Raw Milk - A Health Freedom Issue

Now, you might say, "Why would anyone want to drink raw milk? What's the big deal?"

Before I get into more detail about this, here is a video of a young man who is passionate about his raw milk. There are many people like him who CAN'T drink pasteurized milk. He shows us that raw milk isn't just for white upper class people.

Raw milk is for everyone -- for you, for me, for the guy walking down the street, and for your children and grandchildren.

This wonderful young man absolutely understands what is going on, and he does a terrific job of explaining it.
Sandra

The Demise of Raw Milk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5ZO3B2butg&NR=1

So, now that you have watched the video, do you understand a bit about why anyone would want to drink raw milk?? Now, back to the more in depth milk story.

Humble dairy cows were major contributors in helping the United States of America grow into a great nation. Raw milk and dairy foods supported people in becoming healthy and strong. The commerce of this country developed upon a foundation of small family farms and their dairy cattle.

Sadly, in recent decades, pasteurization of milk has become the rule, with tragic impacts on people's health. And family farms have been all but completely replaced by factory farms producing 'foods' that, rather than supporting optimal health, are resulting in nutritional deficiencies, toxicity, and disease within our population. This is a sad state of affairs.

Sandra's Personal Milk Story

I grew up drinking what I thought was milk. But it was actually pasteurized and homogenized milk, which I now understand is not actually real milk. No wonder I didn't like it! Once I was past childhood and providing my own food, I always thought of myself as not liking milk. I never drank milk, though I did eat cheese and butter.

Pasteurized milk isn't actually even food; the body is unable to properly digest and assimilate it. Food is supposed to provide nourishment for the body, and what is commonly thought of as milk does not accomplish this. At the same time, it actually harms the body! As far as I am concerned, pasteurized milk is inedible.

Now that I know about Real Milk, I drink about a gallon a week. I love it, you might even say that I cherish my freedom to drink milk. Fortunately, raw milk is available in stores in Washington State. This is not true in all states. For information on what to do about this, keep reading . . .

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming

For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

After you read the material below, go to the next blog entry for More About Raw Milk.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.

Now, to provide you with true Milk education, . . . Here is eye-opening information from A Campaign for Real Milk, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Sandra

In recent years, I have learned a tremendous amount from the Weston A. Price Foundation, about milk, and food in general, and about what people need to be healthy. Consider joining the Weston A. Price Foundation through their website.

The source of most commercial milk is the modern Holstein,* bred to produce huge quantities of milk--three times as much as the old-fashioned cow. She needs special feed and antibiotics to keep her well. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from her pituitary gland, even when she is spared the indignities of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the udder limits of milk production.

*Please note, there are farmers who produce excellent "Real Milk" using older lines of Holsteins and Holstein crosses. It is the modern commercial Holstein, bred only for quantity, not quality, and pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, that should be avoided. Know your supplier! Ask questions!

Buy only milk from old-fashioned breeds of cows, such as Jerseys, Guernseys, Red Devons, Brown Swiss or older genetic lines of Holsteins, or from goats or sheep.

(Or, depending on what part of the world you live in, from llamas, camels, mares, water buffalo, or reindeer!)

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Real feed for cows is green grass in Spring, Summer and Fall; stored dry hay, silage, hay and root vegetables in Winter. It is not soy meal, cottonseed meal or other commercial feeds, nor is it bakery waste, chicken manure or citrus peel cake, laced with pesticides. Vital nutrients like vitamins A and D, and Price's "Activator X" (a fat-soluble catalyst that promotes optimum mineral assimilation, now believed to be vitamin K₂) are greatest in milk from cows eating green grass, especially rapidly growing green grass in the spring and fall. Vitamins A and D are greatly diminished, and Activator X disappears, when milk cows are fed commercial feed. Soy meal has the wrong protein profile for the dairy cow, resulting in a short burst of high milk production followed by premature death. Most milk (even most milk labeled "organic") comes from dairy cows that are kept in confinement their entire lives and never see green grass!

Buy only milk products from herds allowed to graze on green pasture.

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Pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B12 and B6, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer. Calves fed pasteurized milk do poorly and many die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally but pasteurized milk turns putrid; processors must remove slime and pus from pasteurized milk by a process of centrifugal clarification. Inspection of dairy herds for disease is not required for pasteurized milk. Pasteurization was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition and dirty production methods. But times have changed and modern stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated trucks and inspection methods make pasteurization absolutely unnecessary for public protection. And pasteurization does not always kill the bacteria for Johne’s disease suspected of causing Crohn's disease in humans with which most confinement cows are infected. Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurized to get rid of heat-resistant bacteria and give it a longer shelf life. Ultra-pasteurization is a violent process that takes milk from a chilled temperature to above the boiling point in less than two seconds. Clean raw milk from certified healthy cows is available commercially in several states and may be bought directly from the farm in many more. (Sources are listed on www.realmilk.com.)

Demand access in all states to clean, raw milk. Boycott processed milk!

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Homogenization is a process that breaks down butterfat globules so they do not rise to the top. Homogenized milk has been linked to heart disease.

Use only milk with "Cream on the Top."

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Average butterfat content from old-fashioned cows at the turn of the century was over 4% (or more than 50% of calories). Today butterfat comprises less than 3% (or less than 35% of calories). Worse, consumers have been duped into believing that low-fat and skim milk products are good for them. Only by marketing low-fat and skim milk as a health food can the modern dairy industry get rid of its excess poor-quality, low-fat milk from modern high-production herds. Butterfat contains vitamins A and D needed for assimilation of calcium and protein in the water fraction of the milk. Without them protein and calcium are more difficult to utilize and possibly toxic. Butterfat is rich in short- and medium chain fatty acids which protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. It contains glyco-spingolipids which prevent intestinal distress and conjugated linoleic acid which has strong anticancer properties.

Buy only full-fat milk products.

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Powdered skim milk, a source of dangerous oxidized cholesterol and neurotoxic amino acids, is added to 1% and 2% milk. Low-fat yogurts and sour creams contain mucopolysaccharide slime to give them body. Pale butter from hay-fed cows contains colorings to make it look like vitamin-rich butter from grass-fed cows. Bioengineered enzymes are used in large-scale cheese production. Many mass produced cheeses contain additives and colorings and imitation cheese products contain vegetable oils.

Boycott counterfeits.

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Pasteurization laws favor large, industrialized dairy operations and squeeze out small farmers. When farmers have the right to sell unprocessed milk to consumers, they can make a decent living, even with small herds.

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A Campaign for Real Milk is a project of The Weston A. Price Foundation
PMB 106-380, 4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington DC 20016
Phone: (202) 363-4394 | Fax: (202) 363-4396 | Web: www.westonaprice.org

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Go to the next blog posting for More About Raw Milk.

Cows and Grass Help with Global Warming
For encouraging information about how COWS and GRASS could help solve the Global Warming problem by taking atmospheric carbon and putting it back into the Earth, see this blog posting, here, here, and here.

Return to the What Are the Issues? blog here.