Friday, September 27, 2013

Adventures With Dr. Whitaker and Dairy Products

The other day in class we were learning about milk and milk production. Dr. Whitaker had some very funny and interesting stories to tell.
 
Did you know that you can turn your lactase gene on and off? Apparently, you can. When your lactase gene is turned on then you can eat dairy products without any problems where as people who are lactose intolerant have their lactase gene turned off. So, to turn off your lactase gene you just don't eat dairy products for a really long time and then when you eat dairy again, you will have the side effects of a lactose intolerant person.
To test this theory Dr. Whitaker went 2 months with out eating any dairy products when he was in college. After the 2 months were up he went on a ice cream binge. It did not turn out well! So moral of the story... you can turn on and off your lactase gene, but don't try it.
 
Fermented Dairy Products
There are 2 types of fermented dairy products; cultured and acidified. Cultured is when we add bacteria and ferment. Causing lactose to become lactic acid. Lactic acid is also what makes you sore after working out. Dr. Whitaker makes the statement then "if you are sore after working our then man you would taste good!" Lactic acid causes the food to become more sweet and sugary.
 
 
Then we went on to learn about cream and butter. Butter is made by churning cream so that only the fat particles are left. The left over liquid is what used to be called buttermilk, but today we make buttermilk differently. Anyways, so Dr. Whitaker and one of his friends decided that they were going to try and make butter, but without a butter churn. Instead, they poured 10 gallons of cream into a residence hall dryer in the laundry room. This did not end well either. The dryer spun way to fast for the fat particles to separate.

No comments:

Post a Comment