Guess what? I’m that weird friend of yours who drinks RAW MILK.
Well, what did you expect? I’m milking goats day and night, what the heck do you think I do with all that milk? Bathe in it? (hey, not a bad idea)
But anyway, just so everybody’s on the same page here, about 4 years ago I got the hankering to be a girl farmer so I bribed my husband, er, I mean sweetly convinced my husband to purchase some land. That’s all he would commit to, purchasing land. He made me promise that I wouldn’t buy animals.
I promised.
With my fingers crossed behind my back.
Now we have 3 sheep, 4 goats & 8 chickens. (I’m still waiting for my cow)
Just you wait ‘enry ‘iggins. (name that movie)
Before I bought my first goat (a momentous occasion let me tell you) I did a fair amount of research in drinking raw milk. Actually that’s a lie. I didn’t do any research. I was totally cool with raw milk. Maybe it was because my parents had both grown up on farms and I grew up hearing story after story of raw milk, maybe it’s because I’m a risk taker (no, it definitely can’t be that). Either way I was pretty chillaxed about raw milk.
The first time I actually drank raw milk I watched as the nice goat lady milked her goats, strained out the hairs and flecks of dirt (bleh!), and handed me a steaming cup of warm milk.
“Um, do you have any ice?”
I’m sorry, but I wasn’t about to take my first drink of raw milk WARM! Even I have my limits. After she gave me a big handful of ice and I swirled it around for a good 5 minutes (by this time the goat lady’s whole family had gathered ’round to watch me) — I took my first sip.
Slurp.
“Hey that’s not bad! It’s tastes like…like…MILK!” I exclaimed. To which the littlest of the goat lady’s children replied…
“Well, of course it does! What did you expect?”
Well, I don’t know little goat kid, but I sure as heck wasn’t expecting it to taste as good as that!
And thus began my love for raw milk…and goats.
RAW MILK is the bomb.
Raw milk is a traditional food. Raw milk is something that our ancestors drank, and they lived long healthy lives because of it. Before I delve into the reasons why Raw Milk is awesomespice, let me go over the cons of drinking pasteurized milk & why the heck they pasteurize in the first place.
Pasteurization was invented when companies tried to produce milk on a larger scale. Instead of having 10 cows, Farmer Joe decided to have 100,000 cows. Farmer Joe needed 40,000 acres of land to raise that many cows and but Farmer Joe decided to save his money and fit them all into a itty bitty living space. Looks like Farmer Joe needs a refresher in math. Unfortunately, cows living in these conditions become sick from living, lying and eating in their own manure and urine. Take away the natural habitat of ANY animal and it’s health suffers. The spike in mastitis (yes cows get that too) was a direct result of the unhealthy living conditions. The large amounts of pus created by mastitis and disgusting amounts of bacteria infiltrated the milk. People became sick. What was the solution? PASTEURIZATION.
To take away the awful “hassle” of having to shake your milk to mix the cream back in after it rises to the top, they added HOMOGENIZATION. This high-pressured process is so damaging to the proteins in milk, that they actually start to clump together and become even harder to digest.
Because about 99% of the milk you purchase from the store comes from cows in confinement operations (also known as CAFOs), you are drinking milk that is less than mediocre. Cows kept in such tight confinement who never see daylight, who have to be handled with a gas mask because of the horrible smell, who are fed antibiotics almost constantly to keep the levels of pus from mastitis at bay. Their food also, is at best, mediocre. A diet high in grains causes a host of issues in their bodies that are designed primarily for grass. Some farmers even somehow convince themselves that if their cows can eat corn, then eating high fructose corn syrup could be just as good, and there’s a good chance your milk came from cows eating candy.
Raw Grass-fed milk’s got your back (KEYWORD: GRASS-FED)
On top of avoiding things like antibiotics, bacteria, pus, and the occasional growth hormones from pasteurized milk, by switching to grass-fed raw milk you are giving your body a huge increase in vitamins like Vitamin A, D, K, C, a slew of B vitamins, 22 amino acids, 18 fatty acids, minerals including zinc, iron, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium & antioxidants such as vitamin E, glutathione, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase. When Dr. Weston A Price traveled the world in search of healthy, vibrant traditional societies, he found some serious grass-fed raw milk drinkin’ going on. Before you get all hung up on the word Grass-fed, let me explain exactly what that means. It’s simple really.
For optimal health of the cow/goat/sheep & optimal nutrition of the milk, the animal needs it’s natural habitat. (ie eating grass and not candy)
Am I the only one that thinks it’s crazy I have to say it? Shouldn’t it be common knowledge? Just like I said before, if you take ANY animal out of it’s natural habitat, it suffers. Ruminant animals — cattle, sheep, goats, buffalo, deer, elk, giraffes and camels — all depend on bacteria to digest their food for them. These animals technically don’t obtain nutrition from their food. Instead, they rely on the bacteria to digest their food for them and then the ruminant animal obtains their nutrition from the byproducts of the bacteria. It’s actually an amazing process, and one we should all be thankful for, as 50% of the worlds grasses & crops can only be digested by these kinds of animals. This is why we humans can’t stick our faces in the grass and start chompin’ away. We’re not ruminant animals, so we depend on them to eat up that grass and provide milk & meat for us. It’s actually an awesome ‘circle of life’ concept if you think about it! (cue Lion King soundtrack)
Just so we’re clear, a ruminant animal doesn’t have to be fed 100% pure grass to be healthy, it just needs grass as it’s primary source of nutrition. Ruminant animals also produce phytase, an enzyme which helps their bodies break down the blocking phytic acid in grains. Traditionally, farmers have been feeding animals grains for thousands of years, but only in small amounts. Grains were typically fed at the end of a crop harvest to ‘finish’ an animal raised for meat or in small amounts year-round at the milking stand. I would say an animal fed roughly 80% grass & 20% grains would be the max allowance of grains. Even better if the grains are Organic.
Searching for grass-fed raw milk {and what to do if you can’t find it}
The website www.realmilk.com is a fantastic resource for those searching for good, quality raw milk, and I’d even recommend searching Craigslist as well. No matter what, you should visit the farm and check out the living conditions and ask about the amounts of grass & grain.
Finally, what to do if you can’t find good quality raw grass-fed milk or if it’s illegal in your state? First, you must understand that pasteurization is most harmful to the carrier proteins in the milk, while most of the fat-soluble vitamins are preserved particularly Vitamins D, E & K (source) Because of this, you can eat pasteurized butter & cream, and if you need milk you can dilute the cream with filtered water. Also, because the carrier proteins are harder to digest, it would be best to culture your pasteurized dairy.
“If you cannot find good quality raw milk, you should limit your consumption of milk products to cultured milk, cultured buttermilk, whole milk yoghurt, butter, cream and raw cheeses.”
– Sally Fallon
By sticking with cream you are avoiding two things. Hard to digest denatured proteins & homogenization which makes the proteins even harder to digest. Of course, the best is organic grass-fed milk, but not everybody has access to the best. So just for you, I’ve made a handy-dandy guide…
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That movie is my fair lady
Thanks for the great post. So would the watered down cream provide adequate nutrition for a toddler if we were to go with that option over the raw milk?
How about VAT pasteurized whole milk from 100% grass fed cows (Pure Eire Milk) http://www.pureeire.com. This is what I have been drinking and was wondering how it compares?
My grandparents had a cow that my grandmother milked and she shared the milk with us. My father was used to drinking it and had no problems. I quit using milk after my grandmother started providing us with the raw milk. It made my stomach upset and tasted like it had spoiled. For years I would not consume milk unless it was cooked into something. Even milk delivered from the dairy “fresh” would taste spoiled to me. I found organic milk (UHT) — the only milk that would not smell or taste spoiled. I didn’t know that the UHT pasteurization made the milk dead (makes sense now).
So, my question for those of you who drink raw milk, was I just unlucky that the raw milk my grandmother provide tasted so awful? It took me so long to even try milk again after that experience that I hesitate to try raw milk and then find out it tastes the same to me — spoiled.
Suggestions? Comments?
Milk can taste peculiar if the cow is eating certain items. Wild (or tame) onions and such will definitely give milk a bad flavor. I think perhaps Grandma’s cow was eating something that changed the flavor of the milk. Give it another try…
Ok, I reread the info on their website, (see previous post). Their baby goats are bottle fed pasteurized doe’s milk. It doesn’t say they pasteurize the milk for their cheeses. I’m very new to this, I am trying to learn.
Excuse me if this is a stupid question but are you saying pasteurizing is not preferred and should be avoided? I looked up a dairy closest to me with the link you provided and they say they pasteurize their goat’s milk.
The closest to raw I can get is vat pasteurized, non-homogenized whole milk from Kalona. It’s really tasty.
And it’s “My Fair Lady”, from the book ‘Pygmalion’
And the movie is….. “My Fair Lady” adapted from the play by George Bernard Shaw “Pygmalion” 🙂
I haven’t been able to find raw milk/milk products of any kind where I live. I would like to see if I tolerate them (I currently don’t partake in any dairy, and I’m losing weight, which is worrysome. I’m also gluten and soy free.) I highly doubt I will live anywhere that raw is an option anytime soon (military bases aren’t known for their livestock after all, and that’s where I’m headed next).
Loved your article DaNelle, loved the way it was written with such cute humor. I am so jealous, I so wish I was in an area where I could have my own cow, but at least I live where I can go to my local health food store & buy fresh raw milk & raw milk products. I was raised on raw milk all my life. One thing that I would like to point out though is the correct history of pasteurization as it is so important & imperative that people understand how this truly came about. Pasteurization did not come about because of milk, in fact, Louis Pasteur had nothing to do with pasteurization of milk. Dr. Pasteur was approached by the wine makers in Europe to solve the problem of wine going bad during shipping(very costly for wine makers)from Europe to other countries & hence, pasteurization was the solution that Louis Pasteur came up with. Pasteurization for milk did not come about until a long time after that & the reason that it came about was because of very poor judgement on the part of city administrators within large cities that had a huge poor population. They came up with a so called “brilliant” plan(some sarcasm here) to feed the hungry masses by bringing in huge herds of dairy cows, squish them together within a mud/dirt packed paddock which was attached to the local city distilleries. This was the beginning of CAFOs(Concentrated Animal Feeding/Factory Operations)! Not only were they packed together with no room to move, there was no green grass/vegetation for them to feed on(which is their natural diet)so they were fed spent grains from the distillation process which is not their natural diet. Well, this diet caused the cows to develop severe digestive & intestinal problems & caused them to produce a very sickly, poisonous, nutrient lacking product that didn’t even look like milk, in fact, it was bluish in color! So they put ground up chalk into this sick product to turn it white, again a very “brilliant” idea(more sarcasm here). So with all this going on, you add the problem that many of the milkers/handlers were sick with TB & other infectious illnesses at that time which then transferred to the raw milk thereby transferring to those that consumed that product. So is it surprising that many people became ill and/or died? Of course, the officials at that time obviously did not make the connection to what really was going on. Not once did anyone back in those days make the simple observation that NO ONE at all was getting sick and/or dying from raw milk that came from the local farms outside of the city. Many of the elite city dwellers did not buy the raw milk from the city producers, they bought from the farmers outside of the city. So why were those that consumed the city raw milk getting sick and/or died while none of those that consumed the farm raw milk were not? Well, I imagine that the city administrators didn’t want to admit that they came up with a very dangerous plan to “feed the masses” so they conveniently placed the blame on raw milk & justified that as the need for pasteurization! Not once did anyone question the difference in the two practices of obtaining raw milk. Now this idea of the continued need for pasteurization has stuck with us, the real truth is almost never talked about and this is why the general public do not know about this. Unfortunately, today we still have many CAFOs for the dairy industry, they still have many of the same practices that the city milk producers did, such as cows confined to dirt, muddy enclosures devoid of any vegetation or confined on cement sometimes covered with rubber mats, these cows are also fed a diet that is predominantly grains with ground up animal carcasses & other unnatural ingredients, given antibiotics, hormones, etc. No way should anyone drink this milk product raw! That milk product is very dangerous because of these continued practices. So that’s my little lesson about pasteurization for today.
Thank you for posting this article! I was actually looking for an alternative to raw milk since it cost $20 a gallon in Orange County (Southern Cali) and my family is on a tight budget so we can’t afford that. My 18 month old drinks a lot of milk and we are in the process of switching over to real food, so I will have to do a price comparison and see if buying raw cream and adding filtered water to it could work for my family.
What are your thoughts on Organic milk?
Actually, they didn’t start homogenizing because “shaking the cream back in is a hassle.” it was started because consumers wanted milk with a think cream line. Milk with little or no cream would not be bought, so companies started homogenizing so consumers could not tell how much cream was in the milk.
Also, not all pasteurization is created equal. There is a big difference between Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization and vat pasteurization. Vat pasteurization leaves more nutrients and enzymes (though not all) intact than UHT.
For those who can’t/aren’t comfortable with raw milk, this can be an important distinction. There are small (40 cows or less) grassfed vat pasteurized, non-homogenized dairys around. I would consider this a better option then diluting cream from CAFOs.
Thanks for sharing that Brenda, I didn’t know that there is milk out there that’s between UHT and Raw. I live on a very tight budget and buying a gallon of raw milk for $20 just doesn’t work for my family. I will have to find out if I can get vat pasteurized milk in my area 🙂
Great recommendation Brenda! I’ll add that to my guide!
My husband and his siblings grew up on raw milk (we are family farmers) as did their dad and his dad and so on.
When we first got married, this FREAKED me out. After a few years of buying store milk, I finally decided to take the plunge into raw milk. I wasn’t pregnant anymore (4 babies in 4 years) and that made me feel more comfortable. Even though I know the cows were being milked right, I didn’t feel like the risk was worth the benefit when pregnant.
My Farmer Hubby taught me how to milk our cow last year (so I knew I was doing it right) and the kids and I have been drinking it for almost 2 years now and loving it!
We went on vacation last year and drank store milk for the first time in a long time… and it tasted like NOTHING! I was shocked at the difference!
Because of religious dietary restrictions I don’t even have access to regular butter or cream :(.
I buy raw grass fed cheese from cows, but the kind I need to buy (for religious reasons) is expensive, so although the raw cheese is the only dairy my baby eats, my husband and I also eat pasteurized feta cheese. The good thing about feta cheese is that it is always grass fed and there is no homogenization (since sheep’s milk is naturally homogenized). Of course we wish it wasn’t pasteurized.
You are such an inspiration — I can’t wait until I get my goats one day!
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Hmm… sounds like I need to find some raw milk from pasture fed cows… not sure where I’m going to find that, since we don’t grow much grass here in the desert. Kinda brown out here… especially this time of year.
I so admire you and your journey. I’m slowing switching to eating cleaner and healthier (and despite your story, gaining weight UGH! :-)) Thus far, due to budget constraints, I’ve only switched to rBGH-free milk I find at Whole Foods. It’s actually cheaper than ‘regular’ milk at the grocery store, although it’s neither organic nor raw.
I’m searching high and low – how can I subscribe to your blog via email??
Engaging writing!! What about ORGANIC milk from the store? Is it considered bad or good going by your guide?
Than you for writing this! Thankfully we just started getting raw milk (via a cow share). I’m curious though, if the toxins are typically stored in the fat, isn’t that an aspect of the cream that would still be bad? Or are you assuming people would be buying storebought but organic pasteurized cream?
Organic does trump regular cream, but overall, it’s still a better choice than drinking whole milk with denatured proteins. Kind of a lesser of two evils, if you will.
LOL – I love this! I thought I was the only one who sang “Just you wait ‘enry ‘iggins, just you wait!” in my head. Hilarious
Haha, I’m glad you caught that!
Yes I know that film. Love it.
Love Audrey Hepburn! Love your style of writing too.
I only drink raw milk! If I run out and can’t get any, I just don’t have milk around. Anymore, I refuse to buy milk at the grocery store. And I love how you said, “it tastes like milk!” I said the same thing the first time I tried it! It just has a richer, thicker milk taste and it is AWESOME! The first time I ate chicken from my own butchered chickens, I said, “it tastes like chicken”! There’s just something about eating food that is grown the right way. It is so much more than anything the big companies put out there!
Hi Danelle,
Another great article. I’m off to search for raw milk! A question slightly off topic: At local farmers markets I came across locally produced organic, milk fed bacon. What are your thoughts on this? I’m not sure about pigs being fed only milk..
These pigs were almost certainly not fed just milk, as pigs will not get enough energy to live on or gain much weight on a pure raw milk diet. Feeding pigs milk is a fantastic thing though, and actually it’s only within the last 60-80 years that we’ve stopped this practice! Look at any livestock manual on hogs from around the 1900’s and you’ll notice it’s an assumed practice. Milk fed pork gives pigs excellent nutrition, strong bones (great for your stock), delicious and healthy fat and is probably some of the best pork you’ll ever have! If you think about how unsustainable grain is, and how easy it is for a cow to make milk from grass, feeding milk to a pig is a great idea! Ask the farmer at the market about why they feed milk and they will likely give you an even better answer.