Dairy Shaken Up

 Despite all the nut and oat milks Americans consume, the cow variety is becoming popular again. There are several factors behidnd  it . Although maybe the best reason is it does taste good and brings a sense of nostalgia to drinking it.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about the dairy phenomenon in today's New York Times Wednesday's Food section. Milk is being rediscovered by Gen Zers who were basically raise don plant milks. Tiktokkers like twenty-six year old Peggy Xu has filmed her self drinking glasses of it. she present s the old school version of the unhomogenized kind in traditional glass bottles. There even a layer of cream at the top. she does have to explain why this happens .Homogenization is the process that evenly distributes the cream through the milk. She also explains that pasteurization is the process that rids the dairy of bacteria, first done by the famed Louis Pasteur in the 1850's. Ms Xu found that people were curious. They genuinely didn't know what milk was anymore.Now raw milk, much touted by Robert F.Kennedy Jr. is also making its' way onto to Tiktok. Many like Ballerina Farms' the newly famed Hannah Neelman are giving their children raw milk to drink.

However raw milk can be tricky.. Yes, it's full of a lot of good stuff like probiotic bacteria which helps in gut health but it also can contain such life threatening bacteria such as salmonella E.coli, campylobactor and listeria. Now there is the added scare of contacting the H5N1 virus, a strain fo avian flu. through it.Many dairy workers wound up with the virus after handling raw milk. Raw milk proved to be a health threat in the 19th Century when it was responsible for the deaths of thousands of children in New York City.Even Yje Times istelf declared that raw, in pasteurized adulterated milk "was a danger becoming intolerable to civilized society." Luckily that all changed in the Twentieth Century when milk has to be both pasteurized and homogenized along with being infused with Vitamin D. People believed a steady stream if milk in the diet made Americans everything from stronger and taller to fitter to lead the new world. order. Now athletes are even drinking whole chocolate milk instead of manufactured Gator Ade fro better on field performance. There is also the idea of sexy milk made made famous by Ms Neelman as she milks her cows. She and fresh milk show off what everyone has always thought milk to be fresh and pure.

Is dairy milk the new drink of choice? Possibly, Yet drink it not for its' popularity but for its'; benefits. It 's just a good and tasty glass of nutrition.

Listeria Explained

Everyone is getting antsy these days about the Listeria outbreaks that are cropping up throughout the US. The questions are what is it exactly and where can it grow. A few simple answers is all it takes to understand this bacteria. It is dangerous but it can be completely avoided with the right food choices.

The bacteria has actually been around for decades. It was the 1920s when two researchers independently identified Listeria monocytogenes from animal outbreaks. It is responsible for the relatively rare listeriosis. The disease primarily affects pregnant women,fetuses, newborns, those with weakened immune systems and the elderly. One form of it is meningitis. Healthy people rarely become sick from it however it can happen.Listeria can be found in soil, water and some animals such as cattle and poultry.It can also live in food processing plants and contaminate a variety of processed meats or foods.. Unlike many germs, it can grow in cold temperatures such as the inside of a freezer or refrigerator.It is usually killed by cooking and pasteurization.The symptoms are flu like and  could easily be confused  with a virus. Sufferers go through diarrhea along with fever, stiff neck, vomiting and weakness.There is also confusion in some cases. Most people are immune to the bacteria, but there are no tests yet to determine this,

What foods can it contaminate?It's ready to eat deli meats along with hot dogs however it could also affect veggie based products as we saw a few weeks ago with Amy's . The company's pizzas , lasagna and enchiladas were hit thanks to bad spinach.The reason for this is the manure used from infected cows or again from  the soil that the plants grow in..Fruits can also be contaminated as seen in an outbreak in California canteloupes. Several hundreds were thrown out of Colorado supermarkets thanks to the fruit being sprayed with contaminated water.  Dairy products can also be victimized too, Blue Bell Ice Cream had to be taken off  supermarket shelves throughout the southern US.The company, one of the largest ice creameries in the country had a total recall of all their products from their gallon containers to their ice cream pops.This is rare however because it is found in unpasteurized milk or foods made with unpasteurized milk.There is also the chance that it could be found in beef cuts as well as in raw chicken.Luckily any method of cooking can kill it. Some fish can also have it however the smoked kind is safe.

As with all foods, it's better to be safe than sorry. Wash fruits and veggies thoroughly .Cook meats thoroughly and be on the look out for food alerts.It's the best way of dealing with Listeria before it deals with you.