EDITOR’S SUMMARY: It seems that when it comes to diet and nutrition, in regard to production and manufacturing practices, the ability to deconstruct myth, and/or an “agendized narrative” may be welcomed. Pros and cons of consuming raw dairy exist, and as such, it’s imperative to put the wealth information into perspective. The quality and cleanliness of raw dairy farms is of utter significance, as is identifying conventional, high heat-driven, pesticide-rich farm conglomerates. You might turn to research, your own experimentation, and open-mindedness for your answers.
By Tracy Reilly
If you or a loved one suffers from allergies, asthma, or eczema, you might have been advised to steer clear of dairy, as a possible contributor to these issues. However, there’s actually evidence beyond the anecdotal, that dairy can in fact be beneficial and even protective when it comes to these conditions … if it’s raw. While unpasteurized dairy is met with fear by the mainstream, due to highly-publicized, albeit infrequent, foodborne illness outbreaks, if you take a look at the data, the benefits might pique your interest. Raw milk in itself is not an inherently dangerous or unclean substance. Pasteurization, the heating of milk at high temperatures for a short time, began as a solution to a shift in the dairy industry. By the late 19th century, as more people moved to urban areas, the demand for milk followed. Cows were relocated from pastures, to crowded, filthy dairy quarters in cities where they were often fed distillery byproducts instead of grass, leading to their own ill health.
Given those conditions, it’s no wonder diseases like typhoid and tuberculosis spread through milk. In response, by 1914, 95% of the milk in New York City was pasteurized.As a method of reducing harmful bacteria, pasteurization was a great development; the downside was that killing off harmful bacteria also meant killing off beneficial bacteria. In fact, the natural beneficial bacteria and antimicrobial content of raw dairy have been shown to inhibit harmful bacterial growth. Researchers from the University of Connecticut took both raw and pasteurized cheddar cheese whey (the liquid leftover from making cheese curds), and intentionally contaminated them with E. coli. In the first week, they found rapid growth of the pathogen in the pasteurized whey, but a steady decline of it in the unpasteurized.
While it’s true that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records, you are more likely to get sick from raw milk than pasteurized, that risk is still a mere 0.0005%. As researcher, Ted Beals, M.D. calculated from government data, you’re 35,000 times more likely to become ill from other food than from raw milk.What the CDC leaves out of their headlines, is that according to their own data, from 2009–2014, there were 17 deaths from dairy outbreaks, 16 of which were from Listeria (L. monocytogenes). How many Listeria outbreaks were from unpasteurized dairy? One. That means 99% of the most deadly type of outbreak (Listeria) came from pasteurized dairy.
This isn’t to say that raw dairy is self-cleaning. You certainly don’t want E. coli-contaminated dairy, pasteurized or not. But as sanitation and hygiene have improved by leaps and bounds since the early 1900s, you might give the benefits of raw dairy a second look, especially if you suffer from asthma, allergies, or Eczema. Considering that asthma is now the most common chronic illness in children, affecting some 7.5 million kids in the U.S. alone, you likely know someone who suffers from it, perhaps even a little one of your own. Scientists have found that raw dairy can be protective against asthma in kids.
In Europe, a study of 1133 children showed that those who consumed unprocessed cow’s milk were at lower risk for asthma by age six, a finding researchers attribute to the omega-3 fatty acid composition of the unprocessed milk. But is it just the unique fat composition of raw milk that may benefit your immune system, or is there more to it? Researchers have also found that something about the heating of milk appears to nuke its protective effects. When mice were given raw milk, heated raw milk, and a placebo, the raw milk showed a protective effect against house dust mite-induced airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation—hallmarks of asthma. According to Frontiers In Immunology, “Raw Cow’s Milk Prevents the Development of Airway Inflammation in a Murine House Dust Mite-Induced Asthma Model”:
“The promising results of this study suggest that there is a causal relationship between raw cow’s milk consumption and the prevention of allergic asthma.”
Health Impacts: Vitamins, Minerals, Enzymes
Since kids raised on farms are more likely to have access to raw milk, scientists have often wondered if it’s the farm life conditions—exposure to animals, soil, etc.—that protect rural kids from allergies, rather than the milk itself. But a meta-analysis of raw milk consumption in kids under age five found a protective effect against asthma, regardless of whether a child lived on a farm or in a rural area. If you have a child who struggles with eczema or atopy (increased immune response to allergens), you know how difficult these conditions can be to treat. You probably never thought to turn to unpasteurized milk for help, but it has been shown to significantly decrease these issues in children. In The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers stated:
“Unpasteurized milk can also contain lactobacilli, and our finding of a protective effect for eczema is consistent with the evidence of a protective effect of lactobacilli- and Bifidobacterium species-containing probiotics on eczema.”
Its beneficial bacteria was highlighted, noting that pasteurization, on the other hand, killed it. It also diminishes most vitamins, namely riboflavin (vitamin B2), of which milk is a major dietary source.Minerals such as iron and copper, and vitamins including B6, B7, C, and E, decrease after heat treatment as well, but not tremendously. Of course, it’s not just the vitamin content that matters, but your body’s ability to absorb these vitamins. Processed milk is often fortified with vitamin A, but ironically, pasteurization destroys beta-lactoglobulin, a protein that increases the absorption of vitamin A. If you’ve seen “ultra-pasteurized” on your milk carton and wondered what “ultra” means, it signifies heating milk to a higher temperature for a shorter time. Even the difference in heat exposure between pasteurized (heating to 161 degrees for 15 seconds) and ultra-pasteurized (heating to 280 degrees for two seconds) can affect the milk’s structure and nutrition. The extra heat of the latter breaks structural bonds in the whey protein. These “denatured” proteins can decrease your body’s ability to absorb components like milk’s valuable vitamin B12. Further, in connection to the harmful effects of commercial dairy farming, in “The Case of Raw Dairy”:
“Unfortunately, scientists have now figured out how to change the fatty acids in ruminant fat (dairy and beef fat), as well. Feeding ruminants “rumen protected fats” such as oilseeds can increase the PUFA content in milk—NOT what we want!”
If you struggle with digesting dairy, you know the literal and figurative pain lactose intolerance can cause. Needless to say, it can be quite frustrating. Raw milk’s beneficial bacteria may help here, too. Its lactic acid bacterial content can aid in the production of lactase, the enzyme needed to digest lactose. Lactose is the natural sugar in milk that scientists estimate nearly 60% of humans worldwide are unable to properly digest. Americans seem to fare better, with an estimated rate of only 36% malabsorption. Of course, if you have issues with dairy, there’s no guarantee that you’ll automatically be able to instantly and flawlessly digest it in its raw form. Raw milk skeptics often point to a study by Stanford that showed no difference in lactose tolerance between the pasteurized and unpasteurized groups. However, it’s worth noting that the study was remarkably small with only 16 participants, and remarkably short, lasting only 8 days. Furthermore, researchers found that the main marker of “malabsorption” they used (hydrogen breath excretion) decreased from day 1 to day 8 in the raw milk group, indicating some adaptation—a result not observed in the pasteurized group. So it’s possible that participants’ bodies were starting to make positive adjustments, and would have continued to do so if given more time. From “Raw Milk and Lactose Intolerance”:
“First-hand accounts and surveys show that there are many people whose lactose intolerance symptoms are improved by drinking raw milk. Additionally, many worldwide raw milk-drinking populations do not have lactase persistence genes. Furthermore, the archaeological record shows that humans were consuming raw milk for thousands of years before the appearance of lactase persistence genes. This large body of evidence cannot be negated by one small study. The Stanford study should clearly not be seen as the final word on raw milk and lactose intolerance.”
If you try raw milk and it gives you trouble, before bailing on dairy entirely, you may want to explore hard cheese or fermented products, since the lactose is virtually eliminated, or substantially decreased in these forms of dairy. From “Cheese, the Ultimate Superfood”:
“Raw cheese is rich in lactoferrin, a multifunctional protein with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and gut health-promoting properties. It’s also an excellent source of dietary calcium, which is crucial for bone health and may help prevent soft tissue calcification when consumed adequately, and tyrosine, an amino acid that supports neurotransmitter production, stress management, and thyroid function.”
Given its potential benefits, why the aggressive vilification of raw dairy that surfaces time and time again? One possibility comes down to money. With milk sales declining, yet raw milk demand increasing, is it possible this agricultural sector giant perceives raw dairy as a threat? The U.S. dairy lobby has a lot of skin in the game, as it shells out some $7 million a year to advocate for the industry.
If you happened to be perusing Venice, California’s Rawesome food-buying club in August, 2011, you might’ve thought an attempted robbery was going down, as SWAT agents entered the building, guns drawn. But no … the store’s alleged heinous crime? Selling raw dairy products. The L.A. County Sheriff’s office had been investigating the facility and owners for a year, using undercover agents to “purchase” raw milks and cheeses … which happen to be legal in California, with a license, and state food and agriculture checks. The L.A. District Attorney’s office claimed the raid and subsequent arrests were due to the lack of permits for selling raw dairy. The owner, one of the farmers, and a volunteer at Rawesome were all arrested, and $10,000 of their inventory was dumped, confiscated, or otherwise destroyed.This was the second time in just over a year that Rawesome had been targeted and raided, product and cash confiscated or destroyed—the first occurring in June of the previous year.
Other raw dairy suppliers have also been targeted, including an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who crossed into Maryland with his elicit milk, breaking the federal law against selling unpasteurized dairy across state lines.Contrast that with places like Italy where they have raw milk machines scattered throughout the country, some outside of schools so kids can easily access this nutrient-dense, living food. If raw milk was as dangerous as the government warns, surely there would have been outbreaks a-plenty in Italy by now. It goes without saying that you want clean, healthy food, and having rules to that end can be reasonable, but the level of attack when it comes to raw dairy in the United States might leave you scratching your head. It’s especially baffling, given the contrast in how the government handles large-scale food dangers by bigger agriculture players. The same week as the Rawesome raid, a multistate salmonella outbreak from ground turkey giant, Cargill, resulted in over 70 reported illnesses and one death. Cargill, the nation’s largest agricultural company, issued a voluntary recall and suffered no other repercussions by regulators.
One distinction the media fails to draw in its alarmist headlines is the difference between raw milk that’s intended for pasteurization, and raw milk intended for direct consumption. The former often involves “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs), where cows spend lots of time standing and lying in manure. Their ill health is tended to by antibiotics, and the milk typically has a higher rate of pathogens because it’s headed for pasteurization anyway. Farmers with proper training for producing and handling raw milk, on the other hand, generally have smaller farms, and cows that are grass-grazing and well-cared for.More specifically, taken from “Two Types of Raw Milk,”:
“Raw milk that is carefully and intentionally produced for direct human consumption is wholly different from raw milk being produced for pasteurization. Raw milk farmers carefully manage the cleanliness and hygiene of the farm from grass-to-glass, with much care to ensure that the animals are healthy and the milk is clean.
From the health of the herd, to cleanliness of the milking parlor, to the specific cleaning processes for the milk line, to ensuring rapid milk chilling, to regularly testing their milk, and everything in between, raw milk farmers are dedicated to taking their farm management to the next level in order to ensure that their raw milk is safe to consume.”
Sourcing
There are many reasons to choose organic, grass-fed dairy products over conventional varieties. Differences include impact on the soil, as well as your health, and the treatment of the animals. Organic certification ensures that pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones, and antibiotics were not given to the cattle, sheep, or goats—no GMOs; no glyphosate. That said, some farms have not received the rubber stamp of “organic” verification. This does not necessarily mean they do not implement organic practices; namely, the quality and type of feed their animals consume, and the non-use of pharmaceuticals. To go beyond labels, it’s best to contact the farm directly and simply ask questions about their practices. You are a well-informed consumer, and taking this step will fuel your knowledge regarding the food you eat to an even greater extent. From “Decoding Dairy: Your Guide to Organic, Regular, and Raw Milk,” comparing conventional to organic dairy:
“The USDA’s organic standards require cows to have year-round access to the outdoors, weather permitting and at least 120 days, and mandate a minimum of 30% of the dry matter intake of their diet to come from grazing. Conventional milk production doesn’t have these requirements. While antibiotics can be used in both organic and regular farming, any animal in an organic herd who receives antibiotics is removed from the herd before administering the medicine and is not allowed to be re-introduced into the organic herd. After treatment, these cows can then be transitioned to a non-organic (conventional) herd for milking. The use of growth hormones, such as recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), is prohibited in organic farming.”
Consider making these important inquiries:
- What are the animals fed? (You’re looking for pasture or quality hay, not corn silage.)
- How is the milk handled? (“Everything that milk touches should be sanitized prior to use and sanitized after. The milk should be contained in nothing but stainless steel, glass, and possibly high quality rubber hoses used in machine milking.)
- Are the cow’s or goat’s teats sanitized properly before milking?
- After the milk comes out of the animal, is it being filtered and cooled quickly? (Milk should be filtered and cooled in a fridge or freezer as soon as possible.”)
If animal welfare is something you feel passionate about, inquire about the farm’s volume of production (smaller is typically better), the animals daily access to open pastures, and rotational grazing methods. From Long Dream Farm, in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, “At This Small, Family-Run Dairy, Animal Welfare Comes First”:
“At most dairies, farmers are not on a first-name basis with their cows. One farm can have hundreds or thousands of cows that eat in indoor stalls or crowded feedlots. These operations push cows hard to increase milk production, which often translates into twice-a-day milkings, hormone injections, and too-frequent pregnancies, with calves separated from their mothers just hours after birth. After three or four years, when a cow’s milk production starts to decrease, she is sold and slaughtered for hamburger meat.”
If you’re wondering where you can get a hold of raw milk and raw cheeses, the answer depends on where you live. Currently, the retail sale of raw milk is legal in just over a dozen states.If yours isn’t one of them, many states allow you to obtain raw dairy products directly from a farm, or through a “herd share” where you essentially “buy in” to the animal, and are given the dairy it produces. If you’re outside of the U.S., availability varies by country. Purchasing raw milk or cheese can be a great way to support local farms, and limit the environmental impact of commercial dairy consumption, but be forewarned, it can come with a considerably higher price tag than conventional dairy products. Because raw dairy producers are generally smaller operations than CAFOs, they lack the economy of scale that saves bigger producers so much money. Their cows usually graze on grass, which requires more land, and therefore cost, as well.
If you’re making the switch, even some proponents suggest it may be wise to start with small amounts of raw dairy to see how your body reacts, especially if you currently experience lactose issues. If things go well, you can further enhance the benefit to your gut by fermenting raw milk into kefir, cottage cheese, or sour cream.If you don’t live in Europe near a raw milk vending machine, or in a state where it’s sold in stores, it’s important to do your research and find a farm that prioritizes hygienic practices so you have the safest, healthiest experience possible. The Raw Milk Institute, an organization that trains farmers on safe raw dairy practices, provides a list of farms that have agreed to comply with specific standards of hygiene to best ensure you’re getting low-risk, high-quality raw milk and dairy products.
The Institute’s common standards encompass everything from regular testing of the milk to monitoring the health and feed sources of the herd, as well as the health of the humans involved in production, the pastures and environmental conditions, and the handling and storage of the milk. Of course, if possible, there’s no substitute for a visit to the farm you’re considering. Look for tidiness in the milking parlor, and animals grazing in pasture rather than confined and standing in their own manure. Ask the farmers any questions you have, and listen for candor and thoroughness. If they’re dodging your questions, go elsewhere.
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Published on August 22, 2024.
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