A2/A2 Milk
Milk is about 85% water. The remaining 15% is the milk sugar lactose, protein, fat, and minerals. The protein portion is 80% casein and 20% whey. Whey does not coagulate or make a curd as the milk acidifies. Beta-casein is 30% of the total protein content in milk, or about 30% of the total protein content in cow’s milk.
What is the A2 protein?
A2 beta-casein is the beta-casein form cows have produced since before they were first domesticated, over 10,000 years ago. It is considered safe and nutritious and has no known negative effects on human health. Sometime in the past few thousand years, a natural mutation occurred in some European dairy herds that changed the beta-casein they produced. The gene encoding beta-casein was changed such that the 67th amino acid in the 209 amino acid chain that is the beta-casein protein was switched from proline to histidine. This new kind of beta-casein that was created is known as A1 beta-casein, and is generally more common in many of the big black-and-white cow breeds of European descent such as the Holstein and Friesian. Due to their size, milk production, and demeanor, these breeds of cow are used to produce the vast majority of Northern Europe and America’s milk.
Each cow carries two copies of the gene encoding beta-casein, with a genotype of A1/A1, A1/A2, or A2/A2. Neither the A1 nor A2 trait appears to be dominant, which means that the milk produced by an A1/A2 cow will likely contain equal proportions of A1 and A2 beta-casein. A1/A1 cows will obviously only produce A1 beta-casein, just as A2/A2 cows will only produce A2 beta-casein. While each dairy herd is capable of being quite different from average, a broad characterization of the A1 or A2 genetics of breeds can be made. Northern European black-and-white breeds such as Friesian Holstein usually carry A1 and A2 alleles in equal proportion. Jersey cows and other Southern European breeds probably have about 1/3 A1 and 2/3 A2 genetics. Guernsey cows generally have about 10% A1 and 90% A2 genetics.
Why not A1?
The cause for concern with milk containing A1 beta-casein is that the 67th amino acid switch from proline to histidine readily allows a digestive enzyme to cut out a 7 amino acid segment of the protein immediately adjacent to that histidine. When proline is present in that location (as it is in A2 beta-casein), that same segment is either not separated at all or the separation occurs at a very low rate. The 7 amino acid segment that is separated from A1 beta casein is known as beta-casomorphin-7, often abbreviated as BCM-7.
BCM-7 is the real “devil” in A1 milk for a number of reasons. It is an exogenous (doesn’t naturally occur within the human body) opioid that interacts with the human digestive system, internal organs, and brainstem. While no direct causal relationships have been demonstrated between BCM-7 and these diseases due to a wide range of contributing factors for each illness, BCM-7 has been linked to type 1 diabetes, heart disease, autism, and other serious non-communicable diseases as well.
On the bright side
Johnston Family Farm milk comes from a mixed breed dairy cow herd that includes a mix of Jersey, Friesian, Norwegian Red, and Swedish Red sired from genetically tested A2/A2 bulls. We can assume that Johnston Family Farm milk products contain significantly lower amounts of A1 beta-casein than most other milk products sold in the same stores.
We learned about the A1/A2 issue by reading Keith Woodford’s Devil in the Milk. We recommend you at least check out his website. We are very excited that we almost entirely eliminated the A1 protein from our herd and to offer A2 beta-casein delicious fresh milk products.
How we transitioned to A2 milk
It takes roughly two and a half years for a newborn calf to grow up, have a calf of its own, and begin producing milk, so this kind of progress occurs over a multiple-year timeframe. Assuming our average cow is already 50% A2, if we can help our producers to achieve two successive generations of selectively breeding with only A2/A2 bulls it is likely that a herd could reach 100% A2 genetics in as little as five years. Considering we have been breeding for the A2/A2 protein for eight years we can assume we have reached nearly 100% of cows with the A2 protein. However, the final step to get from mostly A2 to completely A2 will require testing the entire herd and selling off all carriers of the A1 beta-casein allele.
This is yet another example of Johnston Family Farm's wholehearted commitment to continuous improvement in providing you, our customers, with the freshest, tastiest, healthiest milk we possibly can. You are who we care about most!
For Further Reading:
Here is a general synopsis by Dr. Thomas Cowan of The Devil in the Milk by Keith Woodford which examines links between A1 milk and a wide range of health issues.
http://keithwoodford.wordpress.com/category/a1-and-a2-milk/ is a link to Keith Woodford’s blog, specifically listing all of his posts regarding A1 and A2 milk and related topics.
http://www.betacasein.net/ and http://www.betacasein.org/ are both thorough collections and discussions of scientific literature regarding beta-casein, its variants, beta-casomorphin-7 (BCM-7), and links between BCM-7 and several non-communicable diseases.