Got (Raw) Milk?

[30A Skunkape]

Remember that cow's milk was designed for baby cows. So many people from other cultures go their entire lives without cows milk and are healthier than we are. So whether raw or pasturized milk is good for babies and older folks maybe the wrong focus. Is cows milk in general good for us? I am not anti-milk (our boys go through gallons) I'm just saying raw milk/hormone filled milk, name your poison. Get your sunshine, fish and your green leafies for calcium. Orange juice is now fortified with vitamin D as well.
Personally, I'd prefer the non-chemical milk to processed, injected, sitting in a plastic container milk any day.

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

Humans had been consuming raw milk for eons before they decided it was unhealthy. Granted, cows were also free range all those years too. Put them in pens, have them stand in their droppings and then milk them...I am sure you are bound to have fecal matter in the milk.

Great points. I guess human consumption of cow milk began when they figured out they could get tons of nutritious milk out of a beast that required only grassland to survive. I think it is a good policy to avoid the hormone/antibiotic cow's milk not because it is dangerous but such overkill (and contributes to antibiotic resistance). I would love to try some raw milk just to see what it tastes like, but again, little children and senior citizens have weaker immune systems than healthy adults and I wonder if it is wise to potentially give them a big glass of shigella, salmonella, etc. Oh and by the way, the claims about pasteurized milk causing diabetes, etc are junk science claims;to anyone who disputes this, I ask...got proof?

 

[ckhagen]

I would be interested in a local buy of raw milk. I was just about to sign on with a group in Niceville to pick up there, but this would save me a ton of gas. Thing is, we don't drink much milk at all, so we wouldn't be a huge contributor to a minimum.

Anyhow, what raw milk does for the gut is amazing. For colonization purposes it's fantastic. Just like human breastmilk, if you pasteurize it, you loose much of the GOOD bacteria associated with it. Breastmilk banks pasteurize the milk, it maintains it's small protein size, which is desperately required to prevent the new number one cause of death in preemies (intestinal wall rupture leading to sepsis called Necrotizing Entercolitis), but the antibodies are destroyed in the process. Same goes for cows milk. Like I said, we don't drink much milk at all, I certainly don't give my (extremely healthy) kids much, but I do want to get the most bang for my nutritious buck.

BTW, you should never drink raw milk from a grain fed cow and I fully intend to verify the way these cows are handled before drinking their milk. Like anything else in life you must calculate risks and benefits and take responsibility for your choices.

 

[ShallowsNole]

Not sure if this is appropriate here...but when Fuzz was a baby and his grandparents got custody of him, the first thing they did was to buy a cow. Since they had no way to refrigerate things, they put the bottles of water into the nearly creek to keep them cool.

He never got sick from it, and he turned out OK. Now he drinks 1%. I'm sure raw milk would be a major shock to his system at this point.

 

[chrisv]

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

I remember that! We would get deliveries twice a week, the glass bottles would be placed in the metal cooler on our front porch, the milkman traded with the empties we left out for him. Went to the dairy several times on school fieldtrips, got to milk Rosebud. Good times. Found a couple links to the story and history of what was one of only two Certified Dairys in the US at the time:

http://brianarcher.blogspot.com/2007/11/mathis-dairy.html

http://www.paulsullins.com/mathis/

 

[elgordoboy]

I would be interested in a local buy of raw milk. I was just about to sign on with a group in Niceville to pick up there, but this would save me a ton of gas. Thing is, we don't drink much milk at all, so we wouldn't be a huge contributor to a minimum.

Anyhow, what raw milk does for the gut is amazing. For colonization purposes it's fantastic. Just like human breastmilk, if you pasteurize it, you loose much of the GOOD bacteria associated with it. Breastmilk banks pasteurize the milk, it maintains it's small protein size, which is desperately required to prevent the new number one cause of death in preemies (intestinal wall rupture leading to sepsis called Necrotizing Entercolitis), but the antibodies are destroyed in the process. Same goes for cows milk. Like I said, we don't drink much milk at all, I certainly don't give my (extremely healthy) kids much, but I do want to get the most bang for my nutritious buck.

BTW, you should never drink raw milk from a grain fed cow and I fully intend to verify the way these cows are handled before drinking their milk. Like anything else in life you must calculate risks and benefits and take responsibility for your choices.

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

 

[ShallowsNole]

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

I can see this thread heading to the Lounge in a hurry...

 

[elgordoboy]

http://www.realmilk.com/happening.html#fl
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/rawmilk.html

 

[organicmama]

I remember Mathis Dairy delivering to the little box on your front porch! Did you ever go there?

My parents were health-nuts and I grew up drinking raw milk, delivered to our door by a milkman, if you can believe it. (I have often wondered if this is why I have never broken a bone.) The milk came from Mathis Dairy that free ranged their cows, washed them twice daily and sterilized their utters before milking.

Humans had been consuming raw milk for eons before they decided it was unhealthy. Granted, cows were also free range all those years too. Put them in pens, have them stand in their droppings and then milk them...I am sure you are bound to have fecal matter in the milk.

 

[organicmama]

I hear ya. I have hired a wet nurse to come by twice a week. I figure why trust bovine colostrum?- go straight to the source! I don't know what I am going to say when she arrives and wants to see the babies.

 

[organicmama]

Seriously, I stand on the fence on this one. There are benefits to raw milk & there are reasons not to drink milk at all.

My dad grew up on a dairy farm in GA and drank raw milk all the time. He would drink it now, but the nasty, cheap 1% is their beverage of choice.

We actually don't drink milk, except organic half & half in our coffee ('cause nothing else will do in coffee!), because every single one of us is lactose intolerant.:sick: We realized it when the Beanpole was just over 1 and we switched to rice milk for cereal, etc. Honestly, I don't like the taste of milk at all and now the kids don't know what to do if someone offers them cow's milk. We eat cheese sparingly and of course they have to have ice cream when in Seaside, but that's the extent of their dairy. I give them a liquid calcium supplement

My brothers drink it by the gallon. My younger bro's 2 year old son also has a ton of food allergies and is a total case of someone needing to eliminate the highest allergens from a tiny one's diet instead of sticking him on prednisone, antihistamines & prescription antacids.

Ckhagen's really up-to-date on all this, so she's a good resource.

Elgordoboy, you can also buy yourself a goat, as that's the closest thing to human milk you can get.