Raw milk is one of the most controversial food items on the market today. As with every aspect of our lives, this matter encompasses issues in health and nutrition as well as politics and economics. Here is a book that finally addresses all these concerns in a balanced and informative way.
As a consumer, parent or health care provider it is hard to decipher which information about raw milk is correct and which is simply part of the ongoing and often highly charged arguments surrounding this food.
In his new book, The Raw Milk Answer Book, David Gumpert elucidates the most difficult questions about raw milk that you may, or may not, have thought to ask. Here are just a few:
- Is it safe?
- Is it really healthier than pasteurized milk?
- What is the difference between organic and raw milk?
- Can I get the same nutritional benefits by drinking pasteurized organic milk?
- Is raw milk legal to sell in my state?
- How do doctors and other health care providers feel about raw milk?
- How do I locate a source to buy it from?
- What is homogenized milk?
- How do I determine if a particular dairy is producing safe raw milk?
- Should I serve raw milk to my children to improve their health?
- If there is even a single child getting sick from raw milk, shouldn’t it be banned?
When changing over to a real food diet, most people don’t even think about the milk. But milk as we know it today, is actually a highly processed food with similar safety issues along with conventional, chopped beef (e.coli), raw spinach (e.coli), processed cheese (listeria), chicken (salmonella) etc.
Why is Raw Milk Targeted?
One has to question why raw milk is targeted when these other food items have had a terrible track record and raw milk has not.
It comes down to politics and economics. The factory farming of dairy cows is a huge business. Yes, even the organic milk, in many cases is from factory farmed dairy cows. Health officials have no interest in the nutritional aspects of milk. They are just concerned about the safety. Pasteurization and ultra-pasteurization is the gold standard for safety (even though there have been cases of illness with pasteurized milk).
Like every other food item, you have to know where your milk comes from. Do you want your milk to come from a cow given growth hormones (unlabeled), antibiotics and GMO corn and soy and made to stand on concrete floors inside all day?
The milk from these cows is not healthy at all. It certainly should be pasteurized because these cows are not given the proper food – grass – and they have digestive problems (and pathogenic bacteria in their colons) and short lives. Drinking this milk unprocessed, would make anyone sick.
Wouldn’t you rather know that the milk you drink comes from a happy cow that is raised on a grass pasture in the traditional way? This milk has a multitude of health benefits that are transferred to people when the milk is not pasteurized (heated). This milk is from a healthy cow and quite different from the conventional milk we know.
You Have to Ask the Right Questions
That said, there are still many questions that consumers should have about drinking raw milk. I know that when I first heard about it, it took me some time to get over the anxiety of whether or not I could get sick from raw milk. I had to educate myself about it and I also had to find out where to source it and what questions to ask the farmer, to make sure it was being processed correctly. It has to be way beyond organic.
Sometimes it’s not the questions you ask that are important – it’s the questions you don’t know to ask.
If you are making the transition to real food and want to include dairy in your diet, this book is a must read. It has every question you can think of and all the answers in a balanced and informative style.
David Gumpert is a journalist and author who blogs at Thecompletepatient.com
Get The Raw Milk Answer Book on Amazon here (paperback and kindle).
Get The Raw Milk Answer Book as an e-book here.
