Let's Get Real About Raw Milk

Raw milk is exceptionally beneficial and important.  In fact, it is also one of the only true natural sources of iodine and calcium - two elements otherwise quite difficult to maintain in one's diet, even through supplements.  Now when you eat a high protein diet, in particular meats, the body becomes much more acidic through eating the animal tissues (a primary reason many become vegetarian - for it's direct health benefits).  In that situation it is very important to get a lot of calcium.  When the body becomes increasingly acidic, the body tries to neutralize that acid by leeching calcium from your bones and body tissues.  The health problems associated with this can be overcome by taking in the proper amounts of calcium.  And quite frankly, most calcium supplements don't work very well.  A better option being coral calcium, most calcium supplements just do not get properly absorbed into the body.  But naturally raw milk, and yes ONLY RAW milk, has a large amount of bio available calcium that is readily absorbed by the body. 

"Lactose intolerance" and other undesirable effects are virtually eliminated through drinking raw milk, since the necessary enzymes are still available in the raw unheated product to actually properly break the lactose down in the body.  Nature after all has what it has in place for a reason.  Really the massive manipulation of the original milk through pasteurization and homogenization just serves to break down and destroy all of the beneficial bacteria and enzymes, all of which a healthy living body reliant on microbial life truly needs.

Now, until recently, I did not know what raw milk was.  I assumed any milk from a refrigerator was raw, since it didn’t appear to be cooked.  Nope.  Wrong on that one.  Raw milk refers to milk which has been neither pasteurized or homogenized.  Now, if you’re like me and was taught in 5th grade that Louis Pasteur was a hero, then your initial reaction to a food that deliberately rejects the benefits of one of the greatest contributions to modern food safety is one of mild skepticism.  But, if you’re also like me, and feel that most of the “accepted” or “conventional” wisdom concerning modern food production and diet is anything but wise, that our food is what’s making so many of us sick, and that so much of what people believe about food is completely guided by corporate behemoths who benefit immensely from those beliefs, then you’re also likely to be a little bit curious.
Now, I live in one of the 10 states in the US where raw milk is legal for retail sale.  Hmmm.  Smoking is legal in all 50 states, alcohol is legal in all 50 states, but milk is legal in 10?  Interesting.  One of my favorite local food stores recently started selling raw milk, and so I just had to try it.  Theirs comes from Organic Pastures, a dairy in Fresno, California.  In addition to being raw, it is certifed organic, and Animal Welfare Approved. In addition to a long list of nutritive benefits, because so many of the beneficial bacteria that are normally killed during pasteurization are still alive in raw milk, people who have lactose intolerances generally do not have adverse reactions to raw milk, since the bacteria help them (us) digest it.
The first time I bought it was very unfortunately timed.  It was 3 days before I ended up in the hospital for my emergency appendectomy, and the Urgent Care doctor I saw the day before I went to the ER said my pains were probably digestive problems caused by something in the milk.  Obviously, that turned out to be a very unhelpful diagnosis.  It delayed my treatment by a day, and it planted a seed of prejudice in my mind against a food that wasn’t actually doing me any harm.  Fortunately, I decided to try it again, a few week after my surgery.
First of all, it’s delicious.  As I said, I hadn’t drunk a glass of milk for well over a decade, and cold, creamy milk really does taste great (it’s hard to keep myself to my allotted 6-8oz serving). This, however, is probably due to the fact that raw milk is not homogenized, not because it’s not pasteurized.  Homogenization is the process whereby the size of the fat globules are reduced, preventing them form “creaming” on the surface of the milk, and eliminating the need to shake the milk before use.
But was it really any better for me?  Well, as with most issues of food/nutrition (or anything else for that matter) you can find many different opinions on the internet.
The two sites I used as my “bases” for the pro and anti camps are Raw Milk Facts (pro) and Real Raw Milk Facts (anti..mostly). Don’t you love the titles? RAw Milk Facts is written by Randolph Jonsson, a nutritionist.  Real Raw Milk Facts is published by Outbreak, Inc, described on their site as “Litigation Consultants for the Food Industry.” Basically, they are a non-profit group formed by a law firm (Marler Clark, who specialize in suing food companies on behalf of victims of food borne illnesses), to help “responsible compnaies with their food safety challenges.” Marler Clark, it turns out, have been involved in at least two lawsuits against Organic Pastures.  Both sites cite their sources comprehensively.
What I’ve determined is this: all else being equal, pasteurization does indeed make milk safer. Why? Because if there is any harmful bacteria in the milk prior to pasteurization, then it will be killed during that step.  Now, whether raw milk is in fact more dangerous than pasteurized I think really depends on how you read the numbers.  Raw Milk Facts states that “Pasteurized milk still sickens people, and in far greater numbers than the more heavily regulated raw product.”  Real Raw Milk Facts says “about 70% of reported dairy outbreaks are from raw milk or raw milk cheeses.”  How can both of these be true?  Well, Raw Milk Facts backs up their claim with an article published by the FDA from 1986 about a salmonella outbreak in 1984 that affected at least 16,000 people.  Real Raw Milk Facts gets their data from the CDC.  So if you assume there were 100 “outbreaks” then 70 involving raw milk that affected 2 people each would count as 70% and this one that affected thousands would count for 1%, according to the methodology used by Real Raw Milk Facts.  One is comparing the number of individual incidents, and the other the number of people affected.  So think about that when making a decision.

Michael Schmidt- Raw Milk Advocate

As for the nutritional differences, Raw Milk Facts claims a number of benefits of drinking raw milk, but they don’t always distinguish which of these benefits are unique to raw milk, and which are also true of pasteurized, homogenized milk.  For example, both contain protein, calcium, and more or less the same nutrients. The pasteurization process may lessen some of the quantities (just as cooking vegetables or fruits generally makes them less nutritious than they would be if eaten raw) and destroy the 20% of amino acids in milk that are heat sensitive.  The real difference (from what I can tell) comes down to two things: the presence of beneficial bacteria, and the diet of the cows.  One of the main benefits of raw milk seems to be that the cows used to produce it are from a different breed of cows, which are pastured (raised humanely and grass fed) whereas most cows in conventional commercial dairies are feedlot cattle that eat grains and animal byproducts and all manner of things which, evolutionarily speaking, cows were never meant to eat. And, unless specifically specified otherwise, or certified organic, these cows are also being treated with hormones and massive quantities of antibiotics. Just as grass-fed beef is far superior nutritionally speaking, so, it seems, is grass fed milk.
The FDA, for its part, is very clear on the issue.  Is raw milk safe? “No. Raw milk is inherently dangerous and it should not be consumed by anyone at any time for any purpose.”
Anyway, this is a debate that seems to be on the rise, and which you will likely hear more about.  For some it’s a debate about nutrition, but for others, it’s a debate about the right of the government to tell them what they can and can’t eat.  If you’re curious about raw milk, and it’s available in your state. I’d encourage you to visit both of the sites I’ve linked to, as well as some of the many others out there with information on the subject (though always try to figure out who is providing the information).
As for me, I’m enjoying my foray back into the milk drinking world, and haven’t had any negative consequences as a result, so I’m going to stick with it for now. That said, I think if I could find milk that was pasteurized, but not homogenized and from organically raised, pastured cows, I’d probably give that a try.

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