Saturday, February 7, 2009

Milk containing pus: Fact or Fiction?

So I've been listening to a podcast for the past year or so called The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. It's basically a science podcast that specializes in debunking pseudo scientific claims and practices such as Homeopathy, Creationism, Psychics, Anti-Vaccination bullshits, and the list goes on. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from this show is to consider sources and do your own research when you are presented with information that seems counter intuitive or just bizarre in any way. They also do a good job of pointing out how bad the media often is at responsibly presenting science-based news.

So recently I've been enjoying the occasional glass of milk. And, like many people I have been told time and time again that milk contains a significant amount of pus. So I decided to do some of my own research on the topic and came to find that this is pretty much total bullshit.

At first glance of all the information that was coming up via Google searches, I was disheartened to see all kinds of articles and reports supporting the notion that milk was full of pus. Then I began to notice that the great majority of these sources were using terms such as "pus cells" and "somatic cells aka 'pus'". So after a little research in the science-minded side of the net I came to find that there is in fact no such thing as "pus cells" and that somatic cells are literally "any cells that make up the body of an organism".

So that's what pus isn't. Turns out that what pus is, is the bacteria gathered by white blood cells to be excreted out of the body in one way or another. The presence of white blood cells in milk is natural and healthy. On a side note, most arguments claiming that milk contains blood are technically true because of this, but any milk that gets contaminated with whole blood (usually in the cases of infection) is marked as a health hazard and disposed of.

I could go on for a little while longer but nobody is going to read this anyway. But just to wrap up my stupid rant, lets consider that blood or pus or some form of bacteria makes it into the pumped milk due to an infection or whatever. In the more severe and obvious cases of contamination it would be thrown out for violation of the FDA's strict dairy guidelines. In other cases of mild contamination, this bacteria would be destroyed during the pasteurization process.


In closing, fuck you guys I'm going to start drinking milk a lot more frequently.

16 comments:

  1. You keep on drinking milk you idiot. You can keep on sucking down all the antibiotics that they are pumping into dairy cows just to try to keep the pus levels down.. Actually, do the world a favor and have your children drink LOTS of milk.... Thanks for you opinion...

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  2. All the properties of the milk are really important not only for the children but the adult too. The milk contain many vitamin, potassium, calcium and iron.This kind of properties is needed for the people.

    buy viagra

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  3. Everything's full of germs, microbes, organisms and so forth. Maybe we can't see this stuff, because if we could, the human race would've gone out a long time ago from being grossed out by food.

    Yes, people should buy milk from small,local farmers who give their cows happy lives..and probably consume all things in moderation. But this rant about you and your children and the sucking down of antibiotics, dude! Does this person drink water? Google "antibiotics in water," or maybe "bacteria on vegetables," and you'll see---everything, everywhere is basically filthy. Hoorah.

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  4. I'm more worried about the antibiotics and pesticides in milk... as well as the fact that the pasteurization process kills the enzyme that aids the body in the absorption of calcium. I buy raw milk from a local dairy that uses organic methods to raise their dairy cows.

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    1. educated friend I have some info for you here, I think you will like it.
      http://current.com/1pbfm4c

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  5. Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thanks a bunch

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  6. Thanks for this post! You may not think that many people will read this, but you're on the front page of hits for "pus, milk" on Google. Congratulation! :D

    (Also, the SGU is the greatest podcast ever. EVER.)

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  7. In response to the kind Eron: in.gov/legislative/iac/T03450/A00080.PDF "The milk shall not contain drug residues".

    So no, there is no antibiotics or hormones or whatever in milk.

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  8. If there were no antibiotics or hormones in milk, there would be no need to sell "Organic" milk. Because it would all be organic. You wonder why we don't market breast milk? Because you wouldn't find a woman willing to be treated the way we treat dairy cows. Humans stop needing milk when we stop breastfeeding. We are the only species that continue to drink milk after we grow up - and we even drink the milk of another species, we are that fucked up.

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  9. Milk is delicious, I've been going through about a gallon every 2-3 days since childhood, I'm now 21, and I have never been overweight, I've never head any major health issues, and I have remarkably strong bones and teeth. All you organic hippie idiots can eat your rabbit food (which mind you is covered in pesticides, chemicals and germs) and I will keep my milk which contains some cow's somatic cells, which mind, is NOT pus in any way shape or form. Also, you CAN buy milk without hormones or antibiotics. idiots.

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    Replies
    1. hahaha looks like you will die with breast cancer & the rest of the brainless here with colon cancer.... educate yourselves people!!!

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  12. And for those who love yourselves a little and would do the little sacrifice to investigate if the bs is in this page is true or not here is some help:
    http://solorya.hubpages.com/hub/Organic-Milk--Is-It-Worth-Your-Money
    Your health depends on YOU.

    ReplyDelete