Unpasteurized milk - pros and cons

[mamapjama]

Anyone with experience with this?

[Daisy]

Well, here's a couple of positives.

 

1. I was never able to tolerate milk until we switched to raw milk. Now I can actually drink it without getting a stomach ache.

 

2. My daughter hated milk. I couldn't even get her to pour it on cereal. Now, for the first time in 9+ years, she'll actually drink it.

[Tabrett]

My reaction????.....I wish it wasn't illegal to sell where I live. I would love to have raw milk!:D

[mamapjama]

Where I live, in Canada, from what I understand it is illegal in all provinces.

 

If you knew a dairy farmer, would you feel comfortable getting it from them? I guess I'm concerned about cleanliness standards etc.

[Georgia On My Mind]

We've been drinking it for years and making yogurt with it and cooking with it. It is wonderful. We have lactose intolerance in our family and with raw milk there is no problem. We are rarely sick, even from colds and haven't had a stomach virus in years. I can't say it is the raw milk but it in no coincidence IMO. We are fortunate that the dairy is just down the road from us and we can also buy grassfed beef and free range eggs at the same farm. We are blessed indeed to have these items so close by. We only pay $5 gallon at this time. It is worth the little bit extra for this high quality milk product that is so good for us. You soon find out why our grandma's generation called it "sweet milk". It tastes like it has sugar in it. Sometimes we skim off the cream for Alfredo Sauce or a rich dessert or to pour over berries. Double yum!

 

Oh, here in GA we call it "Pet Milk" since it is not legal to sell for human consumption.

 

I want to make cottage cheese. Does anyone know how to make cottage cheese from raw milk? The yogurt is soooo yummy.

Edited July 7, 2010 by Georgia On My Mind

[patchfire]

In addition to the benefits mentioned already, raw milk is the only thing that has helped my oldest daughter's eczema. In fact, within four weeks of starting to drink raw milk, she was eczema free for the first time in years, and stayed that way for over three years. She's since had issues with recurrence, but her milk input has also dropped, so I suspect correlation, even if there's no causation there.

[Jyniffrec]

We love it! We used to own our own milk cow we love it so much. We are getting a supply going from a local farmer for the first time in a couple of years. We will receive our first batch on Friday. :D

[ProudGrandma]

I like the idea that it is hormone free. I believe there is a connection to early puberty and hormones in our foods and drinks. We too have to buy it as "pet food".

 

Kathy

[Daisy]

Where I live, in Canada, from what I understand it is illegal in all provinces.

 

If you knew a dairy farmer, would you feel comfortable getting it from them? I guess I'm concerned about cleanliness standards etc.

 

I'd want to know the farmer raised organic grass-fed cows and I'd want to see the facilities, so I wouldn't accept unpasturized milk from just any dairy, kwim?

[FaithManor]

We board two cows at an organic dairy farm and pay milking fees so that we don't have to deal with that either. These are very healthy free range cows on a diet of pasture, hay, and a small ration of grain grown organically on the same farm. The place is pristine, the manure pile is a long, long way from the milking parlor. Hygiene is very important. They are tested monthly for ecoli and listeria. All tests have been negative year after year.

 

So, we have been drinking Mabel and Bessie's raw milk for three years now and I don't know if I could ever go back to the "blue" stuff in the grocery store. I do think that it has done a lot for us health wise. The omega 3 fatty acids alone were worth the investment in them. I will someday buy a cream separator and make butter if we sell them and get cows with a higher butterfat milk. Both are holstein/guernsey crosses and the Holstein seems to be the more prominent gene so I don't get enough cream to make it worth investing in the equipment. We drink about three gallons a week and a fourth is made into yogurt or yogurt cheese (I haven't had the time to learn to make any other cheeses.) The rest of their milk (it's an amazing amount of milk) goes to the farmer that keeps her. However, if I did have either of them on our property, I'd take all of that milk I can't use and feed it to the pigs we are fattening which would really make them put on some nice, sweet, muscle.

 

We actually share the girls with another family. Each one can produce 20-25 gallons per week depending on how close she is to the beginning or end of "freshening". She gets two months of rest from being milked. The farmer is so good at his management that one of them is always being milked....we don't have an interruption in milk production for our two families.

 

Neither family has had any health problems and in particular, I think it has been a special benefit to our middle son. He wouldn't drink any milk or eat much in dairy products until we got the raw milk. He likes it so much better. He used to have digestive problems, got the "runs" way too easily, and the natural probiotics in the milk and in the yogurt I make seems to have cured that. Plus, he has put on a little weight. Not a lot, but we'll take anything. He'll be twelve in September and only weighs 62 pounds but he's nearly five feet tall so he is almost painfully thin. I am grateful to Mabel and Bessie for their output.

 

In Michigan, owning your own cow is the only way to have raw milk legally. But, there are a few dairy farmers that will allow families to go in together to purchase a milk cow and then share weekly boarding/milking fees so that one can have the milk. At our farm, we pay for jugs and the farmer's wife bottles it for us. The farmer prefers it that way so that we aren't traisping around his pristine milk parlor. At other farms, you have to be there when your cow is milked and bottle it yourself! That would not be convenient. Our boarding and milking fees come out to about $15.00 per week (we take 3-4 gallons) and the farmer keeps the rest of the milk. I think that his getting most of Mabel and Bessie's milk is the only way that this is profitable for him because he maintains a liability policy on our cows just in case anything goes wrong and of course, he has their milk tested along with the rest of the herd and that costs money too. I'd say any farmer who agrees to this, does it because he/she believes not only in the consumer's right to consume raw milk but also for the health benefits of the omega fatty acids and probiotics that are destroyed in the pasteurization process.

 

Faith

[CalicoKat]

I like the idea that it is hormone free. I believe there is a connection to early puberty and hormones in our foods and drinks. We too have to buy it as "pet food".

 

Kathy

:iagree: about the hormone thing. One of my dd started the whole precocious puberty scene at age 3. The doctor's predicted full blown puberty in less than 2 years. But about that time we started with the raw milk. Her precocious puberty advancement stopped. I think it's because she wasn't getting all those hormones in the regular milk from the store. Of course our pediatrician isn't aware of the milk but will say, "Huh, I really thought this was going to be a classic case. . . . "

[akmommy]

In addition to the benefits mentioned already, raw milk is the only thing that has helped my oldest daughter's eczema. In fact, within four weeks of starting to drink raw milk, she was eczema free for the first time in years, and stayed that way for over three years. She's since had issues with recurrence, but her milk input has also dropped, so I suspect correlation, even if there's no causation there.

____________

 

My brother has psoriasis and when we kids the Dr. recommended raw milk because he believed there was a direct relationship between the outbreaks and a lack of sun vitamins in the winter (Alaska). The pasteurizing process kills most of the vitamins in milk. That is why your jugs always say that it has been fortified with vitamins A and D because they are trying to replace some of what was destroyed. Anyway we definitely noticed a reduction in his outbreaks and when he did have outbreaks they were much less severe.

[KrissiK]

We tried it for a while and I liked it. I didn't notice any of the health benefits, though and we quit because of the expense and also because we got a couple batches that were "fizzy". They say there's nothing wrong with that but I just couldn't stomach drinking fizzy milk. It does make me nervous drinking regular milk. We have a girl in church who's in 2nd grade and started her period and the dr.s say it's because of the hormones in the milk. Two of my kids are drinking soy and I hear that soy produces estrogen, so there's that issue, too. Maybe I'll just put the kids on raw milk and not drink it myself. They aren't that picky.

[FaithManor]

Yes, and the vitamin A and D that is added back is less than what would be naturally occuring in cattle raised on quality pasture and hay with lots of exercise and a healthy gut. Additionally, it is a cheap synthesized version which is hard to digest. I have spoken with two nutritionists that don't even recommend milk for children because the rate of absorbtion for pasteurized milk with synthesized vitamins is around 10%...of course that is dependent upon the condition of each person's gut. If the pasteurized milk industry added back probiotics, then the absorbtion rate would be much higher. So, if the bottle reads "8 oz. provides 25% of daily vitamin A", then the standard absorbtion would be 2.5% of daily need. This is something that escapes the notice of most health practitioners.

 

Faith

[kewb]

Other then the fact that my kids won't drink raw milk we never had any problems with it. They don't like the taste. Dh loves the cream for his coffee. I stopped purchasing it because it wasn't worth the expense in our house.

[ourjourneys]

Oh my... 3 years old?! What were her signs of puberty? PM me if you want. My daughter began at age 6 1/2 - 7... and we too, began with raw milk. However had to drive 40 minutes to get it and in the summer it spoiled because we had so much to do when we drove that far. We have to maximize our gas money so we quit getting it. But we all love it. In my opinion regular milk does not compare. I made yogurt and kefir. Just delicious!

:iagree: about the hormone thing. One of my dd started the whole precocious puberty scene at age 3. The doctor's predicted full blown puberty in less than 2 years. But about that time we started with the raw milk. Her precocious puberty advancement stopped. I think it's because she wasn't getting all those hormones in the regular milk from the store. Of course our pediatrician isn't aware of the milk but will say, "Huh, I really thought this was going to be a classic case. . . . "

[Ellie]

Usually it's the homogenization as well as the pasterurization that's the issue. :-)

 

The less any food is processed, the more nutrients it has. Certified raw dairies take excellent care of their cattle and rest regularly--daily in many cases--to be sure the cattle are healthy, which is better than hoping the pas/hom process kills the bad stuff.

 

I prefer to buy raw, but it is illegal in Texas (although there's some sort of loophole thingie where you can be part of a co-op).

 

FTR, my lactose-intolerant dds couldn't tolerate raw milk any better than they could pasteurized/homogenized.

[Rosie_0801]

I don't drink milk, but when I used to and was reading up on this issue, I couldn't find any evidence that unpasteurised milk was any less safe than pasteurised. Hygiene practices are better than they once were. Actually, a few things I read said there were less cases of food poisoning from unpasteurised because producers are even more careful about hygiene. I can't remember what and where I read any of this though, so I can't provide footnotes.

 

Rosie