The Benefits of Raw Milk

Recent studies demonstrate that raw milk from cows that graze exclusively on grass and forages produce milk that has superior nutritional value to milk from cows that have been fed grain, with twice as much omega-3 fatty acids and beta-carotene. The omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids are in proper balance, and the content of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is five times higher than in milk from grain-fed cows. CLA has been shown to be a potent defense against cancer.

Benefits of Raw Milk - Raw milk contains important enzymes that help you assimilate the nutrients in milk. These enzymes are rendered inactive once milk is pasteurized.Raw milk has all essential enzymes for digestibility. Pasteurized milk no longer contains the living enzymes that are necessary to assimilate the calcium, milk sugars, and milk solids contained in milk.The many vitamins and minerals found in milk are more bio-available in raw milk. Raw milk is safe! It contains lactic-acid producing bacteria that protect against pathogens that can contaminate milk and infect humans.

Additional Benefits of Whole Raw Milk - Glycosphingolipids are found in whole raw milk. These fats protect against gastrointestinal infections. Children who drink skim milk -minus the glycosphingolipids -have diarrhea rates 3 to 5 times greater than those who drink whole raw milk. Interestingly, what is called “whole milk” in stores has had much of the cream removed. No cream is removed from our milk, so you can still receive whole-milk benefits while using some of the cream top in other foods and beverages and to make butter.

Benefits of Butter - Contains lecithin, arachidonic acid, and omega-3 and -6 short and medium chain fatty acids, which protect against infection. Also contains palmitoleic acid, which has antimicrobial properties. Butyric acid, a very short-chain saturated fatty acid, has anti-fungal and anti-tumoral effects, and it is unique to butter. Butterfat contains trace minerals. The iodine in butter helps protect against goiter, and butter is extremely rich in selenium. Few people are aware that clean, raw milk from grass-fed cows was actually used as a medicine in the early part of the last century. Milk straight from the udder, a sort of "stem cell" of foods, was used as medicine to treat, and frequently curesome serious chronic diseases. From the time of Hippocrates to until just after World War II, this "white blood" nourished and healed uncounted millions. Clean raw milk from pastured cows is a complete and properly balanced food. You could live on it exclusively if you had to. What's in it that makes it so great? Let's look at the ingredients to see what makes it such a powerful food.

Proteins - Our bodies use amino acids as building blocks for protein. Depending on who you ask, we need 20-22 of them for this task. Eight of them are considered essential, in that we have to get them from our food. The remaining 12-14 we can make from the first eight via complexmetabolic pathways in our cells. Raw cow's milk has all 8 essential amino acids in varying amounts, depending on stage of lactation.Lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein, has numerous beneficial properties including improved absorption and assimilation of iron, anti-cancer properties and anti-microbial action against several species of bacteria responsible for dental cavities. Recent studies also reveal that it has powerful antiviral properties as well.

Two other players in raw milk's antibiotic protein/enzyme arsenal are lysozymeand lactoperoxidase. Lysozyme can actually break apart cell walls of certain undesirable bacteria, while lactoperoxidase teams up with other substances to help knock out unwanted microbes too. The immunoglobulins, an extremely complex class of milk proteins also known as antibodies, provide resistance to many viruses, bacteria and bacterial toxins and may help reduce theseverity of asthma symptoms. Studies have shown significant loss of these important disease fighters when milk is heated to normal processing temperatures.

Carbohydrates - Lactose, or milk sugar, is the primary carbohydrate in cow's milk. Made from one molecule each of the simple sugars glucose and galactose, it's known as a disaccharide. People with lactose intolerance for one reason or another (age, genetics, etc.), no longer make the enzyme lactase and so can't digest milk sugar. This leads to some unsavory symptoms, which, needless to say, the victims find rather unpleasant at best. Raw milk, with its lactose-digesting Lactobacilli bacteria intact, may allow people who traditionally have avoided milk to give it another try. The end-result of lactose digestion is a substance called lactic acid (responsible for the sour taste in fermented dairy products). Besides having known inhibitory effects on harmful species of bacteria,lactic acid boosts the absorption of calcium, phosphorus and iron, and has been shown to make milk proteins more digestible.

Fats - Approximately two thirds of the fat in milk is saturated. Good or bad for you? Saturated fats play a number of key roles in our bodies: from construction of cell membranes and key hormones to providing energy storage and padding for delicate organs, to serving as a vehicle for important fat-soluble vitamins.

All fats cause our stomach lining to secrete a hormone (cholecystokinin or CCK) which, aside from boosting production and secretion of digestive enzymes, let's us know we've eaten enough. With that trigger removed, non-fat dairy products and other fat-free foods can potentially help contribute to over-eating.

Consider that, for thousands of years before the introduction of the hydrogenation process (pumping hydrogen gas through oils to make them solids) and the use of canola oil (from genetically modified rapeseed), corn, cottonseed, safflower and soy oils, dietary fats were somewhat more often saturated and frequently animal-based. (Prior to about 1850, animals in the U.S. were not so heavily fed corn or grain). Use of butter, lard, tallows, poultry fats, fish oils, tropical oils such as coconut and palm, and cold pressed olive oil were also higher than levels seen today.

Now consider that prior to 1900, very few people died from heart disease. The introduction of hydrogenated cottonseed oil in 1911 (as trans-fat laden Crisco) helped begin the move away from healthy animal fats, and toward the slow, downward trend in cardiovascular health from which millions continue to suffer today.

CLA, short for conjugated linoleic acidand abundant in milk from grass-fed cows, is a heavily studied, polyunsaturated Omega-6 fatty acid with promising health benefits

Among CLA's many potential benefits: it raises metabolic rate, helps remove abdominal fat, boosts muscle growth, reduces resistance to insulin, strengthens the immune system and lowers food allergy reactions. As luck would have it, grass-fed raw milk has from 3-5 times the amount found in the milk from feed lot cows.

Minerals - A sampling of the health benefits of calcium, an important element abundant in raw milk includes: reduction in cancers, particularly of the colon: higher bone mineral density in people of every age, lower risk of osteoporosis and fractures in older adults; lowered risk of kidney stones; formation of strong teeth and reduction of dental cavities, to name a few.

An interesting feature of minerals as nutrients is the delicate balance they require with other minerals to function properly. For instance, calcium needs a proper ratio of two other macronutrients, phosphorus and magnesium, to be properly utilized by our bodies. Guess what? Nature codes for the entire array of minerals in raw milk (from cows on properly maintained pasture) to be in proper balance to one another thus optimizing their benefit to us.

Enzymes - There are 60 plus (known) fully intact and functional enzymes in raw milk. One of the most significant health benefit derived from food enzymes is the burden they take off our body. When we eat a food that contains enzymes devoted to its own digestion, it's that much less work for our pancreas. Other enzymes, like catalase, lysozyme and lactoperoxidase help to protect milk from unwanted bacterial infection, making it safer for us to drink.