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I found this article to be extremely helpful in helping explain the benefits of raw milk over pasteurized milk. Here are the key points from the article:

Pasteurized milk:

  • The pasteurization process is often used to mask low quality milk
  • The heat from pasteurization destroys most of the bacteria in milk which allows for poor dairy practices, cleanliness, dirt and pus (ewwww) to be disguised. “To combat the increase in pathogens milk goes through ‘clarification’, ‘filtering’, ‘bactofugation’ and two ‘deariation’ treatments. Each of these treatments uses heat ranging from 100-175 degrees Fahrenheit. Dairies count on many heat treatments to mask their inferior sanitary conditions: milk filled with pus, manure and debris.”
  • The pasteurization process destroys vitamin C, water soluble B vitamins, calcium and other minerals which pretty much renders the milk useless, as far as nutrition goes.
  • Milk enzymes, protein, antibodies and useful hormones are completely destroyed during pasteurization. The milk enzymes are what help the lactose digest, and along with the proteins, it helps the body absorb the vitamins in milk.
  • It has been shown that pasteurized milk interferes with the development of teeth and can actually lead to to the decay of teeth.
  • Infants cannot properly digest pasteurized milk and therefore will not develop on it (if you are going to feed your infant milk products, you should strive to make sure you are feeding them raw milk products).
  • When it comes to dairy farming practices, as long as pasteurization is used, it allows the farmers to keep sickly cows in the herd longer, therefore increasing our exposure to disease.
  • Pasteurization is well known to cause an increase in allergy problems
  • Pasteurized milk can be held for up to five days in big silos, which allows the “sell by” date to be from the date of bottling, not from the date of milking.
  • It’s much cheaper to just pasteurize the milk than to run a clean dairy and keep animals healthy.
  • “Consumer Reports found 44% of 125 pasteurized milk samples contained as many as 2200 organisms per cubic centimeter (fecal bacteria, coliforms)”

Raw Milk:

  • Raw milk is not allowed to contain more than 10 coliforms per cubic centimeter
  • Raw milk is typically bottled and sold within 24 hours. It can be held safely for four to five days without spoiling due to the strict health and cleanliness regulations on raw milk dairies.
  • Raw milk will stay clean because the living enzymes and good bacteria will kill any pathogens that may show up.
  • Raw milk does not go through a homogenizing process. The homogenization process destroys the milk fat which creates lipase, the enzyme that causes milk to spoil.
  • The enzymes in raw milk digest fat, which prevents lactose intolerance.
  • Raw milk comes intact with the cream on top. The cream is a vital source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), which helps fight cancer and weight gain and helps build the immune system.
  • When you drink raw milk, you are consuming a living food, like yogurt or kiefer. When you consume pasteurized and homogenized milk, it is nutritionally dead.

Rather than expend the effort to clean up the dairies so that we could have access to a healthy, and vital food source, pasteurization was introduced, which allows for dairies to be filthy. Raw milk is clean and healthy, just as it is.

If you want to learn more about raw milk or to find dairies in your area, check out RealMilk.com.

Photo courtesy of nkzs and stock.xchng

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