The Return of Swiss Cheese Baths

The copper tub has a greenish-yellow liquid hidden beneath a froth. I have an outdoor tub that is full of Whey. I dipped my foot and pulled it out again. It's hot.

The steam comes from making cheese. Just a few hundred litres of milk and a bit of precision are all it takes to make cheese. Milk, rennet, and cultures can be heated to a temperature of around 45-60 degrees Celsius. Curds turn into cheese. Dairy owners don't know what to do with it. It has ranged from sought-after medicine to problematic waste product.

I am at a small family-owned dairy in the Swiss Alps, where it is likely that the curds have just been taken out. The young Czech farmhand tells me that his skin is softer for the baths he gets on his family goat farm. I slid into the foam.

Had I been given this opportunity a century or two ago, I would have been sick or wealthy. Spa tourism in Switzerland began in the 1500s and continued until the early 1900s. Many of the health resorts constructed in the Swiss Alps were inspired by the healing effects of goat's milk.

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As far away as London, where it was a popular drink and a liquid medicine, the popularity of the product extended. Patients preferred Swiss whey for their healing powers. There is a general feeling in favour of Swiss whey, and if they are not in Switzerland, patients are happy to know that the native makes it.

A proper Molkenkur was meant to be more than one thing. In the 1820s, a Swiss spa doctor in the village of Appenzell outlined a treatment regimen for patients. He told patients to drink up to 12 glasses of milk per day, and to take short walks or hikes to the mountains. Depending on the severity of the illness, this could last up to eight weeks. Many spas across the country offered whey bathing, which was a natural extension of the curative experience.

There was a larger accepted category of bathing cures that were administered at spas that were important medical and recreational hubs. Many physicians advised spa visits in the mountains as a cure for diseases caused by genetics or lifestyle factors. In the 1870s, guides listed more than 150 therapeutic springs in Switzerland, which were often used to treat diseases such as nervous disorders, gynecological issues, or skin rash. Mineral water regimes were prescribed by doctors. It was unsurprising that spas and whey baths were welcome diagnoses in the context of medically administered leeches and laxative purges.

Swiss people don't like to be mentioned in the same breath as whey spas. A few generations ago, it was a waste product. The disruption of the two World Wars and advent of modern pharmaceuticals have been blamed, but perhaps the industrialisation of the dairy industry is the biggest culprit.

Nine litres of milk is produced by one kilo of cheese. As cheese production increased in the 1900s, it became a problem to dispose of the milk. Whey has been sprayed as afertilizer over fields. These solutions don't provide much return and are often too salty for the soil. Dairies have tried pouring milk into the water to harm the environment. It has a high Biological Oxygen Demand and Chemical Oxygen Demand. Oxygen can be removed from surrounding waters to kill aquatic life.

Most countries have strict regulations on the disposal of whey. Around 75% of the 13 million tons of cheese produced in Switzerland is used for animal feed, with the rest used for food and fuel. The owner of a Swiss company that makes shakes and powders out of Swiss whey thinks the country can do better.

It is perfectly safe to eat whey. Erne thinks it's good. A lot of producers want to get rid of it. You have to put a lot of effort into building a market for a product that isn't needed. It is a lot of work and not many producers are willing to do that.

It is an acquired taste. It is similar to a watery yogurt. It is green.

Increased environmental protections, technological and scientific advancements, societal pressure for a circular economy, as well as health trends towards functional foods have turned whey from "gutter-to-gold" For more than a decade, a research scientist,entrepreneur, and food industry consultant named Geoffrey has been observing the evolution of whey.

We are beginning to understand why people used to drink and bathe in it. He says that they knew it worked from an anecdotal standpoint. We now know why. In the last 20 years, we have gotten a lot more information about the benefits of whey.

Smithers says that the only reason he would bathe in it was because of its healing powers. There was a time when Smithers worked on a medical trial. Smithers says there was still some benefit even though the healing wasn't significant enough for the research to go ahead.

-lactoglobulin, -lactalbumin, and lactoferrin are important for a variety of bodily functions, including muscle building and immunity. Studies for their weight-management properties, wound care and repair, infant nutrition, anti-cancer effects, and even for the treatment of Covid have all been linked to the benefits of different types of milk.

It looks like there may have been something special about theMolkenkur. Although whey bathing is a niche activity in Switzerland, it is experiencing a renaissance due to the popularity of health-focused drinks. I think clients are riding the post-pandemic wave into the Swiss mountains. I'm pretty sure I did.

I immersed myself in the bath that smelt of fresh milk. I let myself relax to the sound of cowbells and drink in the view of the Alps, exactly as they did 150 years ago.

I'm all for therapy if it's true.

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