Fashionable technocrats have discovered a lot of methods to wreck our meals — like fast heating of milk as much as 240 levels, zapping with microwaves, irradiating with radioactive supplies, spray drying at excessive temperatures, extruding at excessive temperatures and pressures and embalming with sugar. Now a brand new know-how has come on the scene: ultra-high strain utilized to quite a lot of meals for people, pets and infants.
HPP — Excessive Stress Processing
Excessive Stress Processing (HPP) is outlined as “a non-thermal meals and beverage processing approach based mostly on the applying of excessive ranges of hydrostatic strain transmitted by water, with a number of benefits for meals and beverage firms.” That strain is one thousand occasions the strain of air at sea stage — the equal of water strain in a marine trench.
You possibly can learn all about it at hiperbaric.com and see the way it works for juice, for shelf secure meals able to eat, and for “uncooked” pet meals. HPP will open oysters with out tough shucking — after the processing, simply open along with your hand and the oysters — considerably discolored — slither out! The method makes crab and lobster simpler to take away from their shells.
Examples of high-pressure processed merchandise commercially out there within the U.S. right now embrace fruit smoothies, guacamole, ready-to-eat meals with meat and greens, oysters, salad dressing, hummus, ham, rooster strips, fruit juice, salsa and fruit purees for infants. You gained’t discover any explicit image displayed (as for irradiation) to point whether or not a product has undergone HP processing, however you may see the phrases “chilly pasteurized.”
The meals trade claims that “HPP has the potential to provide high-quality meals that show traits of recent merchandise, are microbiologically protected and have an prolonged shelf life.” The declare that HPP meals are “microbiologically protected” isn’t precisely right.
What Are the Lengthy-Time period Well being Results of Consuming HPP Meals?
A 2008 evaluation1 entitled “Excessive-pressure processing — results on microbial meals security and meals high quality,” seemed on the results of excessive strain processing on varied pathogenic organisms and located that it didn’t remove all of them; the researchers discovered that spores had been particularly immune to excessive strain — simply as they’re immune to warmth.
However what we actually wish to find out about are the well being results — long-term well being results — of consuming HPP meals. Because the trade plunges headlong into excessive strain processing, nobody actually is aware of.
No research on long-term the feeding of HPP meals to mice or rats — and even canine getting HPP “uncooked” pet meals — seem within the literature. I did discover one examine, printed within the Journal of Dairy Science, 20192 which explored the feeding of HPP colostrum to calves. Stated the researchers:
“The outcomes of this examine counsel that top strain processing of bovine colostrum maintains a suitable IgG stage whereas lowering bacterial and viral counts,” but in addition noticed:
“Calves fed pressure-processed colostrum had comparable serum IgG however decrease effectivity of absorption than calves fed heat-treated colostrum [emphasis added]. Adjustments in viscosity typically made calf feeding tougher, however nonetheless possible. Further analysis to optimize this know-how for on-farm use is important.”
The meals trade is salivating over the thought of making use of HPP to exploit. The primary to do that was the Mexican firm Villa de Patos, which claimed that it was “recent” (that’s “uncooked”) and had an elevated shelf life when refrigerated.
HPP Dairy Expertise
A couple of years later, the New South Wales Meals Authority accredited the commercialization of HPP milk within the Australian state. The corporate, Made By Cow, developed a course of for the “protected manufacturing of by no means heated and non-homogenized milk,” which they may promote as “protected uncooked milk.” Certainly, the processing made the milk barely thicker and yellowish, which might mimic the viscosity and shade of Jersey milk even when it got here from Holstein cows!
With uncooked milk gross sales booming, and pasteurized milk gross sales declining, we will count on to see the dairy trade launch “cold-processed” pressure-treated milk within the U.S. Will this milk have the identical advantages as actual uncooked milk? A letter printed within the Summer season 2021 problem of Clever Traditions3 signifies that the reply is not any!
“For a few years I’ve been consuming uncooked milk from a pastured dairy in France known as Gaborit,” wrote our correspondent. “Nevertheless, due to COVID and closed borders, I used to be unable to acquire this milk for eleven months and was compelled to drink a substitute milk from Switzerland.
Once I started to have bother with my enamel, I started to suspect the likelihood that the native ‘uncooked’ milk (Rohmilch in German) is perhaps thermized (heated) though to not the temperature of pasteurization (or maybe microfiltered or no matter).
What most aroused my suspicions was the expertise of a good friend, supposedly milk illiberal (and who hasn’t drunk animal milk for a great twenty years), who sneezed (pink eyes as a bonus) a couple of minutes after having taken a sip of this ‘native’ Rohmilch.
She made it clear to me how irritated she was by this expertise, and he or she fervently blamed herself for giving in to my suggestion. Nevertheless, I have to admit that I used to be the primary to be shocked by the response she developed so rapidly after consuming only one sip. I had concluded that she was maybe one of many only a few individuals who had been actually illiberal to animal milk, even when it had been uncooked.
Nonetheless, a number of weeks later, she agreed to check the Gaborit milk (from Jersey cows), which I once more had entry to. She not solely had no response to it, however she even felt so good that she drank an entire glass half an hour later.
Through the eleven months with out the Gaborit milk, I developed 5 small cavities, as verified by my dentist. I had an appointment to have them crammed, and whereas ready, was in a position to get the French milk once more. I went to the dentist right now and he or she couldn’t consider her eyes.
Within the area of lower than a month throughout which I used to be as soon as once more in a position to get hold of the actual licensed uncooked milk from France, all of the beforehand broken enamel had calcified and hardened as a type of self-healing, to the purpose that she advised me that there was nothing extra that wanted to be carried out.
The milk produced by the Swiss dairy is biodynamic and has the Demeter label. The cows are brown Swiss. I due to this fact assume that the cows are fed in keeping with anthroposophical tips. Nevertheless, this dairy additionally produces pasteurized milk, so I questioned whether or not their Rohmilch is basically 100% uncooked and, above all, non-thermized.
Once I contacted them, they assured me that the milk was not heat-treated in any approach, solely that they handed it by means of a cellulose membrane aimed to take away any impurities or dust from the milk — however I feel that is carried out with all milk and isn’t a dangerous course of until carried out beneath excessive strain.”
We have no idea whether or not this milk was handed beneath strain by means of a membrane or subjected to the identical excessive strain processing strategies now used for juice, smoothies and so many different “chilly processed” meals, however it’s clear that strain reduces the therapeutic properties of Nature’s excellent meals.
Since we do not know what HPP does to the dietary qualities of the meals we eat, it’s greatest to train warning: make your personal salad dressing, salsa and guacamole, prepare dinner from scratch, solely purchase oysters which were shucked earlier than you, and above all, persist with actual, uncooked milk bought instantly from a farmer you already know.
Concerning the Writer
Sally Fallon Morell is writer of the best-selling cookbook Nourishing Traditions and plenty of different books on weight loss program and well being. She is the founding president of the Weston A. Worth Basis (westonaprice.org) and a founding father of A Marketing campaign for Actual Milk (realmilk.com). Go to her weblog at nourishingtraditions.com.
