raw milk « Back to Group Discussions

[love bug]

just wondering if there are any other raw milk drinkers out there? and if so will you continue through pregnancy? or have you through other pregnancies?

We are only a year into raw milk and although we dont dring a lot of milk normally we do enjoy the raw milk and I make all our yogurt from it (so yummy!!). But during all my previous pregnancies I stayed away from unpasturized milk products because of listeriosis and now that I am pregnant I am super paranoid everytime I look at the milk and yogurt!

should I be? or am I just freaking out because thats what I have been trained to do? :)

[goin' green]

We eat mostly paleo so we don't do a lot of dairy anymore, but when we did, we only did raw, and that included when I was pregnant with my DD.  I can understand the fear with unpasteurized products, but it's just not something I worry about, I guess.  And when it comes to meat products, I trust our farmer and the meat we get from him far more than anything I could buy at the store.  Also, our farmer used to provide milk to the co-op for Organic Valley and they have a pretty top-notch operation and that gives me a another reason to trust it.  

[Robynee]

I don't currently drink it because I haven't been able to find a good source since we moved. I did drink raw milk throughout my last pregnancy without a concern. I don't drink milk now at all, because there is just no going back to pasteurized for me, I can't stand the taste.

[Faliciagayle]

We drink raw milk.  I make kefir and have a kefir smoothie (which I share with DS) every morning.  I drank raw through my last pregnancy.... would have through my first but we didn't discover it till after DD was born.

[beans]

We drink raw and I'll continue throughout my pg. There's a huge difference b/t getting unpasteurized products from a huge CAFO farm (not that that happens, really), vs. sourcing from a trusted farmer that is knowingly producing raw products in a healthy manner.

Making me thirsty...

[nilatti]

I'm debating whether to continue raw milk during this pregnancy (I didn't with my first), but I AM continuing yogurt made from it--the first step in yogurt making, where you heat it up to 200 degrees or so, is to kill bacteria that might interfere with the yogurt bacteria. It has the added bonus of killing bacteria that might hurt you or your baby.

[love bug]

Thanks mamas!

nilatti - when I make yogurt I bring it to maybe 150 then let it drop back to the 110 or so and keep it at about 100 to incubate. it makes a GREAT thick yogurt but i am not sure that it is killing off hurtful bacteria.

it is a hard one to get my brain around! although pasturized milk holds no place in my heart so it will likely be raw or nothing for me:)

[goin' green]

But then you're not killing off the good bacteria either!

Like I mentioned, we're mostly paleo and don't do much dairy (though of course I'm craving grains, milk and cereal and stuff like that this pregnancy) but we do make water kefir.  Anyone else?

[love bug]

if only there was a way to keep the good bugs and get rid of the nasty ones:)

[Milano]

I've done raw milk and milk kefir with all my pregnancies, except my first, and will with this one too.  We have 2 excellent sources locally, so very lucky.  I try and avoid pasteurized stuff if I can.

Going green--I was making water kefir for a while but something about piling in tablespoons after tablespoons of sugar into the jar was just not sitting right with me, even though I know it gets "eaten up" by the good bacteria.  I just feeel better on milk kefir.

Anyone doing raw eggs, or raw meat/fish?  I eat heaps of raw eggs in smoothies.  I love sashimi when I can get it, and although I haven't tried it was looking through Jamie Oliver recipe book yesterday and came across a couple carpaccio recipes and my goodness they looked so good!

[Brambleberry]

I've read that your chances of getting listeria from pasteurized milk is higher than from raw milk!  I don't know where that data comes from.  If it just includes the "legal" raw milk you can get in PA and CA (I think those are the two legal raw milk states), then I don't doubt it at all, because raw milk is strictly tested there.  I wouldn't be surprised if it's true for other, less regulated sources too, since they tend to be small farms with a direct connection to their consumers.  Listeria grows at refrigerator temperatures and can infect milk post-pasteurization.  It's a food-handling-equipment contaminate, not necessarily something that the cows themselves carry.  So if you know your farmers and trust or inspect their processing equipment, I wouldn't hesitate to drink raw milk!

We've been getting our milk from a small Amish farm for over 8 years now, and never had a problem with it.  I drank it with my last pregnancy, our toddler drinks it, and I'm drinking it with this pregnancy.  To be honest, one thing I have stayed away from while pregnant is the fresh cheese that they make.  Cheese making involves more processing equipment, and their fresh cheese can get a little funky after a week or so in the fridge...  I don't know if I'm worried about listeria specifically, but, well, I can do without funky cheese. 

We have our own chickens, and I have no hesitations about eating their eggs raw, since I know they are healthy and small flocks generally don't have problems with salmonella anyways.  I do pick out the most recently laid eggs when I eat them raw just in case...