I Like It Raw…My Milk I Mean

The raw milk train wasn’t too far down the crunchy rabbit hole. It was one of the first things I came across. I never really had any reservations about it, it just kind of made sense to me. Our ancestors wouldn’t have been pasteurizing and homogenizing milk. Added to that, if raw milk can raise a whole cow it stands to reason it must be incredibly nutrient dense.

As I do with everything else, I lept right in. It took a while to find somewhere, but our chiropractor told me about a farm 25 minutes away where I could sign up for a Herdshare. In Ohio raw milk is illegal to buy and sell. The government says it’s for safety, I definitely don’t think that’s true. I think it’s because they know it’s better for us but if everyone drank raw milk no one would be lactose intolerant and pay for lactose free things, we’d be healthier and need less sick care, and there’d be less regulation aka tax dollars funneling into the government. I digress, more on the governments role in our food in another post coming soon.

The way that a Herdshare works is that you pay for a share of the herd and then you make maintenance payments towards the herd per gallon of milk. Our initial pay-in was $60 and then our maintenance fee is $8 per gallon. Since the farm is 25 minutes away I buy 3 gallons at a time then bring it home and split it up 3 cups to a mason jar and freeze it, unthawing only one jar at a time.

The first time I did this I didn’t know that you can’t freeze things in mason jars with shoulders. Added to that, I completely forgot that solids expand when they freeze so I filled it up to the tippy top. I broke every single mason jar I froze. I didn’t want to waste it so I thawed it out in a bowl then threw the big pieces of glass away, strained the milk (although it all broke in big pieces so I didn’t find any shards), and still used the milk. Jakob was not happy with this decision he felt the risk wasn’t worth it but he wasn’t the one driving almost an hour round trip for milk.

Jakob only liked 2% milk before we started getting raw milk. I preferred whole milk because I felt like we needed the fat though for our brains. He was convinced he wouldn’t like raw milk. Stella pretty much refused to drink milk at all besides breast milk. (This was pre-Elliot). When I brought home the first gallon, everyone loved it. It’s almost like it’s what our bodies were made to drink it that way… When my friend tried it she said, “I don’t know how to explain this but this tastes straight out of cow.” I occasionally have regular milk at my moms house as do the kids, but none of us like it as much as raw milk.

So why is raw milk better for us? Instead of rattling off facts I’ve learned throughout the last three years of reading it I decided to consult The Raw Milk Guide by Homegrown Education. I’ll provide the link at the end of the post for you to get your free copy if you’re interested in learning more than the brief overview I’m providing.

I think the first thing to highlight is that raw milk wasn’t always a thing. Milk was just milk,and it was all raw. It wasn’t until 1987 that the FDA mandated that all milk and milk products be pasteurized. But why did they make that mandate? What happened between 9,000 years ago, when people started drinking milk, and 1987 that pasteurization became necessary? Unsurprisingly, insensitive people only concerned with production did.

During the industrial revolution cows began being crammed in crowded living conditions and fed swill (lefotvoer grain mashed to produce alcohol). They were no longer living the way God designed them to live or eating what their bodies were made to digest. Cows were getting sick in these conditions, which was then making their milk bad. People began getting sick but it’s wasn’t the raw milk making the people sick, it was the sick cows. Pasteurizing purified the milk from the germs being passed from these sick cows and that’s why pasteurization started. The main diseases these cows were falling ill to was Bovine Tuberculosis and Brucellosis. Today, cows are tested for these and therefor we are no longer at risk for getting these diseases from their milk.

Today the CDC advises against raw milk due to foodborne illnesses. This certainly can be a valid concern! The pathogenic bacteria can be introduced during milking and bottling if proposer sanitation is not practiced. That is why it is so important to know and trust your raw milk source. With that said, the CDC has ZERO investigations on their website for foodnorne illnesses related to raw milk in the last five years. There are however FIVE outbreaks associated with packaged salad greens in 2021 alone, even though they raise no concerns with consuming raw greens…. You do the the math.

There is an argument to be made that the consumption of raw milk is far below the consumption of raw salad greens, but wouldn’t you think if it’s so risky there’d at least the one? Raw milk suppliers have increased 4900% since 1998, so there must be a fair amount of people drinking it. You’d think if it was so unsafe someone would be getting sick and reporting it…

So right now you may be thinking okay so maybe we don’t always need it as long as sanitation procedures are properly followed but what’s the harm? Better safe than sorry right? Let’s look at the downsides though, then you can decide if the benefits out weigh the detriments. Below is a chart from the Raw Dairy Guide that summarizes the nutrient qualities of different milks.

The Raw Milk institute has done lengthy research into the downside of pasteurization and here’s the results:

• Reduce the bioavailability of calcium and phosphorus

• Reduce the presence of copper and iron

• Reduce Vitamins A, B Complex, C, and E

• Destroy beta-lactoglobulin, thereby decreasing intestinal absorption of Vitamins A and D

• Destroy probiotics, including lactobacillus and pediococcus, and

• Inactivates beneficial enzymes, including lactase, alkaline phosphatase, and lactoperoxidase

I want to take a moment highlight that part that says it inactivates beneficial enzymes including lactase. Lactase is the enzyme which allows us to digest lactose. Technically everyone is lactose intolerant without lactase to some degree, and lactase enzyme is what you get over the counter to help with lactose. Imagine that, if they weren’t messing with our milk we wouldn’t have to buy something to help us digest it! Now you see what I mean about the money to be made from this process… Now you’re paying for the milk they took the lactase out of and you’re paying for the lactase separately so you can digest the milk.

So now that I’ve (probably) convinced you on raw milk, let’s discuss homogenization quickly before we close out. Raw milk will separate with the cream (fat) coming to the top after it’s been sitting in your fridge. It’s not a big deal, you shake it up and you’re good to go. Homogenizing milk, or deconstructing the fat molecules so they’re evenly disbursed throughout the milk and doesn’t separate, does not make milk safer it only makes it a more consistent texture and color. It also makes it easier to mix milk from different herds and increases the shelf life of the milk, two things that are only necessary when it comes to mass production and maximizing profit.

Homogenization is not without its own drawbacks, however. Many speculate that the fat molecules are made so small that they can pass through your intestinal wall into your bloodstream. It also denatures the fat-soluable vitamins (mainly A and D) making the nutrient quality less.

I want to make a note about the shelf life thing. Something I found really interesting is that as you know, pasteurized milk will go bad and make you sick if you drink it. Raw milk doesn’t “go bad.” It sours, which makes it unpleasant to drink, but it will not make you sick. Once your raw milk “sours” (after 10 days give or take) it can be used in bake goods to replace sour cream or buttermilk, in pancakes, or to fertilize your garden (mix with 50% water).

Because raw milk is not regulated it is important to vet your source. Below is a link to what to look for and ask to make sure your producer is trustworthy. Below are two articles detailing what to look for and ask if vetting a local farmer. There are also websites like The Raw Milk Institute and Realmilk.com which have raw milk finders on them with already vetted sources. Personally, I get my raw milk from Sweet Grass Dairy in Fredrickstown, Ohio.

• http://www.rogueartisanfoods.com/how-to-search-for-raw-milk/in-search-of-raw-milk-here-is-what-you-need-to-ask#:~:text=For%20raw%20milk%20the%20total,equipment%20or%20poor%20cooling%20practices.

• https://www.theartofsimple.net/how-to-find-safe-high-quality-raw-milk/

If I haven’t convinced you yet, nothing will. Most Americans are nutrient deficient due to the state of the food industry of America. This is just one example of their downfall and the ways in which they’re making us sicker, mostly because they’re in bed with Big Pharma so they’re being paid to make us sicker but we don’t have to go into that right now… You either think I’m nuts and/or naive or you’ve now seen the light and are about to find a raw dairy source near you. Either way, the ball, and your health, is in your hands now. If you do still have reservations I encourage you to download the free Raw Dairy Guide from Homegrown Education linked below and/or do your own research. I’ve just scratched the surface for you.

Sadly, because of the laws surrounding raw milk it isn’t available everywhere. Even if you’re lucky enough to have access to it the price might make it cost prohibitive for you. With my kids still nursing they don’t drink much milk and we only use it for protein shakes a few times a week so we go through less than a gallon a week. I know some families are going through far more milk than that. I would encourage you to consider just replacing one gallon a week, or however often you can. Some is better than none. The Raw Dairy Guide has a page specifically for raw dairy alternatives you can check out to make the best possible choice for your family if exclusive raw milk just isn’t a possibility right now.

If you enjoyed this post and are interested to learn more about the unconventional choices I make for my family surrounding food scroll to the bottom of my home page to subscribe! In the near future I’ll be doing a post on what my kids eat on a regular basis and other nutrient dense foods I sneak into my families diets. I’ll also be doing a post on the food system in America and how it is essentially poisoning us, along with some hypotheses as to why it’s allowed to happen.

Sources and cover image: https://www.homegrowneducation.org/shop/raw-dairy-guide