I’ve been reading a lot of stuff lately about raw milk and I thought that it’s time to write a blog post about this issue. It is definitely a topic that goes against common sense at first glance but when you look into it a bit more careful and in depth, unexpected facts become obvious which change the whole picture instantly. In my ebook, The DNA Diet book, I dedicated a whole section on raw milk, healthy fats and free range products; this is a massive issue with far too many areas of interest, you must trust me on this. So, at first it sounds completely insane the suggestion to drink unpasteurized and non–homogenized milk. It could be really dangerous, right? But what do these treatments offer exactly to milk? Experts say that safety is the main thing here. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria that reside in the milk, thus preventing diseases. Homogenization is another story as it basically makes the fat evenly distributed in the milk so that it is more appealing to potential customers (that’s us).
If you think about it, this doesn’t sound too bad. But these techniques have been used for treating milk just for a few decades now. Humans have been using milk for about 4-5 thousands years (if not for longer) without any problems. Why did it become necessary to treat milk in the first place? Well, this is a key feature here. As long as cows were happily feeding themselves in fields of grass, the farmers never had a doubt that the milk they produced was healthy and safe. Mass production dictated a completely different lifestyle for cattle though. Packed in tiny little spaces, obliged to live among dirt and fed with more or less unnatural food, the new milk was not safe anymore. Also, by making pasteurization and homogenization compulsory, the farmers had now to sell their milk to big companies or allow middle men to arrange the delivery of milk to factories for the necessary treatments to take place. The farmers had no power over their own product anymore but big companies had managed to get full control of it and do whatever they wanted.
Another very interesting aspect of this story is the skimmed milk. Apparently, before the mass production and industrialization era came forward, people were drinking whole raw milk. They also used it to isolate the fat, which is basically the traditional butter we all know. After extracting the fat out of the milk, the leftover was what we now know as skimmed milk. Back in those days, nobody was using this milk for himself or his children as a healthier option due to its low fat percentage. Instead it was used as food for pigs really. The fascinating part of this story is that pig food came to be considered a healthy food for humans and many people made some serious money out of this insanely creative but we have to admit excellent idea; at least from a marketing point of view. A literally useless product is promoted to be a necessary component of healthy diet. And here we are forced to face the power of media. If it wasn’t for proper marketing this would have never happened. So maybe, we have to admit here that this whole milk story has lots of weird bits in it, don’t you think?
The last bit of my research on this issue is about the actual qualities of raw milk vs treated milk. Well, it seems that raw milk is literally loaded with an amazing amount of vitamins, minerals and very healthy fats that in fact promote weight loss rather than obesity. CLA is a type of fat widely recognized now as a fat loss substance; you can even buy over the counter supplements for it. Raw milk is packed with CLA. The fact that is full fat makes allows for all the range of lipid – soluble vitamins to be absorbed in the gut and these are super important vitamins indeed (D, E, and K). If there is no dietary fat taken in, no vitamins can be absorbed, it is simple chemistry. The pasteurization process also destroys most of the vitamins and minerals that naturally exist in raw milk. Taste and texture change massively, to the point that it almost feels like a completely different type of food when you first drink raw milk. Finally current research has started to reveal that conventional milk may not be that healthy after all; many many studies correlate milk consumption with many digestive issues, obesity and diabetes. It is no surprise really if you think that the treatments applied to this natural product, take away all its goodness and leave a completely unbalanced proportion of elements in it.
I had my first raw milk bottle bought back in February. I didn’t know what to expect to be honest; I was partially afraid (all the conditioning I was subjected to all my life was warning me) and partially excited about it. I never looked back to conventional milk again. The moment you drink this heavenly milk, you know you did the right thing; at least this is my story. The only thing that you must be cautious is that you must purchase your whole milk from a farmer that keeps his animals happy in a proper grass field, not enslaved in a less that sufficient space. You should go for free range, organic milk directly from the farmer; it’s by far your healthiest option.
An article describing the interest in raw milk in the farmers markets in London is this one HERE
At the moment, there are serious efforts from governments and/or companies to ban raw milk completely. You will find many intimidating stories about it and how dangerous, satanic and evil it is. The people writing these articles conveniently forget though the numerous times commercial milk has been found to contain toxic substances or was infected with bacteria. These are products that sell thousands of items per day but the news about their safety may take a couple of weeks for the consumers to know about or for a certain unsafe batch to be withdrawn from the market. And my last objection here is about yoghurt, especially flavoured and kids yoghurt. Have you ever considered if this is the real thing? Do this experiment at home: boil a cup of milk and let it cool down a bit until it’s lukewarm. Dilute a tea spoon of the yoghurt of your choice in it, cover with a couple of kitchen towels to keep it warm and safe. Leave it like that, undisturbed, warm and quiet for at least 12 hours. The yoghurt you put in the milk should act as an initiator for the fermentation process and if it is real yoghurt you used, after 12 hours you will see your cup of milk transformed into your own home made yoghurt! If not, think again: do you actually buy real yoghurt from the super market or yoghurt – like products? You will be unpleasantly surprised to discover the second. But these are the “safe” products we are being sold…
For the people intrigued to look into the trying / buying raw milk I have the following recommendations to make:
Since it’s getting more and more difficult to get hold of raw milk and relevant products I found this site with guidelines about THIS . Depending on the country, the laws governing the distribution and selling of raw milk differ so in any case you need to do your own research to make sure you purchase high quality, free range raw milk straight from the farmer. In my opinion it is ethical and very important to support local farmers wherever possible so that free range and healthy products are available for everyone.
An excellent book on raw milk:
The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products by Ron Schmid.
