To Raw Milk or Not to Raw Milk!

If you are like me, and were raised in a country like Romania, under communism regime, drinking RAW milk is perfectly natural and pretty much the only way you think about drinking milk.

Milk comes from cows that spend the day grazing on open pastures. They eat grass and return to the farmer’s home at sundown. When home they drink water, lick some salt, get milked and go to sleep. The next morning they are milked and off they go for another day on the pasture.

The milk is yellowish in color (due to the carotenoinds from grass). The fat floats on top (because it’s not homogenized), and naturally you just want to drink it without it crossing your mind that it should be pasteurized.

Given that you know the source of the milk you’re consuming, that it comes from grass fed, pastured raised cows, from small farms, that are milked under sanitary conditions, you should have no reason to be concerned about having raw milk.

Raw milk is a living food, populated by beneficial microorganisms and contains antimicrobial enzymes.

When you leave raw milk from grass fed cows out on a counter, at room temperature, it will naturally ferment and in 24 hours turns into sour milk (like yogurt), but it will not spoil. Try doing this with the pasteurized milk and you will have a totally different outcome. Raw milk it’s easily cultured and made into yogurt or kefir. Please see vid-recipe how to make yogurt, down below. Even to this day my mom makes yogurt just like that. At night when she gets the fresh milk from the cow, adds to it a bit of yogurt from her previous batch, covers it with a lid and a towel and in the morning she enjoys her homemade yogurt. Is that easy.

There are many reasons why raw milk is preferred over a pasteurized one. I will briefly mention a few:

• Some evidence suggests that milk from grass fed cows is likely to have higher levels of fat-soluble vitamins and other nutrients, higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and essential fatty acids.
• The pasteurization process affects to some degree the nutritional content of milk (heat treatment reduces content of minerals such as -iron, manganese and copper, as well as vitamins such as Vit. C and B6).

“Many people experience digestive and other problems when they consume pasteurized milk, but have no trouble with raw milk. It’s not entirely clear why this is the case. The Weston A. Price Foundation conducted an informal survey of over 700 families, and determined that over eighty percent of those diagnosed with lactose intolerance no longer suffer from symptoms after switching to raw milk.”-Chris Kresser, the author of Your Personalized Paleo Code

• Epidemiological studies from Europe, indicate that consumption of raw milk in childhood, may reduce the incidence of asthma, allergies and other immune-mediated diseases.
• Flavor, is another reason many prefer raw milk over pasteurized. It tastes “richer”, “creamier”, “fuller”, “real” etc.

Because raw milk is only available from small local farms, many (of us) choose to use it to support our local farmers. I would venture to say it’s good for us, good for the farmer and good for the environment. The local farmers are using sustainable agriculture methods, hence it has less environmental impact compared with the milk coming from mass production or factory raised animals. Getting raw milk from “happy cows” is humanitarian also. It means saying NO to the treatment of animals raised in confinement and YES to humanly raised animals. We are voting with our $$ at many levels.
If you’re not used to the idea of drinking raw milk, the question that rushes through your head is: Is It SAFE? What if I get sick, after all it’s not pasteurized, that means it has germs:)

“FDA and CDC render Raw Milk as DANGEROUS. “…the relative risk of becoming ill from drinking raw milk is about 9 times greater than it is from drinking pasteurized milk, the absolute risk of developing a serious illness (i.e. one that would require hospitalization) from drinking raw milk is exceedingly small: about 1 in 6 million.“-Chris Kresser, the author of Your Personalized Paleo Code

A decision that only you can make.

Now that I told you a few things about raw milk, such as why some people choose to go for the raw versus pasteurized milk, it’s entirely up to you, to go dig a bit deeper into this subject and make a fully informed (and in peace) decision about the milk you will choose to drink next time.

For more information of the benefits and safety of raw milk consumption visit: http://www.fleetwoodonsite.com/wise/rawmilk/

Note: In many states by law the farmers can’t sell raw milk. Here in Florida we are blessed to be able to buy it with the claim on the label “Not for Human Consumption” or “For Pet Consumption Only“. If you see that on a label, do not be afraid, that’s how raw dairy is sold in the state of Florida.

 

Should you choose to go for it, here is a great way to add raw milk to your diet. Use it to make your own homemade yogurt. A wonderful probiotic food, that will help colonize your gut with the happy bugs.

I hope this post will help you make a decision with regards to the milk you choose to consume. Feel free to leave a comment below.

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With love and good food,

Mihaela xxoo