A new article in ProPublica disguised as investigative health journalism reiterates cultural norms to defend what mainstream junk scientists and Big Food want you to believe
I have been drinking raw milk for half a century. I don't get vaccines. I don't get sick with whatever is going around. I didn't catch Covid, even though I exposed myself to my son who had it. We had our own goats. All we did with the milk was filter out the dirt. Nobody got sick from it. Now I buy raw cow's milk, although I'd buy raw goat's milk if I could get it. I drink up to a half gallon of it daily. I am 82 years old, and I don't have any of the common chronic problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. My blood pressure runs around 124/79. I also take herbs and supplements. I do not take any pharmaceuticals. I lead a normal, active life. Pasteurized milk no longer tastes good to me.
Basically the same for us. Drank our own goats' milk nearly entire childhood, then again when had kids and never had food poisoning or similar from it. Once from a restaurant but...
4 kids all healthy. Raw milk may not work for everyone from every source but done right I am sure it is better for you. And that is before you consider the risk of over sanitised food.
Was closing dozens of windows and discovered this... If one is going to consume milk, then as Desert Dweller suggests, raw goats milk is the best option, even better for baby goats.
A half gal a day? No that suggests a geriatric human has yet to wean himself off another species milk. Not sure what a "normal" life is these days, but the BP listed is reference.
The reason for avoiding pasteurized anything is well documented...
Covidiocy is just that. One does not "catch" the gremlin. That is patently ridiculous.
There are a thousand details. Dr. Mike Yeadon, former Pfizer head of R&D, his friend Suevk, Andrew Kaufman, Mike Stone and countless others have those details though they were known by health seekers much earlier.
Given my state of health, I would hardly call myself "geriatric". And there is no issue of "weaning". I choose to drink raw milk because it is healthy and highly nutritious. And it tastes good.
As for Covid, I watched the CDC US map. Covid was just renamed flu. So as real as flu but no more. Not something you do not catch. You catch it if your immune system isn't what it should be.
We're not on total contradiction here in this message, however.
I may be chronologically over 80, but biologically, I am nowhere near 80 yet. So not geriatric. Especially as you use such terms pejoratively. I have come to the conclusion you're not all that comfortable with your dietary choices. If you were, you would have no reason or motivation to throw barbs of insult at me in an otherwise rational (?) discussion.
It is a fact that one person having symptoms of flu can trigger symptoms in another person who has close contact. We can argue the mechanism, but this is the case. And the CDC US map shows no flu cases in 2020. They were reclassified as Covid. I am tell you what CDC did. Don't expect CDC to be rational or scientifically correct.
We should not have our food freedom of choice taken from us. Centuries of people have drank raw milk, before us, and obviously survived. It's more about "You're consuming something that can keep you healthy, so you don't need us, we can't have that" sincerely, Big (P)harm(a). Doctors depend on repeat customers. So, naturally, they wouldn't want you healthy to where you don't need them. So they keep you dependent so you keep coming back for more. Just like the dopeman on the corner. Sound familiar? It's because the conventional dr gets rich off of you. We must become more self sufficient now, so we don't need them when SHTF.
From a reader who asked me to post this anonymously.
“I love raw milk from Wayside farm. People who have never tasted raw milk, who have only ever had supermarket offerings, they miss so much. I have never ever tasted supermarket milk and thought "this is delicious" in the way that think as I drink milk from Wayside Farm. It’s the best.”
I've been drinking raw milk for decades. It's delicious, and if you're only familiar with supermarket milk you have no idea what you're missing. Fortunately I live in farm country and it's readily available.
As for store bought milk, even the best organic grass fed whole milk is just ok.
Oh by the way I've never been sick in my entire adult life either. But I'm only in my mid 60s so what do I know.
While I'm at it I've never had any kind of vaccine either. Coincidence? I don't think so.
That’s awesome Hank. Did you never have any vaccines because your parents were hippies? Or was there another reason? I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I grew up on all the vaccines, rounds of antibiotics, eating the SAD diet (standard American diet), plagued with allergies. I never knew that vegetables came from the ground and not wrapped in plastic. Well, I did know but it was a shock and revelation to see celery growing in stalks out of the ground. Now I’m dealing with stage 4 cancer. Coincidence? Maybe. 😔
I am very sorry to learn of your cancer. I read about the cancer a while ago and can only imagine your sorrow, and admire your ability to cope. Your writing is an inspiration to me.
Since childhood I always loved milk and I suppose I never grew out of it. I was fortunate enough to live close enough to farm country so that we could always get fresh milk, eggs, vegetables, meat. I drink at least a quart a day. Full whole organic grass fed raw milk. I'm 5'11" tall and weigh 168 lbs, which is more or less the same as it's been for over 40 years. Same for my waistline, at 32".
I've always loved fresh vegetables too, but the difference today is that mass-produced, preserved, processed foods are far more available, commonplace, and have become a staple of the SAD diet as you call it. Realizing what must occur for food to be grown, harvested, transported, packaged and sold has given me a great appreciation for organic, locally grown food. I am an unapologetic omnivore, but lately I find myself eating more fresh vegetables and less meat. Not so much as a health goal - I'm not a heath nut, but I find that I just feel better, and who doesn't want to feel good?
Oh perhaps it's worth mentioning I don't eat "fast food". I did, years ago, but I learned early on it didn't make me feel good, just more hungry. No Starbucks or anything like that either. If I want a milk shake I'll get one, but I don't want one. I'd must rather have a nice tall glass of cold raw milk. Makes good yogurt also, try it! I much prefer homemade yogurt over ice cream. You can't buy that yogurt in stores... it's time-consuming to make, and impossible to mass produce and sell. It's another food that you can't appreciate unless you've had it yourself. Supermarket yogurt is just sweet poison.
As for my parents being hippies or counterculture types, no, far from it. Dad in particular always demonstrated what I perceived as an unjustified deference to authority, which I grew to question even as a youngster. I questioned it because the only apparent results of his submissiveness were repeated disappointments, loss, and dismay. So perhaps I learned to "question authority" from an early age.
That deference to authority manifested in his unquestioning acceptance of an annual flu vaccine, which I was not necessarily opposed to, though I did question the wisdom of creating a vaccine formulated for last year's flu. So while I sat it out, Dad got the flu, like clockwork, every year. Of course he always said it would have been worse if he hadn't gotten the vaccine, which became sort of an inside joke between us. I told him thanks Dad, I'll take my chances.
Anyway the joke ceased to be funny after the covid fiasco. His first MRNA covid shot resulted in the flu, as it always did, predictably, year after year. The second one, the so-called "booster", which he received about three weeks later, killed him. Within a couple hours he was bedridden, and four days later he was dead. Multiple simultaneous organ failure they said.
And I never got sick, not the flu, not anything, ever. Literally never. No allergies. Never lost a single day of work, and I've been working (classes permitting) since my late teens. Can't say the same of my coworkers, many of whom are frequently out sick. For some reason that is considered normal and acceptable. Some are on long term medical leave. More than a few died - suddenly - in their 30s and 40s after getting the so-called "vax", a few cases within weeks of each other.
Needless to say my questioning of authority multiplied exponentially since that abhorrent era. Now, it's not much of an exaggeration to say I trust no one, and nothing, nothing in this Earthly realm that is. Today I keep God in the center of my heart, and then I follow my heart. That principle may come across as simpleminded and naïve, but do find it distressing that so many people, even some commenting in this thread, continue to be misled by "experts" despite what is (to me) patently obvious.
Gaslighting is real. I am not a doctor, nor am I a gifted writer like you, but I need a word in English for "obviously obvious" whatever that is. When I discuss subjects such as this with like-minded others, and they ask me how I know this or that, I respond by saying "I call it looking." I'm afraid that's as close as I can get to expressing myself in English. Observe, discern. God gave us a brain. Use it.
"Follow the money" gets pretty close too. My local dairy farmer has no lobby group. He is just doing what he loves, and I am happy to pay him the ten bucks a gallon he charges. He could charge twice, three times as much, and I'd pay it. I am happy to watch his cows graze. They seem happy too. I could choose to be angry at the "experts", but there is no room in my heart for anger. Only an infinite capacity for joy. Eat, pray, love, drink raw whole grass fed milk, and be joyful.
A cautionary tale: at least one HUGE dairy farm in N. Texas sells "low heat pasteurized" milk, and claims it's got all the goodness of raw. When pressed, they admitted it goes well over 118º F, which is where enzymes meet their maker.
So, much as "organic" has been compromised in the marketplace, so too goes "raw" milk. Buyer beware.
Yay! Drank it for the first 18 years of my life. It's illegal here but I buy it when available. So good compared to homogenized sterilized stuff in the store. Homemade yogurt - yum! Small farmers can do it more safely than huge corporate operations. Never been sick from it.
First off, I don't drink milk 🤮. Just not a fan. That being said, I love the healthy benefits of raw milk and support anyone's rights to be able to drink it if they so choose. For crying out loud, why don't we worry about the thousands of chemicals we allow in our foods instead of worrying about something unadulterated, straight from the source 🤯 Where's the outrage there 🤷🏻♀️
Have a gallon and a half of raw milk in my frig as we speak . It is indeed very good . I know my dairy farmer and have been to the farm . I have no ethical qualms about drinking milk .
I have always been an advocate of raw milk and have given it to all of my children as toddlers since they had eczema from pasteurized milk. However, last year we had a salmonella infection that was most likely caused from the Raw farms raw milk as that is the only thing the 3 of us had that was the same. It has been a struggle to recover my gut since then, developed a histamine intolerance severe leaky gut and still had latent salmonella on my last GI map test. I am on the fence now as to if raw milk is worth the risk considering we experienced it first hand and now over 6 months later are still dealing with ramifications of that infection. I would definitely not recommend raw farms (in CA) as they have had multiple Salmonella outbreaks that I later learned about. I do think that raw milk has health benefits but it is important to find a reputable source and I thought that raw farms was as they claim to test the milk for pathogens but I'm not sure now.
Thank you for sharing your family’s experience. I’m sorry to hear this. That must have been very hard at the time and it’s devastating to know that it’s ongoing. I’ve only known one friend to have a histamine intolerance. It caused her to lose an enormous amount of weight. I could never quite understand it… Now I wonder if drinking raw milk is what caused it?
I'm another octogenarian who's been drinking raw milk for six decades, raised my children on it. My biggest error was being vegetarian for too long. Pasteurization is poor compensation for sloppy & mindlessly expedient ways of maintaining animals. Forrest Maready's The Germ in the Dairy Pail is a great account of the diminution of thought processes that led to widespread pasteurization. Not surprisingly, money was a big factor. Those feeding their cows swill objected to the competition from those making the effort to maintain their cows properly. Once they'd laid out the $ for all the expensive pasteurization equipment, it had to be justified. (So now we feed cows swill in (filthy) CAFOs and it makes most people sick.) The cow is sacred because she provides food, field maintenance via balancing plants -- hence insects, birds, other critters, fertilizer (also useful for fuel), lots more, and when the life is done, leather, tools (various bone uses), even bits for shelter. Every living being - human, cow, goat, whatever, comes to the end of the life journey, and life, if properly stewarded, renews. It's not the cow; it's the how.
Thank you for weighing on and for all this useful and relevant information, Happy Slacker. Also I love that you’re an octogenarian with the pen name “Happy Slacker.” If you don’t mind me saying so. 😊
Oh, aye lassie! Though, it depends where you live. Solidly established where milking hygiene is practiced? Amen, go visit the seller’s farm and lean towards Jersey for the highest butterfat percentage. I had it made in Austin, where a good soul did a weekly visit for many customers, swung by our frig and piled in the milk, cream, yogurt, cheese, and collected his checks (pure honor system).
Now, living in India? No WAY would I drink raw milk. I have seen how the cows live, how they are milked, and how easily my gut gets polluted by parasitic organisms that are invisible, often even to a high powered microscope. I have to comfort myself, reasoning a good boil is still better than pasteurization and homogenization. At least my buffalo milk’s cream rises to the top!
I appreciate this comment and you sharing your lived experiences. It’s all about context, terrain, and individualization, isn’t it? Nuance is good. But nuance doesn’t sell Coke or COVID jabs or pasteurized milk…
To me, the whole "thing" about ANY milk is that cow's milk is for baby cows and goats milk is for baby goats and hamster milk is for baby hamsters - you get the point. Maybe it was me who missed the point(s) in this article but I personally cannot read about milk without thinking about the babies - the calves and the kids - I have no idea what baby hamsters are called - who are taken away from their mothers so that we humans can have the milk that was meant for them. One only has to see the babies bleating for their mothers and the mothers screaming for their babies - to know that what we are doing - drinking their milk - is wrong. We are the only mammals who drink another mammals milk - human babies are supposed to be be breastfed - that statement often provokes a number of people - and when they wean ("baby-led weaning"), then that's that for milk. We were not designed to drink other animals' milk, raw or otherwise.
We adopted a baby who had failure to thrive. I breastfed him, but it wasn't enough. My milk was tested and it was fine. I think his mother used marijuana while she was pregnant. And after 2 1/2 years and him looking like he had kwashiorkor and being way belong the 3rd %ile, I started him on a diet of raw carrot juice, raw goat's milk, powdered kelp, oil, and sprouts. His sleep requirement dropped from 16 hours a day to 8, the plaque fell off his teeth, and his hair got shiny. As a healthy grown man, he is 6' tall. God gave us milk animals who can make enough milk for their babies AND for us, and it was intended that we should drink the milk. I've been drinking raw milk for a half century; it is a major part of my diet. I don't get sick. I am 82 years old, and I have no chronic diseases. My blood pressure is normal. I lead an active life. I didn't even catch Covid although I was exposed. All the raw milk you won't drink is available for me, and I love it!
I must respectfully and strenuously disagree. First off this is a debate about raw v pasteurized, so you have completely pivoted. But OK.
1) many calves are taken off their mothers but still provided their mothers' milk by bottle or bucket. They can't drink all their mothers produce. A Holstein can easily produce 10 gallons dIly. The calf needs a gallon percdY. The excess is sold to humans who benefit from en,yes, minerals, fats and proteins. This relationship has been mutually beneficial for tens of thousands of years people clueless about farming now crow in histrionics. I guess baby formula is a beer industrial alternative?
2) what delusions are suffered in the fantasy world? Do people think millions of calves should have happy lives bounding free with their Moms? This isn't a zoo. Cows eat HUGE amounts of food at great cost. Lacking milk sales, all those calves cannot be economically supported and will end up in hotdogs factories. Noce job, fantasies. Adopt a calf and learn a few things before preaching your out of touch nonsense. Cows without farmers do not fare well in the wild. Mastitis, predators and starvation await them. No clueless dreamers will save them. We farmers tend and minister to them every day of the year. We are stewards.
3) the issue at hand. Raw milk is healthier and full of nutrients destroyed in pasteurization. Plus we spare the dreaded fossil fuel consumption in the heating and rapid cooling process.
Go eat your Cheetos and Doritos and leave us sane farmers and our cows alone. You probably think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and chickens are slaves. They all die without caring husbandry by informed farmers, which you ain't.
ain't.
You can have my cows when you pry them from.my cold, dead hand. I'm tired of your idiocy. Molon labe.
You all are at risk of starving to death ND too clueless to even know it. No society has ever been so alienated from its food and soils, at all our peril. Peraps you will eat your solar panels, or whatever your WEF slavemasters bestow upon your plate.
If the calf takes 1 gallon, then the mother will adjust to her baby's needs. Overproducing is a drain on the mother and she won't live a normal life span from the stress and depletion. As the calf grows , the calf will need more and the mother will increase accordingly.
Excuse me. Animals kept well by farmers live longer than animals in the wild. Often twice or three times as long. Farmers meet their nutritional needs, even when the natural environment is subject to problems from bad weather (no rain, for example). Animals kept by farmers are protected from predators and treated for disease. I used to keep goats. I can tell you, it is not economical to keep all the baby male goats. We can let them grow for awhile, and then use them for meat. The females give us milk and pay us back for the food we give them.
You've not been around cows, it appears. Cows, and goats, even those bovines not specifically bred to have udders the size of bushel baskets, make way more milk than a calf needs. They have long supplied mankind with their goodness, and not to the detriment of their young.
In India, they have a brilliant way of getting both us and their calves the best of both worlds: the calf is brought to Mom at milking time, head butts her udder eagerly (oxytocin storm, milk let down signal), and gets to suck first. Human milk saving comes second to baby being fed.
The Vedas extol the virtues of milk and ghee, and they are timeless. In several places, it's called amrit (food of immortality).
You obviously can choose to imbibe or not, but there's no historical basis for your argument.
You're talking about factory farming practices. Yes, they can be terribly inhumane. That's also where pasteurized milk comes from – NOT raw milk. Raw milk farmers know that the success of their product depends on the health and happiness of their animals.
California dairies, with thousands of cows? You bet. Your local small dairy of 40 cows? Different story. Visit one of them, talk to the farmer, get informed. Or ignore the entire discussion if it upsets you. You have a choice.
I used to be able to get raw milk where I used to live and it is the BEST. Highly recommended. Also my grandmother on my dad’s side always had a milk cow that she would milk twice a day, and the milk and cream from her was also so good.
Milk contains two essential fatty acids you can't get any place else. C15 and C17. Not getting these makes one more prone to disease, although the resilient human body can make do without them. The Maasai live off milk, animal blood and meat, and fruit and they are a strong and healthy people. Some people think eating an all meat diet are going to have diseases like heart problems. Tell the Eskimos that. I'm not interested in the manipulation of this "yecch" type of propaganda from you or anyone else. Americans didn't get sick from drinking milk. They got sick from eating fast food and taking pharmaceuticals.
So you think all the world's carnivores do this thing? Do you honestly think most carnivores even CARE whether other people like their cuisine or not? I do not care. I just know that God commanded Noah to eat meat. He COMMANDED the Israelites to eat lamb at Passover. After Noah's flood, there was not sufficient vegetation with the necessary nutrition to keep people healthy. But maybe you don't believe in Noah's flood. It may surprise you to learn that most of the indigenous people of the world DO. They carried the legends by oral tradition. The Bible is THE most reliable history book of ancient times. It passes many tests. I supported drinking raw milk. This does not require anyone to eat meat. I am OK with what you choose to eat, and you really don't have the right not to return the favor. I do post for the sake of other people. It's why I debunked the things you said. I don't expect to convince you of anything. I have been shocked at the intensity of attempts to coerce with moral arguments on the part of vegetarians I have experienced. God wanted us to be aware that it would cost Jesus His life to pay for our sins, and to be conscious of the suffering mankind caused to animals by sinning. He wanted to remind us that we are mortal, because our penalty for sin is death. I'll go with what God said. I don't buy into your worldview.
Mother Nature keeps getting a bad wrap. And. So many keep buying it. Go figure. Thanks for another great piece. One that actually covers all the bases. Biased journalism needs to be exposed. You are our go to. Again, thank you.
I have been drinking raw milk for half a century. I don't get vaccines. I don't get sick with whatever is going around. I didn't catch Covid, even though I exposed myself to my son who had it. We had our own goats. All we did with the milk was filter out the dirt. Nobody got sick from it. Now I buy raw cow's milk, although I'd buy raw goat's milk if I could get it. I drink up to a half gallon of it daily. I am 82 years old, and I don't have any of the common chronic problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. My blood pressure runs around 124/79. I also take herbs and supplements. I do not take any pharmaceuticals. I lead a normal, active life. Pasteurized milk no longer tastes good to me.
Great living choices. Who the heck needs a doctor to wreck that up?
Basically the same for us. Drank our own goats' milk nearly entire childhood, then again when had kids and never had food poisoning or similar from it. Once from a restaurant but...
4 kids all healthy. Raw milk may not work for everyone from every source but done right I am sure it is better for you. And that is before you consider the risk of over sanitised food.
Was closing dozens of windows and discovered this... If one is going to consume milk, then as Desert Dweller suggests, raw goats milk is the best option, even better for baby goats.
A half gal a day? No that suggests a geriatric human has yet to wean himself off another species milk. Not sure what a "normal" life is these days, but the BP listed is reference.
The reason for avoiding pasteurized anything is well documented...
Covidiocy is just that. One does not "catch" the gremlin. That is patently ridiculous.
There are a thousand details. Dr. Mike Yeadon, former Pfizer head of R&D, his friend Suevk, Andrew Kaufman, Mike Stone and countless others have those details though they were known by health seekers much earlier.
Given my state of health, I would hardly call myself "geriatric". And there is no issue of "weaning". I choose to drink raw milk because it is healthy and highly nutritious. And it tastes good.
As for Covid, I watched the CDC US map. Covid was just renamed flu. So as real as flu but no more. Not something you do not catch. You catch it if your immune system isn't what it should be.
We're not on total contradiction here in this message, however.
You are over 80, geriatric by definition. Weaning off of milk is a natural occurance as any human mom realizes. Taste is totally subjective.
Catching is a word that is totally meaningless with regards to illness.
That discussion is impossible with lay persons.
Reacting to some toxin with generic "flu" like symtoms describes a myriad of maladies. The question remains, what toxin or combo of toxins?
The "testing" with fraudulent PCR is not in question. The treatments with Remdesivir and Ventilator a certain death sentence.
Disclosing these facts for the benefirt of all.
I may be chronologically over 80, but biologically, I am nowhere near 80 yet. So not geriatric. Especially as you use such terms pejoratively. I have come to the conclusion you're not all that comfortable with your dietary choices. If you were, you would have no reason or motivation to throw barbs of insult at me in an otherwise rational (?) discussion.
It is a fact that one person having symptoms of flu can trigger symptoms in another person who has close contact. We can argue the mechanism, but this is the case. And the CDC US map shows no flu cases in 2020. They were reclassified as Covid. I am tell you what CDC did. Don't expect CDC to be rational or scientifically correct.
Otherwise we agree.
We should not have our food freedom of choice taken from us. Centuries of people have drank raw milk, before us, and obviously survived. It's more about "You're consuming something that can keep you healthy, so you don't need us, we can't have that" sincerely, Big (P)harm(a). Doctors depend on repeat customers. So, naturally, they wouldn't want you healthy to where you don't need them. So they keep you dependent so you keep coming back for more. Just like the dopeman on the corner. Sound familiar? It's because the conventional dr gets rich off of you. We must become more self sufficient now, so we don't need them when SHTF.
I LOVE raw milk!🐄❤️👍 It’s the only milk I drink, and it’s a treat for me.
Is it easy to get where you live?
There’s only one place that sells it…7.99/bottle. BUT, I bring back the glass bottles for 3.00! I’m in NorCal😉
From a reader who asked me to post this anonymously.
“I love raw milk from Wayside farm. People who have never tasted raw milk, who have only ever had supermarket offerings, they miss so much. I have never ever tasted supermarket milk and thought "this is delicious" in the way that think as I drink milk from Wayside Farm. It’s the best.”
I've been drinking raw milk for decades. It's delicious, and if you're only familiar with supermarket milk you have no idea what you're missing. Fortunately I live in farm country and it's readily available.
As for store bought milk, even the best organic grass fed whole milk is just ok.
Oh by the way I've never been sick in my entire adult life either. But I'm only in my mid 60s so what do I know.
While I'm at it I've never had any kind of vaccine either. Coincidence? I don't think so.
That’s awesome Hank. Did you never have any vaccines because your parents were hippies? Or was there another reason? I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I grew up on all the vaccines, rounds of antibiotics, eating the SAD diet (standard American diet), plagued with allergies. I never knew that vegetables came from the ground and not wrapped in plastic. Well, I did know but it was a shock and revelation to see celery growing in stalks out of the ground. Now I’m dealing with stage 4 cancer. Coincidence? Maybe. 😔
I am very sorry to learn of your cancer. I read about the cancer a while ago and can only imagine your sorrow, and admire your ability to cope. Your writing is an inspiration to me.
Since childhood I always loved milk and I suppose I never grew out of it. I was fortunate enough to live close enough to farm country so that we could always get fresh milk, eggs, vegetables, meat. I drink at least a quart a day. Full whole organic grass fed raw milk. I'm 5'11" tall and weigh 168 lbs, which is more or less the same as it's been for over 40 years. Same for my waistline, at 32".
I've always loved fresh vegetables too, but the difference today is that mass-produced, preserved, processed foods are far more available, commonplace, and have become a staple of the SAD diet as you call it. Realizing what must occur for food to be grown, harvested, transported, packaged and sold has given me a great appreciation for organic, locally grown food. I am an unapologetic omnivore, but lately I find myself eating more fresh vegetables and less meat. Not so much as a health goal - I'm not a heath nut, but I find that I just feel better, and who doesn't want to feel good?
Oh perhaps it's worth mentioning I don't eat "fast food". I did, years ago, but I learned early on it didn't make me feel good, just more hungry. No Starbucks or anything like that either. If I want a milk shake I'll get one, but I don't want one. I'd must rather have a nice tall glass of cold raw milk. Makes good yogurt also, try it! I much prefer homemade yogurt over ice cream. You can't buy that yogurt in stores... it's time-consuming to make, and impossible to mass produce and sell. It's another food that you can't appreciate unless you've had it yourself. Supermarket yogurt is just sweet poison.
As for my parents being hippies or counterculture types, no, far from it. Dad in particular always demonstrated what I perceived as an unjustified deference to authority, which I grew to question even as a youngster. I questioned it because the only apparent results of his submissiveness were repeated disappointments, loss, and dismay. So perhaps I learned to "question authority" from an early age.
That deference to authority manifested in his unquestioning acceptance of an annual flu vaccine, which I was not necessarily opposed to, though I did question the wisdom of creating a vaccine formulated for last year's flu. So while I sat it out, Dad got the flu, like clockwork, every year. Of course he always said it would have been worse if he hadn't gotten the vaccine, which became sort of an inside joke between us. I told him thanks Dad, I'll take my chances.
Anyway the joke ceased to be funny after the covid fiasco. His first MRNA covid shot resulted in the flu, as it always did, predictably, year after year. The second one, the so-called "booster", which he received about three weeks later, killed him. Within a couple hours he was bedridden, and four days later he was dead. Multiple simultaneous organ failure they said.
And I never got sick, not the flu, not anything, ever. Literally never. No allergies. Never lost a single day of work, and I've been working (classes permitting) since my late teens. Can't say the same of my coworkers, many of whom are frequently out sick. For some reason that is considered normal and acceptable. Some are on long term medical leave. More than a few died - suddenly - in their 30s and 40s after getting the so-called "vax", a few cases within weeks of each other.
Needless to say my questioning of authority multiplied exponentially since that abhorrent era. Now, it's not much of an exaggeration to say I trust no one, and nothing, nothing in this Earthly realm that is. Today I keep God in the center of my heart, and then I follow my heart. That principle may come across as simpleminded and naïve, but do find it distressing that so many people, even some commenting in this thread, continue to be misled by "experts" despite what is (to me) patently obvious.
Gaslighting is real. I am not a doctor, nor am I a gifted writer like you, but I need a word in English for "obviously obvious" whatever that is. When I discuss subjects such as this with like-minded others, and they ask me how I know this or that, I respond by saying "I call it looking." I'm afraid that's as close as I can get to expressing myself in English. Observe, discern. God gave us a brain. Use it.
"Follow the money" gets pretty close too. My local dairy farmer has no lobby group. He is just doing what he loves, and I am happy to pay him the ten bucks a gallon he charges. He could charge twice, three times as much, and I'd pay it. I am happy to watch his cows graze. They seem happy too. I could choose to be angry at the "experts", but there is no room in my heart for anger. Only an infinite capacity for joy. Eat, pray, love, drink raw whole grass fed milk, and be joyful.
A cautionary tale: at least one HUGE dairy farm in N. Texas sells "low heat pasteurized" milk, and claims it's got all the goodness of raw. When pressed, they admitted it goes well over 118º F, which is where enzymes meet their maker.
So, much as "organic" has been compromised in the marketplace, so too goes "raw" milk. Buyer beware.
Yay! Drank it for the first 18 years of my life. It's illegal here but I buy it when available. So good compared to homogenized sterilized stuff in the store. Homemade yogurt - yum! Small farmers can do it more safely than huge corporate operations. Never been sick from it.
First off, I don't drink milk 🤮. Just not a fan. That being said, I love the healthy benefits of raw milk and support anyone's rights to be able to drink it if they so choose. For crying out loud, why don't we worry about the thousands of chemicals we allow in our foods instead of worrying about something unadulterated, straight from the source 🤯 Where's the outrage there 🤷🏻♀️
Well said, Donna.
Have a gallon and a half of raw milk in my frig as we speak . It is indeed very good . I know my dairy farmer and have been to the farm . I have no ethical qualms about drinking milk .
🐄 ❤️ Do you have concerns about food borne diseases in your raw milk? Has it ever made you sick?
I have always been an advocate of raw milk and have given it to all of my children as toddlers since they had eczema from pasteurized milk. However, last year we had a salmonella infection that was most likely caused from the Raw farms raw milk as that is the only thing the 3 of us had that was the same. It has been a struggle to recover my gut since then, developed a histamine intolerance severe leaky gut and still had latent salmonella on my last GI map test. I am on the fence now as to if raw milk is worth the risk considering we experienced it first hand and now over 6 months later are still dealing with ramifications of that infection. I would definitely not recommend raw farms (in CA) as they have had multiple Salmonella outbreaks that I later learned about. I do think that raw milk has health benefits but it is important to find a reputable source and I thought that raw farms was as they claim to test the milk for pathogens but I'm not sure now.
Thank you for sharing your family’s experience. I’m sorry to hear this. That must have been very hard at the time and it’s devastating to know that it’s ongoing. I’ve only known one friend to have a histamine intolerance. It caused her to lose an enormous amount of weight. I could never quite understand it… Now I wonder if drinking raw milk is what caused it?
Raw milk is life force, pasteurised milk is poison.
Plain enough?
www.uddermilk.com
I'm another octogenarian who's been drinking raw milk for six decades, raised my children on it. My biggest error was being vegetarian for too long. Pasteurization is poor compensation for sloppy & mindlessly expedient ways of maintaining animals. Forrest Maready's The Germ in the Dairy Pail is a great account of the diminution of thought processes that led to widespread pasteurization. Not surprisingly, money was a big factor. Those feeding their cows swill objected to the competition from those making the effort to maintain their cows properly. Once they'd laid out the $ for all the expensive pasteurization equipment, it had to be justified. (So now we feed cows swill in (filthy) CAFOs and it makes most people sick.) The cow is sacred because she provides food, field maintenance via balancing plants -- hence insects, birds, other critters, fertilizer (also useful for fuel), lots more, and when the life is done, leather, tools (various bone uses), even bits for shelter. Every living being - human, cow, goat, whatever, comes to the end of the life journey, and life, if properly stewarded, renews. It's not the cow; it's the how.
Thank you for weighing on and for all this useful and relevant information, Happy Slacker. Also I love that you’re an octogenarian with the pen name “Happy Slacker.” If you don’t mind me saying so. 😊
Oh, aye lassie! Though, it depends where you live. Solidly established where milking hygiene is practiced? Amen, go visit the seller’s farm and lean towards Jersey for the highest butterfat percentage. I had it made in Austin, where a good soul did a weekly visit for many customers, swung by our frig and piled in the milk, cream, yogurt, cheese, and collected his checks (pure honor system).
Now, living in India? No WAY would I drink raw milk. I have seen how the cows live, how they are milked, and how easily my gut gets polluted by parasitic organisms that are invisible, often even to a high powered microscope. I have to comfort myself, reasoning a good boil is still better than pasteurization and homogenization. At least my buffalo milk’s cream rises to the top!
I appreciate this comment and you sharing your lived experiences. It’s all about context, terrain, and individualization, isn’t it? Nuance is good. But nuance doesn’t sell Coke or COVID jabs or pasteurized milk…
To me, the whole "thing" about ANY milk is that cow's milk is for baby cows and goats milk is for baby goats and hamster milk is for baby hamsters - you get the point. Maybe it was me who missed the point(s) in this article but I personally cannot read about milk without thinking about the babies - the calves and the kids - I have no idea what baby hamsters are called - who are taken away from their mothers so that we humans can have the milk that was meant for them. One only has to see the babies bleating for their mothers and the mothers screaming for their babies - to know that what we are doing - drinking their milk - is wrong. We are the only mammals who drink another mammals milk - human babies are supposed to be be breastfed - that statement often provokes a number of people - and when they wean ("baby-led weaning"), then that's that for milk. We were not designed to drink other animals' milk, raw or otherwise.
We adopted a baby who had failure to thrive. I breastfed him, but it wasn't enough. My milk was tested and it was fine. I think his mother used marijuana while she was pregnant. And after 2 1/2 years and him looking like he had kwashiorkor and being way belong the 3rd %ile, I started him on a diet of raw carrot juice, raw goat's milk, powdered kelp, oil, and sprouts. His sleep requirement dropped from 16 hours a day to 8, the plaque fell off his teeth, and his hair got shiny. As a healthy grown man, he is 6' tall. God gave us milk animals who can make enough milk for their babies AND for us, and it was intended that we should drink the milk. I've been drinking raw milk for a half century; it is a major part of my diet. I don't get sick. I am 82 years old, and I have no chronic diseases. My blood pressure is normal. I lead an active life. I didn't even catch Covid although I was exposed. All the raw milk you won't drink is available for me, and I love it!
I must respectfully and strenuously disagree. First off this is a debate about raw v pasteurized, so you have completely pivoted. But OK.
1) many calves are taken off their mothers but still provided their mothers' milk by bottle or bucket. They can't drink all their mothers produce. A Holstein can easily produce 10 gallons dIly. The calf needs a gallon percdY. The excess is sold to humans who benefit from en,yes, minerals, fats and proteins. This relationship has been mutually beneficial for tens of thousands of years people clueless about farming now crow in histrionics. I guess baby formula is a beer industrial alternative?
2) what delusions are suffered in the fantasy world? Do people think millions of calves should have happy lives bounding free with their Moms? This isn't a zoo. Cows eat HUGE amounts of food at great cost. Lacking milk sales, all those calves cannot be economically supported and will end up in hotdogs factories. Noce job, fantasies. Adopt a calf and learn a few things before preaching your out of touch nonsense. Cows without farmers do not fare well in the wild. Mastitis, predators and starvation await them. No clueless dreamers will save them. We farmers tend and minister to them every day of the year. We are stewards.
3) the issue at hand. Raw milk is healthier and full of nutrients destroyed in pasteurization. Plus we spare the dreaded fossil fuel consumption in the heating and rapid cooling process.
Go eat your Cheetos and Doritos and leave us sane farmers and our cows alone. You probably think chocolate milk comes from brown cows, and chickens are slaves. They all die without caring husbandry by informed farmers, which you ain't.
ain't.
You can have my cows when you pry them from.my cold, dead hand. I'm tired of your idiocy. Molon labe.
You all are at risk of starving to death ND too clueless to even know it. No society has ever been so alienated from its food and soils, at all our peril. Peraps you will eat your solar panels, or whatever your WEF slavemasters bestow upon your plate.
If the calf takes 1 gallon, then the mother will adjust to her baby's needs. Overproducing is a drain on the mother and she won't live a normal life span from the stress and depletion. As the calf grows , the calf will need more and the mother will increase accordingly.
Excuse me. Animals kept well by farmers live longer than animals in the wild. Often twice or three times as long. Farmers meet their nutritional needs, even when the natural environment is subject to problems from bad weather (no rain, for example). Animals kept by farmers are protected from predators and treated for disease. I used to keep goats. I can tell you, it is not economical to keep all the baby male goats. We can let them grow for awhile, and then use them for meat. The females give us milk and pay us back for the food we give them.
It's like you didn't even read the comment.
You've not been around cows, it appears. Cows, and goats, even those bovines not specifically bred to have udders the size of bushel baskets, make way more milk than a calf needs. They have long supplied mankind with their goodness, and not to the detriment of their young.
In India, they have a brilliant way of getting both us and their calves the best of both worlds: the calf is brought to Mom at milking time, head butts her udder eagerly (oxytocin storm, milk let down signal), and gets to suck first. Human milk saving comes second to baby being fed.
The Vedas extol the virtues of milk and ghee, and they are timeless. In several places, it's called amrit (food of immortality).
You obviously can choose to imbibe or not, but there's no historical basis for your argument.
Most cows are not treated that way. They are treated like machines in a business.
Only the commercial cows whose milk is pasteurized. Raw milk ranchers are good to their cows. It pays better to do that.
It pays better both short term (price to sell direct to consumers) and long term (cows, live longer healthier lives, and produce stronger offspring).
You're talking about factory farming practices. Yes, they can be terribly inhumane. That's also where pasteurized milk comes from – NOT raw milk. Raw milk farmers know that the success of their product depends on the health and happiness of their animals.
California dairies, with thousands of cows? You bet. Your local small dairy of 40 cows? Different story. Visit one of them, talk to the farmer, get informed. Or ignore the entire discussion if it upsets you. You have a choice.
Sad, and true, but you don't have to buy their milk. I recommend you don't.
Thank you. 100% correct.
not sure what your point is about hamsters, however the case you make is excellent
I used to be able to get raw milk where I used to live and it is the BEST. Highly recommended. Also my grandmother on my dad’s side always had a milk cow that she would milk twice a day, and the milk and cream from her was also so good.
Africans who eat raw insects also think it tastes good...
Americans suffer from an epidemic of obesity, cardiovascular dis-ease, diabetes, malignancy
Is it a stretch to consider the myriad of causes include suckling another species??
Milk contains two essential fatty acids you can't get any place else. C15 and C17. Not getting these makes one more prone to disease, although the resilient human body can make do without them. The Maasai live off milk, animal blood and meat, and fruit and they are a strong and healthy people. Some people think eating an all meat diet are going to have diseases like heart problems. Tell the Eskimos that. I'm not interested in the manipulation of this "yecch" type of propaganda from you or anyone else. Americans didn't get sick from drinking milk. They got sick from eating fast food and taking pharmaceuticals.
Really?? Should have eclipsed the planet many decades ago...
Carnivores attempt to (as John McDougall pointed out) fabricate
good news about bad habits... I do not care what interests you.
Post for the benefit of all... Have the background and experience ten fold.
So you think all the world's carnivores do this thing? Do you honestly think most carnivores even CARE whether other people like their cuisine or not? I do not care. I just know that God commanded Noah to eat meat. He COMMANDED the Israelites to eat lamb at Passover. After Noah's flood, there was not sufficient vegetation with the necessary nutrition to keep people healthy. But maybe you don't believe in Noah's flood. It may surprise you to learn that most of the indigenous people of the world DO. They carried the legends by oral tradition. The Bible is THE most reliable history book of ancient times. It passes many tests. I supported drinking raw milk. This does not require anyone to eat meat. I am OK with what you choose to eat, and you really don't have the right not to return the favor. I do post for the sake of other people. It's why I debunked the things you said. I don't expect to convince you of anything. I have been shocked at the intensity of attempts to coerce with moral arguments on the part of vegetarians I have experienced. God wanted us to be aware that it would cost Jesus His life to pay for our sins, and to be conscious of the suffering mankind caused to animals by sinning. He wanted to remind us that we are mortal, because our penalty for sin is death. I'll go with what God said. I don't buy into your worldview.
Mother Nature keeps getting a bad wrap. And. So many keep buying it. Go figure. Thanks for another great piece. One that actually covers all the bases. Biased journalism needs to be exposed. You are our go to. Again, thank you.