What is A2 Milk and Why Should I Drink it Instead of “Regular” Milk?

The “Bullet-Point” Short Answer:

• Most store-bought milk contains A1 beta-casein (a type of protein) which produces a small 7 amino-acid peptide chain, called BCM-7, during digestion.
• A2 milk has only A2 beta-casein, which does NOT produce the BCM-7 during digestion.
• BCM-7 causes inflammation in the gut, which can contribute to leaky gut. Leaky gut can contribute to systemic inflammation in the body because it allows undigested proteins, yeast, bacteria, etc. into the bloodstream.
• When BCM-7 escapes a leaky gut into the bloodstream, it contributes to systemic inflammation.
• Systemic inflammation is believed to be a foundational root cause of MANY non-communicable diseases.  BCM-7 is possibly linked to an increased risk of Type-1 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other diseases.
• BCM-7 can cause digestive issues similar to lactose-intolerance.  Some people who believe they are lactose intolerant are able to drink A2 milk with no digestive upset because they are actually intolerant of the BCM-7 in A1 milk, NOT lactose.
• BCM-7 has opioid properties and can fill opiate receptors in the gut and brain.  Some children with ADHD or on the Autism spectrum are especially sensitive to the opioid and inflammatory effects of BCM-7, and find their symptoms lessen when they replace A1 dairy with A2 dairy (which has no BCM-7)   

THE MAIN TAKE-AWAY

A2 milk is not “medicine” to treat any illness. But A2 milk does NOT have BCM-7 in it, which can be a root cause of inflammation in some people.  We have customers with a wide-variety of inflammatory-based issues indicate that they have seen a reduction in inflammation, and thereby a reduction in a variety of symptoms caused by inflammation, by switching to A2 milk.  

A nutrient-dense diet that is low in processed foods, chemicals, GMO’s and inflammation-causing agents help the body function optimally and allow the body to heal itself. 

We’ve done our best to produce the BEST possible milk on the planet–100% grass-fed, no-GMO’s, Raw–unpasteurized, non-homogenized– A2 beta-casein.  If you are legitimately lactose intolerant, you should consider making kefir with our milk, or ordering our yogurt.

Give it a try and see if it makes a difference for you.  

What follows is a History of A2 Milk, our personal Journey with moving toward a completely A2 herd, a video with a more scientific explanation of A2 milk and BMC-7, and the video script which includes links to scientific journals.

HISTORY OF A2 MILK

Most cows in Africa and Asia, as well as humans and most other mammals–sheep, goats, donkeys, yaks, camels, buffalo– produce A2 beta casein.  It is believed that until 8000 years ago, all cows produced only A2 beta-casein until the A1 variant was created by a genetic mutation among certain European cows–predominantly Holsteins, in particular.  Holsteins have been routinely cross-bred to other cows in the Western Hemisphere to increase milk production, and so much of the US milk supply contains more than 40-60% of A1 beta-casein.  

Purebred Guernseys have an approximately 90% chance of carrying two A2 genes (referred to as an A2A2 genotype). Purebred Jerseys have an approximately 50-70% likelihood of being A2A2, but much of the Jersey herds have been cross-bred to Holsteins along the line. Some cows may have one A1 gene from one parent and one A2 gene from the other parent, so they would be A1A2 and produce 50% A1 beta casein and 50% A2 beta casein in their milk.  The ONLY way to know if a particular cow is A2A2 is to have it genetically tested. (Now We have tested Guernsey cows that were A1A1 and there are Holsteins that are A2A2).  

The testing is done by submitting about 30-50 tail hairs with the follicle intact to a lab that specializes in A2 testing.  They pull the genetic material from the follicle and determine the genotype. If an A2A2 cow is bred to and A2A2 bull, their progeny will always be A2A2. So a cow can also be known to be A2A2 if both her parents were.  (But if the calf comes out looking like an Angus and the father was supposedly a Jersey, the neighbor’s bull may have come for a visit, so you should probably test the calf. 😉

OUR PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH A2 MILK

Before we moved to the farm, I was doing nutrition and health coaching and utilizing muscle testing and a device called the IQS machine to try to ascertain root causes for people’s health issues.  The IQS machine works based on similar principles to muscle testing, in that you can ask the body simple questions to help discern “what’s going on inside.”

We were drinking raw milk ourselves that we were buying from another farm at the time, and I would often test to see if raw milk was a better choice for someone. Generally, the indication was that, yes, raw milk would help them improve.  But occasionally we would get “weird” responses that seemed to indicate there was something else going on for this person, and just switching to raw milk wasn’t the whole answer. 

When we first moved to our farm in Missouri, I had not yet heard of A2.  We bought twenty, one-week-old heifer bottle calves when we first moved here, and a couple of cows.  As the demand for our milk grew, we bought more cows. I had way to many animals on my farm, and needed to sell some of my younger heifers. But every time I went to list some for sale, I felt very strongly that I shouldn’t sell them–like I would sell the wrong ones and regret it later.  

Eventually, I learned about A2 milk. At first, I didn’t put much stock in it.  In part because if my cows WEREN’T A2, then that meant I wasn’t selling the best milk possible. I didn’t really WANT to know the truth, to be honest.  

The more time I spent researching it online, the more confused I got.  And then I read Keith Woodford’s book– Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health, and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk. After reading the book, I was blown away by how the research has been twisted on the internet and by various media outlets and that some of the research was intentionally flawed to begin with. I highly recommend the book.  At that point, I was convinced that there is significant evidence that for some people, the A1 beta-casein can cause significant issues for them as an individual.

So we tested our whole herd.  Once I knew the genotypes of my heifers, I felt confident that I now knew a vital fact that would help me know which ones to sell and which to keep.  Our initial testing indicated that our heard was approximately evenly divided between A2A2, A1A2, and A1A1, but with slightly more A2A2 cows. 

Through a combination of breeding choices, buying, and selling cows it took us 5 years to create an A2-only herd.

It was a major challenge to find really good grass-based cows that are A2A2 genotype to buy. Traditionally we pay $1200-$1500 for a cow, but sellers of good A2 cows generally charge $1800-$2500 for an A2A2 cow. There are very few tested A2A2 cows on the market in our area, so we have often had to test whole herds to find a couple of cows that are A2A2 that also meet our other standards.  We’ve sold off really great cows that we loved because they were not A2A2. We invested thousands of dollars into a second milk cooling bulk tank for so we could separate the A1 milk from the A2 milk and ensure it cooled quickly. And we had to split the herd during milking to ensure that all A2 cows were milked first and then the pipeline was swung to the A1 cooling tank before milking the A1 cows. Honestly, it’s been a major pain in the butt.  But we stuck with it because we are dedicated to providing our loyal clients with the best products we possibly can.  

And we believe our A2, 100% grass-fed, No GMO’s, Raw milk is some of the best dairy on the planet.  We hope you’ll agree!

What is A2 Milk and Why Should I Drink it Instead of “Regular” Milk?

Rachel typed up a really “scientific-y” explanation of A2 milk and its effects. Scott and Myra read the script for a video while Rachel was out of town.  (Filmed and edited by our son Braden). They did a great job, but once I (Rachel) watched it, I realized how boring my script was to begin with, and it was a bit hard to follow as a video.  But so as to not have their efforts go to waste, you can watch their video here. You can also read the script below, which had links to scientific journals.  

What is A2 Milk?

A2 milk differs from “standard” milk because of its beta-casein protein. The two major proteins in milk are casein and whey. Casein accounts for about 82 percent of the protein in milk. There are also different types of casein.  Beta-casein makes up about 30 percent of the total protein in cow’s milk. 

A1 and A2 are two of the most common variants of beta-casein. Beta-casein is made of a string of 209 amino acids.  At position 67 of the protein chain, A1 milk has a histidine amino acid and A2 milk has a proline. The proline binds very tightly to the amino acids on either side of it, whereas the histidine does not. When A1 beta-casein is hydrolyzed in the intestines, a string of 7 amino acids is liberated, creating a small peptide called beta-casomorphin-7 (BMC-7). A2 milk does NOT create the BMC-7 peptide.  

How A1 and A2 Beta-casein Affect the Body Differently

The problems associated with “regular” milk are due to this little protein piece, BCM-7. 

Rat studies have clearly demonstrated that BCM-7 causes inflammatory immune responses. 

Research is showing that chronic inflammation may be the common factor in many human diseases. So let’s talk about how A1 milk may contribute to chronic inflammation.  

Exposure to lectins-such as gluten–and other pro-inflammatory molecules like BCM-7 from A1 milk. are believed to weaken the tight junctions of the intestinal lining, leading to “leaky gut.”  This allows small pieces of undigested proteins, such as BCM-7, as well as bacteria, yeast, etc. to enter the bloodstream.  This may then lead to systemic inflammation throughout the body, especially in those with certain immune deficiencies.  

This systemic inflammation may affect people differently.  For example, one of our clients had been drinking organic raw milk in California for years, but it was not A2. He was at “the level of maturity” that he had been experiencing prostate inflammation, which would cause him to get up multiple times throughout the night to urinate. When he switched to our A2 milk, he noticed that he was no longer getting up at all through the night.  Perhaps this was a coincidence, but he personally felt they were directly correlated.    

A 2015 article in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition states, “In recent years, epidemiological evidence has indicated that consumption of milk containing the A1 variant is linked to increased risk of type 1 diabetes and heart disease. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded there was insufficient data to determine a causal relationship between BCM7 exposure and non-communicable diseases. Nevertheless, the presence of these peptides in dairy products needs further research due to their putative link to elevated chronic disease risk.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487594/)

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease characterized by chronic pancreatic islet inflammation.  (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5743904/) “Sustained low levels of inflammation irritate your blood vessels. Inflammation may promote the growth of plaques, loosen plaque in your arteries and trigger blood clots — the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes.” (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/fight-inflammation-to-help-prevent-heart-disease)

It makes sense to postulate that BCM-7–which is known to cause inflammation and can be found in the bloodstream, having escaped the gut–could be a contributing factor to systemic inflammation and hence contribute to a variety of diseases connected to chronic inflammation. 

Additional research indicates that people who have thought themselves to be lactose intolerant find that their symptoms decrease or disappear when they switch to A2 milk. A human trial published in 2016 studied forty-five subjects who participated in a double-blind, randomized, 2 × 2 crossover trial.  They discovered that based on the gastrointestinal effects of BCM-7 it is possible that intolerance to dairy products in some cases is related to the consumption of A1 β-casein rather than lactose per se. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4818854/)  

 This same study also concluded that the “consumption of milk containing A1 β-casein was associated with increased gastrointestinal inflammation, worsening of PD3 (post-dairy digestive discomfort) symptoms, delayed transit, and decreased cognitive processing speed and accuracy.”  

The decreased cognitive capacity is very interesting because another aspect of how BCM-7 affects the body is that it is “bioactive, including . . . opioid activity. The term ‘opioid’ is used for substances having morphine-like activity that act by binding to opioid receptors. Opioid substances are found in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract. These peptides play a crucial role in the response to pain and stress (Kamiński et al., 2007). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4487594/

It is not uncommon for children with ADHD or Austism spectrum disorders who have food intolerance testing done to be told that they have a milk intolerance–or specifically a casein intolerance.  They are often encouraged to remove dairy from their diet. There are many stories of parents who have removed dairy from their children’s diets, resulting in a reduction in their ADHD or Austistism symptoms. Some of these parents have discovered that if they replace standard dairy with A2 dairy into the child’s diet, symptoms are also reduced.  It is possible that this phenomenon is related to a combination of inflammation caused by the BCM-7, and that it fills opiate receptors in the child’s brain and gut.

We have a friend whose child was about 5 years old, but could not count to 10 without mixing up the numbers.  She tested positive for a casein intolerance, and so they removed dairy from her diet. And amazingly, she could soon count to 10 perfectly.  But their family didn’t stick to that dairy free diet very long and she began consuming dairy again. Shortly thereafter, once again, she could not count to 10.  This happened on a couple of different occasions as their family cycled through dairy free dieting. Their daughter kept sneaking cheese from the family fridge. We made some A2 cheese for them to give her instead.  They noted that even though the cheese was delicious, their daughter continued to crave the other cheeses. And our cheese did not satisfy her. It was as if she was literally going through opiate withdrawals, and the A2 cheese did not have the opioid effect that standard cheese did.

Other References:

Keith Woodford’s book– Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health, and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Milk-Illness-Health-Politics/dp/1603581022

This link is pretty old.  A lot of new research has been done over the last few years.  But it includes comments from others who share their own anecdotal experiences switching to A2 milk. 

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/07/09/the-devil-in-the-milk.aspx