Raw Milk

[johnnygardner]

I have been eating and drinking raw dairy for about a little over a month now. I live in Ohio, where the purchase of raw dairy is illegal, so I had to buy a herd-share in order to buy the raw dairy products from the dairy. Since I own part of the herd, nobody can say I can't buy it. I agree with what many have stated on this thread that raw milk is not a great source of bacteria needed for a healthy gut biome. As far as bacteria-containing dairy foods, things like kefir and yogurt are far better for that.

Milk exists for the nutrients in my opinion. I prefer the taste and presence of cream in the raw milk to that of store-bought milk. I have been drinking store-bought whole milk all of my life and I have never noticed any negative effect on me. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 12 (now 24) and cow's milk never left our refrigerator because it never needed to. Eliminating other obviously bullshit foods was what put me into remission. Now, why did I switch to raw last month? In the matter of a few weeks, I lost 30 pounds from what I thought was a "flare-up". Later, I found out it was an E. Coli infection. But, not knowing what was wrong with me, I dropped all possible causes of inflammation. For me, this was: sugar, gluten, soy, seed oils, alcohol, weird-ass preservatives, pasteurized dairy, and smoking pot.

I don't believe that pasteurized dairy was harming me and I don't think it would in the future. However, I have gained back 27 of the 30 pounds that I lost in about a month. I credit this to restarting my NLP (using humblingly low numbers on the bar) and drinking a little under a half gallon of raw milk every day. None of this would have been possible without a robust gut biome, and I credit my raw dairy consumption for much of that. The fear-mongering over raw milk is hilarious to me, just like everything else that big brother wants to regulate or ban. If they say we shouldn't have it, there's probably a damn good reason that we should have it.

[JasonP]

This has been an interesting thread. I have been raising dairy goats for many years now, but I will not call myself an expert, but I would like to chime in here.
First. Raw Milk Finder - Real Milk << Go here if you want to find Raw Milk. Each state has it's own laws...some states are stupid, some are smart. Like California, they are idiots. LOL

Raw cows milk is simply not pasteurized and not homogenized. The government is the reason it is now forced to be pasteurized today. "Back in the day" tainted milk was a real problem because once it became commercialized and farms were selling milk on mass to get it to lots of people instead of from local farmers it wasn't 'regulated' and thus you had bad sanitary practices going on and thus lots of sick people. You also had a poor understanding of proper sanitation of food then too. I cannot speak much on raw cow milk and how it may or may not be more nutritious, however some are correct in that pasteurization kills off good bacteria as well as bad. However, bad bacteria generally doesn't come from inside the cow, it is introduced through bad sanitation practices.

Now, on to goat's milk. Goat milk (as well as goat meat) is the most drank milk on the planet, except in the US. Why? Because in the US the cow market and "Big Dairy" has much influence over the laws and regulations that control what we can and cannot sell. Again, here is the guberment getting over involved.

Why goat's milk? Goats are browsers which means they have a very varied diet. They do not only eat grass like cows, but they eat a wide variety of things including grass such as weeds, leaves, bark, small shrubs, legumes etc etc etc. Contrary to popular belief, they do not eat anything, they are curious creatures and like to mouth things like baby humans do. For the reason of such the varied diet they have many more vitamins and minerals in their milk cow milk. The protein content is slightly higher...and I do mean slightly. Some that cannot tolerate cow's milk well (such as myself) can tolerate and enjoy goat milk. Not because of lactose intolerance, but because of the size of the fat molecules in goat milk. Those molecules are about 4 to 5 times smaller than that of cows milk which in turn makes it easier to digest. Some will say "dairy goat milk is naturally homogenized" That's total bullshit. It acts as if it is simple because of the size of those fat molecules and the cream doesn't rise as quickly as cow's milk. How does it taste? Well, nearly the same if not better than cow's milk, much better than store bought cow milk for certain. I warn you, do not try goat milk from the store, it will likely be nasty. Find a local dairy goat farmer and get it from them. I've been drinking raw goat milk for nearly 14 years now that I milk on my own farm and love it. The dairy goat world is growing and the more people find out about goat milk and the more people let loose of the stigma behind it the better off a lot of us will be. We need to get the government out of our back yards. Most small farmers have cleaner facilities than big dairies simply because they are smaller and have better control of how things operate.
Go to the link I put above and look around in your state to find the milk you are looking for. Or if you have space and time...get a small herd of your own....it's a lot of work but very rewarding.
Like I said...I'm no expert but I've been living the life of raw milk for about 14 years now and have reaped many benefits from it.