Nutrition tidbits #7: should you drink raw milk?
I originally wrote about raw milk a couple of years ago, thinking the trend would die down (no pun intended) soon after. Surely the collective public would realize it’s a bit risky at best, and quite dangerous at worst.
(ahh, wishful thinking)
Since then, I’ve seen and heard about people getting “black market” raw milk from unmarked vans in NYC (it’s illegal in New York State… for a reason), countless children have gotten sick from drinking raw milk, and a certain politician with no health education nor credentials is influencing the masses to drink it. How very 2025, I guess. Here are my five cents on why drinking raw milk is mostly a terrible idea.
Pasteurization is a good thing
Raw milk is simply milk and dairy products that have not gone through the Pasteurization process. Pasteurization greatly prevents the likelihood of bacterial contamination and improves shelf life by heating milk to a specific temperature. That’s all it is. Pasteurization has been around since the 1920’s, and has really changed the game in terms of illness associated with consumption of dairy. In fact, the sale of raw milk is illegal in many states because consuming it can be so dangerous - especially for children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and the elderly. These populations are much more likely to get very, very sick from the bacteria that can commonly colonize in raw milk (e. Coli, salmonella, listeria, etc.). Even if you’re obtaining raw milk from the cleanest farm or facility, there is no way to guarantee it is not nor will not become contaminated with bacteria.
Why raw milk then?
It’s well-known that the Pasteurization process can reduce the amount of certain vitamins found in milk, and this appears to be what social media has latched onto. We are unfortunately still in the days of foods being labeled as “clean” and “minimally processed” to an orthorexic extreme by influencers and the uninformed. A lot, if not most, foods need some type of processing in order to prevent the people eating them from getting sick. Examples: produce needs to be washed, foods must be contained in sealed packaging, and dairy should be Pasteurized. This is truly just a combination of good sense, science and groundbreaking technology. Pasteurized milk still contains important vitamins and minerals in quantities that are beneficial to us, and has for several decades.
The bottom line
According to the CDC, raw dairy products are 800+ times more likely to cause serious illness compared to Pasteurized dairy products. This is a fact. While I fully believe in providing useful, science-backed and practice-based evidence and encouraging you to make choices that are meaningful to you, drinking raw milk is an unnecessary health risk. And, arguably the most important point here: no one is getting healthier or living longer by drinking raw milk, so why take that risk?
Take good care,
Kelly