Raw Milk

fitnessbugg

I wish I could buy raw milk around here. Anybody from southeast Michigan?

iggyboo93

<<donning fire proof suit>> Please note that I get this information from my hubby who is a dairy nutrition professor and nutritional epidemiologist (yes - there is such a job). E-coli, salmonella and listeria and camphilobacter have been identified in raw milk food poisoning incidents. Typically Oregon will have between 20-80 food poisoning incidents (not deaths) tied to raw milk resulting in hospitalization and serious kidney damage. Between 1912 and 1937 65,000 people died from tuberculosis contracted from unpasteurized milk in Great Britain. That being said, many millions of people have survived drinking raw milk before the advent of pasteurization. The intent of pasteurization is not to kill all microbes in milk - just reduce the number of viable pathogens.

As with all things, there is risk. If you have grown up on a farm where you drank raw milk and ate raw milk products exclusively - your gut flora is likely to be robust enough to fend off unwanted pathogens. Someone who has never drank raw milk and suddenly makes the change to raw milk without first vetting the source is accepting a higher level of risk for getting sick.

The folks posting on this thread have rightly vetted their sources or are their own source of raw milk. If you are going to purchase raw milk, it is critical to know where the milk came from. It would be even better to visit the farm to look at the farm's sanitation practices and how they treat their animals. Ask to look at their sanitation schedule - a rotating schedule allows for reduction of pathogens and minimizes the possibility of resistant bacteria rearing it's ugly head. Generally speaking an organic raw milk producer is likely going to put more effort into a clean sustainable operation - it's a selling point. Nonetheless it's good to trust but verify.

There are continual reports of food borne pathogen outbreaks. Salmonella, listeriosis, Hep A, Hep B, E-coli, etc. I've worked in the meat industry which has a world class sanitation program but there are still food borne illnesses from meat that was not processed safely (but not to worry - the days of Sinclair's The Jungle are no longer). It's best to follow good food safety handling practices for all foods. Refrigerate and freeze things promptly, don't let raw meat come into contact with cooked meat, and keep your kitchen clean/sanitized regularly.

skinnylynnie74

^^^^ thanks Iggyboo for that well-informed contribution!

chadraeder3

<<donning fire proof suit>> Please note that I get this information from my hubby who is a dairy nutrition professor and nutritional epidemiologist (yes - there is such a job). E-coli, salmonella and listeria and camphilobacter have been identified in raw milk food poisoning incidents. Typically Oregon will have between 20-80 food poisoning incidents (not deaths) tied to raw milk resulting in hospitalization and serious kidney damage. Between 1912 and 1937 65,000 people died from tuberculosis contracted from unpasteurized milk in Great Britain. That being said, many millions of people have survived drinking raw milk before the advent of pasteurization. The intent of pasteurization is not to kill all microbes in milk - just reduce the number of viable pathogens.

As with all things, there is risk. If you have grown up on a farm where you drank raw milk and ate raw milk products exclusively - your gut flora is likely to be robust enough to fend off unwanted pathogens. Someone who has never drank raw milk and suddenly makes the change to raw milk without first vetting the source is accepting a higher level of risk for getting sick.

The folks posting on this thread have rightly vetted their sources or are their own source of raw milk. If you are going to purchase raw milk, it is critical to know where the milk came from. It would be even better to visit the farm to look at the farm's sanitation practices and how they treat their animals. Ask to look at their sanitation schedule - a rotating schedule allows for reduction of pathogens and minimizes the possibility of resistant bacteria rearing it's ugly head. Generally speaking an organic raw milk producer is likely going to put more effort into a clean sustainable operation - it's a selling point. Nonetheless it's good to trust but verify.

There are continual reports of food borne pathogen outbreaks. Salmonella, listeriosis, Hep A, Hep B, E-coli, etc. I've worked in the meat industry which has a world class sanitation program but there are still food borne illnesses from meat that was not processed safely (but not to worry - the days of Sinclair's The Jungle are no longer). It's best to follow good food safety handling practices for all foods. Refrigerate and freeze things promptly, don't let raw meat come into contact with cooked meat, and keep your kitchen clean/sanitized regularly.

Iggy I agree with everything you say, I tried to make that disclaimer in my post but thank you for elaborating on the risks. I do think that with the advancements in hygiene in agriculture and animal health since the early 1900's would make raw milk today safer then back then.

If you put anything in your body you should research it and if possible know where it came from. <-(Should be common sense)

millerll

We love our raw milk. We have a herd share here in MI. My son has only drank raw milk!

If you guys are interested in getting raw milk, and don't know where, realmilk.com had a great 'finder' so you can search by state. We used it to find a local family farm so we could get milk when we traveled home to Kansas! http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/

I'm all for people drinking raw milk if they're aware of the risks and willing to assume said risks. I have had it myself on occasion. Tastes great, but the price is too high for me. Plus, I don't drink a lot of milk and it goes bad quickly, even in the fridge.

However, the finder link above makes the following claim that I find specious at best:

"Furthermore, in many children not fortunate enough to have started life on raw milk, raw milk given later in childhood has cured autism, behavior problems, frequent infections, deafness, asthma and allergies and other serious health conditions."

Really? Milk can cure deafness? And autism? It's claims like these that make the raw milk proponents seem like a bunch of whack-a-moles.

WhiteGirlWasted13

As I've said elsewhere on here, we drink only raw from a good local source. We did our due diligence, too. You have to. We're so fortunate to have access. I feel sorry for those who live in places that it's either not readily available or downright illegal.