Ideally, yes. Raw milk from a healthy cow has many health benefits.
In this Green Divas Foodie-Phile podcast segment, I talk to Green Diva Meg about why we should consider raw milk (if you do dairy) and how you can find it.
Most people with dairy allergies can consume raw dairy without any problems. Raw milk has wonderful health benefits including complete proteins that are easy to assimilate. In fact, all of the nutrition in raw milk is very easy for the body to assimilate, from beneficial fatty acids, to many vitamins and minerals.
The problem with conventional milk is that it is pasteurized and homogenized, as well as the fact that it comes from sick and toxic factory farmed cows.
Is Raw Milk Dangerous?
Factory farming creates the dangerous e coli bacteria that is normally not found in nature. This e coli has survived cows that have been feed antibiotics and an incredibly acidic environment. These cows are cancerous and toxic. Their milk is not safe to drink. So we pasteurize it. We kill the bad stuff, but we also kill the enzymes that allow people with allergies or intolerances to properly digest it. Then, to make matters worse, we homogenize the milk. The purpose of this is so the milk fat, the cream, will not rise to the top. Homogenization also changes the milk proteins, and we cannot assimilate these proteins properly.
Drinking Raw Milk
It’s a whole other story when you drink raw milk from a healthy cow. If the cow was grass fed, and is healthy, the milk is healthy. If you have not developed an allergy to milk (due to consuming conventional milk), raw, whole milk from a small farm that does things the right way can have amazing health benefits. And yes, we mean whole milk, not skimmed. The fat has nutrients needed to help digest the milk, and the fat is very beneficial to us.
But it’s not easy to find raw milk. Even if you can find it, you may not be able to just walk up and buy it. Many people get their raw milk legally by purchasing a share of a cow, and therefore take their share of the milk produced. In some states there is a loophole allowing people to purchase raw milk for animal consumption only. If you’re wondering where and how you can purchase raw milk in your state, check out this chart.
Dairyman's Daughter
June 6, 2014 at 1:37 pm
I would not trust this misinformed advice. The misleading facts about farms, cows and food safety have my head spinning. The step of pasteurization has been one of public health’s most effective food safety measures ever. I’ve been to hundreds of dairy farms over my lifetime – small, large, organic, conventional – all scales. Local, organic or “healthy cow” is NOT a safety guarantee. I’d strongly advise that you do your personal research and speak to a medical professional about the risks before serving it to your family.
Green Diva Meg
June 9, 2014 at 9:53 am
Thanks for your opinion Dairyman’s Daughter, but it seems you might be a tiny bit biased. We are definitely advocating that folks do their homework and know the farms and the farmers where any raw milk might come from. it believe there is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that if PROPERLY raised and prepared, raw milk can be not only safe, but better for you.
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Lachlan Lacey
December 11, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Biased or not Dairyman’s Daughter is correct when it comes to the fact that a healthy cow is not a safety guarantee. I’ll go with Science Based Medicine’s article when it comes to raw milk, not someone who is biased against “factory farming”, who doesn’t know that e coli is found in nature (or did you mean particular strains of e coli?), and who claims health benefits but doesn’t show them.