Micronutrients in milligrams per 100 grams
Note the following:
• Cow’ s milk has three times more protein and almost four times more calcium( both buildup elements) than human milk. It is, indeed, perfectly suited to the developmental needs of a calf, which, when grown, will weigh three or four times as much as a human adult.
• The ratio of calcium to phosphorus in human milk is 2.35:1 but it is only 1.27:1 in cow’ s milk. According to Dr. Frank
Oski, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Upstate Medical Center, State University of New York, in Syracuse,“ only foods with a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio of two to one or better should be used as a primary source of calcium.” 3
That is because phosphorus can combine with calcium in the digestive tract and actually prevent the absorption of calcium. Paradoxically, then, human beings absorb less calcium from the high-calcium cow’ s milk than from the lower-calcium human milk. To put it another way, regarding the optimum amount of nutrients that we need, it’ s not quantity that counts, but context.
• Human milk has a bit more fat than cow’ s milk— 4.0 grams as opposed to 3.5 grams. This indicates to me that pointing to the fat in cow’ s milk as detrimental could be barking up the wrong tree. In fact, fat is the only nutrient with similar values in both kinds of milk; values for all the other nutrients are dramatically disparate, as the charts show.
• Human milk has almost double the carbohydrate found in cow’ s milk— 9 grams as opposed to 4.9 grams. Consequently, cow’ s milk is relatively“ deficient” in this nutrient. This may explain the observable custom of sweetening cow’ s milk or including sugar in a dairy-based dietary system. In other words, consuming cow’ s milk( or its products) provokes a craving for sweets. Milk and cookies, for this reason among others, do belong together.
• Human milk contains only 16 milligrams of sodium, as opposed to the 50 milligrams in cow’ s milk. Moreover, salt is added to almost all cheeses to give them flavor. Therefore it seems that cow’ s milk, with its naturally occurring excess, along with salted cheese, could be among the most common sources of excessive sodium in our Standard American Diet. According to our systems model, more is not always better, and too much of something can create as many problems as too little, throwing the system out of balance. If we put human milk into the system of a human being, the result is smooth growth, correct energy level, and no excess because all the elements are fully utilized. This eminently human food matches the human metabolism. But if we put in cow’ s milk, say 100 grams, the foregoing charts clearly indicate that we will have 2.4 grams of protein and 85 milligrams of calcium in