When I was very young, one of my favorite snacks was graham crackers. I remember taking a cracker and breaking it into four pieces, stacking them together, and dipping the golden goodies into my favorite beverage—an ice-cold glass of cow’s milk. Like little sponges they would soak up the milk until they became just a bit soggy, at which point I would savor them in my mouth. I would do this time and time again, until I had eaten nearly the whole box. But it wasn’t until the late 1980s that I learned graham crackers were not the only thing that could become sponge-like by their contact with cow’s milk—so could my brain!

By now, everyone has read something about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow’s disease. With the recent mad cow epidemic in Britain, nearly every newspaper and television news program have reported something on the subject. BSE is the newest of the animal diseases that is believed to be transmitted to human beings through the ingestive pathway. In other words, according to British scientists, people may contract a form of this deadly disease, which makes its victims go mad before it kills them, by eating burgers, steaks, or drinking a good old glass of milk. Symptoms of BSE include aggressive and disoriented behavior (mad cow), because it affects the central nervous system of the animal. Even more frightening is that BSE is not caused by a virus or bacteria, but a prion—a protein molecule that has baffled science because it is devoid of RNA or DNA, can survive even when heated to 360 degrees Celsius for one hour, and produces no specific antibodies in an infected animal. In fact, there are no tests to detect it!

The disease, which bores holes into the cow’s brain and nervous tissue, leads to slow, lethal degeneration (rotting) of the brain, giving it a sponge-like appearance. Thus, the name spongiform (spongy) encephalopathy (brain disease), and coined "mad cow’s disease," is appropriately used. The overwhelming concern about BSE began as a result of Britain’s former health adviser, Sir Bernard Tomlinson, when he reported on a radio interview his fears of a link between BSE (mad cow’s disease) and CJD (Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease), its human equivalent. But what really motivated Britain’s government into taking action was the death of ten new victims with the average age of 27 (some yet in their teens) that had died recently from a new strain of CJD, as reported by Lancet (medical journal) in April, 1996. These deaths were "‘the latest in a series of CJD deaths that are so different from the textbook description of the disease—the victims were young, the brain tissue looked like Alzheimer’s—that they suggest a link to mad cow’s disease,’ says Dr. Paul Brown of the U.S. National Institutes of Health." (Newsweek, April 8, 1996). "Human victims become depressed, confused, unsteady, demented, and completely helpless before invariably dying—within six to thirteen months after first showing symptoms," reported The Sacramento Bee on March 22, 1996.

But Britain, which now has 28,000 adults becoming vegetarians, is not the only country that is affected by BSE. Cases have been discovered in Ireland, Switzerland, France, Portugal, and Canada, to name a few others. Our government states that the disease has never been found in the United States, but other researchers here are questioning these findings and feel that more testing needs to be done. Meanwhile, the incidents of BSE are down in Britain, because Britain’s government banned the feeding of sheep and cows to cows in 1988 (although 70 cattle a week are still being diagnosed with the disease and 10,000 cows born after the ban have since contracted BSE). Since the disease originated in sheep as scrapie, and since cheaper feeds in Britain include ground up sheep and cows in the feed, the banning of rendered livestock (much of which is diseased) for feed has been enforced in Britain. Britain, thus, has learned the hard way that, in order to eliminate diseases like BSE and CJD from spreading in their country, they must discontinue the unnatural practice of feeding herbivore animals, like cows, other sheep and cows. They must stop turning their cows into carnivores, because cow cannibalism has obviously led to the fatal epidemic now spreading in Britain, which may have already infected 500,000 to a million Britons (if not more) with CJD. Only time will tell the impact BSE will have on the people of Britain, since the incubation period of the disease (the time in takes for symptoms to manifest themselves) is between 2 to 10 years.

"But", some reader may say, "you are writing about the unfortunate experience of Britain. Certainly you do not mean to imply that the British misfortunes are ever to be repeated in the U.S.A., do you?" As to that possibility, let us turn to what an American expert has to say about what is going on in our country. "The feeding of ruminant protein (sheep and cows) to cows continues at a rate of millions of pounds [14% of all rendered cattle] per day," says the author of Mad Cows and Milkgate, Dr. Virgil Hulse. (Milkgate, p.41). He also explains in his book, which I urge everyone to read as soon as possible, that the animals ground up and used as feed for our cows are 4-D animals—dead, dying, diseased, and disabled. Many of these sick animals are called downers because they have "downer cow syndrome," meaning they are too sick to even walk or stand, but are still allowed by the USDA to be sold for food. There are over 20,000 downers a year just in Wisconsin alone. How can these poor creatures, which were designed by God to live on grass and grain, stand a chance of ever being disease-free when they are fed a special protein feed made of 4-D animals? And, if that weren’t bad enough, cows have been routinely fed cow's skins (laden with E-coli and feces), dead sheep, chicken manure, and feathers from the chicken and turkey we eat—labeled Dairy Supplement or Protected Natural Protein. In fact, chicken feces is sold to farmers for $45.00 a ton and the cows eat it, along with grease and garbage from restaurants, which are referred to as nutritional supplements. Friends, we need to stop and think this matter through. If scrapie, originally a sheep disease that spread to cattle in Britain as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, has now spread to humans as Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease, should it not concern us greatly that scrapie infected sheep are in all but 11 states in the U.S., and that farmers have been feeding this bypass protein to cows? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out! Take, for instance, the 1985 outbreak of transmittal mink encephalopathy (TME, also called “mad mink” disease) discovered at a ranch in Wisconsin. The minks’ diet consisted of 95% "downer cows" and 5% horse meat. Of the 7,300 adult mink at the ranch in Wisconsin, approximately 60% developed clinical signs of TME, and all of these died. This is just one more case that proves the deadly prion can cross the animal species barrier—from sheep to cow, from cow to mink, mice, goats, pigs, monkeys, lions, tigers, cats, antelopes, ostrich—and the list goes on. The United States government would like us to believe that spongiform encephalopathy cannot spread to humans, but in view of what has happened thus far, I think it would be downright stupid to believe this monstrous unlikelihood. According to the USDA, there are 7,500 sheep right now in the U.S. that have scrapie. In fact, the "USDA discontinued the compulsory scrapie eradication program because it would be perceived by the public that it [spongiform encephalopathy] was a threat to health." (Milkgate, p. 36). America is simply trying to sit on a time bomb that is ready to explode!

More recently, Howard Straus in his article, "The Approaching Era of BSE,#34; in the July/August, 1996, issue of The Gerson Healing Newsletter, writes: "There is the possibility, even the likelihood of an outbreak of BSE and its associated human form, CJD occurring in the United States. It may already have arrived here, and been missed in the background noise of the enormous human tragedy of our epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease. It is quite possible that many cases of CJD have been misdiagnosed here as Alzheimer’s, disguising the onset of the epidemic by not recognizing it for what it is, and giving us a false sense of security. In fact, there is good evidence that BSE has been in the United States since the mid-’70s." Funny, isn’t it, what human beings will do for greed!

Then there is the latest statement made by the Clinton Administration to help prevent mad cow disease in America that was published in the Wall Street Journal on January 2, 1997: "The Clinton Administration, fearing a replay of Britain’s mad cow disease epidemic in the U.S., has decided to sharply curtail the recycling of waste animal protein into livestock feed." I recently spoke to Dr. Virgil Hulse and Howard Lyman, political activist for the Eating with Consciousness Campaign in Washington, D.C, and asked their thoughts on the recent statement made by the Clinton Administration. Both men said that they were "very encouraged, yet concerned that this is not a solution to the problem—only a good step in the right direction." Unfortunately, according to the article, the Clinton Administration has said that they will "ban some livestock-feed items," but not all of them. "The FDA rule would classify as unsafe all forms of protein derived from cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk, and mink, all of which are known to have spongiform diseases akin to BSE. The ban would also cover protein from what are called ‘four D’ animals...The only exception would be for bovine blood, waste milk, and gelatin, for which no pathway of BSE infection is known." Friends, how can any responsible person make a statement like this when the blood of these animals will continue to be processed and used as "blood meal" and will still be incorporated into the animal’s feed? If the life of the animal is in its blood, are also the prions? Can you now understand why Dr. Hulse and Howard Lyman said “a step in the right direction, but not a solution”? Furthermore, the article stated: "While the proposal wouldn’t apply to chicken feed, hog rations, or pet food, many independent renderers and meat packers fear the stigma could hurt their sales of ruminant protein for these uses as well....In such an event, lost sales and disposal could hit 1.6 billion according to one industry estimate." (Ibid). How any American can be more concerned with lost sales than lost lives is beyond me!

If we don’t stop feeding cows and sheep, or their blood, to cows or other animals, we could end up with the same epidemic as that of Britain. Interestingly enough, Britain is attempting to incinerate 4.7 million cows at 10 incinerator sites that can handle only about a 1,000 cattle a week. This process of rendering could take years to accomplish. And then there is another problem. According to The Times from Britain, dated June 10, 1996, BSE-infected material could be contaminating land and water supplies for years to come: "Dr. Alan Colchester, a consultant neurologist at Guy’s Hospital in London, has been caring for the only cluster group of people suffering from CJD...told BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend that there was no guarantee that the substances known as prions...were being consistently destroyed by the rendering process. He called for the whole rendering industry to be reassessed....Canterbury Mills, one of the...rendering plants, has permission to spread the effluent on land. The others all understand they can pump it into the sewage system. Anne Graham, who coordinates local opposition to the plant from her home in Petham, said that only last Friday offal [inedible animal remains] fell from one of the lorries [trucks] on its way to the plant. She said blood and carcasses could be seen in the open and the smell and the draining of the effluent onto land was unnecessary.” Americans will share the same concern as Anne Graham and Dr. Colchester, since the Clinton Administration’s ban to recycle waste animal protein into animal feed “would force millions of tons of inedible by-products into landfills each year." (Ibid.).

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is not the only infectious disease plaguing the cattle and, ultimately, human beings. There are two retroviruses, bovine immunodeficiency virus and bovine leukemia virus, which are not only increasing at alarming rates, but also would not be affected by the proposed ban by the Clinton Administration. Drs. John McDougall and Michael Klapper reported in the 1980s that 20 percent of our dairy cows in America had bovine leukemia—a deadly form of cancer of the bone marrow. But according to Dr. Virgil Hulse, dairy scientist, researcher, and cancer epidemiologist, who also was a milk and dairy inspector for 13 years in the State of California, that figure has long since been surpassed. "50 to 80 percent of the dairy herds have BLV, and 50 percent have BIV, or cow AIDS," cautions Dr. Hulse. Sheep, goats, and chimpanzees fed cow’s milk become infected and develop leukemia, and BLV viruses have infected human cells in vitro. In fact, Jeremy Rifkin, in his book—Beyond Beef—on page 143, states that "bovine leukemia antibodies have been found in human leukemia patients." Dr. Klapper adds: "The infected cow pours these cancer-inducing viruses out in her milk, which is then pooled with all the milk in the tanker truck on the way to the dairy. These cancer- inducing viruses are resistant to killing by pasteurization, and have been recovered from supermarket milk supplies. Is it a coincidence that the highest rates of leukemia are found in children ages 3 through 13, who consume the most milk and dairy products? It may also come as no surprise that the occupational group with the highest rates of leukemia is dairy farmers?" (Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet, p.42).

Dr. Hulse boldly states his position concerning these retroviruses and their relation to human cancer in Mad Cows and Milkgate on pages 152 and 153. He states: "The plausibility that BLV may be a risk factor in leukemia in children and Hodgkin’s disease and lymphomas in young adults is extremely high....Why are more and more women getting breast cancer in the first place? I feel that it is related to an epidemic of bovine leukemia virus in cows and the presence of BLV even being produced in the breast of the cow."

"Even before the discovery of BLV there were virus-like particles that have been identified by electron microscopy in the milk. Now there is startling evidence that BLV is present in the mammary organ of the cow, more commonly called the udder of the cow. In infected cows these antigens are expressed in the udder of the cow while the cow is being milked....The discovery that the glandular cells in the cow...have cancerous viruses where the milk is being produced is astounding. This nearly unimaginable cause can only serve to intensify our fears concerning the transaction of cancer between cows and humans." Dr. Hulse further states, "It is my opinion that when you drink milk that contains these lymphocytes, you are setting yourself at risk for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, and multiple sclerosis or other cancers...such as prostate, breast, and colon cancer, even if the milk is pasteurized." (Ibid., pp. 158, 159).

On the other hand, the second of the two retroviruses in cows that we need to be concerned with is bovine AIDS. You probably know that AIDS can be transmitted from human to human by blood—such as in transfusions. But how many of us know that "when a cow is being milked with a milking machine, frequently blood vessels break in the udder of the cow? There may be a fissure in one of the teats that allows the bleeding," says Dr. Hulse. "When milk was in 10-gallon milk cans, it could be condemned as being bloody like a strawberry milkshake....Now bloody milk is mixed with other milk in large holding tanks and it no longer looks bloody." (Ibid., pp. 178, 192).

On top of all this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1985 approved a synthetic growth hormone for use in boosting milk production in cows, claiming the product is safe for human beings and animals. But a study released by the Cancer Coalition and reported in January of 1996 concludes that consuming milk from cows that have been injected with recombinant growth hormone (rBGH) may increase the risk of breast and colon cancer. " ‘This [research] will be the death knell of BGH in Europe,’ says Samuel Epstein, MD, professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Illinois- Chicago and author of the study in the winter issue of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Health Services. ‘There is also a strong likelihood that women’s breast cancer groups and grass-roots consumer groups will be alarmed.’

"Using the government’s own data, as well as research conducted by BGH-manufacturers Monsanto, Dow Chemical, and Upjohn, the study argues that BGH may put humans at risk for breast, colon and gastrointestinal cancers. The reason? Levels of the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which has been linked to cancer and tumor growth, are higher than normal in BGH-treated milk. Despite the FDA’s response that IGF-1 passes harmlessly through the human digestive system, Epstein cites evidence that the human intestinal wall can absorb proteins that have a larger molecular weight than IGF-1, suggesting that IGF-1 can readily pass through the gut. He notes that children’s and infants’ more permeable gut walls may absorb IGF-1 more easily, and warns that pasteurization increases IGF-1 concentrations in milk ....Eptsein doesn’t think the agency will reconsider its approval. ‘My guess is the FDA’s interest in BGH is so intertwined [with the manufacturers of BGH] nothing will change,’ he says." (Vegetarian Times, March, 1996).

More than 185,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, and some 44,000 will die. In addition to this startling news, the animals being produced for our food today at our poorly inspected slaughterhouses are loaded with deadly bacteria which are communicable or transmittable to human beings. Very hardy strains of salmonella, listeria, campylobacter, and E-coli, to name a few, are bacteria (sometimes referred to as "superbugs" today) that threaten the health of human beings every day. According to American Medical News, June 10, 1996, in an article entitled, "Food-borne Illnesses a Growing Threat to Public Health," it is asserted that between 6.5 million and 81 million Americans experience food-borne illnesses each year and about 9,000 die as a result. Since no federally inspected meat-processing plant is required to check for these microbes (President Clinton promises this will be changed—we will have to wait and see), much of the food sold for consumption is loaded with these deadly bacteria. In fact, from 1980 to 1992, deaths due to infectious diseases has risen 58% in this country. You would think that since 50% of the antibiotics produced in America are used for farm animals, people would be safe from bacterial infections spread by these animals. "Farm animals receive 30 times more antibiotics (mostly penicillins and tetracyclines) than people do. The drugs treat and prevent infections. But the main reason farmers like them is that they also make cows, hogs, and chickens grow faster from each pound of feed. Resistant strains (super-germs) emerge just as they do in people taking antibiotics—and remain in the animal’s flesh even after they wind up in the meat case.

“....The threat could be even greater to those who down a milkshake with their burger. Milk is allowed to contain a certain concentration of 80 different antibiotics—all used on dairy cows to prevent udder infections. With every glassful [of milk], people swallow a minute amount of several antibiotics." (Newsweek, March 28, 1994, p.48). According to Congress’s General Accounting Office, individual States in the U.S.A. test for only four of the federally regulated antibiotics. And then there are the farmers who self-administer illegal drugs (which can cause anything from anemia to cancer in persons) to sick cows because they cannot afford to call a veterinarian every time an animal gets sick.

If the facts which I have already presented in this article aren’t enough to stop someone from drinking another glass of milk, there is yet another reason why I steer people away from using dairy products. It is because they are the leading cause of food allergy in America. Dr. Michael Klapper, in his book—Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet—in the chapter appropriately entitled, "Be Wary of Dairy," page 41, writes: "Standard whole milk is over 90% water, with 3% butterfat, and 2% protein. It is made for turning a 45-pound calf into a 300-pound cow in a year...Its content of sodium, fat, and phosphorus is much higher than that of human breast milk, while its potassium is lower. The protein in cow’s milk is mostly casein, which forms hard curds in the stomach of infants. Conversely, the predominant protein in mother’s milk is lactalbumin, which is far more easily digestible by babies. These contents are as they should be. Cows are faster growing, much larger than people, and genetically distant from humans. Nature has designed the milk of each animal species specifically to meet the nutritional needs for the young of that species. People are the only animals that drink of the milk of the mother of another species....With each swallow of a milkshake, or mouthful of cheese or ice cream, bovine protein is smeared upon the child’s throat membranes, tonsils, adenoids, and other gateways into the immune system. Fragments of milk protein can cross the surface membranes, and when the protein of another animal is introduced into one’s immune system, an allergic/immune response is created in many places of the body.

"A common reaction to such an assault by a foreign protein, in our immune system is an outpouring of mucus from the nasal and throat membranes, upon which the invading substance is applied. The resulting mucus flow can create the chronic runny noses, persistent sore throats, hoarseness, bronchitis, and recurrent ear infections that plague so many children (and their parents).

"Other body membranes, such as those lining the lungs and joints, [which] can react to dairy protein and become swollen and inflamed, contributing to the conditions of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, have been shown to improve dramatically when dairy products are removed entirely from the diet."

In fact, Dr. John McDougall, in his book—The McDougall Plan—pages 50 and 51, states that: "They [dairy products] contain more than twenty-five different proteins that may induce allergic reactions in humans. These reactions include the following:

• Gastrointestinal—cancer sores, vomiting, colic, stomach cramps,....colitis, malabsorption, loss of appetite, growth retardation, diarrhea, constipation.
• Respiratory—nasal stuffiness, runny nose, otitis media (inner ear infection), sinusitis, asthma.
• Skin—rashes, atopic dermatitis, eczema, seborrhea, hives.
• Behavioral—irritability, restlessness, hyperactivity, headache, lethargy, fatigue,....muscle pain, mental depression, enuresis (bed wetting).
• Blood—abnormal blood clotting, iron deficiency anemia (dairy products are the cause of at least 50 percent of childhood anemia and an unknown percentage of anemia found in adults; this condition results from the bleeding of the small intestine caused by dairy proteins and is not responsive to iron therapy until milk and other dairy foods are eliminated)."   

Dear reader, please prayerfully consider the information contained in this article if you are still consuming dairy products. Furthermore, continue to urge the government representative in your area to halt the unnatural practice of feeding sheep and cow’s blood to cows and ruminant animal protein to chickens, hogs, and our pets by writing letters or sending him or her a copy of this article or my audio tape interview with Dr. Virgil Hulse called "Milkgate." With the recent decision by the Clinton Administration to ban recycled ruminant animals from the feed of our cows, we can be assured the voice of the American people has been heard! Howard Lyman says, "You will find in the future these prions will change the way that humans will relate to their food and the environment."

Also, remember that you can get all the calcium you need from plant foods (especially green leafy ones) which grow in the soil. On the other hand, dairy products, like most animal foods, are high in animal protein and, therefore, can actually leach calcium from our bodies and contribute to osteoporosis and kidney stones. Most people in the world do not consume dairy products; and for those that don’t, these diseases are rare. Consider this the next time you see a billboard with a couple of Hostess chocolate cupcakes with the following words written in white icing, "Got milk?"

NOTICE: Modern Manna has reproductions of this special back edition. Request your FREE copy here.

Be sure to visit Health Alert for the latest SPECIAL REPORT on Mad Cow Disease.

Be sure to order the beautiful Lifestyle for Excellent Health video series. Charise, Danny and the Children present 13-hours of informative and appealing presentations that will change your life! The perfect tool for conducting your own vegetarian cooking schools!