10 Things You Should Know About Raw Milk

Guest post by Chelsea Green's Makenna Goodman

In recent years, there's been a crackdown on small dairies producing raw milk, designed as an obstacle to the growing legions of consumers demanding healthier and more flavorful milk. Raw milk has been deemed "unfit" for human consumption by the FDA and other government sting operations, and the public propagandized into fearing it. According to some fear-mongers, for example, raw milk causes rabies.

David Gumpert, author of popular blog The Complete Patient and forthcoming book Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle Over Food Rights (Chelsea Green, Oct 2009), asks an important question: How much of the fear-mongering from the pro-pasteurization people is real, and how much is propaganda from Big Agribusiness? Gumpert says the anti-raw-milk campaign is just another governmental technique to sanitize the food supply—even in the face of ever-increasing rates of chronic disease like asthma, diabetes, and allergies.

 

Here are 10 things you should know about raw milk that the government won't tell you:

• Raw milk is healthier: Pasteurized milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to heart disease to cancer, but back in the day, these diseases were rare. In fact, clean raw milk from grass-fed cows is chock full of healthy amino acids and beneficial enzymes, and was used as a cure.
• Raw milk does not make you sick: That is, if it is properly collected from cows fed good, clean grass. Grass-fed milk has natural antibiotic properties that help protect it from pathogenic bacteria. But it's worth noting, if you've been using pasteurized dairy products, you might want to eat small amounts of yogurt or kefir for a week or so, for a dose of probiotics, just to be safe. I did, and it helped.
• Not all raw milk is the same: The cow's diet, how and where it's raised, and how the milk is collected are all factors in the safety and quality of raw milk. Cows pastured on organic green grass produce milk with good health benefits. It's good to know where your milk is coming from.
• Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks, and inspection are enough of a precaution, and pasteurization has become irrelevant.
• Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer.
• Calves fed pasteurized milk don't do very well, and many die before maturity. Scary, considering the milk originally came from their mom.
• Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process called centrifugal clarification. Gross.
• Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. This means, pasteurization is used as a nifty way to wash away all forms of bad bacteria that are allowed to flourish freely before the process. Imagine that for a second.
• Raw milk has more butterfat, which is rich in fatty acids that protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. Skim milk doesn't necessarily mean it's better for you, in other words.
• Pasteurization laws favor large, industrialized dairy operations and push out small farmers. When farmers have the right to sell raw milk directly to their consumers, they can make a decent living even with a small number of cows. Support small farmers!

 

Sources include: The Weston Price Foundation, RawMilkFacts.com, and The Complete Patient.

Comments

[danaseilhan]

02:52 PM on 06/19/2009

Anyone really interested in the safety of milk vis-a-vis pathogen content should read what Dr. Sears has to say about human breast milk. I have his book about breastfeeding, and he states that if you leave a bottle of fresh human milk out on the kitchen counter, in about twenty to thirty minutes any pathogens int the bottle will be dead. Why? Because white blood cells naturally occur in human milk. I would not be surprised to learn the same is true of cow's milk--IF it is not pasteurized. Any cells present in the milk will be destroyed by the heat, not just bacteria. So not only have you knocked out the beneficial lactobacteria, you have also knocked out another line of defense against listeria and the like.

I don't buy the argument that I shouldn't drink cow's milk because I don't produce enough lactase or because I'm not a baby cow. Fermenting the milk eliminates the concern about lactose; by definition, lactobacteria eat up lactose and replace it with lactic acid. Nobody that I know of has a sensitivity to lactic acid. You'd die. As for the baby cow argument, everything we eat could be construed as "meant" for some other animal. The only way you're going to avoid that is by wiping out humanity. If we don't do it some other way by destroying the earth to grow our crops.

[rebelsinsc]

12:44 PM on 06/16/2009

We love our raw milk - all children and grandchildren drink nothing else, and we are so thankful that it is easy to get in South Carolina. Once you enjoy the taste and realize how healthy it is, you can never go back to the "fake" milk that is full of all the junk. Our family now buys 12-14 gallons per week!

[Paul Ericson]

10:39 PM on 06/12/2009

You have to put the danger into proper perspective. Fresh fruits and vegetables and deli meats are the most dangerous foods in terms of sources of reported food borne illnesses. Certified raw drinking milk is easily 30 times less likely to sicken you, based on CDC statistics.

Yet when someone gets sick from cut watermelon or spinach, there are no regulation created to stop their inter-state trade, or warnings that they should never be consumed or that they are inherently dangerous. Yet this is the double standard used for raw milk. No food is absolutely safe and you have to weigh the health benefits against reasonable risks.

Besides isn't deciding what you eat not only a basic human right, but certainly a right guaranteed by the Constitution? It's one thing to protect "the public", so if you don't care about anything but price and want to shop without reading labels, then maybe the milk should be pasteurized. But if I want to buy raw milk directly from a farmer, or buy an ownership stake in a cow or farm, then the government should mind it's own business.

Most of the government harassment is being motivated either by the dairy industry trying to protect their monopoly milk pools or ignorant public health officials trying to protect us from ourselves.

[AnnMarie Michaels]

01:48 PM on 06/10/2009

Great article! I switched my family to raw milk a year and a half ago and we will never go back to pasteurized. I gladly pay more for raw milk because it's much more nutritious, tastes a lot better, the cows are healthier (eating grass) and I know I am helping to support a family farm. I also know the cows that produce the milk are out on pasture as nature intended, instead of in factory farms.

[Lizabeth Nash Matthews]

11:01 PM on 06/09/2009

My family and I have been doing the raw milk now for over a year and a half. We are healthier now than ever! We visit the farm every year and see for ourselves how clean and how well the animals are taken care of. We should have the right to consume raw milk if we live in such a free country. My brothers girlfriend almost died after her abortion but that is still perfectly legal. She was in the hospital for a week an given a 50% chance to live and will never be able to have any more children and she is only 26. Perspective please!
Raw milk has helped so many people I know. By the way, I have ate hundreds of raw eggs(from a local farm) and have never gotten sick from them. When I am getitng sick, I make raw egg smoothies and I usually start to feel better right away. Do your own research!

[theYakRanch]

07:18 PM on 06/09/2009

Real Food, Vegan or Omnivore. Personal Choice + Good Information = Integrity.

[jimer]

03:35 PM on 06/09/2009

My wife and I did extensive research through online, scientific articles, testimonials, and books for 6 months before we decided to take the plunge. Now that we have been drinking only pure, unprocessed milk from a trusted source for 6 years, we have resolved many health issues with ourselves and our children. In fact, our youngest 2 children were conceived and born solely within that 6 year timeframe, and they have been the healthiest of the 4 - with ever-increasing birth weights, and ever-healthier evaluations from the pediatricians. We have found numerous anecdotal and scientific evidence throughout the years both to back up what this article reports, and to explain why our political and corporate system has progressed to such a state where raw milk is dealt with more aggressively than illegal firearms possession. David Gumpert has been a trusted expert with a lot of connections and knowledge in the area, who expresses true American spirit in his willingness to speak out when he sees an injustice. Some excellent resources are The Complete Patient blog, the Weston A. Price Foundation web site http://www.westonaprice.org, "The Untold Story of Milk" by Ron Schmid, N.D., "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser, "Gut And Psychology Syndrome" by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (MMSc Neurology, MMSc Nutrition), and most recently "Put Your Heart In Your Mouth" by Campbell-McBride.

[Peter Bergin]

01:11 PM on 06/09/2009

Pasteurization is very important if your milk comes from sick animals living in filthy, crowded conditions and "cared" for by over-worked minimum-wage clock-punchers who have no real interest in farming other than the paycheck. So...maybe that's not how it should be produced?

As for the comments from the irrational veggies (I make this distinction because most vegetarians I've met are not the shrill, ignorant people commenting here) - pastured dairy and meat is infinitely more environmentally sustainable than destroying the meadow (including the thousands of animals per acre that live there) to grow the stuff you eat. If you have an ethical objection to managing any animal in order to produce food, that's your choice and I respect it, but please stop pretending that cutting down the rainforest to grow soy is preferable to letting happy ruminants graze.

[Devon Mussmon Hernandez]

12:59 PM on 06/09/2009

We have listened to misguided medical advice and lab studies that draw conclusions on inconclusive data regarding fat, cholesterol, etc., we've nationally lowered our saturated fat to a dangerously low level (but filled it with supposedly good polyunsaturated fats and too many omega-6 fats) - where has it gotten us? Sicker than ever. When my grandmother and great grandmother's generations, and before, ate saturated fats with abandon, including lots of raw milk, palm oil, meats, eggs, etc., heart attacks weren't around, diabetes was rare, and we weren't a nation of physical ill people. Obviously, we're doing something wrong. People are so quick to believe everything that comes out of Western Medicine and Science's mouth that they don't realize they never question anything. The nay-sayers are just like the Catholic Church in the 1500's who would brook no opposition to the generally accepted idea that the earth was flat and the center of the universe. Gallileo was vilified because he insisted that their argument was unfounded and wrong. Turns out many years later, he was right.

I think Raw Milk is the new sun-centered/earth-centered universe issue. In this day and age of too much government, unscrupulous politicians, big corporations, big lobbies, and at-stake profit, you can't afford to screw with your health and "trust that they're all doing what's best for you and that we know the truth" - question it all and find out for yourself.

[Devon Mussmon Hernandez]

12:59 PM on 06/09/2009

We live in a society that is overly fearful of anything and want pills and medicine for it all, and we can never allow ourselves any germs or dirt or to get sick. But Pasteur wasn't dealing with antibacterial everything and new strains of antibiotic-resistant sicknesses. We have done that to ourselves by not being concerned about what we eat, where it comes from, being germ and dirt fanatics that our bodies aren't able to do best what our amazing immune systems are capable of doing - protecting us with GOOD bacteria. When we get rid of the bad, the good goes out as well.

[Devon Mussmon Hernandez]

12:59 PM on 06/09/2009

Irregardless of anyone's view points on the risks/benefits of pasteurization, this comes down to freedom of choice. If we have the choice in this modern world to have abortions, or a number of other things much weightier in consideration, then why should we not have FREEDOM OF CHOICE to choose what food and drink we want if we know the risks? I don't want the government telling me what I can and cannot eat or drink. It's food for crying out loud! I'm not hurting anyone! If I choose to get my milk from someone I trust who has been tested by state more rigorously than conventional dairies, and their facilities are clean, and I know how they take care of their cows, how is that anyone's business? There are more cases of food-borne illness from conventional outfits and Big Dairy with pasteurized milk than with raw! Once your milk is pasteurized it is a sterile medium - anything can contaminate it postpasteurization and it happens FREQUENTLY. Store-bought milk is downright disgusting and putrid and filthy. I drink a gallon of raw milk a week myself and I feel fabulous. I tell everyone about it that I can. I even told a friend whose little girl was suffering from celiac disease and it has helped her tremendously.

[Devon Mussmon Hernandez]

12:58 PM on 06/09/2009

Pasteur was a great scientist yes, and pasteurization was necessary previously, as the article mentions above. When you're dealing with contaminated items, pasteurization can save your life. But it is not always necessary. Pasteurization damages everything good in milk - why do you think dairy producers have to add in extra synthetic vitamin A and D? It's because the large majority, if not all of it, in the real deal is killed, and they are such vital fat-soluble vitamins that the government requires they be added to replace the loss (did you read that? fat-soluble. Meaning that without fat, the vitamins cannot be absorbed by your body. Might want to rethink your low-fat and skim milk, because they are useless, and synthetic vitamins aren't easy to assimilate either). Enzymes, minerals, vitamins - they all work synergistically, meaning that if there is a loss of one or damage to one, the rest suffer as well, and you have trouble absorbing all or most of them. UHT pasteurization is the worst-it kills the most in the milk, has a "cooked" flavor, and who wants to drink milk that is shelf-stable? That's disgusting to me.

[Devon Mussmon Hernandez]

12:57 PM on 06/09/2009

I've been drinking raw milk for 4 years from a trusted family farm who takes excellent care of their herd and allows them to feed on grass like they were made to eat. I have never been sick from raw milk.

I cannot drink pasteurized milk because it kills lactase, the naturally occurring enzyme to digest lactose (this is why people are lactose-intolerant...they just don't make enough, but *any* breast milk, be it human or cow or goat, has all the enzymes needed to digest everything in it). I get very sick drinking pasteurized dairy products, but I have no problems with raw milk.

[Hilary Baumann]

12:53 PM on 06/09/2009

Excellent article - Raw Milk is one of about six things that have helped my sinus allergies when modern medicine couldn't. I tried everything from various prescription drugs to allergy shots with no change in my allergies.

I was a skeptic though and I also thought that I had possibly cured my allergies with a few of the other changes I had made but I was wrong - when I stopped drinking raw milk and continued with the rest I started sniffling and having severe allergy attacks again within 2 weeks. There was no question in my experiences that raw milk does help my health. I can't speak for anyone else and I can't give you a scientific reason for this that was studied in a lab.

It is your right to disbelieve me, but it's my right to choose what I consume.

Raw milk is NOT a dangerous substance with modern machinery and healthy cows.

I would not drink raw milk from a factory farm however....

[PaintedHandFarm]

12:39 PM on 06/09/2009

We have a family cow and drink raw milk, make raw butter and make kefir. Our family is healthy, our cholesterol & blood pressure low and our blood sugar stable. Our daughter's acne has disappeared. This was not the case prior to turning to raw milk. Raw milk sales are (and will always be) a pimple on the rear-end to commercial milk sales no matter how you look at it. But the truth is that it's the FDA who ultimately regulates raw milk in this country and the last thing they want to do is anger the drug companies selling us expensive pharmaceuticals when consuming raw, wholesome foods would fix more of our ills than their pills.