We started up with raw milk again last month. Selling raw milk is illegal in Montana (and I’ve since taken down the pictures in this post since the State of Montana has been visiting it), so we pay for the care and upkeep of part of the herd, and in turn we are able to drink the milk produced by our cows. We pick up the milk in town each Thursday, but last week we went to visit the dairy. We all drove an hour outside of town in time to watch part of the 6:00 p.m. milking, I love learning right alongside my children!
Why is raw milk better? It naturally contains ‘good’ bacteria, which keep the bad bacteria crowded out. Secondly, while the milk is sterile right after pasteurization, it doesn’t stay that way. Microbes are introduced in your kitchen, the supermarket, or in processing, and without the balance of good friendly bacteria and enzymes to keep the bad ones in check, pasteurized milk goes ‘bad’ and makes people sick.
When buying raw milk, we are going to take more care to make sure the cow’s diets are appropriate (they’re eating what they’re designed to eat- grass), the dairy is clean and the cows are in good health. In industrial farming, where commercial milk comes from, unfortunately too many dairies are too crowded, the cows are fed grain (which makes them sick) and less than sanitary living conditions exist, with the thought that everything will be killed during pasteurization so it’s okay.  This isn’t true in all commercial dairies, I know that some commercial dairies are fine.  The important thing is to know where your food comes from, and not to think that buying Horizon milk from Walmart is the same thing as vising the farm and seeing the cows.  See more of this discussion on Traditional Simplicity.
What’s Wrong with Industrial Milk?
In addition to pasteurized milk often being lower quality to start with, and the good bacteria being wiped out, pasteurization kills enzymes. While our body can make enzymes on it’s own, we do better when we consume living food; food that still contains enzymes.
The unnaturally high heat of pasteurization destroys vitamin A in milk. Homogenization uses high pressure to keep the cream from rising to the top in milk, which is an unnatural and unnecessary process that damages the fats in the process.  Milk from the grocery store is skimmed, which along with removing the fat which is needed by our bodies for optimal health, skimming also removes the fat soluble vitamins in the process, having to replace the vitamins that naturally are in milk with synthetic versions that humans weren’t designed to consume.
The mainstream health organizations are confused
Many of the same health organizations who promote breastfeeding (feeding an infant raw, unpasteurized milk) are adamantly opposed to humans consuming fresh cow milk, even from cows that are well taken care of. We were recently asked by a health professional (they were going off a safety checklist, on here they also asked if we owned a car seat) if my 19-month-old son consumed any unpasteurized milk, to which I proudly said that yes he did, the milk I produce for him is raw and unpasteurized, and it is the perfect food for him.  They did a double take, which I found amusing. I find it interesting that these same health organizations who not only promote breastfeeding, but also say that pumping, storing, and feeding a child raw human milk from a bottle is preferable to feeding the child pasteurized formula, and they recommend that all children drink cow’s milk after they are weaned, can’t seem to just combine those two scenarios.
This is why we think it’s worth it to find a source of fresh milk for our family. I’ll have part 2 about how we’ve used milk in our family (drinking raw during pregnancy, milk allergies, giving raw milk to children, and any questions from the comments) up next week.
Are you having trouble finding real wholesome fresh milk in your area? RealMilk is a good place to start, and if you don’t find what you’re looking for, try contacting your local Weston Price chapter.
More:
An article about milk by Sally Fallon, author of Nourishing Traditions
Nourished Kitchen’s I Drink Milk: Fresh, Local, Raw, and Full Fat
Jocelyn’s raw milk story
Why Katie of Kitchen Stewardship drinks raw milk
Food Renegade has a beginner’s article on fresh milk
Ann Marie talks about what cows are intended to eat, vs what typical dairies feed them (in this case, cookies)
More about why pasteurization is harmful
Learn how to heal leaky gut
60-page ebook of all my best GAPS Diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) articles all in one place.
Hi Cara. I’ve been following your blog for while now. I became even more interested since we started SCD/GAPS (6 days now.)since you have a lot of inspiration info here! I was wondering what your opinion would be about raw milk and SCD/GAPS. Did you start yourself back up on it and leave the kids out for a while? How did you know it would be okay to give it a try? How long did it take to get to that point? Best wishes!
Michelle
Yay for starting GAPS! Raw milk is great on SCD/GAPS, *but* you have to make it into 24-hour yogurt or kefir first :) I have a post coming up about kefir next week, it’s great! I make most of our raw milk into kefir. My daughter is on GAPS for some pretty big issues (ASD) so I won’t try any unclutured dairy with her until she’s been on GAPS for 2 years. My son and I had lesser issues (eczema, milk allergy) and we tried uncultured dairy after 6 weeks and were fine with it.
Thanks so much for this post. I linked to it on my latest post!!
How I wish raw milk were legal here in Iowa! For Mother’s Day this year my Prince of a husband snuck some home in a suitcase from his Cali business trip. What a great surprise that was!
I am from Iowa as well. The milk law stinks here. We ended up buying our own cow. It is nice to have the milk. This is our second year of milking so it is getting easier. My daughter did GAPS and now she is able to drink the raw milk with no problem. It is really helping to straighten out her crooked teeth! Praise God!
I totally understand! We’ll be getting a cow or goat just as soon as we’re able to.
I love milk. . .Well, I’ve been enjoying raw milk products from organic grass-fed cows for several years and I love them. Some folks said that raw milk is positively deadly but for me this just a myth. Raw milk is natures perfect food :)
We are not a raw milk drinking family- at least not at this point. That being said, yours is perhaps the most compelling argument I’ve yet to read. I DO nurse my babies (and beyond 12 months…) and, of course, that’s not “pasteurized”. Thanks so much for the food for thought! (Also, I live in CT where laws are pretty liberal… some grocery stores even sell raw milk. :))
That’s great to hear! I didn’t even think of it until they asked me that question *as* I was nursing my toddler at the appointment. LOL
I think you share some great points, Cara. I wholeheartedly agree with the reasons to drinking raw milk. Oh how I wish consumers could buy directly from a dairy easily and readily, without all the scrutiny and regulation. If they could, profitable, smaller dairies would probably become more of the “norm.” My parents actually looked into selling raw milk (even though they are conventional) and would lose the contract they currently have with their purchasing company. The lose of that contract would cost them a lot more than what they would have gained from the raw milk sales. They like their purchaser and not belonging to some of the larger coops. Anyhow, thanks for linking back to me. I look forward to part 2. I’ve never made kefir before and would love to know how you make it. I’m guessing similar to yogurt, from my understanding of it.
Hi again MIchelle,
Raw milk Kefir is one of the best forms of probiotics & digestive enzymes. The beauty of Kefir is that you don’t heat the milk (& lose the heat-sensitive vitamins), unlike yoghurt.
Kefir is HEAPS better than yoghurt, ’cause “it sticks to your intestines”, & actually recolonizes your intestinal tract with friendly bacteria, a feat which even the best yoghurt cannot dream of achieving.
Kefirring milk makes good milk even better!
You can find real LIVE Kefir grains (cultures) on torontoadvisors source list, ebay, craigslist, etc. They live forever, as long as they’re fed fresh milk. Now, that’s an investment in your health.
Thanks for all that Anita! I’m excited about kefir right now- I’ve got a post going up about it Monday with a *giveaway* of kefir grains! :)
So glad to hear from you,, Michelle! I have a post on kefir going up on Monday, it’s amazingly easy and so good for you! I understand the bureaucracy. It’s my hope that as more people learn the value of paying farmers living wage for good food, more farms will be able to switch to the sustainable/healthy model and have happy customers who are glad to support them.
Hi Cara,
I just wanted to add searching sites like craigslist.org is a good way to find farmers with herd shares available. Many of us small dairy farmers have been so intimidated by threats of large fines for selling unpasteurized milk that we are reluctant to advertise it (or herd shares for that matter).
It stinks we can’t market our products directly to the public. No one should feel weird or like they are some kind of criminal just because they want access to healthy REAL food.
If you are lucky enough to live in a state that allows the sale of raw milk by all means buy it instead of the other stuff for all the reasons mentioned in this great post.
Outlaw Farmer- Great idea!
I have a question that may be ridiculous. I’ve just started researching the real milk question, but in the back of my mind is something they taught us in school (which I realize may be false, or falsely remembered). Anyway, we were told that Abe Lincoln’s mom died of milk sickness because the cow ate some poisionous plant or something, and she drank the milk and later died. They added, of course, that we don’t have to worry about milk sickness because of pasteurization. Do you have any idea if there is any truth in this type of illness related to raw milk consumption?
That’s really interesting! My first thought is that pasteurization kills bacteria, not toxins (ie, you couldn’t pasteurize a poisonous plant and then have it be safe to eat) http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/z_x16milk_sick_g.htm
Milk sickness is still sometimes seen in the Rocky Mountain area where snakeroot grows. Drinking milk from an animal who has eaten snakeroot, or eating the flesh of an animal who has ingested the poison, (toxin is a different term related to a substance released from certain bacteria), caused “milk sickness which usually caused death by way of severe dehydration after profuse vomiting and diarrhea.
The more common concern with raw milk in poor areas lacking sanitaion and refigeration is listeriosis. Listeria is an anaerobic, gram positive bacteria responsible for 500+ deaths in the US each year, which is more than salmonella and botulism combined. Many humans have listeria as normal gut flora, however the individuals that sucumb to illness are usually immunocomromised. Newborns make up the majority of these deaths, becoming infected via the vaginal tract during delivery, then later developing bacterial menegitis. this is the reason pregnant women are generally advised against unpasteurized goods.
Before refrigeration and pasteurization, listeriosis was much more common and was found to be explain the infertility reported often my milkmaids.
Personally, I read these blogs to keep informes about trends patients sometimes follow. As a vegan, I tend to feel that cow’s milk has one sole purpose – to make a baby cow gain 100’s of pounds in a relatively short amount of time. Human consumption is the least thing from normal or natural, and only made sense when caloric intake was terribly low. Fats our body needs are much better obtained from plant based sources.
I would make sure the raw milk source is a A2 – jersey or such – there is a great book out there about it called “devil in the milk” the author is on the Weston Price board I believe…but they have linked A1 milk to autism and several health issues – so just b.c it is raw does not mean it is the best for you..you want A2 raw – A1 milk/raw really messed my babies health – upset his liver but he does GREAT on A2 jersey milk…so much we bought our own cow…
I just found your site today, but was wondering if you recommend an introduction period to introducing raw milk to people that aren’t used to it. We have been considering switching to raw milk and I’m concerned that it could initially cause some health problems with an abrupt switch.
Also, do you know if milk protein allergies are as severe with raw vs pasteurized milk? My son has this problem – not severe – and I am planning to switch him to raw goats milk, but I’m nervous about trying raw cow’s milk with him (he is currently 11 months old and has been on formula, unfortunately, for the past 4 months — I lost my milk supply when I became pregnant again after breastfeeding him the first 7 months).
It shouldn’t cause any health problems- it has probiotics in it (which can cause detoxing of bad stuff) but less than in commercial yogurt, so if your family normally eats any yogurt at all, you should be fine :) I’d make the switch all at once! No, milk protein allergies aren’t as severe with raw milk, because the protein hasn’t been subjected to high heat. If allergies still persist, and you’re wanting to get rid of them, the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome; https://healthhomeandhappiness.com/resource-page#supplements has a link) diet cured my milk protein allergy in just a couple months; might be easier to do with a little guy than having to deal with allergies his whole life.