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