[daisymommy]

I am reading "What To Eat and Why" by Nina Planck, and I am so jazzed up!!! It's my first time reading anything about traditional foods. I do have "Nourishing Traditions", but after flipping thru it when I bought it last year, it scared me <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/redface.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Embarrassment"> So, now I'm back to trying to be open minded.<br><br>
I really love everything that this current book has to saw about raw milk, and so I looked on the W.A.P website and easily found a local source. But I'm having hard time getting past the idea that the milk isn't "sanitized." I know, that's the big-city girl in me talking! (I was raised in L.A. California). And I'm frankly scared of the idea! I think my husband would freak if he knew I was seriously going to buy some.<br><br>
Any advice for me?

 

[gina2328]

I have been drinking it since August 2006. Its been a blessing. I have been fortunate to also buy raw cream. It tastes wonderful and its so good for you. I think its actually pasteurized milk that is unhealthy. I think of it as "dead milk" because all the goodness has been destroyed by heat.<br><br>
I mean all the good enzymes. I don't think you will regret it. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">

 

[NatrlCatholicMama]

What sold me: pasteurization was developed not for health, but to keep beer and wine from tasting off. It was applied to milk when the filth and nastiness of inner city dairies were spreading rampant disease. Now, when Upton Sinclair exposed the meat packing industry's filth in The Jungle, did we start pasteurizing meat, or clean up the plants? That's what should be the answer here, too - clean up the cows, clean up the packing, and there is no need for pasteurization.<br><br>
It was also a big moment when I realized that milk is no more inherently contaminated than a carrot. Raw carrot, raw milk, equally safe as long as neither is unsanitarily packed and shipped. The evidence? Look at last year's spinach episode - *any*thing can be contaminated when practices are bad (I think those got pinned to the nearby factory cow farm contaminating the ground water?)<br><br>
Now, what does that mean for pasteurized milk? They can be just as gross as they always have been, and stay that way, b/c pasteurization cleans up the mess. (That just means you're drinking dead tuberculosis, dead brucellosis, yum yum! when you're drinking pasteurized milk.)

 

[steph117]

I'd suggest reading Ron Schmid's book The Untold Story of Milk - it's GREAT, and it's what got me going on the raw milk thing. Nina's book has a lot of good info, but The Untold Story of Milk has SO much background; it really helps you understand why unpasteurized milk got a bad rap in the first place (a crazy story), and why raw is so healthful.<br><br>
I felt freaked out at first when I was about to start drinking raw milk, too, but that book really calmed me down! We've been using it three years now, and we LOVE it. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">

 

[JaneS]

Two articles on Dr. Ron's websites are good:<br><br><a href="http://www.drrons.com/drrons-books-articles.htm" target="_blank">http://www.drrons.com/drrons-books-articles.htm</a><br><br>
Medical Veritas Article on Raw Milk<br><br>
Health Benefits of Raw Milk from Grass Fed Animals

 

[scorch_dc]

Nina Plank's book is great. In addition to Nourishing Traditions there is a nice book called "The Garden of Eating" by Rachel Albert-Matesz and Don Matesz. It follows Weston Price, and ties into what Sally Fallon says, but it has a little more down to earth approach and is easy to read with great information. Of course also as mentioned The Untold Story of Milk.<br><br>
What we did before committing was get a tour of the farm. The farmer was smart and knowledgeable. Animals gorgeous. Barn and equipment clean. He and his wife drink the milk too. He showed me printouts of his latest results (he has milk tested for different things often) which included everything including butterfat content. He told us his birthing and weaning schedules--he is a member of the local WAP group...all good! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">

 

[moonlight mom]

I've been trying to cook more TF for the past 6 months and have really felt so much better. However, I haven't had the courage to do raw milk either. I have a food safety background and I can't get over my fears. Why don't you try raw cheese first? Cheese that has been aged over 2 months aren't likely to carry any foodborne illness. In fact, raw aged cheese is safer than pasteurized cheese because the bacteria that cause foodborne illness don't have any good bacteria to compete with in the pasteurized cheese. I also do the whole milk yogurt - the kind that WAP recommends is seven stars farm. It is made with pasteurized unhomogenized milk, but it is cultured. Also, organic valley makes a cultured butter.<br>
Sometimes you just need to start things slowly, I'm sure in no time we will both be drinking raw milk!

 

[Attached Mama]

Raw milk is actually *safer* to drink than pasturized. Have you heard about the dairy (in MA I think) that is all over the news right now? Three people just died from drinking their *pasturized* milk! From listeria. And last I heard noone could figure out why it was contaminated because the dairy had passed all inspections and followed all health regulations. They found listeria in some of the equipment anyway.<br><br>
There is no record of anyone ever getting ill or dying from listeria in raw milk from what I've read recently. Raw milk has beneficial bacteria in it to clean up the bad stuff. Raw milk doesn't go bad - it simply sours which means it gets yogurt bacteria in it. It's still useful for baking and drinking if you care for the sour taste. Pasturized milk has a shelf life - it starts to deteriorate immediately.<br><br>
Even tho pasturized milk has been "sanitized" what people fail to realize is that the sanitation doesn't kill everything - like listeria in the recent example. Nor does pasturization provide future sanitation. So your milk could be growing bad things, harmful things, from the time it finishes being pasturized. There is nothing left in the milk to protect it like there is with raw milk.<br><br>
ok - off my soap box <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/lol.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="lol">

 

[kjbrown92]

I read that book last week. Excellent! I actually tried the raw milk after reading Ron Schmidt's other book (not the raw milk one) but he still went on about the raw milk in the first one too. I used the raw milk in recipes, and it was fine. I don't drink milk anyway. But I used the cream in my tea and it was fantastic. And my husband made butter out of the cream as well. It was a local dairy farm. I'm still trying to find good eggs though. I'm spouting off to everyone I meet about "industrialized" versus "real" food!!

 

[Flowergirl~]

Propaganda has a powerful fear effect on people. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/irked.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="irked">: Just remember that people have been consuming raw milk for thousands of yrs. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/thumb.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="thumbs up">

 

[lauradbg]

<img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/yeahthat.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="yeah that">: And: co-sleeping, doing extended breastfeeding, using herbs and teas to heal, using essential oils, homebirthing, homeschooling...For most of human history, these are the ways we've taken care of ourselves and each other.

 

[scorch_dc]

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<div style="font-style:italic;"><img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/yeahthat.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="yeah that">: And: co-sleeping, doing extended breastfeeding, using herbs and teas to heal, using essential oils, homebirthing, homeschooling...</div>
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[RawGoddess]

Hi, I'm a Raw Fooder and would recommend raw dairy for anyone (caution for children)<br><br>
Raw has natural enzymes and better for you unlike the FDA approved boiled (basically) milk that is dead and causes all sorts of problems but mostly way too mkuch mucus.<br><br>
If anyone has a supply of raw dairy accessible in Omaha, NE, please get in touch. I did see posting by Animal Lady but cannot find it again.<br><br>
I'm new to site.

 

[katbomumof3]

we've been drinking raw milk for about a month and we love it, i feel way better feeding my family that than the store kind. My kids like it way better too.<br>
We also buy organic meat from a neighbor, and eggs from another neighbor, get our black market milk on a dark corner in the evening....serioulsy it looks more like a drug deal that someone buying milk. I just can't wait til i have all this myself and don't have to buy it at all<br>
i say go for it, myself i don't drink milk, but i use it in everyting else. It took me about a week to take the plunge after my family though, but thats just milk in general for me, not the raw idea.