Biestmilch: substance between food
and natural remedy
As I begin to unravel the Biestmilch history, very quickly a number of actors enter the scene that all want to be taken seriously. To name a few, we have natural science, naturopathy, general knowledge and experience joined by marketing and the law.
And because we practically are the inventors of Biestmilch – marking its beginning and therefore becoming a kind of test case - I cannot neglect this fact in these comments. It would appear impartial, and now that is questionable from the first. So let us assume that there has been a Biestmilch history over the last century and one that is tightly connected to us. Biestmilch and its need for explanation, does not go well with the subject – object view anyway. But more about that later.
Biestmilch in the 21st century: A stony path on narrow trail of discourse
I just read a phrase in a recently published marketing book that said: The story should be simple.
Now is the Biestmilch story simple?
I do not think we are going to be able to explain the problem of acceptance by its degree of difficulty. But why did Biestmilch become such a difficult subject? On the one hand it is handled with openness and enthusiasm and on the other hand confronted with reservation. Is it really so queer, so difficult to understand? Is the concept not logical?
It is 100 % natural, not a designer drug from some chemical kitchen. It is ancient and has helped all kinds of babies survive throughout the millenniums. At least Biestmilch has been given a new status due to the discussions on breastfeeding. Latest studies, that meet the standards of natural science, have clearly documented its meaning towards the prevention of allergies. On the other hand, many scientists believe in the dogma of different species and the old schoolbook knowledge that the gastrointestinal tract breaks everything we eat or drink down into its elemental pieces.
These are definitely views from the beginnings of biology and all more modern basic scientific information speaks against them.
The degree of confusion is easily increasd when encountering those anti-milk fanatics. And of course we have those that hold an opinion in which nature brings forth Biestmilch for one purpose only, which is for the feeding of newborns. Once grown up, Biestmilch becomes an unnatural substance for this lot.
No doubt it becomes obvious how many life philosophies and points of view begin to intertwine when confronted with the subject of Biestmilch. It mixes natural science with marketing, experience with biology, biology with beliefs, law with philosophy etc. In the end any combination is possible and can be found. And that is a fact I can confirm from our own experience.
In addition we are confronted with the significant handicap of the imposed conditions coming from our law maker. These permit us to call the innumerable effects of Biestmilch by name. The reason being that laws need scientific proofs for their book of rules and science has a bit of a problem with Biestmilch being such a complex substance. So we get a mixture of view points, a rather jumbled up picture, which leads to a bunch of discourses leaving the outsider quite baffled.
The further we go back into history, to a time that was not yet dominated by natural science, the clearer the attitude towards Biestmilch becomes. Experience and perception counted back then and gave Biestmilch a distinct therapeutic position.
I will recite a text passage from D. Johnan Georg Krünitz´ s economic-technologic encyclopaedia, 1803, that shows what is meant quite nicely:
"...one must not behold the colostrum as a liquid without meaning; it is meant to represent a true medicine by its nature and the ratio of its components...."
Biestmilch is also accounted for in the pocket dictionary of German folklore and in the German dictionary written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It is surrounded by mystical tales. It symbolized health and good luck but also showed demonical traits; maybe because infections were often carried if not sterilized.
One can find miraculous recipes. Confections of pastry were often made with Biestmilch. Even floor boards were treated with it.
The traces become thinner in the 20th century. One reason was tuberculosis, which was transferred by milk, and another reason was antibiotics. This medicine was probably the greatest accomplishment of the first half of the 20th century. By the '30s Biestmilch had lost its right to be sold as milk. It battled its way back in the '80s and gained a position in the nutrition division.
It is really not an easy situation. It withdraws itself from reductionistic methods of proof and modern science but yet it works. At this point we are already in the middle of the Biestmilch history that affects us today. Those people that were healed with Biestmilch in their childhood have become seldom. And they are at least 70 years of age. The days in which Biestmilch was carefully collected to be given to children and old people for strengthening seem to belong to times gone by.