Milk

[Alex Linder]

Is milk good for you? Not an easy question to answer. Back your opinion with evidence. Soy milk? Raw milk? Dairy in general?

The vegans and raw food people seem almost more opposed to dairy than even meat.

If you do think milk is good for you, what type do you buy, and where do you get it, how much do you pay?

[Mike in Denver]

I hesitate to post here. Topics like this can lead to more angry comments than politics. People get into modes taught them by parents, teachers, or other authority figures and don't you dare question what they've been taught to believe. The received wisdom is that dairy is bad, whole milk is very bad, but here goes...

I drink milk and eat cheese and yogurt. I only consume whole fat milk. Here is a link that supports whole fat milk: http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/dairy-for-children-extends-life.html

Here is a quote from the essay at the link:

---
"In conclusion, this study showed that a family diet in childhood relatively high in calcium is associated with reduced stroke mortality and that a childhood diet high in dairy or calcium is inversely associated with total mortality in adulthood," write the authors. The study above confirms research undertaken by the Universities of Reading, Cardiff and Bristol, published last year, which also found that drinking milk can lessen the chances of dying from illnesses such as coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke by up to 15-20 %.
---

I've also read that without the CLA found in milk fat, you can't properly process the calcium in milk.

One problem with evidence is that anyone can cherry pick Google searches to prove any side of any argument. I know I do. If you really want to know what's true, perform the experiment yourself, or ask your grandmother.

This is just my opinion: A lot of how you digest and use milk is based on your racial, or sub-racial group. If your ancestors consumed milk, you are likely to have inherited the ability to consume milk. I trust instincts, and the wisdom of our ancestors, more than I trust science.

Mike

[OTPTT]

Is milk good for you? Not an easy question to answer. Back your opinion with evidence. Soy milk? Raw milk? Dairy in general?

The vegans and raw food people seem almost more opposed to dairy than even meat.

If you do think milk is good for you, what type do you buy, and where do you get it, how much do you pay?

Non fermented soy products are not good for you from what I've read. Soy acts like the estrogen hormone in men.

I purchase milk and generally only use if for coffee. Here is something interesting and helpful that I've observed and found. I purchased a half gallon of ORGANIC MILK a few months ago. The expiration date on the milk was almost two months from the date I purchased it. Compare this to about two weeks for regular milk.

I used that half gallon of milk for at least six weeks until is was gone. It did not spoil, there were no sour smells, and it never showed precipitates in my coffee like regular milk does when it begins to go bad.

If you drink milk I highly recommend you purchase ORGANIC MILK. That it has an expiration date of close to two months along with my own experience with it tells me that as far as milk is concerned ORGANIC MILK is the healthiest choice and should be clear of the contaminates (hormones, antibiotics, other stuff) which works to breakdown regular milk and cause it to sour within days of purchase.

I can't vouch for the veracity of claims of anything being organic since I'm not present when such products are grown, produced, and packaged for sale.

[Mike in Denver]

I may be fooling myself, but I think I can distinguish the difference between brands of milk. I buy organic or natural brands of whole milk. At Whole Foods, the 360 natural brand, not organic, is running about $3.20 a gallon. I could buy milk cheaper, but only by about a dollar a gallon. The two gallons of milk I drink in a month only costs me two bucks extra and that's not a problem.

Soy and soy milk? When I moved to Colorado in 1978 the hippy-dippy phase was still in full force here. Soy this and that was everywhere. I always kept a straight razor pinned to my collar. That way if a soy bean accidentally got into my mouth I could cut my throat to the bone to keep from swallowing the damn thing. OK, that's a lie. I hate all soy except a small amount of naturally fermented soy sauce. Soy milk even smells diseased to me.

Studies have been done that show soy to have estrogen, or some pre-estrogen and is bad for men. Asian men eat shit loads of soy and they all look feminine to me. Also, in a poll I once read of French prostitutes, they were unanimous in rating Asian men as the weakest men in bed. This is evidence, isn't it? Soy, bad.

Mike

[cillian]

I avoid soy products entirely after reading about estrogen precursors in soy, it tastes terrible anyway.

I've read some bad things about dairy milk, but I have never noticed any bad effects. I agree with Mike about it having to do with ancestry, but also lactose intolerance is greatly exaggerated. You hear people say they can't have cheese because of lactose intolerance, when there is actually very little lactose in cheese.

http://www.stevecarper.com/li/list_of_lactose_percentages.htm

So even if someone did have lactose intolerance most cheeses would not affect them. I suspect it has more to do with the high fat content in cheese that can upset stomachs.

[cygnet]

Milk is very cheap these days. Try this: get a pint of kefir with live cultures. Put a bit of it into a clean halfgallon mason jar and fill the jar with milk. Stir. Let sit at room temperature for several days. When it is completely sour all the lactose has been used up by bacteria. It may separate into whey and curds. Eat as you please. Save a bit to start the next batch. It will take less time now that you have let it run to completion. (The kefir sold in stores is barely sour.) Keep 3 or 4 jars in rotation and eat one per day. At two dollars per gallon or less for milk, can you afford NOT to?

There will be no issues with lactose intolerance. There is no lactose remaining. Or a trace amount only.

[Mike in Denver]

Raw milk.

I've only tasted raw milk once in my life. In 1951 when I was in the second grade, my class went to a dairy for a tour.

Even then they had automatic milking machines, but the dairy had an area with some cows just for tours for school children. We all got to milk a cow. (Poor damn cow.) We also got to drink the milk right there, on the spot. I don't remember the milk, but we took the milk and made butter. I can still remember the butter. It was the best tasting butter I've ever eaten.

The laws are different, state to state, on raw milk. In Colorado if you want to drink raw milk, you have to own the cow or goat. There are farms that get around this by selling shares in a cow or goat. Isn't bureaucracy and government great? So you buy a share in a goat, and once a week you go pick up milk from your goat. It's expensive. I'd like to try it, but not these days.

Mike

[Mike in Denver]

Raw milk 2.

From Wikipedia:
"In Europe

Milk is typically consumed unpasteurized in rural areas of Europe, and raw milk can typically be found in small amounts at stores in large cities. Raw milk cheese is legally produced in most European countries.
Distribution of raw milk is illegal in Scotland. It is legal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the only registered producers are in England[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_milk#cite_note-6). About 200 producers sell raw, or "green top" milk direct to consumers, either at the farm, at a Farmers' market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_market), or through a delivery service. The bottle must display the warning "this product has not been heat-treated and may contain organisms harmful to health", and the dairy must conform to higher hygiene standards than dairies producing only pasteurised milk."


I may have had raw milk in Europe. I don't know. I had some milk in Denmark that was really tasty. I don't know if it was raw. I know it was good.


Mike

[albion]

NoMilk.com - The No Milk Page
Lactose Maldigestion/Milk Allergy/Casein Intolerance
http://www.nomilk.com/

Robert Cohen's site is notmilk.com. Probably the most vocal opponent of dairy consumption.
http://www.notmilk.com/

[Alex Linder]

[mentions raw milk is illegal in many states]

Food Freedom

by Brian Keeter

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." – Thomas Paine

That quote echoed through my mind during my nine-month deployment in Iraq with the United States Marines back in 2004. I came home, thinking I had done some good not only for my country but for my family. At the time I thought my baby boy was going to grow up without the threat of terrorism and the Iraqi people were now free to choose their own destiny. However, those nine months had taken a heavy toll. I stared daily in the mirror, looking into the eyes of a cold and tired soul with more gray hair than any twenty-three year old deserved. Adjusting to civilian life was hard, and my family was suffering. I was in need of healing, and I found it back on the farm I grew up on.

There was something deeply satisfying about the cool Ozark air blowing across the fields of waist-high fescue grass. The cows stood chewing contentedly while their young calves frolicked about seeing who could kick their back legs the highest. My father had spent his entire adult life working, saving and accumulating over one thousand acres of productive grassland in northwestern Arkansas. Besides the peace it brought me, the thought of being self-sufficient and self-employed in a profession as noble and humble as farming drew me in further. Would I continue his path of the conventional beef market? Would I certify organic, or find overseas markets? No, my path was a more local one.

In the following years the local food movement heated up. New words like nutritional density, biodynamics and sustainability filled my vocabulary. I toured successful farms and sought the advice of their entrepreneurial owners. They said raw (unpasteurized) dairy was at the forefront of the local, nutrient dense food movement and they were gaining market share every year. That settled it – a raw dairy herd would be the centerpiece of our diversified farm as well as meats and vegetables of every kind. We’d have an on-farm store stocked with raw milk and cheeses and frozen meats and fresh, seasonal veggies! It would be glorious!

Except – it’s illegal to sell raw dairy products in Arkansas and twenty-one other states. It’s also illegal to sell any meat that hasn’t been processed in a USDA or state inspected facility. In Arkansas, it’s illegal to have a flock of more than 200 laying hens unless I pay for the equipment and facilities to qualify for Grade A certification. It may soon be illegal to own livestock of any kind without belonging to a government database called the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) and having each animal tagged with an RFID chip. A carbon tax for animal flatulence is also in the works to stave off the "imminent threat" of global warming.

Excuse me? Is this the land of the free or what? What exactly did I get rocketed, mortared and road-side bombed for nine months in Iraq if not to have the freedom to do as I please as long as I wasn’t hurting anybody? Let me get this straight – I can pour toxic chemicals on my crops, process hundreds of animals an hour over feces-covered conveyors, or sell genetically alter foods with documented health risks as long as it’s approved or supervised by inept government trolls? The government had, over the last one hundred years or so, positioned itself squarely between myself and my personal and economic happiness. I was angry. I had been used and thrown away, and now found myself in the belly of the leviathan I had once sworn to protect.

Every time the market is suppressed, it goes underground – and real food is no different. People sell raw milk as pet food, or offer shares of their farm’s production in exchange for labor and feed costs. Others just ignore the laws outright, and offer their superior products despite the legal risks. Some pay the price – overzealous regulators issue crippling fines, and some are jailed. Some have even been attacked by armed state thugs with their families held at gunpoint while search warrants are executed. They take everything, all with the approval from their Federal masters at the USDA.

Thomas Paine’s quote floats around in my head once more as I ponder the future. I was so wrong those four years ago. The battle for freedom is not over, not by a long shot and the biggest threat to it is certainly not from Islamic terrorism. Food freedom will become an important front in this battle as the government-subsidized methods of food production collapse in the wake of economic reality. It will be important to everyone in the coming years to have many reliable, local sources of healthy, wholesome food.

Once again I have no choice but to fight. This time it is different – our weapon is the awesome power of voluntary interaction in the private marketplace with the goal being nothing short of total liberty for all. I’ll drink some raw milk to that.

May 7, 2009

Brian Keeter [send him mail] is a computer programmer, ex-Marine, and third-generation farmer living in the hills of northwestern Arkansas. See his blog.

http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/keeter1.html

[Alex Linder]

Lactose intolerance is a red herring, least to me. Interesting responses, but still trying to get a firm read on whether ordinary pasteurized milk you buy in the store, whether full or 2% or 1% is good for you. There does not seem to be a clear answer to that question.

[Mike in Denver]

There does not seem to be a clear answer to that question.

You won't get a clear answer. It's a religion. "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe." I've never seen such an intensively faith based religion as the "Milk fat is evil," religion. Certainly, my side, "Milk fat is good," is pure science.

Bit of a joke, but you won't find better. Trust your instincts, and your ancestors. If it makes you feel good, and doesn't give you a hangover, It's probably good.

Mike

[Alex Linder]

You won't get a clear answer. It's a religion. "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe." I've never seen such an intensively faith based religion as the "Milk fat is evil," religion. Certainly, my side, "Milk fat is good," is pure science.

Milk fat is good, I have no doubt on that. It's the hormones and anti-biotics easily accessible milk is claimed to be full of. I knew a guy worked for Dr. Neal Barnard after college, one of the bigger anti-milk names. I used to laugh at that stuff. I don't now. Cows get a chronic wasting disease called Johnes disease, very similar to Crohn's in humans. British scientists claim it's due to a parasite.

Anyway, here is a site listing all kinds of places one can get milk, cheese and other dairy without all the hormones, etc.

Where Can I Find Real Milk Products?
Google Custom Search
United States

Quick links: Other Countries | General Online/Email Ordering

If a listing below needs to be updated or removed, click here to email the webmaster! (webmaster at realmilk dot com).
If a source you know of is not listed, click here to suggest a new listing! (webmaster at realmilk dot com).

http://www.realmilk.com/where1.html

[Alex Linder]

Johne's disease

http://www.johnes.org/

[Alex Linder]

[little idea of the various interrelations here: cows get johne's from virus; some think humans get crohn's from milk virus - yet millions drink milk, few get crohn's. don't mean this post to distract thread from main topic: whether milk is good for White health.]


Crohn's disease and ulceratice colitis - inflammatory bowel disease responds well to the environmental approach - December 2008

My experience is that most gut problems, including inflammatory bowel disease, are caused either by allergy, or by gut dysbiosis (i.e. the wrong bugs in the gut), or poor digestion of foods. When things get complicated there is often an element of all three. In Crohn's disease almost always there is allergy - this was proven by Dr John Hunter at Addenbrook's hospital Cambridge who showed that patients responded as well to an elimination diet as steroids. Nearly all are intolerant of grains. Usually with Crohn's there are just a few foods implicated. With ulcerative colitis, allergy is also well documented with reports of dairy products causing UC in the 1960s. I certainly do have a proportion of patients with UC who have responded well to the approach which aims at correcting all three areas, but I do not claim to be 100% effective in treating them all! There is quite a lot in the nutritional literature and what I have gleaned suggests that in inflammatory bowel disease there are several things which can go wrong.

Allergy
The first is that allergy is a big player. Allergies run very strongly in families and dairy allergy is the main suspect. Furthermore, the majority of sufferers of inflammatory bowel disease are intolerant of grains. The next commonest allergen is yeast and this can extend to yeast in the gut. So the first thing that needs to be done is a good STONEAGE DIET, which avoids the major allergens and is of low glycaemic index. Of course, it is possible to be allergic to anything at all, and if certain foods are known to flare symptoms, they need to be avoided even if they are the "allowed food". If it transpires that the sufferer is multiply allergic to foods, then one might try Nalcrom (an allergy blocker) which works in a few, or possibly ENZYME POTENTIATED DESENSITISATION to switch off allergies. In a study by Dr McEwen, EPD was very effective in reducing reliance on medication and number of relapses.

Gut Dysbiosis
The second thing that often arises in ulcerative colitis is gut dysbiosis, i.e. having the wrong bugs in the gut. Furthermore, it is possible to become allergic to the bugs in the gut. So for example IBD often has an arthritis associated with it as the allergy reaction to bacteria in the gut results in joint symptoms. The mechanism may be molecular mimicry first described by Dr Alan Ebringer. The idea here is that the body makes antibodies against gut bacteria, which then cross-react with self - for some reason often with spinal ligaments - to cause back pain and typically early morning stiffness.

So, the treatment is to try to change the gut flora. There are many ways this can be done, but the gut flora depends largely on the diet. The first port of call is a Stoneage diet, but some people find they just have to reduce their carbohydrate load to get a result. See SPECIFIC CARBOHYDRATE DIET - this handout not available on website - contact the office for a copy.

It is quite possible that this explains the mechanism by which the drug Sulphasalazine works - it splits up in the gut to produce a sulphonamide, which is anti-bacterial, thereby changing the gut flora. It is possible to do tests for bacterial dysbiosis such as COMPREHENSIVE DIGESTIVE STOOL ANALYSIS (CDSA), but these tests do not tell if one is allergic to bacteria or if there is molecular mimicry.

Bacterial allergy is a difficult diagnosis to make, but may well explain why some people respond clinically well to taking antibiotics, or herbal anti-microbials such as Artemisia, Berberis, Wormwood, Slippery Elm or the many other preparations on the market. However, there is no point experimenting with these until the basics are in place with respect to stoneage diet, effective digestion of food and good levels of probiotics.

Extensive work has been done looking at the effects of probiotics on inflammatory bowel disease and the bacterium which is particularly helpful in IBD is lactobacillus plantarum. There are others and indeed a package has been put together which is now available on NHS prescription called VSL3.

Another way to use probiotics is to grow them yourself on culture. The one I particularly like to use is KEFIR (see Probiotic handout below) because it is so easy to grow and benefits so many people. It does not contain lactobacillus plantarum, but it does contain many other lactobacilli species, which may be equally effective. So this is another possibility to consider. Also see PROBIOTICS.

It may well be that the inflammatory bowel conditions seen by Dr Andrew Wakefield following MMR vaccination has to do with bacterial allergy since viruses can switch on allergies.

Chronic Bacterial Infection
Work done by Prof John Hermon-Taylor at St George's Hospital has demonstrated that some early cases of Crohn's can be completely cured by antibiotics. This stems from work which has shown the presence of a tuberculosis-like organism called Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, present in the gut of Chrohn's patients. This is the same bacteria that causes Johnnes disease in cattle and is thought to be acquired by humans through drinking milk. The pasteurisation of milk does not kill this bacterium, which Prof. Hermon-Taylor has shown to be present in about 10% of all milk samples. That is to say, we are all exposed to this bacteria, but some people get infected with it.

Digestion of Foods
Food first has to be chewed. Longer chewing results in more efficient digestion. Ghandi said we should chew our drinks and drink our solids! Don't gobble!

It then requires an acid environment for bacteria and yeasts to be killed and proteins digested. This makes sense - it prevents inoculation of the gut with unwanted bacteria. Therefore, being hypochlorhydric (insufficient stomach acidity) may well be a risk factor for gaining a bacterial dysbiosis and this could be exacerbated by the use of antibiotics. A simple test for hypochlorhydria is now available, i.e. a salivary VEGF. If the results indicate deficiency of the stomach acid, this can be easily corrected. See HYPOCHLORHYDRIA.

Low levels of enzymes may also slow digestion of foods - consider a faecal elastase 1, which is a measure of pancreatic exocrine function. Low results suggest impaired production of pancreatic enzymes. CDSA also looks at ability to digest and absorb as well as other factors.

Anti-inflammatory Interventions
This is the mainstay of conventional drug therapy and there is no doubt that on occasions this is essential! It seems that some inflammatory processes have a momentum of their own -inflammation damages cells, which release free radicals, which stimulate further inflammation. Again, anti-oxidants and vitamin D are very helpful for the same reasons as above. There are also anti-inflammatory preparations worth trying, such as curcumin (turmeric extract). See INFLAMMATION. I can hardly bring myself to say this, but smoking is protective against Crohn's disease! Possibly because although smoking is pro-inflammatory in the lungs and blood vessels, it may have anti-inflammatory properties in the gut.

Worms
There is evidence to suggest that worms have a useful anti-inflammatory effect on the gut. Indeed this illustrates the "hygiene hypothesis". The immune system needs exposure to bacteria and parasites for it to be correctly programmed. Modern life means the gut no longer gets this essential programming and the immune system starts to react inappropriately. In this case to foods and gut flora (bacteria and possibly yeast).

Antioxidant status
Finally, it may be that in people with ulcerative colitis the immune system is just up-regulated and this would be made worse by poor antioxidant status. This can be checked by measuring levels of Co-enzyme Q10, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase (SODase). High dose vitamin D might be extremely helpful and I would suggest say 10,000iu a day. I know this sounds like a high dose, but there has been no documented cases of hypocalcaemia or any such problem in the medical literature. 10,000iu daily of vitamin D is equivalent to an hour of daily sunshine. See ANTI-OXIDANTS.

http://www.drmyhill.co.uk/article.cfm?id=111

[Joe_J.]

Nearly all are intolerant of grains. This seems odd to me in re Crohn's as far as comparing it to the Blood Type Diet. Western European diet is listed as heavy on the grains, that European people don't tolerate a lot of red meat well. It might be hooey. I'm not a scientist and may not offer much constructive on this but I do know that the blood type thing works for me. Veggies and grains. I don't tolerate milk well at all on my stomach. Causes stomach pain. Cheese and yogurt don't bother me, just milk. That didn't start until I was an adult.

Gut Dysbiosis
The second thing that often arises in ulcerative colitis is gut dysbiosis, i.e. having the wrong bugs in the gut. Furthermore, it is possible to become allergic to the bugs in the gut. So for example IBD often has an arthritis associated with it as the allergy reaction to bacteria in the gut results in joint symptoms. The mechanism may be molecular mimicry first described by Dr Alan Ebringer. The idea here is that the body makes antibodies against gut bacteria, which then cross-react with self - for some reason often with spinal ligaments - to cause back pain and typically early morning stiffness.Do over the counter gut flora preparations help? Naturopath might be helpful here. I went to one for my arthritis and one of the things he prescribed was something to promote "correct" gut flora. Didn't help my problem, though. Might help others.

In fact, I took something like this:

Extensive work has been done looking at the effects of probiotics on inflammatory bowel disease and the bacterium which is particularly helpful in IBD is lactobacillus plantarum. There are others and indeed a package has been put together which is now available on NHS prescription called VSL3.

Therefore, being hypochlorhydric (insufficient stomach acidity) may well be a risk factor for gaining a bacterial dysbiosis and this could be exacerbated by the use of antibiotics.Wouldn't an increase in eating foods high in acids help? Some people swear by cider vinegar as a health remedy but I have wondered if it helps the acid level in the body.

Again, anti-oxidants and vitamin D are very helpful for the same reasons as above.Saw a news story yesterday that people (kids, in particular) don't get enough Vitamin D. Fifteen minutes of sun is supposed to be enough but they say too many people don't get outdoors anymore.

There are also anti-inflammatory preparations worth trying, such as curcumin (turmeric extract).BS, in my opinion. I had nearly crippling arthritis for a year. I tried this and it didn't help.

See INFLAMMATION. I can hardly bring myself to say this, but smoking is protective against Crohn's disease! Possibly because although smoking is pro-inflammatory in the lungs and blood vessels, it may have anti-inflammatory properties in the gut.This one is hard to believe. Smoking is said by research to exacerbate ulcers and to be hard on the stomach. I was on Meloxicam for a while and the biggest warning was don't smoke because it causes gut bleeding. The warning was correct and I had gut bleeding.

Antioxidant status
Finally, it may be that in people with ulcerative colitis the immune system is just up-regulated and this would be made worse by poor antioxidant status. This can be checked by measuring levels of Co-enzyme Q10, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase (SODase). High dose vitamin D might be extremely helpful and I would suggest say 10,000iu a day. I know this sounds like a high dose, but there has been no documented cases of hypocalcaemia or any such problem in the medical literature. 10,000iu daily of vitamin D is equivalent to an hour of daily sunshine. See ANTI-OXIDANTS.I have never had Crohn's but I would swear by the antioxidants. I started taking some high powered stuff that is fruits and vegetables juiced and then put in a capsule. After a month, no arthritis meds, no tylenol or aspiring. It is like I never had it. Not sure if it would help Crohn's but it is worth taking a look at.
Research on this product:

Several of these bioavailability studies also reported improved antioxidant capacity and reduced lipid peroxides, a key indicator of oxidative stress. In addition, researchers at the Medical University of Graz, Austria (https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/GrazStudy.soa) and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/ScienceInSportsAndExcercise.soa) found that Juice Plus+ Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blends together were effective in reducing a marker for oxidative stress associated with aerobic exercise.
https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/ResearchShows.soa
https://www.juiceplus.com/nsa/content/Science.soa

It may or may not help with something like Crohn's. I have not read all of the research papers. I know that it shut down the arthritis that I had and I feel 1000 times better. If nothing else, you'll get all of the veggie/fruit servings that are recommended daily./

[Myles]

If you drink milk I highly recommend you purchase ORGANIC MILK. That it has an expiration date of close to two months along with my own experience with it tells me that as far as milk is concerned ORGANIC MILK is the healthiest choice and should be clear of the contaminates (hormones, antibiotics, other stuff) which works to breakdown regular milk and cause it to sour within days of purchase.Folks, before buying into the organic food scam, at least watch these (http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=98692) videos first.

Watch 'em soon, because they probably won't last long.

[Tomasz Winnicki]

Choosing Between Raw Milk and a Dead, White Liquid
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/12/Choosing-Between-Raw-Milk-and-a-Dead-White-Liquid.aspx