Recently, raw milk has been receiving a lot of hate due to the fear of avian influenza. But today I want to share my “raw milk story” with you by giving you five reasons why you should support farmers you trust and buy raw milk.
1. No fatty acid manipulation
Traditional food systems and big dairies are trying to “overwhelm” and manipulate Mother Nature. With a little effort, it was possible to reduce the saturated fatty acid content of milk by up to 20%.One (Literally the opposite of what we want).
The widespread nutritional lies we've been fed for over 50 years (saturated fats are “bad”, polyunsaturated fats are “good”) are making the food industry worse. Existing food systems have already led to disastrous changes in the type of fat in chickens and pigs (changes in diet and increased PUFA content).
Unfortunately, scientists have now also figured out how to change the fatty acids in ruminant fats (dairy and beef fat). Feeding ruminants “rumen protective fats” such as oilseeds can increase the PUFA content of milk.2 — Not what we want!
Milk generally contains 1% to 2% linoleic acid. Using some rumen-protected fats can increase linoleic acid threefold.three
Oilseed crops = soybeans, cottonseeds, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, safflower, canola, rapeseed and peanuts. These are seeds that contain enough oil to ensure oil extraction and are so high in PUFA content that some PUFAs pass through digestion, increasing PUFA and decreasing SFAs. This is the opposite of what we want for our health.
Humans try to manipulate Mother Nature's designs because we think we “know better.” However, this increase in PUFA consumption has disastrous consequences for human metabolism.
“Inclusion of saturated fat in the human diet may pose a risk of cardiovascular disease (Joyce et al., 2009). However, for milk processors, milk high in saturated fatty acids (SFAs) may improve storage quality but may be detrimental to human health. The negative effects of SFAs appear to outweigh their positive functions in milk, so more research is needed to reduce the amount of SFAs in milk.4
Interest in manipulating the fat content of milk began in earnest in the 1980s. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, published in 1980 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), emphasized reductions in total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.5
The aim of the study was to obtain PUFA-rich butter with altered fatty acid composition to increase the unsaturated fatty acid content from milk of Holstein cows.
In the milk fat of the experimental group cows, the total amount of saturated fatty acids decreased by 14.9%, and the content of unsaturated fatty acids increased by 12.6%. As a result, the ratio of unsaturated and saturated fatty acids increased by 31.7%.”6
Fatty acid information in the U.S. Food Database is outdated and a lot is happening with changes in the diets of dairy animals.
So, if you buy your dairy from farmers who raise their animals the way nature intended, you can be sure you're consuming dairy products with the fatty acid composition that Mother Nature intended (which makes them even more health-promoting!).
2. Reduce exposure to toxins and pharmaceuticals
CAFO dairy systems rely much more heavily on medications (vaccines, antibiotics, etc.) because they raise many animals in a relatively small space.
Non-organic systems also feed cows GMO grains/rations that contain high levels of pesticides (because they are grown that way) and unfortunately these substances end up in milk (and other dairy products made from milk). appears.
“Currently used antibiotics and pesticides were not detected in organic, but not conventionally produced, milk samples, and several samples exceeded federal standards. The higher levels of bGH and IGF-1 in regular milk suggest the presence of synthetic growth hormones.”7
3. Support a system where farmers can actually make money.
Under the existing system, farmers are not paid a fair income. There's a reason milk prices are so low. And this comes at the expense of farmer welfare. Did you know that most dairy farms in conventional systems operate at a net loss? They have to quit their farm jobs to support the farm.
“Under the existing system, farmers on average spent $1.98 to produce a gallon of milk and earned $1.32 when they sold it to a processor. Farmers need to cut costs and expenses wherever possible to make ends meet financially. Because costs to farmers are rising faster than milk prices.”
According to an analysis by Food and Water Watch, the average U.S. dairy has become profitable only twice in the past 20 years, despite a nearly 40 percent increase in milk production. Grocery stores sell milk at no loss because it is a commodity and customers can choose more profitable items around the store. We are losing more and more farmers every year to these traditional systems.
In 1970 there were 648,000 dairy farms. In 1993, there were 131,509 dairy farms. And today there are 26,290 dairy farms. The number of dairy farms decreases and the number of cows on each farm increases (factory facilities increase).
As with conventional crop production, a “go big or go home” mentality has taken hold (because you can’t make money with small-scale livestock, so you need to maximize large-scale production). And there's more consolidation every year, which benefits agribusiness (which spends more than $7 million a year on lobbying to keep the food system current and in control).
More control and profits over agricultural enterprises come at the expense of the welfare of farmers and the quality of the end product. Let’s bring back small family farms!
4. Contains more nutrients.
Pasteurization reduces the content of some vitamins and minerals. However, less discussed are the levels of phytonutrients, which increase significantly when cows are raised and rotated on diverse pastures. (This is one of the key differentiators when comparing regeneratively farmed dairy cows to feedlots.)
“Many of the phytochemicals found in grass-fed meat and milk are similar to those found in plant-based foods, which are known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and cardioprotective effects.
Because meat and milk are often not considered sources of phytochemicals, the presence of meat and milk is usually mentioned when discussing nutritional differences between feedlot-fed (grain-fed) meat and grass-fed meat and dairy products. It’s been underestimated.”8
Image Source: Pioneers of Sustainable Food Systems, February 1, 2021 Sec. Agroecology and ecosystem services
Raw dairy products also contain higher levels of lactoferrin, a protein found in milk that has antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal effects as well as helping to lower iron overload. Lactoferrin has been shown to bind and reduce endotoxin levels and inflammation.9 And pasteurization has been shown to significantly reduce lactoferrin levels.10
5. Contains live bacteria that provide health benefits.
Many people experience improved digestion and health benefits from raw dairy products. This is probably because the final product is of higher quality (farmers need to produce a better product to make it safe to consume raw). And because of the live bacteria that promote health.11 It also contains a high concentration of digestive enzymes (peptidase, lipase, protease, etc.).
Raw dairy products are Mother Nature’s probiotics. This is because beneficial microorganisms are transferred to the human intestinal microflora. Here are two examples:
- Many people say that raw milk contains the enzyme lactase (this is not true). However, raw dairy products contain Lactobacillus bacteria and other lactase-producing bacteria, which can greatly aid in the digestion of lactose.
- Raw dairy products also contain butyrate-producing bacteria, which can increase the concentration of beneficial microbes in your gut.12 We want more gut-boosting microbes that help nourish the cells in the intestines (colon cells) by converting dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate, and improve the way colon cells make energy. (Better energy production allows the intestinal lining to function better).
In conclusion, never feel bad about buying pasteurized dairy products. Because the financial aspect is difficult. You have to do your best. But if you can, support farmers directly. It can make a difference for them, improve your health, and help chip away at our corrupt, integrated food system here in the United States.
When it comes to safety, always source your products from trusted farmers. However, you are 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk.13
“Big corporate lobbyists want you to think differently so they can maintain control.”
Of course, you should not source raw dairy products from CAFOs. (Farms with more than 1,000 cows cannot safely produce raw milk.) However, raw dairy products have been consumed for a long time before pasteurization was invented.
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About the author
Ashley Armstrong is the co-founder of Angel Acres Egg Co., which specializes in low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) eggs shipping to all 50 states, and Nourish Cooperative, which ships low-PUFA pork, beef and cheese. She supplies A2 Dairy and Traditional Sourdoughs to all 50 states. The waiting list will reopen soon.
