Pasteurized vs. Raw Milk & Dairy

Avoid pasteurized dairy products The milk and dairy today on the supermarket shelves is far from the healthy, traditional dairy products eaten over centuries past. Today, it is homogenized, pasteurized, comes from factory-farmed cows fed unnatural diets of GMOs, and if it is not organic, typically contains antibiotic and pesticide residue.

In an attempt to force cows into increased milk production, the milk industry also began the widespread use of genetically engineered "bovine growth hormone," also known as BST. Both the European Union and Canada have banned the use of BST due to associated health risks.

Raw dairy was a staple product many traditional cultures worldwide that suffered none of the health issues we experience today. These cultures were robust and strong, and lived well into old age without the bone-related conditions synonymous with old age in our industrialized western world. As you will see, there is a direct correlation between pasteurized dairy and bone-related diseases such as osteoporosis.

Learn about the diets of traditional cultures...

What Exactly Is Pasteurization?

Pasteurized milk products have been heated at high temperatures for a specific length of time to kill most microorganisms living within it. Pasteurization is named after the 19th-century French scientist Louis Pasteur, who published "The Germ Theory of Disease."

The two most common types of pasteurization in the US are:

Traditional Pasteurization: Milk is heated to a minimum of 161° for 15 seconds
Ultra Pasteurization: Milk is heated to 280° for 2 seconds

Why Pasteurize?

The biggest claim for requiring milk to be pasteurized is to kill bacteria. But like irradiated foods, pasteurized foods give us a false sense of security. If food is contaminated, irradiation and pasteurization can kill the contamination. Many meat and dairy products are contaminated as a result of unsanitary and highly questionable factory-farming practices. Animals are abused and kept in filthy conditions, and the only way they can remain disease-free is to pump them with a continual stream of antibiotics (up to 80% of antibiotics in the US is used by the agricultural industry).

"Over the past 20 years, Organic Pastures in California has produced millions of gallons of raw milk with not one reported illness, whereas pasteurized milk products have generated at least 19 product recalls."

Irini
The Body Healer

Instead of addressing sanitation issues and abolishing the use of medicated additives, irradiation and pasteurization covers up the problem and serves as a convenient excuse to not shape up and clean up the food production environment. Milk producers can now be less careful about high standards of cleanliness - why bother if you are going to pasteurize or irradiate it? Over the past 20 years, Organic Pastures in California has produced millions of gallons of raw milk and experienced not one reported illness, whereas pasteurized milk products have generated at least 19 product recalls.

Breast milk itself is definitely not sterile and free of bacteria - far from it. Breast milk is very high in pathogens. But the bioactive components in "raw" breast milk assist the baby in developing a strong immunity for life to protect against any pathogens they comes in contact with. Should we expect health experts to begin demanding that breast milk be pasteurized?

The only time cow's milk should ever be drank is if it comes from pasture-raised (free-range) cows at an organic facility that has high standards of cleanliness. This means that the cows are eating their natural food source (rather than highly processed GMO products), and it also means that there are no antibiotics or other chemicals present in the milk.

Unpasteurized (raw) milk is always best. Read on to find out why.

What Pasteurization Does to Milk

"Countries with the highest intake of dairy have the highest rates of osteoporosis & fractures, while countries with the lowest dairy intake have the lowest rates."

Calcified Tissue Int'l⁽⁴⁾

Pasteurization heats the milk to a temperature that causes the milk to undergo significant changes. Beneficial bacteria, nutrients, and enzymes are destroyed, including ingredients that are natural protectors of the milk and help our bodies predigest the milk proteins. This is why some people are unable to properly digest pasteurized milk, and yet have no problem digesting raw milk.

"Enriched" or "Fortified"

Manufacturers then attempt to enrich the milk by adding back lab-made chemical versions of the nutrients that were originally present but are now destroyed (e.g. synthetic calcium). They may also fortify the milk by adding chemical nutrients that were never in the food to begin with (e.g. synthetic vitamin D).

There is a significant difference between breast milk, raw milk, and pasteurized milk. Let's compare the three and see what these differences are:

Component	Breast Milk	Raw Milk	Pasteurized Milk	UHT Milk	Infant Formula
B-lymphocytes	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Macrophages	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Neutrophils	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Lymphocytes	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
IgA/IgG Antibodies	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
B12Binding Protein	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Bifidus Factor	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Medium-Chain FAs	active	active	reduced	reduced	reduced
Fibronectin	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Gamma-Interferon	active	active	inactivated	inactivated	inactivated
Lactoferrin	active	active	reduced	inactivated	inactivated
Lysozyme	active	active	active	inactivated	inactivated
Mucin A/Oligosaccharides	active	active	reduced	reduced	inactivated
Hormones/Growth Factors	active	active	reduced	reduced	inactivated

Source: The Lancet, 17 Nov 1984;2(8412):1111-1113

Now let's take a look at the damaging effects of pasteurized products when it comes to our bodies:

Pasteurization Damages Protein Content
Pasteurization causes the casein (milk protein) to coagulate and toughen, making it less available to the body. This contributes to the development of childhood allergies and eczema due to the protein becoming denatured from the pasteurization process.
Pasteurization Destroys Enzymes
In its natural state, raw milk contains all the appropriate digestive enzymes to help us efficiently digest the milk protein and fat, but these enzymes are destroyed by pasteurization. These enzymes are present in a mom's breast milk.(1)
Pasteurization Destroys Calcium & Other Nutrients
During pasteurization, milk is heated to the point that renders the calcium unusable. The unabsorbed calcium is then deposited in the soft tissues of the body to calcify. This is a primary reason that rates of osteoporosis and bone-related diseases are highest in western countries that drink the most pasteurized dairy products, and a reason children suffer more dental deformities than ever before (see below).

Pasteurization also damages other nutrients such as vitamin C and iodine.

Unfortunately, pasteurization is now only one of many concerns. In today's industrialized food chain, dairy and milk products not only contain pasteurized milk, but they are also filled with all sorts of undesirables such as processed sugars, artificial colors and flavors, and a variety of unpronounceable chemicals. It is hard to justify anything good about them at all, except that the containers look bright and pretty... Milk-based drinks are a primary cause of mucus build-up in children.

Raw Milk vs. Pasteurized Milk - Health Concerns

According to the FDA, health benefits claimed by raw milk advocates "do not exist." This is in spite of very evidence to the contrary that shoes the opposite: Health issues result from drinking pasteurized milk. Government agencies and the dairy industry are heavily biased against raw dairy, while providing incomplete facts or erroneous statistics about the healthful properties of pasteurized milk products.

Pasteurized milk, osteoporosis, & bone-related diseases...

Contrary to what the milk industry will have you believe, pasteurized dairy does not prevent osteoporosis or bones fractures at all. In fact, it does the opposite.

Countries with the highest milk and dairy intake also have the highest incidences of osteoporosis and bone-related disease. For every study showing pasteurized foods fortified and enriched with synthetic vitamins are good for you, more show they are bad. But there is 100% definitive proof that pasteurization damages dairy products and our ability to digest them, and destroys the calcium content. Common sense tells us that adding this nutrient back in artificial form to an already damaged food can not be healthy.

Children suffer from more dental issues, ranging from cavities to crooked teeth requiring braces, than ever before. The supply of calcium a child needs to assist in the growing of healthy teeth, bones, and jaw structure comes from the quality of mom's food before birth and baby's food after birth. When a diet is deficient, or foods are denatured (such as when drinking pasteurized milk products), bones do not develop as they should, nor do teeth.

How diet affects teeth & bone health...

The Harvard Nurses' Health Study (which followed 78,000 nurses for over 12 years) showed no protective effect of increased milk consumption on fracture risk. On the contrary, it found that those who drank 2 or more glasses of milk per day have twice the risk of hip fracture than those who drank a glass a week or less. The study authors concluded, “it is unlikely that high consumption of milk or other food sources of calcium during mid-life will confer substantial protective effects against hip or forearm fractures.”⁽²⁾ There are several other large-scale studies showing that high calcium intakes double the risk of hip fracture.⁽³⁾
Countries with the highest intake of pasteurized dairy have the highest incidences of osteoporosis and fractures (e.g. the US, Holland, and Sweden), while countries with the lowest dairy intake (e.g. Japan and South Africa) have the lowest rates of osteoporosis and fractures.(4)
A study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco summarized a total of 87 surveys in 33 countries to determine a correlation between increased animal protein consumption and the onset of osteoporosis. The results clearly showed that as the vegetable to animal protein ratio increases, the incidence of hip fracture dramatically decreases. The same group surveyed 1,000 women 65 yrs. and older to examine the ratio. The women with the highest ratio of animal to plant protein had 3.7 times more bone fractures than the women with the lowest ratio.

Changing the ratio of animal to plant-based foods can have a dramatic effect on whether or not we are going to get osteoporosis. This finding backs up the results of a 6-month study funded by the Atkins center who found that those adopting the Atkins Diet (a diet high in animal-based protein) excreted 50% more calcium in their urine after 6 months on the diet than at the beginning.

It is important to note that the dairy we are talking about in these studies is PASTEURIZED dairy. Many traditional cultures worldwide consumed meat, fish, and raw dairy with none of the health issues and bone related diseases we experience today. Some of these cultures lived to 100 and more, suffering none of the diseases we associate today with old age. Knowing this, we should look less towards the animal foods being a culprit, and more towards what we do to it before we eat it.

Pasteurized vs. raw milk - health studies...

In a study comparing breast fed milk to pasteurized cow's milk, 20,061 babies were split into 3 categories:
- 48% were breast fed
- 43% were partially breast fed
- 8.5% were bottle-fed pasteurized cow's milk
Sickness in babies who were bottle fed the pasteurized milk were almost double that of breast fed milk, with the partially breast fed milk falling in between (37.4%, 53.8%, and 63.6% respectively). The immunity factors passed from mother to child, along with the enzyme count, was shown to play a significant factor in the health and immunity of the child.
In a rat study conducted by Randleigh Farm from 1935-1940, rats fed raw milk showed good, strong, healthy development and fur. Bones were longer and more dense. The rats fed only pasteurized milk showed poor development and hairless areas due to a vitamin B6 deficiency. Bones were shorter and less dense (146g vs. 206g).
In a guinea pig study, guinea pigs fed whole, raw milk exhibited excellent growth with no abnormalities. Those fed whole, pasteurized milk showed poor growth, muscle stiffness, emaciation and weakness, and suffered death within 1 year. Autopsies revealed atrophied muscles streaked with calcification, calcium deposits under skin, in joints, in the heart, and in other organs.(5)
In a rat study, rats fed whole, raw milk exhibited good growth, sleek coat, clear eyes, excellent dispositions, and enjoyed being petted. Those fed whole, pasteurized milk showed a rougher coat, slower growth, eyes that lacked luster, anemia, loss of vitality and weight, and they were very irritable. They also showed a tendency to bite when handled.(6)
Pasteurized cow’s milk consumption can cause chronic constipation in children.(7)
Whereas pasteurized dairy has been linked to an increase in childhood allergies, studies have found unpasteurized dairy to be protective against allergies and seasonal asthma, current wheeze, hay fever, rhinitis symptoms, and atopic sensitization.⁽⁸⁾

More studies on the health benefits of raw dairy...

False Claims Against Unpasteurized Milk

In an FDA PowerPoint presentation warning against raw milk,⁽⁹⁾ 15 studies were cited. In all 15 studies:

80% had no valid positive milk sample
67% had no valid statistical association with raw milk
47% had findings misrepresented by the FDA
33% had alternatives that were discovered but not pursued
13% had no evidence anyone consumed a raw milk product
13% had no outbreak that existed
100% did not show that pasteurization would have prevented an outbreak

Unpasteurized dairy is not more dangerous to consume than pasteurized dairy. Every study vilifying milk for outbreaks has been misquoted and unable to prove that pasteurization of that same milk could have prevented the outbreak.

The FDA: Failure to protect on a mass scale...

Consider this comparison of raw vs. pasteurized milk in California, where raw milk is legal:

Since 1999, 40 million servings of Organic Pastures raw milk have been produced with not one reported illness.
19 recalls of pasteurized milk products occurred during that same period.

Could raw milk become contaminated due to unclean practices, or because of how the milk is handled on the way to the consumer? Of course! The same could be said of any food. This is the reason why we have had more recalls of pasteurized milk than raw milk. We only need to look at the serious consequences of trusting government agencies to understand how questionable food handling practices and a lack of quality control can fatally contaminate our food.

Choose Raw Dairy

Raw (unpasteurized) cheese is now available in every major grocery chain across the country, with some natural food stores carrying a significant selection from all around the world. Raw milk is also available in several states throughout the US, including:

Arizona leaf California leaf Connecticut leaf Idaho leaf Maine leaf New Hampshire
New Mexico leaf Pennsylvania leaf South Carolina leaf Washington