Washington Post (Letter to the Editor)
Wednesday, October 18, 2006; Page A20
I hope that Post readers will not disregard, as author Thomas Bartlett apparently did, the body of scientific evidence and the advice of public health experts at the Food and Drug Administration regarding the hazards associated with the consumption of raw milk ["The Raw Deal," Magazine, Oct. 1].
In the article, advocates cited belief in this or that benefit of raw milk without offering much data to support those beliefs. But the public health experts at the FDA cited many scientific studies, including epidemiological investigations, that tie the consumption of raw milk to human illness. It almost seems as if the raw milk advocates believe the FDA is lying about the hazards.
I wonder about accountability and consequences if something bad happens as result of people following the advice of these advocates. Even if they were not found to be legally liable for encouraging people to consume raw milk, they will have to answer to their consciences for any illnesses or deaths that result.
JACK MOWBRAYWest Friendship
Note: In the book The Milk Imperative evidence is provided showing why raw milk has no redeeming features at all. For more information go to www.milkimperative.com.
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I was diagnosed as "lactose intolerant" and could not drink pasteurized milk for the first 30 years of my life without violent illness resulting. I researched milk and found that pasteurized milk contains(among other things)pus, blood, pesticides and hormones. I found a source of milk from pasture-only fed Guernsey cows that are milked once a day. Exercising my free will as a human being, I personally decided to try the milk. It was good and I suffered no ilness or nausea from the milk. That is my data and research. I do not think anyone else should drink milk, raw or not, unless they themselves do their own research. At the same time, I do not belive that anyone, including the "experts" at the FDA should dictate to me or any other person what I should or should not eat.
We also have for over 2yrs consumed raw cow milk with no problems. The only reason my husband limits his to a few oz. daily is he is an A blood type. I heard that for more reasons than one goat milk is better and is given often to babies. We are believers in the Bible as the authority on nutrition and what Jesus would eat and drink is always safe.
Citing studies is of no use unless they are conducted, analysed and reported in an honest and unbiased way.
Whenever you read a book that either debunks or supports, it is, unfortunately necessary to ask" Who has what to gain if what this book is saying is accepted or rejected by the reading public?".
Too many studies have been cited and relied upon in a dishonest way, selectively quoting from the conclusions and hiding truth from the reader to proliferate a lie. Such is the case in the debunking of the health qualities of milk that is raw, unhomogenised and organically produced.
Ask, "who benefits if the reading public demands its right to buy organic milk from the local farm?" Now ask, "who benefits from the shutting down of local farm sales (eg daily local delivery), the mass implementation of pasteurisation and homogenisation with its high capital investment requirements?".
Compare this to what is happening in the health industry, where 'properly prescribed' drugs kill hundreds of thousands a year. With a growing industry in natural alternatives, which have a virtually unblemished history of adverse incidents, it is this industry that is feeling the pinch of regulation that will hand the health-care monopoly back to Big Pharma. Who is leading the charge? THE FDA!!
And you wonder why people may not be trusting the pronouncements of the FDA????
No doubt "raw, unhomogenised and organically produced" milk is less harmful than any kind of pasteurized milk. Nevertheless, for humans to drink milk that is designed for another species cannot be ideal whichever you look at it. Remember that however raw and pure the cow's milk may be, it is still full of cow hormones that play havoc with the human body.
You rightly say that studies should be cited honestly so as not to mislead. But you have no right to critizise a person for citing a particular study unless at the same time you show how the particular study was badly cited.
People have been drinking milk of other animals for THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of years, and it was also used in the Mayo clinic to help treat certain disorders. I am so tired of the "humans shouldn't drink other animals' milk" issue - Do you know how many women do NOT have the ability to breastfeed? Raw goat milk helps these women feed & raise healthy babies. We support the farm where we buy our milk - and we support ALL small farms. These people work hard and don't need people pooh-poohing all raw milk - perhaps you should try farming before you criticize these people - The FDA does not support small, sustainable, family farming but big FACTORY Farms with horrible conditions for those animals. Follow the money to realize that healthy people eating whole, raw foods DO NOT SPEND money on pharmaceuticals -- so it is a loss of profit stream to big business. Healthy, grass fed goats - this is where we buy our milk - the farm & goats are happy to give it & share it with us so we can raise our child. we have a right to decide what we want to eat...period. It isn't up to some corrupt bunch of cronies to tell me what to feed myself or my own family. What is becoming of this country anyway?
The FDA cited that since 1998, 800 people have gotten sick from raw milk.
Think about that. 800 people in over a decade. That's absolutely minuscule compared to the number of food born illnesses that occur every year.
On top of that, pasteurized milk has been linked to tons of different maladies in the human body and studies in England of children raised on farms and raw milk compared to those who drank pasteurized milk showed the raw milkers to have much less occurrences of allergies and have more natural blood sugar levels.
There have been many studies on raw milk health benefits. I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but much of the "expert" information the general public receives tends to be very contradictory and thoroughly UNresearched.
HomemadeAcneRemedy.com
To argue that raw milk is better for you than pasteurized milk is like arguing that raw effluent is better for you than cooked effluent. For example, you simply cannot get away from the fact that raw milk has as much IGF-1 as pasteurized milk. Milk gives you excess IGF-1. It is a hormone that plays havoc with the human body and promotes cancer.
What about tubercolosis? Most cows (more than 50% of cows on average) carry TB germs. TB survives in raw milk.
Russell Eaton,
Author of The Milk Imperative.
Raw milk ,where the animals have been raised only on quality grass all their life ,contains no cancer causing hormone. In fact it produces cancer fighting hormones.
Pasture only raw milk is a lot different than grain fed raw milk.
It is factually incorrect to say that raw milk is less likely to cause cancer compared to pasteurized milk. All kinds of dairy milk (including the best quality raw milk)is high in igf-1, a hormone that promotes cell grown in humans. Excess igf-1 in the human diet (as caused by dairy milk) increases the risk of cancer from uncontrolled cellular growth. Raw milk is just as high in igf-1 as pasteurized milk. If you think that raw milk is less likely to cause cancer you are deluding yourself.
Russell Eaton
Author of The Milk Impertive, www.milkimperative.com
I'm hearing a lot of talk here, but where are your sources? You contradict each other, but neither side backs his statements with credible references. Maybe I can start a new trend with the research I have done:
Lightning-Associated Deaths — United States, 1980-1995
“Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…identified an annual average of 93 deaths...attributable to lightning”
(http://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/PrevGuid/m0052833/m0052833.asp).
Deaths From Raw Dairy Products — United States, 1998-2005
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that from 1998 to 2005, …unpasteurized milk or cheese likely made from unpasteurized milk were implicated [in] TWO deaths” (emphasis mine)
(http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/MilkSafety/ucm122062.htm).
In other words, you are approximately 350 times more likely to die of a lightning strike than from a raw milk product, according to governmental statistics.
If cigarettes aren’t illegal. why on earth is raw milk? Because they get a lot of money to forcefully pasteurize it and homogenize all of it, that’s why. Money talks, and it says it doesn’t care about whether or not raw milk is healthy.
I live on a small dairy and have drank raw milk all my life (including while I was pregnant), it has never bothered me. However, there are dairies that I would never drink milk from because the milk is not clean.
In my opinion, for raw milk to be good to drink the cow must be healthy(no mastitis, diseases, etc), be eating healthy feed (no hormones, etc.), and get proper vitamins and minerals. And not only must the cow be healthy, but the facilities must be clean. No matter how good the cow is, if the milking machines and storing containers are not properly cleaned the milk will become contaminated. And if a person brings their own containers to the dairy, these containers have to be extremely clean. I have had people bring containers to my farm that smell nasty inside. Swishing a jar around in lukewarm dishwater does not work (and plastic containers are even worse to keep sanitary).
I have never heard of anyone having a problem if they follow guidelines like these.
I was raised on raw milk in Argentina. Never have been sick.
I finally found some here in Plano, Texas and purchased some. Awesome. I may say that I have been having allergies so my granddaugther, and today was the test. She caughed and caughed, gave her some Syrtac and did nothing. Thinking of what I did different today, well I gave her homogenized (sp) milk. So as a test I went ahead and gave her some raw milk since I had a little bit left (she was drinking it all week)....guess what after that she did not caugh even once!!
Provided the dairy farm keeps good healthy cows, I will keep buying it!! And of course, to keep healthy is not an inexpensive endeavour.
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