Take one BBC news report from 2003:
"The results were clear with both our experimental groups and in both test scenarios. "Creatine supplementation gave a significant measurable boost to brain power."
Add one report from the Mayo Clinic:
Pasteurized cow's milk appears to contain higher levels of creatine than human milk. The clinical significance of this is not clear.
And you've got a recipe for "finer brain tissue".
The other day Gauranga Kishore mentioned Omega-3 as a possible candidate for milk's brain enhancing qualities. Omega-3 is needed for creating the myelin-sheathing around the nerves in the brain. The deterioration of this sheathing leads to Alzheimer's disease, so it's definitely necessary and beneficial for brain functioning. Although flax seed oil is a more concentrated source of Omega-3 than milk, Gauranga Kishore pointed out that it may not be as universally available.
As well, the other day David Haslam mentioned a number of other beneficial products of the cow, such as cow stool for fertilizing the ground, for use as a cooking and heating fuel, and also as an insulation layer in low-impact environmental housing (aka mud huts).
So add one more thing to this list: Creatine.
Alternative milks
Given the 'economic crisis' we're currently witnessing, i've been giving renewed thought to the need for localised patterns of consumption to shift to a sustainable mode of human civilisation (new podcast coming soon on this topic). Eating habits are first on the list for localisation of consumption, and moving to China has given me a clear jolt in that department. Many of my regular foods are either not available or prohibitively expensive here. One of those is milk, which is overpriced and of the nasty UHT variety flown in from NZ. What they do have, however, is lots of goats. I've never seen goat milk, but a kind of simple goat milk curd called Rubing is widely available. Slabs of the stuff in the market don't exactly come with a nutritional information panel, so I can't comment on what's in it, but damn! It sure gives you energy of both the physical and mental varieties.
If you can get goat milk, which I recall being easy to obtain in Australia, simply curdle it ala paneer, then fry slices of it with broccoli and a little soy sauce/salt.
Heh, had the same experience
Heh, had the same experience in Peru. "Kiwi milk - they're drinking it there" (oblique reference to Fosters [kiwi beer] ad - with its sarcastic tag on: "Cause we should as hell ain't drinking it here!").
Look forward to hearing more podcasts, and recording some next time you're in town.