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Why I started drinking raw milk after over 10 years of being almost completely dairy free and what I discovered along the way.

woman buying raw milk kefir in a grocery store — Visiting a small grocery store in California. One of the few places that you can buy raw milk (and raw milk kefir) in a grocery store.

My Milk Story

I’ve never had a robust interest in milk. Well, except for sitting at the breakfast table as a kid, in front a bowl of sugary cereal bathing in the white stuff and the occasional trip to Baskin Robbins.

What child doesn’t like ice cream?

Looking back, I now realize that I never had real milk. At least milk the way milk was intended to be. Perhaps you haven’t either.

What I had was a milk-like product. Sure it had some of the qualities of real milk, but the stark white color in contrast to the creamy white-to-golden hue that is characteristic of unadulterated milk cannot be denied.

That color difference between unadulterated raw milk and it’s pasteurized step cousin is a hint of something more sinister that happened in history. Something I wasn’t even aware of.

A dark history that has been rewritten and reframed in books for many decades to come.

What is Raw Milk?

Raw milk is milk that has not been heated or altered in any way. It comes straight from the tetes of the cow and is used as is. You can also find raw milk in certain raw milk products like butter, cheese, kefir and yogurt.

What is Commercial or Pasteurized Dairy?

All commercial dairy has been pasteurized and usually homogenized. This can happen in a few ways.

High Temperature Short Time Pasteurization (HTST)

Milk is heated (or pasteurized) to 161° F (71.6°C) for 15 seconds.

Ultra High Temperature Pasteurization (UHT)

Milk is heated rapidly to 280°F (138°C) for 2-3 seconds.

What is Homogenization?

Homogenization is when milk is pressurized to break down the large fat globules in the milk.

Milk Intolerant or Pasteurization Intolerant

I thought all milk was inheritably bad. At least that’s what I thought. That’s what I read. And this is what lined up with my experience. After all, up to 50 million Americans are reported to be lactose intolerant. The majority of those people are African American, Native American and of Asian American ancestry.

Growing up, the commercials I saw said, “Milk does the body good,” but every time I had some, my digestive system would reject it so strongly. I became used to walking around with a package of Lactaid pills just to treat myself to some ice cream with friends.

I thought that something was wrong with me. It never occurred to me that something was actually wrong with the milk.

Sound familiar?

So years ago, when my then three-year old started breaking out with eczema and my five-year old presented with seasonal allergies, it was no question that dairy was gone for good. Well with the exception of butter, which has had most of the lactose removed anyway.

My kids’ pediatrician supported the decision.

Every article I could get my hands on seemed to allude that dairy was bad for conditions like eczema, inflammation, asthma and more. Like millions of people, it was easy to turn to store bought dairy free alternatives.

I leaned into posting dairy free recipes so others could have delicious milk free recipes at their fingertips. Of course, when I started to read some of the crappy ingredients in processed almond milk, that was a wrap and I started to make my own.

Natural Food Journey

As a trained clinician, wellness author and passionate lifelong learner I am constantly looking for ways to elevate health and wellbeing in evidence and in truth.

Science is not coercion, medical manipulation, erasure of history or the preponderance of fear. Similar to my wheat journey, which self actuated in the discovery of einkorn, traditional sourdough baking methods and the realization of what really happened to wheat in America, I had to dig deeper with this milk thing.

Why did God tell Moses to go to a “land of milk and honey,” if milk is literally evil? Well, at least that’s what we’ve been told.

Milk has been the “fall guy” for everything from asthma to Zika. OK, maybe not Zika, but you get my point, from a to z.

I became borderline obsessed with finding out the uncensored history of milk. I sought out documentaries, read books and articles and questioned everything I thought I knew.

One of two things had to be true. Raw milk was either the most dangerous thing in the world or raw milk was one of the most powerful foods the world has ever known.

What didn’t make sense however, is if this food was so “dangerous,” how did ancient civilizations survive, considering that cows were domesticated for milk over 10,000 years ago! They was way before pasteurization even existed.

History of Raw Milk

I don’t have enough characters here to write about the history of raw milk. But, here’s the short story. We’ve been deliberately misguided on what raw milk is and what it isn’t.

The timeline goes something like this.

Humans started domesticating cows and drinking milk about 10,000 years ago. Due to it’s rich supply of nutrients and vitamins, this vital food was essential to sustained population growth. Milk, along with fermented dairy products like cheese were an essential food, during a period of no refrigeration.

In the mid 1800’s, during the industrial revolution, milk production started moving away from the rural countryside into urbanized cities.

Instead of eating green grass in the open green countryside, cows were now kept in cramped quarters and fed byproducts of grain distilleries.

Outside of their natural environment, cows became unhealthy and produced unhealthy milk.

The milk from these cows (fed distillery grains) and housed in cramped quarters, was fed to people.

People got sick.

There were two propositions at this point. Either clean up the unsanitary conditions of the dairies or leave the cows in the unsanitary conditions and heat the milk to kill the pathogens.

Psst…there are dead pathogens in pasteurized milk by the way. They are still there. The milk and the dead bacteria are floating in the milk which is then bottled and sold.

It turns out that heating the milk is a less costly solution than keeping sanitary conditions and treating the cows well.

So while raw milk had provided nourishment, immunity and a strong microbiome to so many for civilizations, all of sudden it was villainized and later politicized.

Meanwhile people have forgotten that raw clean milk has successfully raised generations, was utilized in medical protocols, and employed in treatment plans in hospitals settings for a long time.

Fast forward to today, although we are “wiser,” we are more nutrient depleted, disease prone, immunity deprived , microbiome deficient and real food intolerant than we have ever been.

Raw milk is villainized and weaponized when raw milk was never really the problem. It’s like moving Red Snapper from clean oceans to dirty lakes, feeding the Red Snapper table scraps and then blaming the snapper for giving people fish poisoning.

Benefits of Drinking Raw Milk

Living Food

Raw milk contains living bacteria and enzymes that the body uses to assimilate vitamins and nutrients. These living entities also become part of our natural microbiome.

Pasteurization destroys both harmful and beneficial bacteria in addition to helpful enzymes and proteins. The beneficial bacteria and enzymes, like lactoperoxidase, that are destroyed is what gives clean raw milk protection from pathogenicity.

In addition, while raw milk does not contain lactase, it does contain other bacteria and enzymes like lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which offer immune benefits and make it easier to break down the lactose in milk.

Contains More Vitamins and Minerals

Raw milk contains bioavailable sources of essential vitamins and minerals including fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E & K), B vitamins, magnesium and capper.

Many of these vitamins are lost during pasteurization and commercial milk processing. While some are added back in, they are in synthetic form, mixed with industrials oils and not easily utilized by the body.

Supports Small Farmers

Small farms are a dying breed. Large food and dairy corporations have made it nearly impossible to be profitable at farming. In 1935, it is approximated that there were 5.2 million farms with dairy cows. In 2017, there were less than 55,000. Today, the number may be closer to 24,000.

Small dairy farmers are fighting to make ends meet in an industry being “Goliathed” by large corporations and subsidies.

Finding a small farm committed to producing clean raw dairy is a way to give back. Many farmers are not compensated fairly for their commitment to producing natural unadulterated food.

Steps To Safely Buy Raw Milk

After reading this article, you don’t have to do anything. You can literally go about your life like the last 11 minutes of reading never happened.

After all, this article is for information purposes only and not intended as medical advice. But, if you want to give raw milk a try, here’s how to do it.

Use Appropriate Resources

Use websites like RealMilk.com and RawMilkInstitute.org to find raw milk farmers or distributors near you. It may take some digging, but there are only 3 states where you cannot legally purchase raw milk for human or “pet” consumption. That means that you can get raw milk in 47 states! Be patient. You most likely won’t be getting raw milk at the grocery store.

Source Diligently

There are some things you want to look for when purchasing raw milk.

On Pasture

Make sure that the cows are 100% pasture raised on rotated pasture land for maximum health and nutrition.

No Hormones, Vaccines or Antibiotics

Often seen in commercial farming, synthetic hormones are given to cows to increase milk production. Not only is this disruptive to the cow’s natural rhythm, but the use of such hormones increases the incidence of mastitis.

When it comes to antibiotics, it would be highly unethical for someone to give you an antibiotic and not disclose it, don’t you think? What if a restaurant added antibiotics to your food?

Well guess what?

Over 50% of antibiotics produced in the US go right into commercial livestock feed. Cows not raised on pasture, eating a corn/grain diet and housed in unnatural conditions, get sick often so antibiotics are put in the feed.

Say “No” To Homogenization

Homogenized milk is an unnatural process that prevents the separation of milk and cream. This process results in oxidation that can lead to quick soilage and has deleterious health effects.

Raw unhomogenized milk also contains something known has the Wulzen factor. This factor was discovered when Rosalind Wulzen, noticed that animals given pasteurized dairy developed joint stiffness. This Wulzen or anti stiffness” factor (found in raw dairy), lowers inflammation in joints, as seen in atherosclerosis, but is lost during homogenization.

Regular Testing

Raw milk should be routinely tested for bacterial counts for things like bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis. Talk to your farmer, or look at their website and find out about their test practices.

Note: Raw milk should be chilled right after milking.

A2A2 Milk Protein

At one point all cows possessed the A2 beta casein. This is the protein found in human breast milk and other lactating animals like goats, sheep and camels. Due to pressures of increasing milk production, there was a mutation in the A2 genotype and cows developed the A1 beta casein.

The A1 beta casein protein is typically found in industrial dairy cows like Holsteins. These cows produce more milk.

The A2 beta casein on the latter, is found in heritage breeds like Jersey and Guernsey. These cows naturally produce less milk. However, milk that comes from cows possessing the A2A2 allele is better tolerated among those with digestive issues.

A1 beta casein is associated with inflammation and digestive upset. When you source raw milk, be sure to get milk that is A2 beta casein. Farmers can confirm this with genetic testing.

For Extra Piece of Mind

For extra piece of mind, plan a visit (if you can), and see how the cows are treated. They should be clean, happy and kept in a spacious grassy environment.