Real Raw Milk is Healthy

Watching Grandma milk the cow was fascinating to me as a child. Sometimes she let me churn raw milk into butter. In the summer we picked strawberries and ate them with raw cream. I still remember that sweet fresh taste of summer at my Grandparent’s house.

My cousins owned a milk cow too. I grew up drinking raw milk off and on, depending on our access to it. We didn’t have our own cow but raw milk purchased from a friend or neighbor used to cost less than the pasteurized and homogenized milk from the grocery store.

More recently, I discovered raw milk’s health benefits, and learned that homogenization and pasteurization damages the milk so much that it is no longer healthy. When raw milk sits undisturbed in the refrigerator for a day or two, the cream floats to the top. Pour it off and use it in your coffee, on cereal, make whipped cream, ice cream, or butter. Or just shake the jug to mix it up again and enjoy the richness of the milk.

Homogenization alters milk’s fat molecules so the cream won’t separate from the milk. Our bodies don’t recognize these altered molecules and don’t know how to process them. Homogenization causes milk allergies and causes plaque build-up in our arteries. On the other hand, raw unprocessed fat is actually very good for us.

Pasteurization heats the milk to destroy any dangerous bacteria, but it also destroys the beneficial bacteria that our guts need to properly digest and assimlate the milk. When milk from pastured cows is handled correctly, in a clean dairy, there are no dangerous bacteria.

More people are sickened by pasteurized milk than raw milk. E-coli have been found in raw milk that was not handled properly and in dirty dairies, but it has also been found on spinach, lettuce, and in hamburger. Ask the naysayers who don’t want us to have the choice of drinking raw milk whether they have stopped eating hamburger and lettuce and spinach.

The state of Washington now certifies raw dairies and allows them to sell milk to individuals and at farmer’s markets etc. I have never heard of an e-coli outbreak in a certified raw dairy.

I live in town and don’t have the space or time to care for my own cow. So I pay more than twice as much for raw milk as I would for processed milk, but I believe the health benefits are worth the cost, and the taste is wonderful. I’d rather pay more for good food now, to enjoy better health, than pay for drugs and medical bills later and be sick in my “golden” years.

Big commercial dairies get subsidies from the federal government which helps keep milk prices low in the supermarkets. That’s our money they give away. I’d like them to stop the subsidies, or at least be fair by giving the same benefit to small organic raw dairies.

References:
Find a raw dairy near you.
Know your milk.
Real Milk.
Is it legal?
Mary Enig and Sally Fallon
Weston A. Price Foundation
Raw Milk Controversy

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