In the news recently we’ve seen our legislators vote on whether to “allow” us to drink raw milk. As someone who grew up on a dairy farm and who’s family members have been drinking raw milk since the late 1800′s, I have strong opinions on this topic.
First of all, from an anecdotal research viewpoint, my ancestors have taught me that drinking raw milk (as well as eating food directly from the farm) not only does not harm you, it indeed has had a positive effect on health. My family tree is littered with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. that have lived lives well into their 80′s and 90′s without the need for medication.
Many experts point to genetics as being the reason, but research clearly shows that genetics is responsible for less than 5% of the equation of health. The other 95% comes from lifestyle (what we eat, our environment.
Secondly, good clean recent scientific research (research done with public, not private funding) has shown that consuming raw milk “trains” our immune system to identify and deal with the ever changing bacterial environment in which we live.
There appears to be no other food (at least for mammals) that has the ability to do what raw milk can do for us. What’s strange is that this research was done in Great Britain spawned by a school system that “noticed” that the farm kids (mostly from dairy farms) in school were decidedly healthier and seldom absent from class.
They found that not only did these children have less colds, flu, and allergies, but also had less infections and other ailments generally found in the other children. For my own son and daughter (both who are now in their 30′s) who grew up drinking milk directly out of our bulk tank, they also did not experience many “sick” days from school or have any of the maladies generally associated with milk consumption (ear infections, allergies).
I grew up hearing that milk is “nature’s most nearly perfect food”… so why the fight? We’ll look at that next time!
Healthy trails,
Dale