Raw Milk

When I was little I would never have been scared of clowns if it weren’t for Steven Kings, “IT”, scared of praying mantises if it wasn’t for one of my friends telling me they were little aliens, or scared of delicate faced porcelain dolls in my room because of the 1987 movie “Dolls”.

Now that I’m an adult (well I try to be!), I try not to get scared by movies, what other people say, or projections made by the media. And one big example is how the image of Raw Milk is forced into looking like the  “Boogy Man” of foods.  Well I’m not going to be scared! I love and am a huge supporter of raw milk farmers raising quality cows that eat grass, not corn or grain, and take pride in producing an essential product for our bodies. Our grandparents and ancestors drank only whole, raw milk. You think you would ever hear your grandma yelling as grandpa ran out the door to go get some milk….”Get the Organic 1% Milk, I’m on a diet!” It was, either go in the back and milk the cow, wait for the milk man, or drive down the street to the farm and fill up the glasses.

I want to talk about why I decided to drop the Pasteurized junk and drink the real stuff!

1. Easier to digest then Pasteurized milk.
2. Approximately two thirds of the fat in milk is saturated. Good or bad for you? Saturated fats play a number of key roles in our bodies: from construction of cell membranes and key hormones to providing energy storage and padding for delicate organs, to serving as a vehicle for important fat-soluble vitamins.
3. TASTES SO MUCH BETTER!! Creamy and lovely:)
4. The amount of VITAMINS, MINERALS, GOOD BACTERIA, FUNCTIONAL ENZYMES, is through the roof. You could solely live off of just milk. Literally.
5. If whatever my grandma, great-grandma, great-great-grandma and so on drank was good for them, is good for me!
6. Queen Elizabeth drinks it:)

This topic is widely debatable across the world and is such a touchy topic to discuss amongst non-raw milk supporters. The key is to know where you are getting the milk from, if they are licensed, and what they feed the cows. Pennsylvania, from my findings, seems to be the best place to purchase milk. They have the most licensed raw milk dairy farms in the country. But the more our government supports raw milk the better it will be for all of us.

Here are a couple of countries where Raw Milk is freely consumed (according to Wikipedia):

• France

Raw Roquerfort Cheese from France

Raw milk and especially raw milk cheeses are considered the standard for high quality dairy products. Many French cuisine traditionalists consider pasteurized cheeses almost a sacrilege. Many traditional French cheeses have solely been made from raw milk for hundreds of years.^[

• Germany

A "Reformhaus" or Health Food store in Germany

In Germany, raw milk is commonly called Vorzugsmilch.^[11] It is sold widely in all health food stores, large supermarkets, gourmet delis and delicatessen sections of department stores, and in most of the German predecessors of health food stores called Reformhaus. Raw milk is legally sold in the entire country, and the same goes for raw milk cheeses, which are especially sought out and promoted by the health food and slow food movements.^[12]

• In Asia

Water Buffalo

In rural areas of Asia where milk consumption is popular, milk is typically unpasteurized. In large cities of Asia, raw milk, especially from water buffalo, is typical. In most countries of Asia, laws prohibiting raw milk are nonexistent or rarely enforced.^{[citation needed]} However, while milk is sold raw in these areas, household milk is usually consumed after boiling.^{[original research?]}

• United Kingdom

Cows in pasture in Ireland

Distribution of raw milk is illegal in Scotland. While it is legal in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the only registered producers are in England.^[13] About 200 producers sell raw, or “green top” milk direct to consumers, either at the farm, at a Farmers’ market, or through a delivery service. The bottle must display the warning “this product has not been heat-treated and may contain organisms harmful to health”, and the dairy must conform to higher hygiene standards than dairies producing only pasteurized milk. As it is only legal to supply unpasteurized milk direct to consumers, it is illegal to be sold on the High Street, via shops or supermarkets.

So as you can see, raw milk is consumed in a lot of countries, I just named a few, along with 28 States here in the U.S.

To end my post, I couldn’t say it better than the Campaign for Real Milk did:

Real Milk–that is, milk that is full-fat, unprocessed, and from pasture-fed animals. We do NOT recommend consumption of raw milk from conventional confinement dairies or dairies which produce milk intended for pasteurization. Nor do we recommend the consumption of lowfat or skim raw milk–there are important protective factors in the butterfat. Real Milk, that is, raw whole milk from grass-fed animals (fed pasture, hay and silage), produced under clean conditions and promptly refrigerated, contains many anti-microbial and immune-supporting components; but this protective system in raw milk can be overwhelmed, and the milk contaminated, in situations conducive to filth and disease. Know your farmer! For sources of raw milk, go to our WHERE pages or contact your nearest local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Kelly

For more information:

**Really informative:

http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/milk_history.html

http://www.realmilk.com/healthbenefits.html

http://www.realmilk.com/

*This one is really interesting:

http://www.realmilk.com/moreraw.html