.  They're not really dried, they just have less water packed in with them.

[Ioanna]

CK, is there a way to tell by looking at them or tasting them if they are 'dry' or not? 

[eveheart]

CK, is there a way to tell by looking at them or tasting them if they are 'dry' or not?

I ask the fish department manager if the scallops are wet pack, dry pack, or thawed (previously frozen). In my neighborhood, dry pack is about $25/pound, and wet pack/frozen are about half that price.

[TylerDurden]

No idea re wet pack or dry pack, as my scallops are got from an excellent fisherman 99 percent of the time, who I am sure never adulterates his stock. However, I once bought frozen scallops from a fishmonger's and they tasted  absolutely disgusting.

[Waldpfad]

"How is lettuce going to in any way at all replace milk lol? "

Well I don't know LOL. But when I read that all of a sudden a light went off. You're right.
I don't think there would be anything in pasture that wouldn't be in milk, after all I'm not a cow?,  I was just thinking carbs without plugging the pipes.

Thanks for the tip on scallops, heading to the Co-Op tomorrow and will ask about those 'dry' scallops. But even if they're 'wet' they should still have the Magnesium load in it, right?

I also ordered the 'garbage' of the cow from a local farmer and will be getting the lung and brain, on top of sweetbreads and bones with marrow. $3c50 per pound, not too shabby.

[Waldpfad]

@ eveheart:

Milk seems to be very good for me. I have gained healthy weight, it made my hair and nails super strong and my bones and teeth feel hard, like I could really take a punch.
Before I started this raw milk I felt fragile and brittle and my head and face bones felt thin, I can't explain it. (Raw) milk of any kind gives me a horrible breath though.

Not all quarts of milk are delicious or don't cause symptoms. I think it depends on what the goats ate?  I sometimes drink 2 quarts a day because it's so sweet and creamy and full of fat...with no symptoms of any kind and most of the time skip meals because the milk was so filling.
Then I take a sip of another batch and I'm repulsed. I've never gotten ill, although when I drink too much of the 'bad' tasting ones I get bloated. So the 'bad' ones go to my dogs.

[eveheart]

Thanks for the tip on scallops, heading to the Co-Op tomorrow and will ask about those 'dry' scallops. But even if they're 'wet' they should still have the Magnesium load in it, right?

If they are wet pack, do not buy them. Yucky! The yuck taste goes away only if you cook them, so don't buy them to eat raw. Or, buy one to experience that yucky taste for yourself. 

[cherimoya_kid]

Thanks for the tip on scallops, heading to the Co-Op tomorrow and will ask about those 'dry' scallops. But even if they're 'wet' they should still have the Magnesium load in it, right?

The dry scallops have an amazing power to control my tooth sensitivity problems.  The wet ones still help, but not nearly as much.  That says to me that the minerals in the wet scallops are not nearly as absorbable.

[Iguana]

I don't know what those "dry" and "wet" scallops are. I buy them fresh in shell, never shelled. Some have quite a lot of sand inside; I wash them in seawater. 

[eveheart]

I don't know what those "dry" and "wet" scallops are. I buy them fresh in shell, never shelled.

Can't find scallops in the shell on the west coast of US, unless you dive for your own. They go bad in the shell too quickly. This might be true wherever one is at a distance from the source.

[Aria320]

i'm like you in that i drink raw milk every week. I order some unpasteurized grass fed goat milk from my local farmer. I chug through about a half gallon every week and feel great. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with drinking this much milk or the amount you are drinking if you do not feel any ill effects from it. If you are unsure about the effects it has on you, maybe you should take some time off the milk too observe your body's reaction.

There's a big difference to your body craving a food and your brain craving a certain food. This may just a case in point of your body craving a food it really needs. This especially makes sense since you were never breast fed and given formula. I love raw milk (i stick to goat and sheeps milk for various reasons) and dont intend to stop drinking it unless it starts giving me issues. i mix it with some organic blackstrap molasses and raw honey for a great post-workout treat.

[Dorothy]

I wonder how you would do on raw grass-fed cow's milk butter. I went through a phase where I ate outrageous amounts of the stuff and then it just stopped. I felt like my craving for milk products was mostly the fat rather than the carbs. When I want carbs I go after fruit and yes - salads. So, I might be the only one who understands why you would ask about lettuce instead of milk! 

Goat's milk is naturally homogenized so you are getting the fat along with the carbs mixed. I can't help but to wonder if you had cow's milk if you would crave the cream on the top or the lower fat more carbohydrate-rich part on the bottom as cow's milk fat rises to the top. You're statement about your liking the goat's milk the most when it is very fatty says to me that you might be wanting the fat.

Are there any other foods that you have been craving? If you are craving other raw fats - it might be the fats, rather than the carbs - or might be that mix that happens with goat milk.

No matter what - thank goodness you are feeling better!

Btw - when it comes to pumpkin seeds I like to mention that they are extremely blood thinning so if you eat a great deal, or other blood thinners with them, make sure you watch to make sure you don't bruise too easily. Raw meat and milk though are high in vitamin k which makes the blood thicker - but you never know who you are talking to on these forums and there are diseases that people have that make the blood too thin and you never know what pharmaceuticals someone might be on. But pumpkin seeds are also a fabulous source of zinc. Great little seeds. 

[Waldpfad]

Dorothy:

Wow, thanks for posting what you did, I had a light bulb go off.
When I drink the raw milk I ususally scoop the higher fat part (even goats milk settles a little bit) off the top before I pour myself a glass of milk.
About 2 weeks ago I bought, for the first time ever, 16 oz. of pure raw cow cream and it was THE BEST SH!T I've ever tasted! It was so expensive I could only afford 1, but would've bought 20 if I could.
After drinking 16 oz of pure raw cream my hunger was satisfied for over 7 hours afterwards! It was amazing. I hadn't put the 2 together. So the craving might actually be the fat and not the carbs after all. How genius! I've never thought of it that way because I was obsessed with carb counting.

My carb cravings are only lettuce, herbs and fruit...I can't stand vegetables of any kind (kale, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli), they all taste like tree bark to me.

I'm so happy right now.

My confusion has been that my Dad's ancestry is from the inland balkans, nomads with goats or sheep. My Mom's ancestry is nordic, above the arctic circle (Lapland) who ate foods like eskimos. I look like my Dad so I figured that's how my brain signals and digestive system works. Perhaps one can look like 1 part of the family but have the digestion of the other.

[Waldpfad]

And that is why fish and blubber does me so well and seems to help with the milk craving.

[Dorothy]

And that is why fish and blubber does me so well and seems to help with the milk craving.

Yep.   I too am a fat lover (especially my brain) and that's why I am so happy to have discovered easier and denser ways to get satisfaction.

Believe it or not butter and cream I am finding are not quite as satisfying as egg yolks, bone marrow, raw meat fat, marrow and fatty fish and even nuts and seeds for me. I used to have to go through some serious hoops as a vegetarian to get my fat fix and getting raw milk was such a boon - but then the milk started to smell of the plastic it was shipped in this summer and I had to go a searching for my fat fix again. With enough other fats - my butter addiction got handled and I'm not missing it that much. I wouldn't mind to have some for variety again though to mix with my other fats and to put on meat that is not fatty enough. I didn't like butter by itself so was constantly looking for things to put it on and mix it with (which weren't always the best choices) but all the rest of the fats taste great just by themselves to me. I'm sure eating the pure fat from around the cuts of meat and leaving most of the rest might not be the usual - but works for me! I also like really well-made oils (no oxygen, dated, dark bottle, good companies) from seeds and olives. When I was a vegetarian I ate loads of raw olives and avocados. I still like all of the veggie fat foods - I just don't have to eat so much. Like you said, if you get enough fat in one sitting from the dense animal foods, it can satisfy and carry for long periods.

I'm so happy to have met and helped another "fat-mo". hee hee