Throughout the previous couple of years, bureaucrats and public well being officers have been quiet about uncooked milk, however then Iowa legalized its sale in Could. The accompanying publicity — in The New York Occasions and USA At the moment,1,2 plus many different publications — has resulted in a flurry of pro-pasteurization, anti-raw milk Web posts.
One in every of these appeared on December 8, 2023,3 written by Claire Panosian Dunavan, professor emeritus of drugs and infectious illnesses on the David Geffen Faculty of Drugs on the College of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and previous president of the American Society of Tropical Drugs and Hygiene. Dunavan can’t perceive the “dangerous attract” of uncooked milk. “Is it patrons’ religion in ‘nature’s excellent meals’ or sellers’ pure, bare greed?” she asks. The primary claims in her article:
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Within the Nineties, Nathan Straus (co-owner of Macy’s) began a non-public basis to dispense pasteurized milk after his son died of typhus throughout a trip in Italy — the loss of life blamed on uncooked milk. (Dunavan then credit Straus with a drop in U.S. toddler mortality from 125 per 1,000 to fewer than 16 per 1,000 between 1891 and 1925.) |
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Uncooked milk customers are 840 occasions extra prone to undergo sickness than those that drink pasteurized dairy. |
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Latest outbreaks of sickness blamed on uncooked milk have occurred in California, Utah and Idaho. |
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Uncooked milk incorporates harmful pathogens like campylobacter and salmonella. |
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Uncooked milk could trigger Guillain-Barré syndrome. |
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Persons are avoiding pasteurized milk due to milk allergy “versus a severe, even life-threatening an infection.” |
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The true villains are the individuals who promote uncooked milk “as a result of they consider there’s an viewers on the market that can purchase it,” though they “know” that uncooked milk will hurt some individuals. |
Are Uncooked Milk Farmers Pushed by Greed?
Let’s have a look at these factors one after the other, beginning with the accusation that uncooked milk farmers are motivated by pure, bare greed. (Within the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a dairy farmer who sells uncooked milk.)
Typical dairy farmers at this time obtain about the identical worth as they did throughout World Warfare II, even whereas their prices have skyrocketed. Usually, they get $1.45 per gallon, which prices them $2 to supply.4
This explains why the variety of licensed dairy operations within the U.S. has steadily declined by greater than 55%,5 from 70,375 in 2003 to 31,657 in 2020. Greater than 3,000 dairy farms stopped manufacturing throughout 2020 alone — that’s eight per day.
A few of these farmers have averted going bankrupt by switching to uncooked milk gross sales. Usually, customers are completely satisfied to pay from $5 to $10 per half gallon — sufficient to avoid wasting the household farm, particularly if the farmer reduces his prices by nourishing his cows on grass (the pure meals for cows) quite than feeding grain.
Dunavan refers to farmers’ want to make a good residing as “pure, bare greed,” however let me offer you an instance of actual greed. Dairy firm CEOs usually make salaries upwards of $3 million per yr. They do that by protecting milk costs as little as potential — therefore the heartbreak of dropping the farm inflicted on 1000’s of dairy farmers. That’s what most of us would name pure, bare greed.
True Causes of Toddler Mortality
About Nathan Straus dropping his son to typhus and blaming it on uncooked milk, in keeping with that font of standard data, Wikipedia, typhus is brought on by micro organism unfold by lice, chiggers or fleas.6 Since Dunavan is a public well being professional, she ought to know this. (I’ve not been capable of finding any reference to uncooked milk inflicting typhus, apart from the case of Straus’ son.)
Typhus reigns in filthy circumstances and it was an actual downside, particularly in cities, earlier than the appearance of recent housing, sewage methods and washing machines. Even at this time we see outbreaks of typhus, however public well being specialists usually blame them on rats, by no means on uncooked milk!7
As for the decline in toddler mortality within the U.S. on the flip of the twentieth century, it was throughout this era that public officers labored to scrub up our cities with the set up of sewage methods, garbage assortment and clear water.
This was additionally the interval when the automotive regularly changed the horse and mule — earlier than the automotive, our cities had been stinking cesspools of manure and dirt. Immigrants huddled in crowded housing with out operating water and refrigeration, and with solely rudimentary sanitation. The loss of life charge by the age of 5 was 50% — and this was blamed on uncooked milk quite than unsanitary circumstances — officers referred to as it the “milk downside.”
Manure piled up on a New York Metropolis road creating lethal unsanitary circumstances — well being officers referred to as this the “milk downside.”
Uncooked milk could certainly have contributed to the excessive loss of life charge as a result of it got here from distillery dairies — inside metropolis confinement dairies of unimaginable filth the place cows had been fed distillery waste. The milk was so poor and watery that chalk was usually added to make it look white — this was the milk that Straus wished to pasteurize.
Nevertheless, pasteurization can’t take the credit score for the decline in toddler mortality because it was round this time that distillery dairies had been banned. The true hero was not Nathan Straus, who did nothing for public clean-up efforts, however Dr. Henry Coit, who labored to carry clear uncooked milk from the countryside to the cities.
Public well being officers on the time lauded Coit’s licensed uncooked milk with saving youngsters’s lives and famous that youngsters in orphanages introduced up on uncooked milk had been more healthy than these given pasteurized milk.
Questioning the Experiences
About uncooked milk security, Dunavan repeats the latest declare that individuals who drink uncooked milk are 840 occasions extra prone to contract food-borne sickness than those that don’t.8
However an evaluation by epidemiologist Peg Coleman, based mostly on knowledge thought-about by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Meals Security and Inspection Service (FSIS), discovered that on a every year foundation, out of 23 meals thought-about, pasteurized milk ranked second highest and uncooked milk ranked seventh highest in inflicting extreme sickness.9 The true query that one should ask, nonetheless, is how correct are stories of sickness and loss of life from uncooked milk?
The Weston A. Value Basis analyzed a 2007 PowerPoint presentation by John F. Sheehan, then director of FDA’s Division of Dairy and Egg Security, who contended that pasteurization is the one approach to make sure the protection of milk.10
Desk 1 reveals that the 15 research Sheehan referenced (by means of 2005) both had been methodologically flawed or that bias or outright fabrication guided the conclusions that he drew; not one of many research cited by the FDA really proved that uncooked milk brought about the sickness.
We have to do the identical evaluation for stories of uncooked milk sickness from 2005 to the current — one that features the claims of sickness from uncooked milk in California, Idaho and Utah. It’s protected to imagine that lots of them are bogus, given the alacrity of public well being officers in charge uncooked milk for any sickness with out a thorough examination of all the info.
Desk 1: Unfounded Conclusions From Uncooked Milk Research
| LAW OR BIAS | NUMBER | PERCENT |
|---|---|---|
| No Legitimate Constructive Milk Pattern | 12/15 | 80% |
| No Legitimate Statistical Affiliation with Uncooked Milk | 10/15 | 67% |
| Findings Misrepresented by FDA | 7/15 | 47% |
| Alternate options Found, Not Pursued | 5/15 | 33% |
| No Proof Anybody Consumed Uncooked Milk Merchandise | 2/15 | 13% |
| Outbreak Did Not Even Exist | 1/15 | 13% |
| Did Not Present that Pasteurization Would Have Prevented Outbreak | 15/15 | 100% |
In keeping with the late Dr. Ted Beals, who analyzed stories of foodborne sickness from 1999 to 2011,11 authorities knowledge report a median of 42 diseases from uncooked milk per yr out of 90,771 diseases from all sources.
Utilizing these figures, Dr. Beals concluded that one is 35,000 occasions extra prone to grow to be unwell from different meals than from uncooked milk. Beals additionally famous that there isn’t any method to quantify whether or not anyone meals is safer than one other from the info now we have, however on the identical time, it’s clear that there isn’t any foundation for singling out uncooked milk as “inherently harmful.”
Lately, melons have ranked excessive in inflicting sickness — together with an outbreak from cantaloupe that resulted in over 300 diseases, over 100 hospitalizations and 4 deaths. The place is Dunavan’s outcry towards grasping melon growers? And what about uncooked oysters, which kill 15 individuals per yr?12 The place are the warnings to oyster lovers to not eat these horrible issues?
Pathogen Information
Dunavan implies that uncooked milk may cause Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) — a degeneration of the nerve cells that causes muscle weak spot and paralysis — as a result of uncooked milk can carry campylobacter, and campylobacter usually will get the blame for GBS.
In fact, many, many meals harbor campylobacter. In 2019, there have been over 100,000 reported instances of GBS worldwide;13 a fast Web search doesn’t discover any of those instances related to the consumption of uncooked milk.
By the way in which, campylobacter and salmonella, the 2 pathogens mostly related to uncooked milk, don’t develop in refrigerated uncooked milk. In a pilot research sponsored by the Uncooked Milk Institute, refrigerated uncooked milk inoculated with excessive and reasonable counts of those pathogens suppressed their development.14
Inoculated listeria did develop in uncooked milk, however an affiliation of this pathogen with uncooked milk is extraordinarily uncommon. Furthermore, a latest systematic evaluation discovered that the dangers of extreme listeriosis an infection had been better for pasteurized milk merchandise than for uncooked milk merchandise.15
Customers Shunning Pasteurized Milk
Dunavan wonders why individuals would indulge within the dangerous conduct of consuming uncooked milk. There are superb causes for consuming uncooked milk, however first, let’s think about why fewer and fewer persons are consuming pasteurized milk. In each the UK and the U.S., consumption of pasteurized milk has declined by 50% since 1974 (Determine 3). (I might like to know whether or not Dunavan herself drinks pasteurized milk!)
Determine 3: UK per capita liquid milk consumption, 1974-2018
To seek out out why consumption of pasteurized milk is declining, let’s think about a 2019 research out of China, entitled “Processing milk causes the formation of protein oxidation merchandise which impair spatial studying and reminiscence in rats.”16
The researchers subjected milk to 4 processing methods: boiling, microwave heating, spray-drying and freeze-drying. (Boiling takes milk to 212 levels F; ultra-pasteurization takes milk to 280 levels F. Most milk offered at this time is ultra-pasteurized.)
All 4 methods (even freeze-drying) brought about oxidative injury to the milk proteins and resulted in “numerous levels of redox state imbalance and oxidative injury in plasma, liver, and mind tissues.” Feeding broken milk proteins to rats resulted in studying and reminiscence impairment — no surprise IQ ranges are falling!
The researchers concluded, “people ought to management milk protein oxidation and enhance the processing strategies utilized to meals.” However methods to enhance these processing strategies? What sorts of processing strategies would they counsel? How about no processing in any respect? Why not simply deal with milk rigorously and cleanly and let the numerous pure antimicrobial compounds in uncooked milk do their work?17
Milk Proteins Are Simply Broken
Milk proteins are usually not robust like muscle or collagen proteins; they’re extraordinarily fragile and simply broken by warmth and strain (as in heated drying). No surprise the consumption of business pasteurized milk is declining — the physique sees processed and broken milk proteins as international proteins and mounts an immune response.
This explains why milk protein is the number-one allergy and why research hyperlink consumption of pasteurized milk with digestive issues, rashes, bronchial asthma, diabetes … and even sudden loss of life.
Based mostly on statistics supplied by the Allergy & Bronchial asthma Community,18 one can deduce that pasteurized milk causes roughly 20 deaths from anaphylactic shock per yr! The kind of milk that’s actually harmful is pasteurized milk. Sure, certainly, “purpose to not” drink pasteurized milk is allergy — life-threatening allergy. Mother and father are determining that they shouldn’t give this junk to their youngsters … or drink it themselves.
Pasteurized milk is the milk that causes well being issues, whereas uncooked milk is certainly Nature’s Good Meals — in any case, it’s the meals in Nature that nourishes all mammals, loaded with nutritional vitamins and minerals, every one in every of which has a particular enzyme that ensures 100% assimilation. When milk is pasteurized, these vitamins are largely destroyed, or rendered very troublesome to soak up (Desk 2).
Desk 2: Destruction of Vitamins and Nutrient Assimilation by Pasteurization
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Vitamin C — Uncooked milk however not pasteurized can resolve scurvy. “No doubt … the explosive improve in childish scurvy throughout the latter a part of the nineteenth century coincided with the appearance of use of heated milks.”19 |
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Calcium — Longer and denser bones on uncooked milk. (Supply: Research from Randleigh Farm.) |
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Folate — Service protein inactivated throughout pasteurization.20 |
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Vitamin B12 — Binding protein inactivated by pasteurization. |
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Vitamin B6 — Animal research point out B6 poorly absorbed from pasteurized milk. (Supply: Research from Randleigh Farm.) |
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Vitamin B2 — Fully destroyed.21 |
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Vitamin A — Beta-lactoglobulin, a heat-sensitive protein in milk, will increase intestinal absorption of vitamin A. Warmth degrades vitamin A.22,23 |
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Vitamin D — Current in milk certain to lactoglobulins, pasteurization cuts assimilation in half.24 |
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Iron — Lactoferrin, which contributes to iron assimilation, destroyed throughout pasteurization. Kids on pasteurized milk are likely to anemia. |
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Minerals — Sure to proteins inactivated by pasteurization; Lactobacilli, destroyed by pasteurization, improve mineral absorption.25,26 |
Causes to Go Uncooked
Extra causes to drink uncooked milk: much less bronchial asthma and respiratory infections, fewer allergy symptoms and rashes. These are the conclusions of various European research, which pasteurization proponents within the U.S. dismiss, however which public well being officers in Europe have taken critically. These embrace:
- A 2001 research revealed in The Lancet — Much less bronchial asthma, fewer allergy symptoms27
- The 2006 PARSIFAL research (Medical & Experimental Allergy) — Much less bronchial asthma, fewer allergy symptoms28
- The 2011 GABRIELA research (Journal of Allergy and Medical Immunology) — Much less bronchial asthma, fewer allergy symptoms29
- A 2012 research (Present Opinion in Allergy and Medical Immunology) — Much less bronchial asthma, fewer allergy symptoms30
- The 2014 PASTURE research (Journal of Allergy and Medical Immunology) — Much less respiratory an infection31,32
Within the U.S., bronchial asthma kills 9 individuals per day, lots of them youngsters. When mother and father see that uncooked milk relieves bronchial asthma of their baby, they exit of their method to get hold of this magical product from grasping farmers.
There’s extra: early research point out that uncooked milk given to rising animals confers longer and denser bones in comparison with pasteurized milk.33 I’ve heard from a number of gals recognized with osteoporosis who began consuming uncooked milk day by day and handed their bone density take a look at two years later.
Uncooked milk additionally contributes to robust, wholesome tooth.34 And many individuals who can’t tolerate pasteurized milk can get pleasure from uncooked milk with out issues. I’ve even had mother and father inform me that their youngsters’s conduct improved after they made only one change of their food regimen — switching from pasteurized to uncooked milk.
Seeking to the Future
For these and different causes — comparable to the truth that uncooked milk tastes so good — uncooked milk gross sales are booming. Our web site realmilk.com will get nearly 400,000 visits monthly, most of them to the Uncooked Milk Finder web page.
Once we arrange realmilk.com in 1999, we had solely a handful of listings; at this time, the web site lists over 3,000 locations to get uncooked milk within the U.S., and there are a lot of extra not listed. Uncooked milk farmers inform me that they will’t produce sufficient uncooked milk to satisfy the demand — which signifies that these grasping farmers aren’t charging sufficient for it.
The reality is, pasteurization is a Rust Belt expertise — a bit like hitting a pile of manure with a sledgehammer. It lets the trade get away with elevating cows in filthy, crowded circumstances, nevertheless it doesn’t make milk any safer, and it ruins Nature’s excellent meals.
We’ve come a good distance for the reason that days of Nathan Straus. We’ve the expertise to supply clear uncooked milk — chrome steel, speedy cooling, on-farm testing, an environment friendly nationwide chilly chain — and get it to each rising baby within the nation.
Uncooked milk is the longer term. I predict that inside 20 years, pasteurized milk might be a factor of the previous. Small, grass-based dairy farms will proliferate to satisfy the demand, and no couple will begin a household with out ensuring there’s a provide of uncooked milk close by. Well being officers like Professor Dunavan can protest all they need, however fewer and fewer persons are listening.
Concerning the Writer
Sally Fallon Morell is writer of the best-selling cookbook “Nourishing Traditions” and lots of different books on food regimen and well being. She is the founding president of the Weston A. Value Basis (westonaprice.org) and a founding father of A Marketing campaign for Actual Milk (realmilk.com). Go to her weblog at nourishingtraditions.com.
