Raw Milk Health Benefits and Facts

Hearing lots of controversial information on rawstatistically much more likely to contract E coli
milk? Don't believe everything you read. Educatefrom your local produce department than from
yourself on the benefits of this natural andthat farmer's cow.
delicious alternative to store-bought pasteurizedThe source of the majority of our commercial
and homogenized milk. Once you are enlightened,milk is the modern Holstein dairy cow which has
you will never look at milk the same way again.been bred specifically for quantity in order to
ARTICLE BODYproduce large amounts of milk far beyond what a
Raw milk straight from the cow or goat is chockcow was ever meant to produce. Since she is fed
full of the benefits of wonderfully healthy bacteria,so much grain (remember this is unhealthy for a
vitamins, and enzymes that you simply will notcow), she requires antibiotics to keep her healthy.
get from store-bought milk.Growth hormones also end up in that milk you're
Milk you find on your supermarket shelf is flawedpouring over your breakfast cereal every
for many reasons. One reason is the bigmorning.
commercial dairies do not feed their cows grassThe most healthy and best-tasting raw milk will
and hay which is what they are supposed to eat,come from the "old" breeds of dairy cows such
but rather their cows exist in small feedlots beingas the Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire, or Brown
fed large amounts of grain which is actually notSwiss, or the older lines of Holstein which were
something a cow was meant to eat.not bred to produce obscene amounts of milk.
As a result, these cows must be fed antibioticsThe average butterfat of these old breeds of
which in turn are going into your milk. Bleach iscows back at the turn of the century was 4%.
also often added to make sure your carton ofToday's butterfat normally comprises less than
milk is as white as can be. Scary, isn't it?3%. There is also the misleading notion that skim
But even if this were not the case, commerciallyand low-fat milk is good for you. Full-fat milk is
available milk is pasteurized (heated) andawesomely healthy as the butterfat contains the
homogenized (process that breaks downvitamins A and D which are needed for the
butterfat), and you can be sure that all thoseabsorption of calcium, and is also rich in the short-
beneficial enzymes and healthy bacteria are longand medium-chain fatty acids that protect us
gone by the time it reaches the grocery shelf.against disease. You get no health benefit at all
What you have left is simply dead liquid which canfrom drinking low-fat or no-fat milk, and you
possibly cause more harm than good due to themight as well just have a glass of water instead.
growth hormones and antibiotics (among otherThat would actually be far more healthy.
things) given to the unhealthy commercial-dairyMany are jumping on the raw milk bandwagon,
cow.and many more will climb on board in the coming
Many people will argue that drinking milk straightyears as people educate themselves about what
from the cow is not healthy, and thatis actually going into our food through the
pasteurization is necessary to kill off things like Ecommercial processes.
coli. The fact is that milk collected hygienicallyIf you have a small dairy farm near you, drop by
from a healthy grass-fed cow on a smalland sample some real milk and see what you
family-owned farm is very healthy, and thehave been missing.
benefits far outweigh the risks. You'd be