You’ve replaced your household cleaners with non-toxic products. You use alternative health remedies. You eat whole foods, avoid refined sugars, and exercise regularly.
And yet, you still feel like something’s missing when it comes to your health…but what on earth could it be?
I’ve had many of the same thoughts myself. I feel pretty good, but why don’t I feel great?
Is it possible that one of the most unglamorous organs is behind all of your health problems?
I’m talking about your intestines. Or gut. Or digestive system. Whatever you want to call it, its function is NOT glamorous.
But here’s the thing: poor gut health isn’t pretty, especially if you’re fighting leaky gut syndrome, allergies, or fuzzy brain – all symptoms of a gut that isn’t doing what it’s designed to do.
It can already feel a bit daunting to work on healing your digestive issues, but then to spend time searching for practical solutions at a price you can afford? Forget about it.
But what if everything you need (and then some) came together in one magical package, for the most affordable price ever? Well, you’re in luck, because that’s exactly what’s happening and I’m telling you, this bundle is just what you need.
The Gut Health Super Bundle includes 16 ebooks, 5 eCourses, 3 videos, and 1 massive summit full of expert videos. One of those ebooks is our very own bestselling Paleo Guide to Beating Candida Naturally. So if you’ve been holding off on buying this essential guide to getting rid of your Candida overgrowth, now might just be the time to make your move!
These top-quality resources cover everything you need to heal your gut…tummy-soothing recipes, meal plans, quick-start guides, in-depth education, and so much more.
For less than the cost of some high-quality probiotics, you’ll get a complete library to help you:
End your digestive complaints (you know what they are)
Identify your own trigger foods and how to eat for digestibility
Discover how to make gut-healing fermented foods at home – and cheaply!
Choose the best probiotics and other supplements
Simplify your meal planning routine with gut-healing recipes and meal plans
and finally get your health back.
Plus, it comes with $40 worth of bonus offers for tummy-friendly, real food products.
You sort of need to see it to believe it, but the package includes 25 digital products and it’s worth over $695!
Besides being so incredibly helpful, one of the things I like best about the bundle is the price. By offering it for a short time only, they’re able to give you access to over $695 worth of amazing products for a whopping 93% off!
Here’s how it works:
Visit their website, take a quick look at all the goodness that comes in this package, then click the “Get my copy now!” button to go through their simple and secure 3-step checkout process.
You’ll receive an email with a login to their online access portal, where you’ll begin downloading your eBooks, signing up for your eCourses, and redeeming your free bonus offers.
Use their Getting Started Guide to pick the topic you want to tackle first and start the healing journey!
I’d hate for you to miss out, so click HERE to learn more or buy the bundle.
It’s even backed by a 100% happiness guarantee, so you can make sure it’s right for you.
No one should put up with poor digestive health because it costs too much or they can’t get the help they need.
Embracing a healthy lifestyle is an important first step. But to really experience holistic health, you need to get your digestive system back on track.
Learn more or get your bundle HERE. If you’ve got any specific questions, feel free to get in touch with us at inquiry@thriveprimal.com. I’ve already purchased the bundle myself, so I can definitely help you out!
Everyone gets a parasite at least once in their life. For most people, they’ll be exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of parasites on a regular basis. That thought alone is enough to send many people running for the hills, or at least that “happy place” in their minds where parasites don’t exist.
But to assume you’re somehow immune to parasites is a poor assumption indeed. Either that, or you tell yourself that you’ve cooked your food thoroughly enough and religiously sanitized your hands to the point where there’s no chance that you could have some nasty little worms residing in your gut. Once again, big mistake.
This post comes after concluding 14 months of travel through some of the poorest countries on earth. As Liivi and I made our way down through Mexico and Central America, then immediately immersed ourselves in Southeast Asia for a couple of months to top it off, my mind was constantly considering the possibility that the next bowl of Vietnamese pho or undercooked Mexican tacos might be the one that introduced my body to an unpleasant concoction of parasitism.
Many people would respond to these suspicions by making a quick trip to the doctor for a diagnosis. That doctor may or may not perform a series of blood, urine or stool tests, but their prescription is almost always the same: a strong dose of antibiotics. And if you’ve been following our posts on Candida, you’ll know by now that antibiotics will RUIN your gut microflora and simply put you at greater risk of future parasite infections.
You could also seek out a functional medicine practitioner to get a more holistic take on your potential parasite problem, or even procure a reputable mail-order parasite testing kit, such as this Full GI Panel. The problem is, both of these alternatives are expensive, time consuming, and despite their reputability they’re often still quite unreliable in their results. Either the practitioner or the test might declare you “parasite free”, when really you’ve got a whole host of parasites that have dropped below the radar.
The way I see it, you’re much better off knowing what signs and symptoms to look out for, performing a simple parasite questionnaire, then going ahead and taking steps to expunge those uninvited parasites living in your innards. Even if you’re unsure, often embarking upon a simple at-home natural anti-parasite regime can do your body a lot of good, whether you have parasites or not. But first, lets wrap our heads around some of the more common parasites, and their usual symptoms.
Common parasites and typical symptoms
Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm)
Pinworm is a type of roundworm (nematode) with a huge geographic range. It is prevalent throughout much of the United States, along with many other parts of the world. It is estimated that around 209 million people worldwide are infected, with more than 30 percent of children throughout the world infected. In summary, there’s a very good chance you’ve got this little blighter hanging out in your large intestine.
The eggs of E. vermicularis spread to other people via fecal residue. In essence, people who go for a poo and don’t wash their hands properly are to blame. Nasty. And considering this pinworm can lay up to 15,000 eggs per night in your nether regions, it’s highly infectious.
Symptoms of pinworm include:
itching of the genitals and anus (sorry, but we had to go there)
sleep disturbance due to constant itching (particularly bad at night, when this parasite is most active)
in some cases, rapid weight loss, urinary tract infection, and appendicitis
Giardia lamblia
If you’ve ever considered taking a drink from what you thought to be a clean river, lake or stream on a particularly long hike, you’ve probably been warned off by somebody harping on about “giardia”. Hopefully you heeded their warning, because giardia is the second most common parasitic infection in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that more than 2.5 million cases of giardiasis occur annually.
Like pinworm, giardia is spread via fecal-oral contamination (put bluntly, when you get someone else’s poo particles in your mouth…tasty). Giardia is commonly water-borne because it is resistant to the chlorine in tap water, and even survives well in cold mountain streams. For this reason, it has earned the nicknames of “backpacker’s diarrhea” and “beaver fever”.
You can even get giardia from raw or undercooked foods, and animals such as sheep, cattle, dogs, rodents and beavers can pass it on and ensure it remains almost permanently in many water bodies.
Symptoms of giardia include:
diarrhea
malabsorption
indigestion
dramatic weight loss
fatigue
depression
in some cases, arthritis, particularly in the lower parts of the body
Ancylostoma duodenale, Necator americanus (hookworm)
A. duodenale is found in Europe, Africa, China, Japan, India and the Pacific Islands. N. americanus, as the name suggests, is found primarily in the Americas as well as the Caribbean and certain areas of Asia and the Pacific. These parasites used to be a real problem in America until the early 1900s, but hookworm is still widespread throughout the world.
As usual, the means by which these parasites get into your body is a rather disgusting one. Upon hatching, larvae feed on bacteria in the soil, then enter their human hosts via pores, hair follicles and even intact skin. They then travel through your circulatory system, climb into the lungs, and make their way eventually into your digestive tract. Here, they take up residence and begin the cycle all over again.
Hookworms like these generally don’t present any major problems aside from occasional gastroenteritis-like symptoms, or if the intestinal worm colony becomes too big (yuck!). The biggest concern, however, is blood loss. These worms use anticoagulant compounds that allow them to consume around quarter of a liter of blood per day. This blood loss can produce something called microcytic hypochromic anemia, which is often associated with iron deficiency. This hookworm infection may also result in “physical and mental retardation in children” – a rather frightening prospect, if you have your own little tikes to worry about.
Entamoeba histolytica
E. histolytica is the world’s second leading protozoan cause of death, close behind malaria. Of the approximately 50 million infective cases per year, an estimated 100,000 of them are fatal. That’s a pretty high mortality rate.
Infection by this parasite occurs via the fecal-oral route (ingested poo particles), typically due to poor food preparation hygiene, use of human waste for crop fertilization (more common than you might think!), and even “oral-anal sexual practices” (their words, not mine!).
Symptoms of this nasty little number include:
malaise
weight loss
severe abdominal pain
severe bloody diarrhea
fever
inflammatory bowel disease
colitis
Many of these symptoms lead health practitioners to mistakenly diagnose appendicitis, especially in children.
Aside from those listed above, there are plenty of other parasites floating about. Other common parasites found in the US include tapeworms (which can grow up to 60 feet long in the human intestine) and blood flukes (which mature in snails then burrow through human skin to infect the host).
Suitably concerned? You should be. Which isn’t to say that you should break out in a cold sweat. But a smattering of health concern occasionally is a good thing.
Before we proceed, it’s important to remember that you will never fully eradicate all parasites from your body. Our bodies have evolved to coexist with parasites, and completely removing anything which can be considered parasitic will present it’s own host of problems.
Take Candida, for example. This yeast, when it overgrows due to stress, antibiotics and excessive sugar consumption, can be very damaging to your health. However, Candida is actually a necessary component of our immune and digestive systems, and protects against heavy metal poisoning by metabolizing heavy metals and removing them from the body. Remove Candida, and you could suffer from heavy metal poisoning.
The main thing to remember is that for animals (including humans) which are healthy, parasites don’t pose a problem. It is when our bodies become weakened due to poor diets, antibiotics, drugs, stress, and so on that parasites can become stronger and take over our bodies. For these natural remedies to work, then, you need to also get your health under control.
One of the best ways to do this is to place yourself on a health protocol such as the one we’ve put together here. While the protocol is designed for getting Candida under control, it is excellent for dramatically improving your health in general. Otherwise, spend some time reading through some of our other posts here on Thrive Primal.
Black walnut
While I couldn’t track down any scientific studies relating to the parasite-preventative qualities of black walnut, there’s bucketloads of anecdotal evidence. The dried, ground hull of the Black Walnut contains a number of compounds which have been associated with parasite die-off. These compounds include organic iodine, juglandin, juglone and various other juglandic acids. Black walnut has purportedly been used for hundreds of years to expel various types of parasites, including ringworms, tapeworms, pinworms, and malaria.
Even if it hasn’t been scientifically linked to anti-parasitic effects, black walnut has received plenty of attention elsewhere in the health community. With this in mind, you should consider taking a black walnut supplement regardless!
Oregano essential oil
Unlike black walnut, oregano has received plenty of scientific review with regards to parasites, and the results are very promising. In one study, oil from Mediterranean oregano (Oreganum vulgare) was administered orally to 14 patients who had tested positive for several different internal parasites. After 6 weeks of 600 mg emulsified oregano oil daily, there was complete disappearance of all 3 different parasites in many of the patients. For the others, their parasite count diminished considerably, and those suffering from associated gastrointestinal issues also improved markedly.
In another study, the anti-parasitic effect of oregano and thyme essential oils were tested on the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan similar to Entamoeba histolytica. Here, I’ll paraphrase, as the technical mumbo jumbo becomes rather convoluted: “extract of oregano essential oil inhibited epimastigote growth (IC50/24 h = 175 μg/ml) and also induced trypomastigote lysis (IC50/24 h = 115 μg/ml)”. The conclusion? “Oregano and thyme essential oils are effective against T cruzi”.
Garlic is a proven anti-parasitic, and from what I’ve seen it punches well above the rest. Garlic can slow or even fully eradicate more than sixty varieties of fungi and twenty types of bacteria and viruses. It owes this parasite-killing power to it’s high concentrations of both allicin and ajoene. Ajoene has been strongly associated with fungal spore die-off, while allicin is a powerful antimicrobial agent which selectively kills off parasitizing organisms in your body while leaving the beneficial bacteria well alone.
This study indicates that garlic oil “has broad-spectrum activity against Trypanosoma, Plasmodium, Giardia and Leishmania”. Another study indicates that the high concentrations of allicin found in garlic have been found to:
exhibit antibacterial activity against a wide range of harmful bacteria, including various strains of E. coli
prevent fungal activity, including Candida albicans
prevent parasitic activity, including major human intestinal parasites like Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia
exhibit strong anti-viral properties
Clearly, you need more garlic in your life. Whether thats from garlic essential oil, allicin supplements or just straight whole garlic consumption (you’d need a lot of this last option to make any real difference against parasites), is up to you.
Clove essential oil
Perhaps second only to garlic, cloves are dynamite against parasites. Cloves contain eugenol, caryophyllene, and various tannins which exhibit powerful antimicrobial properties. These compounds can enter the bloodstream and selectively dispatch microscopic parasites, along with their larvae and eggs. Cloves have been proven in the treatment of malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, scabies and a range of other parasites, viruses, bacteria and fungi.
As this research paper indicates, clove essential oil has been shown to have powerful effects on several microorganisms and parasites. These include pathogenic bacteria, herpes, various Staphylococcus strains, and even hepatitis C viruses.
Another study examined the anti-parasitic activity of clove, basil and yarrow essential oils against the common parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. While it was found that all three of the oils were effective against the parasite, clove was by far the most effective.
Finally, a 2011 lab analysis of clove essential oil found that it had strong anti-Giardia (remember that “backpacker’s diarrhea I talked about earlier?) properties. Some of the study findings are as follows:
clove essential oil, and specifically the eugenol in clove oil, have anti-Giardia activity and inhibit cell attachment
clove oil promotes cell swelling, resulting in cell membrane destruction
clove oil induces an autophagic death process in Giardia cells
clove essential oil and eugenol have no toxicity on mammalian cells (meaning there’s no nasty side-effects!).
By far, the best way to get your anti-parasitic dose of clove is via topical application of the essential oil, or ingesting it as directed.
Wormwood
Wormwood has long been recognized as an effective natural treatment for certain types of parasites. It’s anthelmintic (medicinal anti-parasitic) properties were highly valued by many ancient cultures, and it continues to be used today in many parts of the world for the same reason. It’s apparent that if something continues to be used as an anti-parasitic treatment for so long, there must be some truth to the claims. In fact, many modern farmers still use wormwood for the de-worming of horses, cows and sheep…so why not humans as well?
It’s thought that the key anti-parasitic constituents of wormwood include bitter substances like sesquiterpene lactones, and an essential oil which contains a high concentration of terpenes. One study found that an in-vitro wormwood aqueous extract demonstrated strong anti-parasitic effects on the nematode Trichostrongylus colubriformis, and that the thujone in wormwood amplified this effect.
While there appears to be less scientific research of wormwood when compared to oregano, garlic and clove, there are a number of studies illustrating the effectiveness of wormwood against malaria. This study found that wormwood extract could inhibit the growth of malaria parasites in mice, while another found that cure rates were 74 percent after 7 days of wormwood treatment in human patients with uncomplicated malaria.
You can buy wormwood as an organic extract or in pill form (apparently the extract tastes pretty nasty!). But in my opinion, if you’re going whole-hog on these parasites, you might as well get the black walnut wormwood complex and kill two birds with one stone!
Thyme essential oil
As mentioned earlier, a study which compared the anti-parasitic properties of both oregano and thyme essential oils found that, while both were effective, thyme was the most powerful of the two. Considering how much acclaim oregano essential oil has received for it’s anthelmintic properties, this is certainly saying something.
On looking into the literature further, it became apparent that thyme essential oil has received a lot of attention for its anti-parasitic application in horticulture and pest control, but very little with regards to humans. Still, considering the number of studies confirming the effectiveness of thyme oil in killing a range of parasites, it stands to reason that it would also be effective for protecting our own bodies against infection. Make sure you do your dosage research before you start chugging it back by the gallon, though!
I use doTERRA’s thyme essential oil. It’s generally more expensive than some of the other brands, but it’s much higher quality. And if I’m putting oils into my body, I need to know they’re top notch.
Fennel essential oil
According to anecdotal evidence, fennel is believed to be a strong anti-parasitic. Fennel seed essential oil is used to flush parasites and their waste from the body, and has also been historically used to treat Candida overgrowth. Scientific review of this herb with regards to parasites is sadly lacking, however.
That being said, Dr Axe seems to think fennel is worth getting your hands on. According to him, fennel essential oil can help to heal wounds, relieve digestive issues and constipation, provide a host of antioxidants, and aid in weight loss. So even if it doesn’t directly attack parasites, it will certainly help out elsewhere!
This is another purported anti-parasitic natural remedy which lacks any scientific basis. But I’m well aware that just because a product hasn’t been studied, doesn’t mean that it’s not effective. And the anecdotal evidence suggests that it certainly is effective against parasites, their eggs, and yeast overgrowths like Candida.
Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring substance that is high in silica, which our bodies use to create hair, nails and skin. While diatomaceous earth is beneficial to us, it’s particles are so small that they can get in between the joints and exoskeletons of parasites and literally kill them on the spot. Thus when you ingest diatomaceous earth, it flushes out all those parasites living in your digestive system, and simultaneously removes heavy metals and other toxins from your body.
The reason why I’m inclined to believe these claims is that diatomaceous earth is still widely used in the agricultural sector for pest control. Farmers and food manufacturers swear by it, and if it can kill pests on food and plants, why not in our bodies as well?
Make sure you only use food grade diatomaceous earth, and take it easy – one to two tablespoons per day is enough. Here’s a reputable food-grade diatomaceous earth product.
Main points to remember
As discussed earlier, parasites are more likely to be a problem for you if your health is lacking. Improve your health, and you’ll dramatically improve your chances of overcoming them. One of the best ways to do this is to clean up your diet, but also to get plenty of high intensity exercise (sweating helps expel toxins and removes the by-products of parasites from your body), and try to keep stress to a minimum where possible. And don’t forget to get plenty of sleep!
If you’re looking to stock up on essential oils for your parasite cleanse, you can save a lot of money by signing up to doTERRA through Thrive Primal. For more information, click here.
If you’re keen to learn more on the subject, Paul Check is one of the world’s leading experts on parasites. He’s put together a series of DVDs and other resources to help people identify their problems and find a harm-free solution. Click this link to find out more.
And finally, if you’re unsure whether you’re suffering from a parasite infection, it’s always best to consult a medical practitioner first. If you’re on other medications, it’s also good to consult your doctor to determine whether the natural remedies listed above will clash with them in any way. Remember, we’re not doctors, we’re just here to provide useful information and helpful tips!
It may sound a little ridiculous, but it’s highly likely that your shower is making you dirty. Even dirtier than before you stepped in, that is.
That’s because most showerheads are overlooked during routine household cleans (even the obligatory “Spring clean”), and are in fact an excellent place for the growth and proliferation of harmful microbes. Even if you have a filter on your shower, most are only designed to remove chlorine and inorganic compounds from your water, not nasty microscopic pathogenic invaders.
Research shows that the most common harmful microbes which inhabit your shower heads are “atypical mycobacteria” otherwise known as nontuberculosis mycobacteria. These little gremlins are naturally found in low concentrations all around us, in the water and soil (keep it cool, if you start looking around wildly people will think you’re a bit wacky), but can be suspended in the air by the process of evaporation or mist. Once in the air, these nasty little numbers can enter your lungs and start creating trouble.
Under normal conditions, our exposure to atypical mycobacteria is minimal, with their low concentrations in water and soil presenting little risk of infection. The conditions created in that innocent-seeming showerhead, however, are ideal for the colonization and rapid spread of this bacterial strain, meaning exposure levels are sharply increased and putting you at risk every single time you step into the shower. While various things around the house can harbor these pathogens, shower heads have been shown to have by far the highest concentration of these troublesome critters.
Atypical bacteria belong to the same family as those which cause tuberculosis (hence the name “nontuberculosis mycobacteria”, to differentiate them from their more dangerous cousins), and while they aren’t life-threatening, they can cause all manner of health problems. These include skin infections, lung infections, sinus problems, lymph node infection, and other negative interactions on your skin and in your bloodstream. People with a weakened or compromised immune system are particularly at risk, or those with open wounds or pre-existing skin conditions (such as dandruff or eczema).
And just because you’re healthy doesn’t mean you’re not at risk. All it takes is a bad sleep, a stressful day, a pre-existing cold or flu or too much exercise to put you in the danger zone. At this point, your immune system lacks the strength to fight these bacterial strains from entering your body through the water vapor you breathe in while showering, and you can quickly begin to show symptoms like coughing, difficulty breathing, fever, or general weakness and lethargy.
How to clean your shower head
Luckily, the solution is a simple one. Make cleaning your shower heads part of your regular cleaning routine, at least once a month but preferably every 2 weeks. You can remove the showerhead completely, sit it in a large bowl, then pour white vinegar into the bowl until the showerhead is fully submerged. Leave it there for a couple of hours, get rid of the vinegar, and reattach the showerhead. It’s that simple!
But if that wasn’t simple enough, there’s an even easier way. If you’ve got some large ziplock bags lying around, half fill one with white vinegar, secure the bag to your shower head with a sturdy rubber band, and leave in place for 2-3 hours, making sure the vinegar completely immerses the shower head. As with before, throw away the vinegar and repeat at least once a month to keep those nasty mycobacteria at bay!
Mention the word “dairy” to your average paleo enthusiast, and they’ll shake their heads and mutter to themselves about potential toxicity issues, food allergies, and the untrustworthiness of these types of products. And they’d be right – this subject area is a very difficult one to navigate, as dairy products are typically shrouded in mystery and have the potential to throw your clean dieting right off the rails.
In Part 3 of our food shopping series (check out our guide to fruit and vegetables here, and our guide to shopping for meat, poultry and fish here), we’ll explore how to tell if milk and other dairy-based foods are good for you, how to find high quality ingredients in your supermarket or at the farm gate, and hidden dangers you need to look out for.
Read on, to continue your training towards becoming a supermarket superstar!
Is dairy and milk paleo?
From a strict Paleo standpoint, dairy was not consumed in the Paleolithic Era (aside from human milk, that is!), and for this reason many of those who follow a regimented Paleo diet stay away from it.
But just because something wasn’t available to our ancestors doesn’t make it inherently bad. Good quality dairy is an amazing source of nutrition, designed by the animal that produced it to be loaded with saturated fats, beneficial bacteria, essential fatty acids, proteins, vitamins and minerals. As it is the first thing a newborn calf, kid (in the goat sense) or lamb drinks, it provides a vital burst of nourishment that this animal needs to survive the first phase of it’s life.
Now, while this milk was not designed for human mouths, there’s no reason why we might not gain benefit or nourishment from it. In my opinion, it’s the same as eating good quality eggs – they clearly weren’t designed for human consumption, but they’ve attained an almost godlike status amongst the Paleo community, and are celebrated for the vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats they can provide us. Milk is the same – we can benefit from the same compounds that the calf, kid or lamb would thrive on.
Where dairy gets a bad rap is with regards to lactose, casein and the potential for introducing synthetic toxins into our bodies. It’s important to note, however, that this is usually only a problem when buying regular, grain-fed, store-based milk or dairy products. These products are made from cows (and to a lesser degree, sheep and goats) which have been raised on a diet consisting almost solely of GMO corn and soy, while being confined to tiny pens inside horrific dairy factories, away from the sun. These animals are also regularly injected with hormones, to make them grow faster and produce more milk, and antibiotics, to prevent them from developing diseases due to their unhealthy living conditions.
All this nasty stuff gets into the milk, while all the good stuff (the beneficial bacteria, digestive enzymes, saturated fats) gets removed during the processes of skimming, pasteurization and homogenization. The result is a dairy product devoid of nutrients and healthy fats, which is now missing the very bacterial cultures and enzymes which make it easier for our stomachs to digest in the first place (and which would otherwise prevent us from developing lactose or casein intolerance).
Why raw milk is NOT dangerous
Unfortunately, the agricultural industry has made it ridiculously difficult to get your hands on good quality dairy. Most of the US states continue to impose a complete ban on the sale and distribution of raw milk, citing antiquated cases of people becoming sick or even dying from consumption of raw milk that was somehow contaminated. These fears are based on a system of pasteurization which was introduced back before the invention of refrigerated transport and storage, when milk or dairy products could become eventually become contaminated by harmful pathogens after sitting in a warm place for too long.
Well, as it happens, we have fast, refrigerated transport now, and cold storage, and fridges at home – so those claims about the necessity of pasteurization are completely redundant! What’s more, those stories of people getting sick from raw milk were almost always due to that milk coming from cows which were raised in undesirable conditions – like the small pens, with antibiotic-injected, hormone-enriched, grain-fed cows I talked about earlier. If the cows themselves are raised in pasture and allowed to roam free under the sun, these health concerns are even more redundant.
In actual fact, you’re far more likely to get sick from drinking regular pasteurized milk than you are from raw milk! One expert even goes so far as to state that “you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk”. So quit worrying! If, however, you still find yourself shaking in your boots at the very notion of drinking something which hasn’t been heated to smithereens, check out this article we wrote a while back.
How to buy good quality, healthy dairy products
Rather than going into too much more of a rant about the dairy industry and how it’s turning people against one of the most nutritious (not to mention delicious!) food sources available, lets get down to business. You came here to learn how to ferret through all those nasty dairy products and locate the actual good, healthy ones, and the below table should help you do just that. The table is laid out to present the most desirable sources of dairy first, then works down the list to products which you should probably just stay away from altogether. Remember – if you can’t find good quality dairy, it’s generally better to just cut your losses and eat or drink something else.
It turns out that making a table to show how best to prioritize your milk is a difficult task. Hopefully the above gets the point across: the highest quality milk and dairy is from humanely-treated, grass-fed cows (and sheep and goats) that have been raised on an organic farm (which implies that they’re free from hormones, antibiotics and probably GMOs). The best milk is also raw and full-fat! As you work down the table, the dairy becomes progressively less good for you when it is no longer organic or full-fat. To provide a rough indication, I’d recommend regular (daily to 2 or 3 times a week) consumption of dairy products which are found in the green category, occasionally (no more than once a month) for those products in the orange section, and never buying those products in the red. ESPECIALLY dairy which is raw but comes from non-organic, grass-fed cows…although you’re fairly unlikely to ever come across that!
Finding good quality dairy is difficult, but not impossible
During our time living in Canada, Liivi and I became obsessed with the idea of getting our hands on a regular supply of grass-fed, raw dairy. It was very, very difficult, on account of strict Canadian laws which prohibit the sale of raw dairy products, and because 99.9% of the dairy farms there are grain-feeding. After much searching, we eventually came across this website, which got us in touch with a cooperative that provided real, organic, humane, grass-fed, RAW milk and dairy products. They products were expensive, but boy, were they good!
In the US, state governments are slowly starting to loosen up the laws, following increasing pressure from the public. Check out this interactive map to see whether your state allows the sale of raw milk in-store, or at least at the farm gate.
If you live in an area that is prohibitive to raw milk, however, don’t dismay – you can generally still get your hands on some high-quality, grass-fed dairy products, even if they’re not raw. As we travelled through the States and Canada, we would keep our eyes peeled for either the Kerrygold brand or the Anchor brand. Kerrygold comes from Ireland while Anchor comes from New Zealand, and both are produced from grass-fed cows, with no hormones and no antibiotics (I would know: I used to work for Anchor as an environmental officer!). You’ll often find Kerrygold butter or Anchor butter in your supermarket, and sometimes also Kerrygold cheese. Elsewhere in the world, you’re more than likely to stumble across a range of Anchor products, including Anchor butter and Mainland cheese. Failing that, order them on Amazon:
Another great way to get many of the benefits of grass-fed, organic cows, is from this whey protein powder which I came across after days of painstaking research. Find out more about it, here!
