A2 Milk

I saw a carton of milk recently being used for coffee - and it was not a carton I had seen before - it had 'A2' on the side in quite dramatic font.

A2 Beta Casein is one of the proteins in cow's milk but is not exclusively present in the milk of all cows usually occuring with another protein - A1. The gene for producing only the A2 Beta Casein occurs naturally in some cattle and they can be DNA tested to see if they have the correct genotype. The main difference is that A1 has a Histidine amino acid while A2 has a Proline amino acid.

It is claimed that the Proline Amino acid can help you digest through the release of bioactive peptides. I say ‘claimed’ because although there are a number of studies cited in support I note that several of the Journal’s such as “Medical Hypotheses” are renowned as less-than-stellar sources of authoritative data since they are not peer reviewed journals and have a reputation for publishing material that is often little more than quackery.

It has been claimed, for example, that A2 milk is less allergenic than A1 however clinical tests have demonstrated that there is little if any allergenic difference between the two.

It has also been claimed that conditions as diverse as autism, diabetes and heart disease can be linked to A1 milk, but not A2. This is a dangerously misleading claim since again there is as yet little evidence that suggests that A1 milk in normal quantities is at all harmful or that A2 is clinically beneficial (to any greater or lesser degree than A1).

Essentially what you get is milk. You pay a little extra in the hope that may what is claimed it will do – but you can’t really know.

For the purposes of making coffee however you may inadvertently be hitting onto a good thing for totally unrelated reasons.

The production of A2 milk requires close attention to herd and production facilities and these are audited by the A2 corporation.

It is also ‘small batch’ production comparatively which means that the overall standards may be higher than at some of the bulk dairies.

It is certainly fresh and creamy and makes beautiful microfoam – but I have to point out, NONE of that is because it has one slightly different protein and is likely to be either confirmation bias (I paid extra so it MUST be good!) or the result of the aforementioned quality control.

Given that we have producers such as Bannister Downs producing superb quality ordinary A1 milk that to my tastes is superior to the A2 milk then I can’t see any reason why you need to pay extra for health benefits that probably do not exist.

(Image via Wikipedia)