Got (Raw) Milk?

Is there an actual study that demonstrates the nutritional differences between raw and pasteurized milk? One thing to remember is that Vitamin D is required to help absorb calcium and this is missing in raw milk. I am not sure it is a good idea to give raw milk to kids or seniors.

I went to one of the websites and posted below their response to WHY you should be drinking Raw Milk. I find it concerning that they don't answer the questions right there -- they refer you to a Supplemental Report. Couldn't they give some documentation that it's healthier for you?

Why?

Why is raw dairy health-giving?

Because it has been proved to reverse disease and increase health. Read the Supplemental Report In Favor Of Raw Milk that contains hundreds of scientific evidence. Also, read the books We Want To Live, and The Recipe For Living Without Disease. Both books give case histories on the benefits achieved by drinking and eating raw dairy.

Why is processed dairy disease-causing?

Because it has been proved to cause diseases such as diabetes, osteoporosis and obesity. Read the Supplemental Report In Favor Of Raw Milk that contains hundreds of scientific evidence.

But, I did hear about a new milk from a family owned company - Stremick's Heritage Food's. It's a Disney's Little Einstein branded Milk. It's hormone free and fortified with Omega-3 DHA.

Here is a link to more info:
http://www.heritage-foods.com/little_einsteins.asp

Has anyone tried it?

Dr. Skunky - Any thoughts?

Just to be able to consume milk without preservatives is a plus. Know where your raw milk comes from and watch the process. In North Alabama, my husbands family gets it from a neighbor farmer...they too make buttermilk and butter from it. It tastes saltier ( to me) than processed milk. I don't drink it (I like soy milk) but the kids love it and I use the butter and milk to cook with.

Skunkape,

You raise a very good point. But our best source of vitamin D--and the way our bodies were best absorb that vitamin--is from the sun. So, for those fortunate enough to live in the south AND get outside for 15 minutes/day of sunshine, that is sufficient vitamin D in order to absorb calcium. If you don't get outside much, taking a fish oil supplement (esp. cod liver oil) is a great alternative to getting sufficient vitamin D. Fish oils have a whole host of their own health benefits, too.

ElenaMaria

But, I did hear about a new milk from a family owned company - Stremick's Heritage Food's. It's a Disney's Little Einstein branded Milk. It's hormone free and fortified with Omega-3 DHA.

Here is a link to more info:
http://www.heritage-foods.com/little_einsteins.asp

Has anyone tried it?

Dr. Skunky - Any thoughts?

Saw that on the Today show this morning. I heard "family owned" and did a double take when I saw Disney printed cery visibly on the carton. I am tempted to try some cream from the op's place. There is such a taste difference between pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized (to me) that I would like to try no pateurized. I drank raw milk products when I was 7ish or so but don't remember much about them.

In the interests of fairness/curiosity, I checked out the rawmilk.org site.

Wow, what bullsheet! The lack of evidence, poor grammar, and illogical arguments makes most of the Snopes.com emails look like Nobel Prize entries! :roll:

I think my favorite part was when they argued that since people have gotten sick when milk has NOT been properly pasteurized, raw milk is safe, but it could have also been the highly scientific evidence that Louis Pasteur doubted the wonderfulness of his process on his deathbed (1895 BTW), thinking that bacteria and disease were not connected!

I think I'll go pour myself a big ol' glass of pasteurized milk now and not worry that it will cause osteoporosis, obesity, and diabetes!

Is there an actual study that demonstrates the nutritional differences between raw and pasteurized milk? One thing to remember is that Vitamin D is required to help absorb calcium and this is missing in raw milk. I am not sure it is a good idea to give raw milk to kids or seniors.

Remember that cow's milk was designed for baby cows. So many people from other cultures go their entire lives without cows milk and are healthier than we are. So whether raw or pasturized milk is good for babies and older folks maybe the wrong focus. Is cows milk in general good for us? I am not anti-milk (our boys go through gallons) I'm just saying raw milk/hormone filled milk, name your poison. Get your sunshine, fish and your green leafies for calcium. Orange juice is now fortified with vitamin D as well.
Personally, I'd prefer the non-chemical milk to processed, injected, sitting in a plastic container milk any day.

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

Humans had been consuming raw milk for eons before they decided it was unhealthy. Granted, cows were also free range all those years too. Put them in pens, have them stand in their droppings and then milk them...I am sure you are bound to have fecal matter in the milk.

Remember that cow's milk was designed for baby cows. So many people from other cultures go their entire lives without cows milk and are healthier than we are. So whether raw or pasturized milk is good for babies and older folks maybe the wrong focus. Is cows milk in general good for us? I am not anti-milk (our boys go through gallons) I'm just saying raw milk/hormone filled milk, name your poison. Get your sunshine, fish and your green leafies for calcium. Orange juice is now fortified with vitamin D as well.
Personally, I'd prefer the non-chemical milk to processed, injected, sitting in a plastic container milk any day.

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

Humans had been consuming raw milk for eons before they decided it was unhealthy. Granted, cows were also free range all those years too. Put them in pens, have them stand in their droppings and then milk them...I am sure you are bound to have fecal matter in the milk.

Great points. I guess human consumption of cow milk began when they figured out they could get tons of nutritious milk out of a beast that required only grassland to survive. I think it is a good policy to avoid the hormone/antibiotic cow's milk not because it is dangerous but such overkill (and contributes to antibiotic resistance). I would love to try some raw milk just to see what it tastes like, but again, little children and senior citizens have weaker immune systems than healthy adults and I wonder if it is wise to potentially give them a big glass of shigella, salmonella, etc. Oh and by the way, the claims about pasteurized milk causing diabetes, etc are junk science claims;to anyone who disputes this, I ask...got proof?

I would be interested in a local buy of raw milk. I was just about to sign on with a group in Niceville to pick up there, but this would save me a ton of gas. Thing is, we don't drink much milk at all, so we wouldn't be a huge contributor to a minimum.

Anyhow, what raw milk does for the gut is amazing. For colonization purposes it's fantastic. Just like human breastmilk, if you pasteurize it, you loose much of the GOOD bacteria associated with it. Breastmilk banks pasteurize the milk, it maintains it's small protein size, which is desperately required to prevent the new number one cause of death in preemies (intestinal wall rupture leading to sepsis called Necrotizing Entercolitis), but the antibodies are destroyed in the process. Same goes for cows milk. Like I said, we don't drink much milk at all, I certainly don't give my (extremely healthy) kids much, but I do want to get the most bang for my nutritious buck.

BTW, you should never drink raw milk from a grain fed cow and I fully intend to verify the way these cows are handled before drinking their milk. Like anything else in life you must calculate risks and benefits and take responsibility for your choices.

Not sure if this is appropriate here...but when Fuzz was a baby and his grandparents got custody of him, the first thing they did was to buy a cow. Since they had no way to refrigerate things, they put the bottles of water into the nearly creek to keep them cool.

He never got sick from it, and he turned out OK. Now he drinks 1%. I'm sure raw milk would be a major shock to his system at this point.

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

I remember that! We would get deliveries twice a week, the glass bottles would be placed in the metal cooler on our front porch, the milkman traded with the empties we left out for him. Went to the dairy several times on school fieldtrips, got to milk Rosebud. Good times. Found a couple links to the story and history of what was one of only two Certified Dairys in the US at the time:

http://brianarcher.blogspot.com/2007/11/mathis-dairy.html

http://www.paulsullins.com/mathis/

I would be interested in a local buy of raw milk. I was just about to sign on with a group in Niceville to pick up there, but this would save me a ton of gas. Thing is, we don't drink much milk at all, so we wouldn't be a huge contributor to a minimum.

Anyhow, what raw milk does for the gut is amazing. For colonization purposes it's fantastic. Just like human breastmilk, if you pasteurize it, you loose much of the GOOD bacteria associated with it. Breastmilk banks pasteurize the milk, it maintains it's small protein size, which is desperately required to prevent the new number one cause of death in preemies (intestinal wall rupture leading to sepsis called Necrotizing Entercolitis), but the antibodies are destroyed in the process. Same goes for cows milk. Like I said, we don't drink much milk at all, I certainly don't give my (extremely healthy) kids much, but I do want to get the most bang for my nutritious buck.

BTW, you should never drink raw milk from a grain fed cow and I fully intend to verify the way these cows are handled before drinking their milk. Like anything else in life you must calculate risks and benefits and take responsibility for your choices.

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

I can see this thread heading to the Lounge in a hurry...

http://www.realmilk.com/happening.html#fl
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/rawmilk.html

I remember Mathis Dairy delivering to the little box on your front porch! Did you ever go there?

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

Humans had been consuming raw milk for eons before they decided it was unhealthy. Granted, cows were also free range all those years too. Put them in pens, have them stand in their droppings and then milk them...I am sure you are bound to have fecal matter in the milk.

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

Seriously, I stand on the fence on this one. There are benefits to raw milk & there are reasons not to drink milk at all.

My dad grew up on a dairy farm in GA and drank raw milk all the time. He would drink it now, but the nasty, cheap 1% is their beverage of choice.

We actually don't drink milk, except organic half & half in our coffee ('cause nothing else will do in coffee!), because every single one of us is lactose intolerant.:sick: We realized it when the Beanpole was just over 1 and we switched to rice milk for cereal, etc. Honestly, I don't like the taste of milk at all and now the kids don't know what to do if someone offers them cow's milk. We eat cheese sparingly and of course they have to have ice cream when in Seaside, but that's the extent of their dairy. I give them a liquid calcium supplement

My brothers drink it by the gallon. My younger bro's 2 year old son also has a ton of food allergies and is a total case of someone needing to eliminate the highest allergens from a tiny one's diet instead of sticking him on prednisone, antihistamines & prescription antacids.

Ckhagen's really up-to-date on all this, so she's a good resource.

Elgordoboy, you can also buy yourself a goat, as that's the closest thing to human milk you can get.

Yes, I went to the dairy and milked Rosebud, but I was so young (4 yrs) I don't remember much about the place. I do remember how good the milk was. It had to be shook up before you opened it because the cream would rise to the top. Even with all that fat in the milk, we were healthy slim kids. It probably helped that we didn't eat junk food and played outside 'til the sun went down.

I remember Mathis Dairy delivering to the little box on your front porch! Did you ever go there?

I remember how all I could smell was manure & my parents said I'd never survive on a farm!

Playing until dark was the best.

Yes, I went to the dairy and milked Rosebud, but I was so young (4 yrs) I don't remember much about the place. I do remember how good the milk was. It had to be shook up before you opened it because the cream would rise to the top. Even with all that fat in the milk, we were healthy slim kids. It probably helped that we didn't eat junk food and played outside 'til the sun went down.