If a cow eats nuts, and you are allergic to nuts, can you safely drink their milk?

[laRubiaBonita]

i was wondering the other day......

 

say a person is highly allergic to nuts. and they go to drink some milk, but the milk they have is from cows that were, for whatever reason, fed feed with nuts in it.

 

do you think that person would have an allergic reaction?

[allina]

Im pretty sure they would be fine.

[Tony T]

i was wondering the other day......

 

say a person is highly allergic to nuts. and they go to drink some milk, but the milk they have is from cows that were, for whatever reason, fed feed with nuts in it.

 

do you think that person would have an allergic reaction?

 

Is this the sort of thing you normally think about when you're not sleeping?

[This_Too_Shall_Pass]

i was wondering the other day......

 

say a person is highly allergic to nuts. and they go to drink some milk, but the milk they have is from cows that were, for whatever reason, fed feed with nuts in it.

 

do you think that person would have an allergic reaction?

 

They would have a severe allergic reaction. Near-fatal, I would say. Immediate shots of adrenaline are required.

 

The only way to escape the imminent danger of nut-infested milk, is to drink soymilk instead. You see, soybeans are "nuts", in a way, and the nut-on-nut interaction neutralizes the allergic effect.

[Lizzie60]

i was wondering the other day......

 

say a person is highly allergic to nuts. and they go to drink some milk, but the milk they have is from cows that were, for whatever reason, fed feed with nuts in it.

 

do you think that person would have an allergic reaction?

 

No, milk is pasteurized so there is no danger for that type of allergy. It would be dangerous if the nuts actually get in contact with the food or the milk in a glass for example...

[laRubiaBonita]

Is this the sort of thing you normally think about when you're not sleeping?

 

it is actually.....

[Trimmer]

No, milk is pasteurized so there is no danger for that type of allergy. It would be dangerous if the nuts actually get in contact with the food or the milk in a glass for example...

Lizzie, are you thinking of microorganism pathogens? Those are killed by pasteurizing; however proteins are not cellular organisms, but complex molecules, and the proteins responsible for some of the most severe nut allergies are relatively stable at cooking temperatures (e.g. if you're allergic, you can't eat a cupcake with nuts in it, even if it was cooked at 375 degrees F for a half hour...) So I wouldn't assume that pasteurizing milk would destroy the nut proteins; even "ultra high temperature" pasteurization only brings milk up to a maximum temperature of 250 - 280 degrees F for a second or two...

 

Now, it may be that the critical proteins don't make it through the cow's digestive system and into the produced milk intact in the first place - they may get destroyed along the way - but if they do make it through to the milk, I don't think you can count on pasteurization to destroy them as you claim here.

 

Does anyone have any solid information on whether proteins like this would make it through a cow's digestive system intact?

[Lizzie60]

Lizzie, are you thinking of microorganism pathogens? Those are killed by pasteurizing; however proteins are not cellular organisms, but complex molecules, and the proteins responsible for some of the most severe nut allergies are relatively stable at cooking temperatures (e.g. if you're allergic, you can't eat a cupcake with nuts in it, even if it was cooked at 375 degrees F for a half hour...) So I wouldn't assume that pasteurizing milk would destroy the nut proteins; even "ultra high temperature" pasteurization only brings milk up to a maximum temperature of 250 - 280 degrees F for a second or two...

 

Now, it may be that the critical proteins don't make it through the cow's digestive system and into the produced milk intact in the first place - they may get destroyed along the way - but if they do make it through to the milk, I don't think you can count on pasteurization to destroy them as you claim here.

 

Does anyone have any solid information on whether proteins like this would make it through a cow's digestive system intact?

 

You could be right... I have no solid info but I am certain that there is no way that the nut allergy would get to the person through the milk... so many kids are allergic to nuts (peanuts) and I have never heard of such a thing.

[Trimmer]

You could be right... I have no solid info but I am certain that there is no way that the nut allergy would get to the person through the milk... so many kids are allergic to nuts (peanuts) and I have never heard of such a thing.

You've never heard of kids having allergic reactions to milk products? Isn't it logically possible that either, (a) occasional allergic reactions to milk products may result from occasional allergen-nuts finding their way into the cattle feed stream, and/or (b) the relatively small rate of severe allergic reactions to milk products reflects a relatively small amount of nut products in the cattle feed stream?

 

I don't know that either of these is true - you may be correct that the allergen proteins do not make it into the cows' milk - but I present these examples to point out that unless you have more solid information, your "certain" conclusions are actually guesses, not supported by logic.

[Lizzie60]

You've never heard of kids having allergic reactions to milk products? Isn't it logically possible that either, (a) occasional allergic reactions to milk products may result from occasional allergen-nuts finding their way into the cattle feed stream, and/or (b) the relatively small rate of severe allergic reactions to milk products reflects a relatively small amount of nut products in the cattle feed stream?

 

I don't know that either of these is true - you may be correct that the allergen proteins do not make it into the cows' milk - but I present these examples to point out that unless you have more solid information, your "certain" conclusions are actually guesses, not supported by logic.

 

I've heard of babies having allergic reaction to milk (my son had) but weren't allergic to nuts..

 

These are two different allergy, the dairy products and the nuts...

 

But I don't know enough about this stuff to argue... I guess a doctor would know.... Three of my neighbours are doctors... I will ask one of them.. LOL

[ShoeGirl]

 

Does anyone have any solid information on whether proteins like this would make it through a cow's digestive system intact?

 

I know that in humans the enzymes in the digestive tract breaks down the proteins into amino acids, I would think that cows digestive system would do the same thing.

 

I have never heard of what cows eat being a potential problem for the people who will eventually drink the milk, if it were a problem I would think that milk would have to have a label saying what the cows were fed to prevent any allergic reactions.

[johan]

So you guys think that cows have a built-in nut filter somewhere between their mouths and their udders? Seems a bit far-fetched to me.

[Trimmer]

I know that in humans the enzymes in the digestive tract breaks down the proteins into amino acids, I would think that cows digestive system would do the same thing.

 

I tend to think you are probably right about proteins, but I will point out that that's a guess on my part, and not an educated opinion. I can't say I'm 'certain.'

 

I found a reference to a company, Pioneer Hi-Bred, which, back in the early 1990's, genetically engineered soybeans to increase their protein content by adding a gene from the Brazil nut, designed to increase a protein rich in the amino acid methionine, which soybeans are naturally low in, but which is needed by livestock. Indeed, they achieved their goal, but in human testing, they found the modified soybeans to cause an allergic reaction in people sensitive to Brazil nuts (which can be one of the severe nut allergies), so they shelved the product.

 

Now, I can't find an original source, only abstracts and secondary references to this research in popular literature, but it looks like they shelved it, not because they thought it might cause a problem in people consuming meat or milk, but because it might not be possible to guarantee that they could keep the soybeans themselves out of the human food stream in perpetuity... So if that's the case, that is at least consistent with the assertion that it wouldn't make it through to milk and meat.

 

I have never heard of what cows eat being a potential problem for the people who will eventually drink the milk, if it were a problem I would think that milk would have to have a label saying what the cows were fed to prevent any allergic reactions.

But there are all kinds of environmental toxins that do make it through the mammalian digestive system (sometimes with chemical changes still resulting in harmful metabolites) into milk. Aflatoxins in cows' milk (often from moldy grain) are one example. Another is polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PDBE's) which are used in foam padding and some hard plastics, which show up in human breast milk.

 

Now, one notable difference here (which again supports the "nut proteins wouldn't get through" idea) is that the mammalian digestive system is well adapted to efficiently digesting proteins and disassembling them into their component amino acids, while these other toxins, from an evolutionary standpoint, are either relatively "new", or have served no useful nutritional purpose over time, so the digestive system may just "pass them on" in some concentration. (Or, in the case of the PDBE's, they may be getting into the body in some other way...)

 

And don't even get me started on prions and BSE/CJD stuff... Although again, that seems to be more of an issue with eating tissues than drinking the milk, doesn't it?

[This_Too_Shall_Pass]

That was an interesting read, Trimmer. Perhaps you are a bioengineer, or in a similar profession? Just curious.

[ShoeGirl]

I tend to think you are probably right about proteins, but I will point out that that's a guess on my part, and not an educated opinion. I can't say I'm 'certain.'

I would call my answer and educated guess, but I am not certain because I haven't studies cow physiology specifically.

 

But there are all kinds of environmental toxins that do make it through the mammalian digestive system (sometimes with chemical changes still resulting in harmful metabolites) into milk. Aflatoxins in cows' milk (often from moldy grain) are one example. Another is polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PDBE's) which are used in foam padding and some hard plastics, which show up in human breast milk.

 

Now, one notable difference here (which again supports the "nut proteins wouldn't get through" idea) is that the mammalian digestive system is well adapted to efficiently digesting proteins and disassembling them into their component amino acids, while these other toxins, from an evolutionary standpoint, are either relatively "new", or have served no useful nutritional purpose over time, so the digestive system may just "pass them on" in some concentration. (Or, in the case of the PDBE's, they may be getting into the body in some other way...)

There is a huge difference composition wise between natural substances and chemically created substances, the bonds created in the chemically created substances are more often than not bonds that don't exist in nature so animals digestive systems don't have the enzymes to break them apart. The same thing happens in lactose intolerant people, they don't have a specific enzyme needed to break down lactose so their bodies react to it abnormally.

 

And don't even get me started on prions and BSE/CJD stuff... Although again, that seems to be more of an issue with eating tissues than drinking the milk, doesn't it?

I think prions are a whole different issue altogether. We don't know enough about them to even begin to understand what they are capable of.

[Poboy]

cow eats nuts ... broken down to carbo , proteins, fats etc ... cow gives milk which has its own properties , structures independent of ingested food. so shouldnt affect the person consuming the milk ( pure or processed ) ...

 

not 100% sure but quite sure on this