Raw Milk a Superfood? My Udder Surprise!

You might wonder – what’s a Paleo enthusiast doing with milk? As a firm dairy-free advocate, I’ve been reading studies about the immune boosting properties of raw milk. Could it be true or hype? So I decided to try it. To my total and “udder” surprise, almost immediately I noticed a higher energy level. My skin was smoother. Little skin spots vanished. I slept more soundly and didn’t need as much sleep. This has truly been my surprise of the year! Oh, and check out my favorite Raw Superfood Milkshakes in 14 Flavors!

Great Flavor, Easily Digestible
Besides tasting great, raw organic milk is a precious, life-giving food. It is easy to digest because it contains all the original enzymes. Many people who cannot digest pasteurized milk report that they can tolerate raw milk. I wonder – perhaps we’re not lactose intolerant – we’re just intolerant to milk processed at high temperatures!

Pasteurization Kills
Heating milk destroys most of its nutritive value. Pasteurization dissolves enzymes, vitamins, and kills certain essential proteins that work synergistically to promote balanced health. Heating also destroys beneficial bacteria in raw milk. It kills the natural enzymes and destroys the chemical make-up of calcium to render it non-absorbable. This can lead to dental problems and nervous disorders. Insufficient calcium leads to serious setbacks in bone and brain formation in children. Here is a summary of the nutritional differences between pasteurized and raw milk.

Powerful Immune-Boosting Properties of Raw Milk
A recent European study indicates that raw milk actually helps to prevent colds, viruses, and respiratory tract infections, as opposed to commercially processed milk which provides little or no health benefits. The study of 983 children found that raw milk is superior in terms of immune-boosting nutrition. They found that raw milk works something like breast milk in providing protective, anti-inflammatory health benefits. Compared to pasteurized milk, raw milk was found to help lower C-reactive protein levels, which are directly associated with inflammation. Raw milk, in other words, works against inflammation, while processed milk may help promote it due to its altered proteins. Today, in Germany, successful raw milk therapy is provided in many hospitals. One study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology was done on 8,000 children. Researchers hold that by drinking raw milk you are “naturally immunizing” the body.

Research Shows Raw Milk Reduces Allergies and Asthma
Two recent studies in Europe: the PARSIFAL study in 2006 of 15,000 children, and the GABRIELA study in Basel, Switzerland found that raw milk improves asthma and strengthens the immune system. The GABRIELA study noted that the protective effect of raw milk on asthma might be associated with its whey protein content.

Mark McAfee, founder of Organic Pastures Dairy notes that peer reviewed, internationally published documentation showed that whey protein in raw milk stabilizes mast cells in the immune system. Raw milk made asthma get a lot better, and in some cases, completely disappeared. There is a polarity between two opposites: pasteurized vs. raw milk. Pasteurized milk contains large quantities of dead bacteria, which actually trigger inflammation in the body because it doesn’t recognize these as waste products. Your body then reacts by sending out mast cells and histamines to destroy pathogens, creating mucus which causes asthma, allergies, sore throats and ear infections to flare up. However raw milk does exactly the opposite. When the milk is alive with beneficial bacteria, the body recognizes it, and these bacteria can colonize to become part of a strong immune system.

Raw Milk Boosts Glutathione Body Detox
This is important – stay with me here! Glutathione is a protein found in every cell in the body, where it works as an antioxidant to neutralize free radicals and prevent cellular damage. Proper glutathione levels are critically important for all the other anti-oxidants to work. Glutathione is also essential for cellular energy, immune system, detox, and disease prevention. Fresh, raw milk promotes glutathione production, but pasteurized milk does not.

Where to Find Raw Milk?
In New Mexico, buy Desmet Raw Milk at La Montanita Coop. Elsewhere In the US, look for a trustworthy local farm. Connect with the Local Chapter of the Weston A Price Foundation. Visit realmilk.com, or check out raw milk laws by state.

Raw milk comes from healthy grass-fed cows, in small farms that are kept very clean.

Pasteurized milk comes from huge factory farms where animals are generally fed GMO grains. But grain is not the preferred diet for cows, who as ruminants do better on grass. In this un-natural environment, hormones and antibiotics boost milk production and prevent disease outbreaks. 

This 23,000 liter milk tank truck transports milk to a packaging facility. One sick cow can contaminate the entire shipment, thus pasteurization has prevented disease and saved milk from spoilage. But at the same time it destroys most of the nutrients in the milk. Large tank trucks are regularly cleaned and disinfected with – you guessed it – chemicals!

What’s the Cause of Disease? Germs or the Environment?
Pasteurization is named after Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), French chemist who used heat to destroy microbes in wine and milk. Pasteur put forward the germ theory, which holds that disease is caused by infectious microbes. This paradigm has been the basis for the use of antibiotics to destroy invasive microbes, and vaccines with low doses of a microbe to challenge the body’s immune defenses and thereby prevent systemic infection.

Claude Bernard (1813-1878) French physiologist, Pasteur’s contemporary and friend, argued that the cause of disease is the body’s internal environment – what he called “le milieu intérieur”. Bernard believed that the body becomes susceptible to infectious agents only if the internal balance is disturbed. After all, there are billions of microbes and bacteria inhabiting our guts, our blood, our whole body. Why do we sometimes get sick from them, sometimes not? When a bacteria or virus is “going around”, why do some people get sick and others remain healthy?

Pasteur’s germ theory won out at the time. After all it’s very appealing to blame our diseases on microbes, so we’ve been demonizing them for 150 years. My personal belief is that if we pay attention to building the internal strength of the body and immune system, it will be balanced and better able to defend us from pathogens. One great way to do that is to drink raw milk!

Rumor has it that Pasteur recanted his germ theory on his deathbed, saying:

“Bernard is right. The microbe is nothing. The environment of the soil is everything.”  “Bernard avait raison. Le germe n’est rien, c’est le terrain qui est tout.”

Sources:

CDC. Raw Milk Questions and Answers. [Internet]. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/raw-milk-questions-and-answers.html#history.

University of Granada. “Goats’ Milk Is More Beneficial To Health Than Cows’ Milk, Study Suggests.” ScienceDaily 2007.

Guyenet S. Butyric Acid: an Ancient Controller of Metabolism, Inflammation and Stress Resistance? 2009.

Medical News Today. Gut bacteria’s fatty acid boost immune system, reducing inflammation.

Macdonald LE, Brett J, Kelton D, Majowicz SE, Snedeker K, Sargeant JM. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of pasteurization on milk vitamins, and evidence for raw milk consumption and other health-related outcomes. Journal of Food Protection 2011: 749(11): 1814-32.

Lewis, L.R., The relation of the vitamins to obstetrics, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 29.5:759. May, 1935.

Panfili G, Manzi P, Pizzoferrato L. Influence of thermal and other manufacturing stresses on retinol isomerization in milk and dairy products. Journal of Dairy Research 1998: 65: 253-260.

Zurera-Consano G, Moreno-Rojas R, Amaro-Lopez M. Effect of processing on contents and relationships of mineral elements of milk.  Journal of Food Chemistry 1194, 51(1): 75-78.

Gabriella Study Group. The protective effect of farm milk consumption on childhood asthma and atopy. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2011. 128(4): 766-773.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/02/09/raw-milk-asthma-allergies.aspx

The Biochemical Magic of Raw Milk and Other Raw Foods: Glutathione

Glutathione in Whey

Curcumin Induces Glutathione Biosynthesis

The Biological Activity of Undenatured Whey Protiens: Gluathione Synthesis

http://www.jacionline.org

http://www.en.uni

http://www.realmilk.com [A Google web cache of this page is available here]

http://thebovine.wordpress.com

http://www.nytimes.com

http://www.drfranklipman.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

European study finds raw milk boosts immunity, prevents colds and infections 

Raw Milk Heals Skin, Allergies and Immunity