Until about 10,000 years ago, human beings spent much of their time hunting, gathering, or fishing. Obtaining food was the dominant preoccupation of their lives. As human populations increased and naturally occurring food sources dwindled, people began to domesticate plants and animals to ensure a steady supply of food.¹ Those populations that were successful in learning how to produce food reliably thrived, leading to the advent of civilization as we know it.

Early humans nursed their young, just as all mammals do. Nursing provided optimal nutrition for babies to survive and thrive. Breastmilk is a form of raw milk, serving as a complete food source that is perfectly designed to sustain life.

As humans began to see the tremendous advantages of domesticating plants and animals, it was a natural step for them to realize that the milk from their animals could also be a food source. Scientists have ample evidence that humans began drinking raw milk from animals at least 10,000 years ago. Furthermore, there is much evidence that obtaining milk from animals may have been one of the primary reasons for the domestication of animals in the first place.²

In the Fertile Crescent region of western Asia, humans managed and milked goats, cattle and sheep around 10,000 years ago. The evidence for the early use of animal milk is found in ancient clay pottery vessels, dental remains of Neolithic humans, and bone analysis of animal remains in these areas.^2-4 These agriculture-based civilizations were so successful that they spread across the Mediterranean region, Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the next few thousand years.⁵ Humanity continued to domesticate additional species of animals; throughout history, many species have been utilized for their milk, including camels, cows, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, water buffalo, reindeer, and other mammals.

Why Milk from Other Mammals?

Imagine the reality for humans living prior to the advent of civilization. You can picture them living in crude shelters, wearing animal skins and using a few tools. It was not like a 14-day survival challenge where they could call for a medic and be rescued. Eating and surviving were lifelong challenges.

You can hear the crying of babies and children who were hungry. Those cries are universal and have not changed over the millennia. The natural instinct to provide for the next generation was a compelling mandate that drove instinctual and natural innovation. People observed animals in the wild nursing their young just as they nursed their own young. By capturing goats and aurochs (ancestral cow breeds), people were able to collect their milk in pottery vessels.

These humans would have learned quickly that milk from other animals was a complete, nutritious food. Even though humans had not yet developed something called the lactase-persistence gene, they likely could have readily digested milk from other animals since raw milk facilitates the production of lactase enzyme in the intestinal tract.⁷ Being purposely designed to sustain life like no other food, this raw milk provided a steady source of readily available nutrition for ancient humans.

Without refrigeration, any milk that wasn’t consumed quickly would naturally ferment into cheese curd and whey. The milk storage vessels likely contained bacteria cultures from previous milkings, and hence the culturing process was naturally reinforced with these bacteria. The resultant curds could be stored and consumed over time. Curd contained a complete set of microbiome-friendly nutrients and would have been easy to digest due to its biodiversity. The humans could now bring along with them a portable supply of steady food. As long as they had sunshine, water, grass or shrubbery, and a mammal, they had food.

Those who consumed milk had a competitive advantage over those who did not have a steady source of readily available food. This steady supply of food allowed for settlements and communities to develop. People no longer had to spend most of their time acquiring food and could instead use their brain power to drive the development of sophisticated structures and towns. Domesticated animals became high-value assets. As civilization advanced, those who owned milking mammals became wealthy and became the source of food for communities.

Milk Throughout the Ages

It is likely that milk was consumed in both fresh and fermented forms from the early days when humans first began milking animals. Ancient baby bottles provide evidence that milk from animals was used to feed human infants at least 8,000 years ago.⁸ Around the same time, clay vessels for straining curds and whey were also in use.⁹

Dairying practices spread along with civilization throughout large areas of Asia and Europe. Milk was a revered food in many civilizations. People used milk in religious ceremonies in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Ireland, Scotland, Greece and Rome.¹⁰ Primary religious source texts reveal that milk was an esteemed part of life. The Buddha was fed milk and rice to break his ascetic fast, and the Biblical “land of milk and honey” was the promise of a better life. Milk was central to the Vedic religion. Hindus consider milk a gift from the gods, and rivers of milk also flow in the Muslim paradise.

By the time of the Roman Empire, humans had been drinking milk from animals for thousands of years. The Romans drank milk and used it to make a variety of cheeses. Cheese provided Roman soldiers with easily transportable nourishment with a long shelf life. The wealthy even used milk for bathing, as it was considered to be great for the skin.

In the 1600s, early settlers in America relied heavily on milk from cows and goats for nutrition. Settlers in both the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies benefited from the tremendous advantages of milking animals. Resupply missions brought hundreds of additional livestock to these colonies. Milking animals were important in helping European colonists survive and thrive in America.

Lactase and Genetic Adaptations for Milk

The domestication of mammals and consumption of their raw milk provided a source of biodiverse colonies of bacteria for the human gut. When people began drinking raw milk at least 10,000 years ago, these biodiverse bacteria began the genomic adaptation for lactase production and lactase-persistence genes. Lactase is the enzyme responsible for breaking down lactose into digestible form.

Archaeological evidence shows that humans were consuming raw milk for thousands of years before the widespread appearance of the lactase-persistence gene.⁷ This has led many researchers to the probably erroneous conclusion that Neolithic humans must have been fermenting or culturing milk to reduce or remove its lactose content. This error is due to a loss of fundamental knowledge about raw milk.

In reality, “lactose intolerance” is primarily pasteurization intolerance. Unlike pasteurized milk, raw milk facilitates the production of lactase in the human gut, so it is not likely that there were widespread issues with lactose intolerance in Neolithic populations. In all likelihood, these early populations would have been able to consume milk in its fresh form straight from the mammals, as well as in the lactofermented curds and whey, which would form quickly without refrigeration.

The competitive advantage provided by raw milk is not to be understated. Raw milk allowed humans to thrive in conditions where survival would have otherwise been difficult. It allowed them to migrate and proliferate from region to region with a steady supply of food. Those populations that consumed milk further adapted by developing lactase-persistence genes. Scientists now believe that the lactase-persistence genes were spread through natural selection.¹² This means that the reproductive capacity and survivability of ancient raw milk drinkers was substantially increased compared to non-milk-drinking populations. Moreover, the lactase-persistence genes would have facilitated the easy digestion of milk in many forms, including boiled or cooked milk. There is current evidence of lactase-persistence genes in people from regions of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.¹³ However even those without the lactase-persistence gene can generally digest raw milk because of the raw milk bacteria that create lactase for the human gut.

Pasteurization: A Technological Solution to a Manmade Problem

By the mid-1800s in America, some raw milk production had shifted away from farms and into highly populated cities. Big cities did not have pastures or clean water, and the cows in city dairies were kept in filthy conditions with poor nutrition and poor animal health. Many of these cows were fed byproducts from alcohol distilleries, leading to illness in the cows.¹⁴ Raw milk, which had been safely consumed by humans for nearly 10,000 years, became associated with the diseases of filth and poverty, such as tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, and scarlet fever.

In the late 1800s, raw milk was accused of causing these diseases, and two solutions were proposed. Pasteurization was one of the solutions on the theory that heat treatment would eliminate pathogenic bacteria in the milk coming from these filthy conditions. The other solution was to produce the milk in hygienic conditions with healthy animals.

Many physicians realized that raw milk was a superior source of nutrition for infants and children, so the American Association of Medical Milk Commissions (AAMMC) was established in the late 1800s to ensure a safe supply of hygienic raw milk.¹⁴ The AAMMC was in operation for nearly a century, certifying medical raw milk for use in hospitals and for feeding infants and children.

Pasteurization was ushered in to address filthy and poisonous conditions and unhealthy cows in cities. It answered the question of how to commercialize dirty milk, rather than focusing time and energy on producing clean milk from healthy cows. Over time, the pasteurization movement gained traction and became the standard for ensuring “safe” milk, even though pasteurization is known to degrade and damage many of the nutrients in milk.

Raw Milk and Immunity

Unlike pasteurized milk, raw milk consumption provided immune system advantages to people. Cows and other mammals that lived in close quarters with humans mutually shared much of the same biome. The immune systems of both animals and humans develop antibodies to adjust to their environments. As with the case in human breastmilk and especially colostrum, the milk and colostrum from cows and other milking animals contain antibodies. Such antibodies are damaged or destroyed by pasteurization.

There is evidence that in some instances contact with domesticated animals actually provided immunological protection to humans. For instance, in the 1700s some people believed that milkmaids who had been in contact with cowpox (a relatively mild illness) were protected from smallpox. The fact that milkmaids had beautiful skin was offered as proof that they had not suffered from smallpox, but a better explanation is that the milkmaids had a daily source of superb nutrition and healthy bacteria, which conferred natural immunity and good health—including smooth, healthy skin.

Raw Milk’s Role in 2020

It is important to recognize that the human gut loves milk. We are mammals. Our human gut is lacto-loving. For 10,000 years, raw milk has provided a source of nourishment, gut health, and immune-boosting to mankind. When 125 years of commercial milk pasteurization are compared to the long history of highly successful raw milk consumption, they do not even register as a blip. Pasteurized milk makes up only one percent of the 10,000 years of documented human milk consumption.

The advent of pasteurization ushered in a negative shift in mankind’s relationship with milk as a life-giving food. Raw milk—an innate part of our healthy immune history—is now largely missing in our sterile, sugar-laden, preservative-laced, antibiotic-abusing modern diets, and medical culture. Now we are in a time of widespread industrial food, poor nutrition, immune depression, comorbidities, and compromised health. For most modern Americans, the competitive advantage of raw milk consumption has never been a reality, and raw milk’s immune-building properties and microbiome-friendly traits have been largely forgotten. Instead, we live in the age of biome-destructive pharmaceuticals and antibiotics. Although life-saving in certain applications, these drugs also depress and damage the immune system and gut microbiome. Antibiotic resistance is now responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. alone.¹⁵ Furthermore, pasteurized milk is now recognized as difficult to digest and a top food allergen.

Fortunately safe raw milk has been rediscovered by those who study history and know the role of raw milk as a nourishing whole food that contributes to a strong, healthy immune system and healthy gut microbiome. That competitive advantage from thousands of years ago is being rekindled in people who consume raw milk, fermented raw milk such as kefir and yogurt, and raw milk cheeses.

Raw milk that is carefully and intentionally produced for direct human consumption is wholly different from milk being produced for pasteurization. Organizations such as the Raw Milk Institute and the British Columbia Herdshare Association mentor farmers in the production of low-risk raw milk, relying on many of the natural methods that humans successfully used for thousands of years while also implementing modern technologies. Raw milk farmers carefully manage the cleanliness and hygiene of the farm from grass to the glass, with much care to ensure that the animals are healthy and the milk is clean. This type of raw milk is tested often and held to rigorous standards to ensure that it is being produced in a way that discourages pathogen growth.

So the next time that someone says, “milk is for cows and not for humans,” share with them the intricate link between civilization and raw milk, and the competitive advantage that raw milk provided to humanity for 10,000 years. Many of these misinformed humans are in dire need of gut microbiome rescue like never before. Reach out to them with love, compassion and humanity. They need our support, nourishment and education.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2020 issue of Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

About the Authors

Mark McAfee is co-founder of Organic Pastures, the world’s largest organic raw milk dairy. Mark founded the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) in 2011 to assist farmers in producing very low risk raw milk through farmer training, raw milk Risk Analysis & Management Plans (“RAMP”), test standards for raw milk and ongoing testing.

Sarah Smith is a director and board secretary for the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI). Sarah is also a homeopathic practitioner, homesteader, food and health writer (NourishedandNurturedLife.com) and homeschooling mother of two.

REFERENCES

1. Weitzel EM, Codding BF. Population growth as a driver of initial domestication in Eastern North America. R Soc Open Sci. 2016;3(8):160319.
2. Helmer D, Vigne JD. Was milk a “secondary product” in the Old World Neolithisation process? Its role in the domestication of cattle, sheep and goats. Anthropozoologica. 2007;42(2):9-40.
3. Charlton S, Ramsøe A, Collins M, et al. New insights into Neolithic milk consumption through proteomic analysis of dental calculus. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. 2019;11:6183–6196.
4. Spiteri CD, Gillis RE, Roffet-Salque R, et al. Regional asynchronicity in dairy production and processing in early farming communities of the northern Mediterranean. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;113(48):13594-13599.
5. Zeder M. Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008;105(33):11597-11604.
6. Kindersley D. The Visual Dictionary of Ancient Civilizations. Stoddart, 1994.
7. Burger J, Kirchner M, Bramanti B, Haak M, Thomas MG. Absence of the lactase-persistence-associated allele in early Neolithic Europeans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007;104(10):3736-3741.
8. Dunne J, Rebay-Salisbury K, Salisbury RB, et al. Milk of ruminants in ceramic baby bottles from prehistoric child graves. Nature. 2019;574(7777):246-248.
9. Salque M, Bogucki P, Pyzel J, et al. Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe. Nature. 2013;493(7433):522–525.
10. McCormick F. Cows, milk and religion: the use of dairy produce in early societies. Anthropozoologica. 2012;47(2):101-113.
11. Goddess Hathor Suckling Amenhotep II. Egypt Museum website. https://egypt-museum.com/post/181897574541/hathor-suckling-amenhotep-ii#gsc.tab=0. Accessed 7/15/2020.
12. Itan Y, Powell A, Beaumont MA, Burger J, Thomas MG. The origins of lactase persistence in Europe. PLoS Comput Biol. 2009;5(8):e1000491.
13. Ranciaro A, Campbell MC, Hirbo JB, et al. Genetic origins of lactase persistence and the spread of pastoralism in Africa. Am J Hum Genet. 2014;94(4):496-510.
14. Heckman JR. Securing fresh food from fertile soil, challenges to the organic and raw milk movements. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 2019;34(5):472-485.
15. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “More people in the United States dying from antibiotic-resistant infections than previously estimated.” https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p1113-antibiotic-resistant.html. Accessed 7/15/2020.

The post Why Humans Drink (Raw) Milk appeared first on Real Milk.

Years ago I wrote an article called “Be Kind to Your Grains. . . and Your Grains will be Kind to You,”¹ noting that grains are very difficult to digest without proper preparation such as soaking and sourdough fermentation.

One of the ways that we are cruel to our grains is the extrusion process, whereby grains—both whole and refined—are transformed into breakfast cereal. Extrusion involves high heat (120-140 degrees C) and pressure to force a slurry of grains out a tiny hole to make corn flakes, Cheerios, shredded wheat, puffed grains, etc. Unpublished research indicates that in the extrusion process, the proteins in grains become warped and distorted, with very toxic effects. Rats fed extruded grains die within a few weeks, and in a corn flake experiment, rats fed corn flakes died sooner than rats fed the box they came in! The corn flake-fed rats suffered seizures and died of convulsions, indicating extreme toxicity to the nervous system.² And a recent study found that extruded grains can cause undesirable changes to gut flora.³

A new study out of China indicates that heat processing has a similar effect on milk proteins. The researchers looked at four processing methods: boiling (presumably to imitate the pasteurization process), microwave heating, spray drying, and freeze drying. Not surprisingly, the heat-intensive processing methods caused oxidative damage to the proteins. Interestingly, microwaving caused more damage to the milk proteins than boiling!

The real surprise was the finding that freeze-drying caused as much damage as heat-intensive spray drying (150-175 degrees C). When spray-dried and freeze-dried milk powder were fed to rats, both groups developed oxidative damage in plasma, liver, and brain tissue. Further, “hippocampal inflammatory and apoptosis genes were significantly up-regulated. . while learning and memory genes were significantly down-regulated. Eventually, varying degrees of spatial learning and memory impairment were demonstrated.”⁴ In other words, rats fed milk that was spray-dried by both heat and freezing became stupid.

Where do we encounter spray-dried and freeze-dried milk powders? Number one is low-fat and especially non-fat milk. Manufacturers routinely add spray-dried skim milk to non-fat and low-fat milks to give them body—to keep them from looking blue. They don’t have to label this additive because the FDA allows manufacturers to call spray-dried milk powder “milk” on the label. That means that the non-fat and low-fat milks that so many people dutifully consume—and give to their children on government recommendations—contain oxidative protein products that can damage the blood, the liver, and the brain.

Spray-dried milk is the first ingredient in chocolate milk fed to children in school lunch programs. (The second ingredient is sugar.) Just think, the main beverage that our children are drinking in school causes damage to the blood, the liver, and the brain! The children also get extruded cereal in school breakfast programs and they often put chocolate milk on their cereal! Is there any wonder that we have such a tragic health crisis in our children today?

The distribution of whole fluid milk is actually something of an inconvenience to the dairy industry, especially in Third World countries—it’s heavy and wet and requires refrigeration. Plus, they can get so much more money for the valuable butterfat by putting it into ice cream. Why waste the butterfat on growing children when we can get the government to forbid whole milk in school lunches? The long-term plan is to ship bags of skim milk powder to impoverished areas of the world, where it can sit in warehouses for years, and then reconstitute it with vegetable oils for sale on supermarket shelves. All this will happen in far-away places before reconstituted milk “rich in polyunsaturates” comes to the U.S.

What about whey left over from the production of cheese? Up to 88 percent of milk is whey, so disposal of the liquid whey poses quite a problem for the cheese industry. You can’t put whey in the sewers because it rapidly becomes very acidic and will etch holes in the concrete pipes. A lot of very acid whey is a by-product of Greek yogurt production and someone recently told me that in Greece, they dump this whey into the Mediterranean Sea, causing acidification of the Mediterranean waters.

Here in the U.S., they solve the whey problem by spray drying it. As you can imagine, in a nation of cheese eaters, this is a huge industry. Whey powder serves as an ingredient—often labeled as “natural”—in baked goods, including crackers, muffins and bread, salad dressings, emulsifiers, infant formulas, and medical nutritional formulas. It’s also foisted on the public as whey protein powder for use by athletes and in smoothies. Whey protein is more fragile than casein protein in the milk solids, so damage by spray drying is likely to be higher. Doctors routinely warn kidney patients to avoid it. The irony is that the last thing Westerners need in the diet is more protein!

Then there are all the plant-based proteins out there—soy protein, pea protein, rice protein, etc. These proteins must first undergo separation from the plant matrix—a process that involves a lot of chemicals—and then high heat to make the powders. They are likely to abound in toxins— the toxins originally in the seed (especially high in soybeans) and the toxins formed during processing.

What about freeze-dried proteins? Where do we encounter them? These often show up in foods for the health-conscious consumer as freeze-dried milk powder, freeze-dried whey, and freeze-dried colostrum. Buyer beware!

As you can see, we need to treat our proteins with care. Fragile milk proteins, especially, should not be heated, as even the relatively low heat of pasteurization denatures them. Tightly bound meat proteins actually benefit from gentle heating, such as braising and stewing, which opens them up to expose more surface area for digestive enzymes. Collagen proteins may be the toughest of the lot, as they can be heated to the boiling point and cooled many times—even boiled rapidly for a long time—without losing functionality. But what happens when you take collagen proteins over the boiling point to make collagen powders—or make broth in a pressure cooker—is anyone’s guess. Low temperature home dehydration of vegetables, soups, and even meat is probably fine—many traditional cultures dried various foods in the sun and then pounded them to make a powder.

The bottom line: avoid industrially processed proteins and powdered foods—especially anything that contains powdered milk or whey proteins—and stick to traditional methods of food preparation and processing. The Chinese researchers concluded, “This means that humans should control milk protein oxidation and improve the processing methods applied to food.”⁴ Since all industrial processing methods damaged the milk proteins, the correct conclusion is that milk, Nature’s perfect food, should not be industrially processed at all—just consumed raw or made into cream, butter, cheese, or fermented milk products.

This article first appeared in the blog nourishingtraditions.com, by Sally Fallon Morell.

This article was published in the Winter 2019 issue of Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/food-features/be-kind-to-yourgrains-and-your-grains-will-be-kind-to-you/
2. https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-foods/dirty-secrets-of-the-food-processing-industry/
3. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267476182_Effect_of_feeding_piglets_with_different_extruded_and_nonextruded_cereals_on_the_gut_mucosa_and_microbiota_during_the_first_postweaning_week
4. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/ra/c9ra03223a#!divAbstract

The post New Evidence that Processing Destroys Milk Proteins appeared first on Real Milk.

“Pasteurization of milk ensures safety for human consumption by reducing the number of viable pathogenic bacteria.” So begins an article published in the Journal of Food Protection, published in 2011.

According to the study authors, one argument against pasteurization is its association “with destruction of selected vitamins present in raw milk.” This statement is not completely accurate, and we will return to it in a moment. Nonetheless, the direct effect of pasteurization on vitamin levels is important to know.  The researchers looked at studies measuring vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C, E and folate, eliminating many for various reasons, some or all of which seem frivolous—such as not published in English, not reporting sample size, not including a standard deviation, not reporting mean values. Nevertheless, even after leaving out over half the studies looking at vitamins levels published between 1936 and 2003, the researchers came up with interesting results.

Starting with the fat-soluble vitamins, studies on vitamin A were inconsistent, with two studies reporting a reduction and—strangely—two reporting an increase in vitamin A after pasteurization. (The suspicion is that vitamin A was added to the pasteurized milk.) The available data did not allow the researchers to make important conclusions about vitamin E, although “pasteurization appeared to qualitatively reduce concentrations” of vitamin E. They did not examine vitamin D “because secreted bovine milk is deficient in vitamin D based on human nutrition needs.” Vitamin K2 was not on the radar screen until very recently, so the researchers did not look at this fat-soluble vitamin either.

Looking at the water-soluble vitamins, researchers found a significant decrease for vitamins B12, B2 and folate, with a slight decrease in vitamins B1 and B6.  As for vitamin C, “In the majority of trials, a numeric decrease in vitamin C was found after heat treatment.”

These results are pretty shocking.  Every water-soluble vitamin decreased, some significantly. But not to worry, say the researchers, since “milk is not an important source of vitamin C and folate,” nor of vitamin B12! Only the reduction of B2 has them a little worried: “With the exception of vitamin B2, pasteurization does not appear to be a concern in diminishing the nutritive value of milk because milk is often not a primary source of these studied vitamins in the North American diet.” Put another way, “The effect [of pasteurization] on milk’s nutritive value was minimal because many of these vitamins are naturally found in relatively low levels.”

Note the word “often.” Milk “is often not a primary source of these studied vitamins. . . “ For someone not drinking milk, or drinking little milk, this statement is true.  But what about babies and toddlers? Milk is often a primary source of these nutrients for this group. And what about a mom worried about her children’s junk food habits or pickiness, who wants to ensure that her children at least get the basics of what they need. Raw milk can be a primary source of these nutrients for these children. And what about vegetarians depending on milk for vitamin B12? The destruction of B12 by pasteurization could be disastrous for these folks.

But let’s go back to the premise that people are opposed to pasteurization because it destroys vitamins in the milk.  Indeed, it does, but this is only half the story.  What pasteurization completely destroys is the enzymes—after all, the test for effective pasteurization is the destruction of the enzyme phosphatase–and many of these enzymes act as carriers for the vitamins and minerals in the milk.  This explains why levels of some vitamins in milk seem low—since the enzymes in raw milk ensure that they are completely absorbed, the levels do not need to be high.

The researchers did not even examine vitamin D levels on the assumption that there is not enough vitamin D in milk to satisfy human needs.  If this is the case, where do infant humans and animals get their vitamin D?  The fact is that vitamin D is very difficult to measure in foods, and also vitamin D levels vary widely depending on the diet of the human mother—and presumably depending on the diet of the animal mother also.

Pasteurization destroys the enzymes and carrier proteins needed to absorb calcium, folate, B12, B6, vitamins A and D, iron and many other minerals. To absorb these nutrients in pasteurized milk, the body has to produce its own enzymes, something that takes a lot of energy to do, especially in amounts required to ensure 100 percent assimilation.

So despite assurances by apologists for pasteurization, heat treating Nature’s perfect food does have a negative effect on the amount of nutrients and their availability—a profoundly negative effect.

One more thing: most of the studies the researchers had available were for regular pasteurization, not for ultra-high temperature (UHT) pasteurization—and most milk today, even organic milk, is ultra-pasteurized. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the additional heat pretty much kills everything.

What emerges is a story of the most colossal waste—think of the nutrients that our growing children are not getting, but should be getting, because we pasteurize!

The Weston A. Price Foundation is America’s leading champion of raw milk, especially raw whole milk from pastured cows. 

This article was first published on Sally Fallon Morell’s Nourishing Traditions blog! Check it out here: http://nourishingtraditions.com/pasteurization-vitamins-milk/

[include content_id=634]

The post What Pasteurization Does to the Vitamins in Milk appeared first on Real Milk.

Benefits of raw milk range from help with allergies to boosting the immune system

Most people who frequent this site will know some of the many benefits of raw milk. For those who are new to the idea or who would like additional information to pass along to family and friends, here are some resources and references.

Dr. Josh Axe runs a popular website about health and food as medicine. He has a few things to say on the topic of the benefits of raw milk.

In one section of the article, Dr. Axe mentions the benefits of raw milk for those who suffer from allergies

Raw Milk Benefits for Allergies

Studies are now proving that children who drink raw milk are 50 percent less likely to develop allergies and 41 percent less likely to develop asthma compared to other children.

This study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology was done on 8,000 children and the researchers believe that by drinking raw milk you are “naturally immunizing” the body the way God created.

Nutrients like probiotics, vitamin D and immunoglobulins (antibodies) found in raw milk naturally boost the immune system and reduce the risk of allergies in both children and adults.

Another proponent of the benefits of raw milk is Chris Kresser, acupuncturist and integrative health practitioner. He covers some of the benefits of raw milk on his popular health website

He has this to say about the nutrition of raw milk

Nutrition

Many consumers believe that raw milk is higher in nutritional content than conventional milk, which may have some merit. Raw milk comes from cows that graze on grass. Some evidence suggests that milk from these cows is likely to have higher levels of fat-soluble vitamins and other nutrients. Cows fed fresh green forage, especially those grazing grass, have been shown to have higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and essential fatty acids in their milk. (1,2)  Cows are natural herbivores and are healthiest when they eat grass, rather than the grain they are fed in confinement dairy operations.

The pasteurization process also reduces the nutritional quality of milk products. Research has shown a decrease in manganese, copper, and iron after heat treatment. (3) The FDA acknowledges that pasteurization destroys a substantial portion of the vitamin C in milk, and sterilization is also known to significantly impair the bioactivity of vitamin B6 contained in milk. (4, 5) Beta-lactoglobulin, a heat-sensitive protein in milk that is destroyed by pasteurization, increases intestinal absorption of vitamin A, so the supplemental vitamin A in conventional milk may be harder to absorb. (6) While pasteurized milk does retain some level of nutritional value, it seems that unpasteurized milk is superior in vitamin and mineral content overall.”

Dr. Deborah has her own story about the benefits of raw milk. She includes stories about people who the wonderful beverage has helped.

Today, raw milk refers to unprocessed, untreated milk straight from the cow. The milk you buy from the local supermarket nowadays is a different substance altogether. It has been pasteurized, ultra-pasteurized, or homogenized. This liquid is not really milk. It is a chemically altered substance, heated to remove pathogens and bacteria and to prolong its shelf life. The resultant low-enzyme activity makes it difficult to digest, the altered fat content renders the vitamins and minerals difficult to absorb, and the residual drugs and antibiotics pose a threat to human health. On top of this, the naturally occurring beneficial bacteria have been destroyed.

The real issue is not whether raw milk obtained from grass-fed cows is safe. Rather, it’s that milk from commercially raised cows is actually dangerous to consume unless it is pasteurized. Factory-farmed animals are routinely fed an unnatural, high-protein soy- and corn-based diet and given shots of BGH (bovine growth hormone) to artificially increase milk production. This diet is so contrary to their biology that it causes severe illnesses that can only be combated by continually injecting the cows with antibiotics. These animals, kept in inhumane conditions far from their natural environment, are subject to enormous stresses. Drinking raw milk from these cows would be an exercise in stupidity.

Raw milk from healthy, grass-fed, and pasture-raised cows is in a league of its own. Organically raised cows are happy, fed on their natural diet of grass and other cow-friendly foods. They enjoy access to sunshine and pasture grazing in summer, and in winter they feast on nutritious hay or silage.

There are many Dr., nutritionists, healers, and people of all walks of life who recognize and support the wonderful role and benefits of raw milk. If you are interested in finding local fresh raw milk, you can look for farms and sources near you. Please pass along this valuable information to anyone else who is interested.

To learn more about raw milk and other nutrient dense foods, visit westonaprice.org

The post The Many Benefits of Raw Milk appeared first on Real Milk.

-Raw Milk Purifying Mask: Mix 2-3 tablespoons of raw milk with 1-2 tablespoons of honey or lemon juice. Apply to face and let stiffen for 10-15 minutes before rinsing off with warm water.

-Raw Milk Exfoliating Scrub: Mix 1 cup of milk with 3 tablespoons of oatmeal and gently rub onto skin. Allow the mask to dry, then, rinse off with warm water while gently scrubbing around the face.

Support the Campaign for Real Milk, join the Weston A. Price Foundation, today! Learn more about raw milk at our annual International Raw Milk Symposium, being held in Anaheim, California on Monday, November 16, 2015, in conjunction with the International Wise Traditions Conference

The post Raw Milk: The Latest Beauty Trend? appeared first on Real Milk.

Specifically, this study looked at how the chocolate milk product Fifth Quarter Fresh helps athletes recover. Fifth Quarter Fresh is made with Jersey and Guernsey cow milk and “outperformed commercial sports drinks by 13 to 17 percent” (Modern Farmer). This could indicate that Jersey and Guernsey cow milks are superior to Holstein milk for sports recovery, when compared to a 2006 study by the University of Indiana that used Holstein milk and showed it has a comparable performance to Gatorade.

Though this study only looked at the product Fifth Quarter Fresh and therefore cannot offer concrete conclusions about Jersey and Guernsey cow milk in general, the findings may have to do with Jersey and Guernsey milk’s higher protein count and lower pasteurization temperature which helps to preserve the integrity of the proteins.

Modern Farmer points out that this study has a very small sample size (13 men) and “was funded by the Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program, which funds commercial product development projects like the Maryland startup that makes Fifth Quarter Fresh, and teams them up with University of Maryland faculty. This doesn’t mean the study is bogus, but it’s always good to know who is funding studies and what potential biases may be involved.”

Support the Campaign for Real Milk, join the Weston A. Price Foundation, today! Learn more about raw milk at our annual International Raw Milk Symposium, being held in Anaheim, California on Monday, November 16, 2015, in conjunction with the International Wise Traditions Conference

The post Tough Workout? Grab a Glass of Jersey Cow Milk appeared first on Real Milk.

Half a dozen studies out of Europe over the last 10 years all point in the same direction: raw milk provides powerful protection against asthma, allergies, and eczema. Now we have evidence that raw milk protects against respiratory infections as well.

A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology followed a cohort of almost 1,000 infants (the PASTURE cohort) from rural areas of Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Switzerland for the first year of life. Consumption of different types of cow’s milk and the occurrence of rhinitis, respiratory tract infections, otitis (ear infections) and fever were assessed by weekly health diaries.

When contrasted with ultra-heat treated milk, raw milk consumption was inversely associated with occurrence of rhinitis, respiratory tract infections, otitis and fever; boiled farm milk showed similar but weaker associations; and industrially processed pasteurized milk was inversely associated with fever. Early life consumption of raw cow’s milk reduced the risk of respiratory infections and fever by about 30 percent.

Of course, the researchers were obliged to warn against the “dangers” of raw milk, but in fact concluded, “If the health hazards of raw milk could be overcome, the public health impact of minimally processed pathogen-free milk might be enormous, given the high prevalence of respiratory infections in the first year of life and the associated direct and indirect costs” (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2014.08.044).

[include content_id=634]

The post Raw Milk Protects Against Respiratory Infections appeared first on Real Milk.

Those looking to buy only the highest quality cheeses should also keep an eye out for cheese made from pastured animals. According to a recent article, High Quality Raw Milk Cheese is Healthy, cheese made from grass-fed cows has the ideal omega-6 to omega-3 fat ratio of 2:1 whereas pasteurized cheese has a 25:1 ratio, which is already excessive in Americans’ fatty diets. Furthermore, grass-fed cheese “…is considerably higher in calcium, magnesium, beta-carotene, and vitamins A, C, D and E.”

Gouda, Brie and Edam cheese are safe bets. Read it for more tips on how to pick out the healthiest cheeses.

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nutrition education non-profit based in Washington, D.C. To learn more about raw milk and other nutrient dense foods, attend one of the upcoming Wise Traditions conferences.

The post How to Pick the Healthiest Cheeses appeared first on Real Milk.

Although camel milk is not as popular with American raw milk drinkers as cow or goat, it is starting to become available in the US – in both pasteurized and unpasteurized forms. Of those who have tried it, some strongly believe the anti-inflammatory properties of camel milk (especially unpasteurized) helps improve brain function and can help with autism. See our previous blog which details one family’s testimony, How Raw Camel Milk Helped Her Daughters.

One special type of camel milk, colostrum, is especially packed with nutrients. Colostrum is the first milk that comes out of the female camel when her baby is born, so it is extra nutritious in order to get the new baby healthy and strong as quickly as possible.

“It’s the ultimate superfood,” explains one camel milk vendor, who sells colostrum for a whopping $40 per 16oz bottle – yet sells out within a matter of hours.

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the nutrition education non-profit, The Weston A. Price Foundation. Donate to help fund research into the benefits of nutrient dense foods.  westonaprice.org/lab

The post Raw Camel Milk Packs a Punch of Good Health appeared first on Real Milk.

The study observed 16 participants who drank three different types of milk (pasteurized milk, raw milk, and soy milk) over the course of 8 days per type. Participants were randomly assigned the order of milk in unmarked containers. Each participant consumed one type of milk over the course of 8 days; they were tested for lactose via a hydrogen breath test on days 1 and 8. After a short break, they repeated the cycle with a different type of milk.

One of the study’s biggest flaws is its small sample size: the study only chose 16 participants after screening 440 applicants who claimed to have problems digesting milk.

Another large flaw is the brevity of the experiment. “It takes longer than eight days for beneficial bacteria to recolonize the gut of a severely lactose intolerant person. These good bacteria produce the lactase enzyme, which helps digest lactose,” says Mark McAfee, Chairman of the Board at the Raw Milk Institute.

Additionally, McAfee suggests that the H2 breath test is insufficient to diagnose milk sugar digestion problems in 97% of applicants. “Most people are not overtly lactose intolerant but are better described as pasteurization intolerant, something for which medical science may not [yet] have an appropriate test,” he says.

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the nutrition education non-profit, The Weston A. Price Foundation. Donate to help fund research into the benefits of nutrient dense foods.  http://www.westonaprice.org/lab

The post Raw Milk Advocates Respond to Stanford Study that Claims Raw Milk is No Easier for the Lactose Intolerant to Digest appeared first on Real Milk.