Skip Pasteurized. Drink Milk From Pasturized Cows.

by Heidi Stevenson

25 March 2010

The only healthy milk comes from contented cows living natural cow lives in pastures. If you want milk that's full of pus resulting from the mastitis of sick cows, then drink pasteurized milk. Healthy raw milk comes from healthy cows. Sick pasteurized milk comes from sick cows living in sick environments.

When cows are stored in sick environments, they become sick and produce sick milk requiring pasteurization so it won't kill you. Modern factory farming reduces dairy cattle to barely living milk-producing sacs. They are pain-wracked, live in fear, are starved for relationships with their fellows, pumped full of antibiotics and other system-changing drugs. Obviously, they can produce only sick milk.

Because milk from factory-raised sick cows is sick, it's pasteurized so it won't kill you—at least, not quickly. It will, though, kill you slowly.

Natural raw milk is a living food. It contains enzymes, which help convert it to other healthy foods, like cheese. Instead of going rancid like pasteurized milk, raw milk sours, providing us with a huge range of delicacies, like French cheeses, Dutch cheeses, British cheeses, Wisconsin cheeses, yogurt, and kefir.

Yes, raw milk is full of bacteria. Don't say, "Hah! I knew it. That stuff is really bad and dangerous." After all, what is it about yogurt that's so good for you? Right, it's probiotics, which is a cute word meaning good bacteria. Besides, did you know that pasteurized milk also contains loads of bacteria? The difference is that it's all dead, so none of the good bacteria is there for you—but you're still eating the bodies of dead bacteria, both good and bad.

Pasteurization destroys milk's enzymes, which provide some of milk's most important health benefits. There are 60 beneficial enzymes from which your body contains little or no benefit when you drink pasteurized milk.

One enzyme, phosphatase, is necessary for the assimilation of calcium. So, drinking pasteurized milk does virtually nothing in terms of building strong bones. All that calcium just goes to waste, right down the alimentary tube.

Some vitamins are destroyed and others diminished by pasteurization. Do you wonder about why supermarket milk is fortified with Vitamin D? It's because pasteurization destroys it. The manufacturers are putting back—in artificial form, of course—what they've taken out.

Many people who think they're milk or lactose intolerant are simply reacting against artificial nutrient-leached and chemically altered pasteurized milk. While not all can drink raw milk, most people can.

Raw milk benefits include:

• Many people who suffer from hay fever and asthma discover they have no problems on switching to raw milk.
• Tooth decay may be diminished.
• Bones may be stronger.
• There are reports of raw milk curing pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) that was unresponsive to antibiotics.
• Children with autism are often intolerant to pasteurized milk, but do well on raw milk.
• Digestive tract diseases, like ulcerative colitis, Crohn's, and leaky gut are often alleviated with raw milk.
• Before the days of pasteurized milk, raw milk was often prescribed by doctors as a cure for type 2 diabetes. Some people today say that raw milk has cured their diabetes.
• Raw milk can ease the pain and stiff joints of arthritis.

This list is, of course, incomplete—but you get the idea. Raw milk is a nutrient-rich food that is delicious and healthy for most people. Pasteurized milk is dead and severely lacking in nutrition, though all the calories are still there. What's more, the toxins produced by some harmful bacteria—which are often what's dangerous—are usually not destroyed by pasteurization. So, even much of the questionable benefit of pasteurized milk isn't necessarily gained. The bacteria may be dead, but the toxins they produce can still do harm.

This article only touches on the issues around raw versus pasteurized milk, but I hope it gets across the fact that the indoctrination about pasteurization has been based primarily on lies and obfuscations. The primary beneficiaries of pasteurization are agribusiness and their outlets, supermarkets and fast food sellers.

Yes, there is a small—vanishingly small—risk of disease with raw milk. However, if you know its source, including how its raised and what it eats, the risk is almost nonexistent. Healthy cattle produce healthy milk. Reasonable standards of cleanliness keep it from becoming contaminated.

The risks of pasteurized milk are significant. Pasteurized milk is dead. Most of the nutrition has been destroyed. It has been chemically altered so that it contributes to diseases, including some of the modern world's rampant chronic conditions, like ulcerative colitis, Crohn's, and leaky gut. It's often the real problem of people who think they're lactose-intolerant. Removing it from the diet, or replacing it with raw milk, has been shown to cure or resolve many conditions, including diabetes, ulcers, arthritis, asthma, and hay fever.

There's one last benefit of raw milk: Taste! It's incredible! Try tasting a raw-milk cheese and you'll realize you've never really tasted cheese. Or raw milk butter—it's what melt-in-your-mouth really means.

In the next weeks, there will be more articles offering more specific information about raw milk and its benefits. It's a health subject that's making a comeback. We've been so indoctrinated with the idea that pasteurization is an unconditional good that most of us don't even question the concept. I must confess to having been one of those people.

Aside from the health benefits and flavor of raw milk, it touches on another issue: freedom. Even if you aren't convinced that raw milk is for you, why should those who want it be refused the right? Too many places have banned it, and always with the excuse that it's for your health. But who has the right to make such a decision for you?

Raw milk has become one of the rallying points of freedom in this run-amok world. Gaia Health is joining the fight for health freedom and suggests you do so, too. Please, join the Alliance for Raw Milk Internationale (ARMi). If you do not have the freedom to choose raw milk, then what freedom is left?

If you're a Facebook member, you can join ARMi here. You can find your state or country here.

If you aren't on Facebook, then you can join here.

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