I am sharing why we drink raw milk in this post today. I will share with you why we started drinking raw milk, the benefits and risks, and some places to source raw milk in your area.
The Backstory on why we drink raw milk
When I first heard of people drinking raw cow’s milk, or raw milk from any animal, I’ll admit, I was very skeptical. Wasn’t that unsanitary? Can’t you get sick from drinking milk that has not been pasteurized? Many questions such as these ran through my mind.
However, at this time, we were supplementing breast milk with formula for my newborn son, and he wasn’t reacting well to any of the formulas we had tried. Looking back now, I know much more about all of the chemicals and toxins that are pumped into commercial baby formulas and understand why his body was reacting so poorly to this toxic liquid. However, that’s a story for another day! Ingredients, ingredients, ingredients make all the difference!
I came upon an article about making homemade formula and began researching how I could make this at home. The main component was raw milk. I was desperate to help my son, so we tried it.
We reached out to several local farmers in our area, visited their farms, and choose the best one to purchase milk from. I began making my son’s formula, his weight gain took off, and our family has been drinking raw milk since!
our journey from PASTEURIZED to raw milk
I myself, am not a big milk drinker. I prefer to consume dairy in the form of milk kefir smoothies, or homemade yogurt. My husband, however, is a milk lover! He could drink a gallon in 3 or 4 days by himself! From his first sip, he could taste the difference between the raw milk and the usual store bought milk we had been buying!
Now if we had told our doctor we had switched our family to raw milk and were homemaking our son’s baby formula, it would have been highly frowned upon. It is a quite controversial topic and is considered unsanitary and unsafe by many.
If you Google “raw milk,” you are led to believe that raw milk will make your child sick immediately. Pediatricians, will most likely say the same thing. However, I fully believe in a mother’s instinct, so I went forth with making my son’s raw milk baby formula. I am so thankful we made this decision for his health and wellbeing!
DISCLAIMER
Before I jump any further into this blog post, I want to say that this is just my opinion and my experience with my son’s health and family’s preferences.
I am happy to share my research with anyone interested in this topic, but obviously make your own decisions based on your own research.
I have very strong opinions about this topic, but that does not mean that you necessarily should take my word for it. As with anything in life, I feel you should always compare the benefits and the risks in order to make an informed decision.
I believe that so many decisions in the medical world are fear based and our entire environments are sterilized to an unhealthy extent. We do this with antibiotics, antibacterial soap, and by pasteurizing everything! By sterilizing our environment and the foods we consume, we are inadvertently creating more chronic illness in our bodies.
Again, these are just my opinions, take them as you wish!
The “DANGERS” OF RAW MILK
According to this article, by Chris Kresser, the CDC claims that more foodborne illnesses are caused from raw milk than store-bought pasteurized milk simply because ONLY 1% of people in the United States drink raw milk.
With this small percentage, numbers are highly skewed and it would appear that raw milk causes much more illness than pasteurized milk. However, according to the above article concerning the consumption of raw milk, the risk of developing a serious illness, one that would require hospitalization, is still 1 in 6 million.
HAVE YOU EVER Been SICK FROM DRINKING RAW MILK?
No, my family has never been sick from drinking raw milk! And we consume it daily!
My son began drinking this homemade formula, made from raw milk, at the age of 4.5 months old! It did nothing but help him!
I also consume raw milk while pregnant, quite often. The Weston A. Price Foundation suggests that there are many benefits of drinking raw milk while pregnant, up to a quart a day!
Where to Purchase Raw milk
Before you decide to begin drinking raw milk, you definitely want to consider where you are getting your milk from.
We found a local dairy farms to purchase our raw milk from by doing just a little bit of research. I looked on the website Real Milk Finder, choose our state, and began researching the farms listed in my area.
To begin, I called several farms that were within driving distance of our home. I talked with them about their cows’ living conditions, what foods the cows are fed, how often they received antibiotics, if any.
Check out this article for more questions to ask your farmer before purchasing their cow’s milk.
I finally found our diary cow through a friend we have been purchasing our free-range and grass-fed chickens and lamb from. He has a small farm, New Grass Farms, and sells top quality, completely grass fed meats. He knew a local farmer in his town that had two Jersey cows and sold raw milk on the side.
The farm was not advertised anywhere, but by reaching out to a friend, we were able to find a quality source for our raw milk.
Don’t get discouraged if you are having trouble finding a reputable raw milk source in your area. By asking around, you can usually find a local family that is willing to take on one or two customers.
They definitely can’t drink all of the milk themselves since one cow produces anywhere between 3-4 gallons PER DAY!
Why not just drink pasteurized milk?
GOOD BACTERIA
Pasteurized milk not only kills the bad bacteria, but it also kills the good bacteria that is healthy for our body, and helps our bodies to digest the proteins in milk effectively. Many people experience digestive and other problems when they consume pasteurized milk, but have no trouble with raw milk. (Source)
The body was meant to utilize the probiotics and cultures that are in the milk to help digest the milk. Without the good bacteria, the body cannot cannot digest it properly. Pasteurization kills the bad bacteria and pathogens, but it also kills the good bacteria that makes it a living healthy food. This is the reason many people have trouble digesting pasteurized milk.
VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Milk in its raw state is a pure food, easy to digest. It is full of beneficial enzymes and bacteria. Milk is created that way for a reason! Why is everything we eat always altered these days?
There have been studies that show the vitamin and mineral content in pasteurized milk just isn’t there. The process of pasteurizing kills vitamin C and B. The heating process also kills the enzymes in the milk.
These enzymes are necessary to absorb and digest the nutrients in the milk such as lactase to digest lactose and phosphatase to absorb the calcium and other minerals. This is why research has documented greater bone density in humans consuming raw milk compared with pasteurized. (Source)
Is raw milk Legal to purchase?
In some states, raw milk is completely illegal. Some states allow pick it up from a local farm, distribution by farmers, and in some states it can even be sold in stores.
In my state, Mississippi, raw GOAT’s milk is available for purchase on the farm in which it is produced. Since this only pertains to goat milk, our farmer has systems set in place to sell their milk though it is not technically legal in our state.
Check this article to find out if raw milk is legal in your state.
My family has loved making the switch from pasteurized to raw milk! I also believe it has helped tremendously through my recent pregnancy and is great for reducing nausea!
If you are interested in making the switch, I encourage you to do some of your own research and decide if its a good decision for your family!
Raw Milk Recipes
Sources
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