Dromedary drink: Natural healer wants camel's milk available across state lines

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - There is nothing smooth about a cool glass of camel's milk.

The animals aren't cooperative, milk production is less than stellar and it's illegal to sell across state lines.

Still, proponents, led by Millie Hinkle of Pittsboro, N.C., say camel's milk may be an elixir, curing maladies from allergies to autism to diabetes _ although the science behind such claims is thin.

The prospect of a cure-all is what inspires Hinkle, a naturopathic physician who read about the health benefits in a magazine three years ago and decided to lead a national drive for approval of camel's milk in the United States.

"We have great hope for it," Hinkle said, noting that regulatory approval would enable producers to conduct scientific studies and give the milk some bona fides.

Everything hinges on a meeting next month in Florida of the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments, which has, for 58 years, created uniform standards across state lines for the production and sale of Grade A milk.

And not just cow's milk.

There's Grade A goat's milk, and sheep's milk, and "hoofed mammals' milk," which covers horses, pigs and even deer, if anyone had a mind to milk deer. As hoofed mammals, water buffalo were approved for milking some years back, thanks to the efforts of a Vermont farmer who established the nation's first water buffalo creamery. There are now three.

"We try to be inclusive," said John A. Beers, chairman of the national milk conference, which meets every two years to update rules for the nation's milk supply. He said no species has been rejected by the group as a milk producer.

On the camel crusade, Hinkle _ who owns none herself _ must present the conference with a proposal to test camel's milk for germs and other adulterations that people don't want to drink. Once there's an established way to assure that camel's milk produced in one state is as safe as camel's milk produced in another, it can be sold across state lines.

Hinkle said that would be a bonanza to owners of the roughly 3,000 camels raised in the United States, mainly for petting zoos and movie appearances.

"A lot are rented out for nativity scenes in December," Hinkle said.

She wants to set up a co-op in Texas, where owners from throughout the United States could pack off their animals during the nine-month period that females produce milk for their calves.

The co-op would ease one of the biggest drawbacks to camel's milk: Females are notoriously cantankerous milkers. They only release milk when they smell their calf, and most will abide milking on just one side _ while her calf is nursing.

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"They can kick sideways," Hinkle said. "That could kill you."

But the trouble may be worth it. She says some research abroad has shown health benefits of camel's milk, particularly for children with autism and among people with diabetes. The studies are small, however, and not widely published.

Dr. Barry Popkin, the Carla Smith Chamblee Distinguished Professor of Global Nutrition at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health, said the health claims for camel's milk are largely unfounded. The drink, Popkin said, is the goji-berry-miracle juice of the moment.

"It's becoming this big exotica in a number of countries," he said, although it is one of the oldest sources of food known to man. Ancient civilizations fermented the beverage, and it has long been a source of cheese and yogurt in desert cultures.

Having sipped it himself _ it's salty and "strange tasting" _ Popkin says camel's milk could be a difficult sell in the United States. Then again, he said, North Africans consider it an aphrodisiac.

"I'm sure there will be a certain cult developed around it," Popkin said. "Just like everything else."

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MORE ABOUT CAMELS

--There are two types of camels _ dromedary and bactrian. The dromedary has one hump, bactrian two.

--Camels graze on vegetation and are able to extract most the water they need from the plants they eat.

--The hump is comprised of fat, not water, and shrinks during periods without food. Baby camels don't develop a hump until they start eating solid foods.

--Camels are uniquely designed for desert conditions. To keep sand out of their eyes, ears and nose, they have a double row of long, curly eyelashes, a third eyelid to serve as a windshield wiper, small ears with fur inside and nostrils that contract. Their soft feet spread to keep from sinking in sand.

SOURCE: abc.net

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© 2009, The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.).