Raw Milk, is it ok to drink?

Don't do it, everybody that drank raw milk before Louis Pasture learned how to make it safe,,,,,,, died.

I don't buy milk from the supermarket, but love raw milk--absolutely delicious. I can only get it in fancy farmers' market where they know the lineage of every cow and tomato vine, so it's pricey, but worth it.

Don't do it, everybody that drank raw milk before Louis Pasture learned how to make it safe,,,,,,, died.

People always get correlation and causation confused. Someone who was alive in 1862 would have died in the intervening 151 years regardless of whether he drank pasteurized or raw milk... And there were other limitations on safe food handling of the day - not the least of which being that the refrigerator had only been invented 21 years earlier and was not in widespread use.

Folks get too caught up in absolutes. Can you die from pathogens in raw milk? Of course. Will buying pasteurized milk prevent you from dying from those same pathogens 100% of the time? No.

Near me, there was a Mennonite farmer who sold raw milk. His big mistake was selling some to a coop that happened to be about 2 miles over the state line that was 7 miles from his farm. In the US, INTERSTATE transportation and sales of raw milk is illegal. In my particular state, it is also illegal unless marked "not for human consumption," but we also have an incredibly powerful dairy farm lobby.

So, what ensued was a 15 month sting operation involving state police from both states and the FBI. Now, we probably could have saved the taxpayers a ton of money by simply informing the coop and the farmer that they were violating the law (yes, I know it's their responsibility to know the law, but good grief...),but no one ever did.

So he was shut down, lost the farm that had been in his family for 4 generations. Now, his milk was tested regularly for pathogenic organisms, such as e-coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. Guess what? His milk always tested well below the levels of PASTEURIZED milk from the grocery store. Yup, there are bacteria in the pasteurized milk you buy - presumably it is contaminated after pasteurization in the packaging stages, or the pasteurization isn't always completely successful as folks are lead to believe.

People claim raw milk is alive. Others claim it obviously isn't. We get lost in semantics, because raw milk isn't a life form. However, raw milk contains things that are alive. Lots of bacteria, for example. Many of which are very beneficial to consume. It also contains many enzymes, which are destroyed in the pasteurization process, that are beneficial. The "good" bacteria can actually compete with any harmful bacteria that may also be present, or contaminate the milk later, thus keeping their population low. Meanwhile, theoretically sterile pasteurized milk is basically just food without any competition for anything that should contaminate it, so when a pathogen gets in, it can multiply much more rapidly. This is part of why pasteurized milk rots, while raw milk spoils (different processes, for sure).

So, is raw milk safe to drink? Maybe, depending on many circumstances. It's situationally dependent. I know I personally would not drink any raw milk before observing the health of the cow it came from (and its health maintenance/monitoring program), seeing what the cow ate, and seeing the milking and post-milking handling process. Is it healthier than pasteurized milk? Probably, assuming it's safe, but definitely not if it isn't.

Is pasteurized milk safe to drink? Maybe, depending on circumstances. It's situationally dependent. It's less reliant on people, so if I can't verify the circumstances of its production as above, I feel more comfortable drinking pasteurized milk.

It is pretty much impossible to ensure safe production of raw milk in large scale dairy - probably anything more than a dozen cows. so, obviously, the dairy industry is going to support keeping raw milk unavailable. and they have the money to hire lobbyists (whereas the small producer of raw milk can't), and many of those lobbyists become FDA administrators (not as many former dairy lobbyists as former Monsanto employees, but several). So of course the government agencies are going to support the source of their funding.

Avoid being swayed by the absolutists, and investigate what's actually going on. Then decide for yourself, in your particular situation.

Recommending raw milk consumption for promoting 'pain-free labor' is incredibly irresponsible. The citation given is an anecdote from a single woman, and is not remotely valid as supporting evidence for an analgesic effect (which, based on what we know about pain signalling and labor, is highly likely to be total BS).

Raw milk may contain various pathogenic bacteria, feces, blood and other non-milk matter. If you are fit, healthy and strong more than likely you will be just fine. However, not merely condoning its consumption, but actively promoting it, to gestating women, is irresponsible, dangerous and misinformed.

The microbiologist who posted above is correct, and infinitely more qualified than a woman with a blog who has decided raw milk is just fine for all pregnant women.

^^^^^^I don't think you got the joke, chadgard:)

Actually, I got the joke. It just seemed a good jumping-off point for my diatribe on absolutism. After all, the joke, like many, is only funny because it's true.

I assume you work at a commercial dairy. At home ( family farm) we filtered the milk and chilled, then drank or used it and all have lived long healthy lives.
I would never drink ANY milk from the feed lots that they call Dairys here in AZ

I assume you work at a commercial dairy. At home ( family farm) we filtered the milk and chilled, then drank or used it and all have lived long healthy lives.
I would never drink ANY milk from the feed lots that they call Dairys here in AZ

This is my experience as well, and I agree regarding the feedlot style dairies.

Pastuerized milk is not close to real milk. All the great things that were in it are killed off or altered in the process. They then have to add other things back into it.

There are much healtheir choices than milk, but yeah, both have their pros and cons

I work in a dairy and I know what raw milk is like. It containes hay, ( from the farms), it contains blood ( from the cows) )Milk is clarified to remove these. It however can also contain coli, coliform, lysteria and other microorganisms. Some of these just cause milk spoilage, some can cause serious illness. I would not recommend drinking raw mlk.

These are all true things, but like all foods you take your chances. I grew up drinking milk fresh from the bulk tank and still warm - I'm still here and so are the multitudes of my relatives that did the same. I also ate wild fruits, nuts off the grounds and vegetables freshly picked. Its all a matter of choice and convenience.

I grew up drinking raw milk from my grandpa's farm. Never hurt me

Where I'm from, the sale of raw milk is actually illegal! It's due to the risk of illness... So I guess it depends where you live.

Sorry to burst the bubble but there are other agendas at work that have nothing to do with keeping us healthy. The agri, food, pharma, chemical, health industries are all controlled by political agendas which are strongly influenced by organizations with MONEY. When we buy from local farmers, corporations don't make money.

Don't take my word for it, start doing some research.

The sale of raw milk is illegal in Canada too but it has nothing to do with protecting Canadians from illness.