Why Doesn't Cow's Milk Contain Gluten If The Cow Eats It?

[kimbersdawnly]

Does anyone know if testing or research has been done on this?

I know that if I ingest gluten, then whole peptides pass undisturbed into my breast milk and will make my celiac daughter ill. It's been proven that gluten can pass through breast milk. I know that cattle have a vastly different digestive process than we humans do, which could account for this being a difference, but I cannot find any reference to testing or research to confirm this. We all seem to take it for granted that dairy does not equal gluten, even though cattle are commonly fed on a motley assortment of foods which can contain spent barley from brewing practices and discarded baked goods. This throws up red flags for me.

Does anyone know of actual evidence that dairy cows ingesting gluten is safe???

Thanks!

Dawn

[elle's mom]

Does anyone know if testing or research has been done on this?

I know that if I ingest gluten, then whole peptides pass undisturbed into my breast milk and will make my celiac daughter ill. It's been proven that gluten can pass through breast milk. I know that cattle have a vastly different digestive process than we humans do, which could account for this being a difference, but I cannot find any reference to testing or research to confirm this. We all seem to take it for granted that dairy does not equal gluten, even though cattle are commonly fed on a motley assortment of foods which can contain spent barley from brewing practices and discarded baked goods. This throws up red flags for me.

Does anyone know of actual evidence that dairy cows ingesting gluten is safe???

Thanks!

Dawn

I also tried to research this awhile back & couldn't find anything then. I was wondering if maybe the gluten is somehow removed during the pasteurization process? My dd has been consuming dairy and her anti-gliadin antibodies are normal, so it cannot contain gluten, I just don't understand how either, unless it's the pasteurization.

[psawyer]

Pasteurization would have no effect on gluten. I can not explain the reason, but the milk comes out of the cow gluten-free.

[tarnalberry]

the four stomachs of a cow are *totally* different than our digestive system. just because our very simplistic digestive systems can't break down the peptide doesn't mean that a cow's system, which is much more robust, can't. I also don't know that it's been studied specifically (or at least, published any time recently), but the empiric evidence is strong!

[kimbersdawnly]

Pasteurization simply heats the milk to destroy anything viral which might have passed into the milk, so psawyer is right that that can't be it. It could have to do with the four chamber stomach I'm thinking, but even then. I realize it may be simply from the hormones or something but if I ingest much non-organic milk I get ill. With Organic though I can guzzle it and it has no effect, so I can't help wondering if maybe one of the differences is the cleaner diet of organic dairy cows. This is complete speculation but it would be nice and I would rest easier if I could simply really CONFIRM that it had ever been tested. You know?

Thanks for the replies guys!!! Anyone else know how we "know" dairy is safe?

[FMcGee]

I don't know with 100% certainty what cows in America eat, but generally, aren't they corn-fed? Or grass-fed, if it's fancy expensive ethical milk? I'm sure cows will eat whatever, but your typical dairy cow isn't out there finding stuff to eat, they're being kept in a tiny cage and fed corn, or in a slightly-less-tiny pen and being fed grass. I've seen cow feed before, and there's not generally a lot of complicated stuff in it. It's not like horse feed, that contains lots of different things in one mix. I'm not a dairy farmer though. Anyway, my point is just this: dairy cows might not be eating gluten at all.

[darlindeb25]

I know the gluten does not go into the meat, or the milk, although I do not know why.

I do know what is in the feed, and no, cows do not eat corn only. My dad created recipes for aninmal feed, especially cows and horses. Farmers came from miles away to get feed made by him. They can not eat grass alone, not as a rule. Also, when you hear they are free range and eat grass and hay...hay often times is wheat.

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Cattle Feed:

Typically feeds for cattle and sheep are obtained from the following materials:

Alfalfa, ammonium sulfate, barley, been, blood meal, beet, bone meal, brewer grain both wet and dry, brewer yeast dried (byproduct of beer making), broom grass, carrot, cattle manure dried, clover, coffee dried, corn, defluorinated phosphate, dicalcium phosphate, distiller grains, fat from poultry, garbage municipal cooked, grains, grape, hominy feed, hop leaves, hops spent, limestone ground, meat meal, minerals, molasses, oats, peanuts, potato, poultry litter dried, poultry manure dried, rape meal, rye, safflower, sorghum, soybean, sunflower meal, timothy hay, triticale, urea 46%N, different wheat products and different types of hays

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USDA Certified Organic. Beef is raised on grass or grain-based feed that does not contain animal by-products. Animals are never given antibiotics (unless required by a veterinarian, and then the animal loses organic status) or growth hormones. Cattle also must have