What is Raw Milk?

[mommy111]

Yeah, I'm chicken so I boil, because I'm always concerned about disease transmission. But I'm in China so we have to be a little bit more careful, since agricultural practices here are different.

[HannaAddict]

Watching the news report on children in the hospital with the bad strains of e-coli, etc. from with legitimate, licensed raw milk dairies (that take precautions and are as clean as raw milk can be), would keep me away. There have been several outbreaks in our state with serious complications for kids or pregnant women. I wouldn't want to chance it, just not worth it to me.

[mommy111]

Watching the news report on children in the hospital with the bad strains of e-coli, etc. from with legitimate, licensed raw milk dairies (that take precautions and are as clean as raw milk can be), would keep me away. There have been several outbreaks in our state with serious complications for kids or pregnant women. I wouldn't want to chance it, just not worth it to me.

Wow, that's scary. I'm assuming the ecoli risk is diminished if you boil milk for 10 minutes or so? I guess its not 'raw' any more, but the unhomogenized milk tastes so much better than homogenized one.

[Puddy73]

I grew up on a dairy farm and my whole family drank raw milk for years BUT there is no way that I would drink it now. My parents still have a small dairy farm but they don't even drink the milk from their own cows without scalding it first. They have a healthy, grass-fed herd and maintain a clean milking parlor but no farm is perfect. Raw milk may contain e coli, staph, strep, rabies, tuberculosis, listeria, brucellosis and a host of other nasty bacteria. I don't think that it is worth taking the risk.

[AngelaS]

I would love to buy it for my family! Here, it's illegal to sell it so I'd have to pay about $50 to buy a share in the cow and then each gallon is about $6. I'd also have to drive a good 20 miles one day each week to get my one gallon. :P

[mommylamb]

It's not a risk I feel comfortable with, and I'm not really sure why raw milk is worth that risk. I don't think it provides some sort of nutritional benefit that you can't get from a balanced diet. So, nope, not for me or my family. It's illegal in a lot of states.

I always find it interesting that the people I've heard of who drink raw milk, also eat organic all the time. To me, I feel like, if you're so concerned about bad stuff in food that you would eat organic, why would you eat raw milk? And yes, I know I'm going to get flamed for that statement.

[JElaineB]

Here's a pro raw milk website. http://www.realmilk.com/

The fat separation mentioned is not a function of the milk being raw, per se. It is becuase raw milk is not homogenized. You can buy pastuerized milk that is not homogenized, which is what I do. There are some purported benefits of non-homogenized milk. As for raw milk, I do think it has benefits that pasturized milk doesn't, and is safe as long as it comes from healthy grass-fed cows. So you really need to know where it is coming from, visit the farm, etc. I probably could get it here if I tried really hard, but since it is illegal here it is easier for met to buy the vat pastuerized non-homogenized organic milk at the store.

[daisymommy]

Without getting into any sort of debate, because frankly, I'm just tired from all the debating--I just want to say that any reputable farm that sells raw milk for consumption tests every single batch of milk for all pathogens and disease, and dumps it if it tests positive, and then treats it's cows for illness. They vaccinate their herd against disease many times, and have a third party test the cows monthly, and provide it's customers with copies of the test results.

The reason that many "organic-eating" families want raw milk, is the desire to eat food as close to it's natural state as possible, untainted, unharmed, unchanged by man, with all of it's God-given benefits still intact.

In regards to wether eating a healthy varied diet can provide the same benefits, those who are pro-raw milk would say no. Raw milk has many of the same properties as breast-milk (immune boosting, antibacterial, antiviral, probiotic, etc.), and they are destroyed by high heat processing. It would be like saying if you feed an infant a healthy diet, they would get all the same benefits as breast milk, which we know isn't the case.

As for benefits and risks, it's obviously a very personal decision as to what you believe. http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/index.html

Here's a great interview to listen to if anyone is interested. It's with the owner of Green Pasture's Dairy in California, one of the most well known reputable raw dairies in the US.

[lowrioh]

I grew up on a dairy farm and my whole family drank raw milk for years BUT there is no way that I would drink it now. My parents still have a small dairy farm but they don't even drink the milk from their own cows without scalding it first. They have a healthy, grass-fed herd and maintain a clean milking parlor but no farm is perfect. Raw milk may contain e coli, staph, strep, rabies, tuberculosis, listeria, brucellosis and a host of other nasty bacteria. I don't think that it is worth taking the risk.

I grew up drinking raw milk from my uncle's dairy farm but there is no way I would give raw milk to my children. Working in food safety has made me very wary of certain things and raw milk is one of them.

[JBaxter]

When Im in PA I get the raw milk but in MD its not legal to sell so I buy the non homogenized I've been to the dairy that supplies the milk and have actually bought it from the farmer. He is certified organic and tests regularly I have no problem giving it to my kids. I have to be very desperate to buy grocery store milk even the organic. The local dairy does not do the ultra pasturization. I buy the cheese made from the organic raw milk.