Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: loring voc obam here. Interest in raw milk by US
Speaker 1: consumers is steadily growing as more people demand less processed
Speaker 1: food and seek diet based ways to treat and prevent
Speaker 1: health problems. More farmers are offering raw milk, and states
Speaker 1: are creating policies that allow sales of raw milk and
Speaker 1: raw milk products. Yet, raw milk, which is milk that
Speaker 1: has not been pasteurized or homogenized, but rather reaches the
Speaker 1: consumer with little processing, is one of the most controversial
Speaker 1: farm products. Fans and advocates say it's better for you,
Speaker 1: tastes better and safer now than ever before, But in
Speaker 1: the US government, health disease and nutrition experts repeat strong
Speaker 1: warnings about drinking raw milk. So is raw milk good
Speaker 1: or bad for you? Most of the milk and milk
Speaker 1: products like ice cream, yogurt, and cheese that's sold in
Speaker 1: the United States is pasteurized. Pasteurization kills bacteria present in
Speaker 1: raw milk by heating it to a specific temperature for
Speaker 1: a prescribed period. This process developed in eighteen sixty four
Speaker 1: by Louis Pasteur to help with the shelf life of
Speaker 1: wine helps reduce the threat of many food born illnesses,
Speaker 1: such as suberculosis, diphtheria, and typhoid fever. Some of the
Speaker 1: harmful bacteria that can be present in milk include equali, listeria,
Speaker 1: and salmonella, all of which can lead to illness, hospitalization,
Speaker 1: and even death. Public health officials consider pasteurization one of
Speaker 1: the most significant developments when it comes to preventing these
Speaker 1: types of diseases and deaths. Pasteurization isn't selective, though, it
Speaker 1: kills good bacteria along with the bad. That's one of
Speaker 1: the main arguments in support of raw milk. The US
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control
Speaker 1: and Prevention, and public health officials maintain that most of
Speaker 1: the nutrition in milk remains intact after pasteurization, and that
Speaker 1: the benefits of pasteurizing milk outweigh any losses. Are Raw
Speaker 1: milk advocates, however, disagree and say that modern pasteurization destroys
Speaker 1: valuable health benefits and alters the texture and flavor of
Speaker 1: milk for the worse. We spoke of Sally Fallon, the
Speaker 1: founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, the largest
Speaker 1: US organization in support of raw milk. She notes that
Speaker 1: pasteurization was introduced to make milk safe in the late
Speaker 1: nineteenth century, when dairy production became more urban, safe practices
Speaker 1: were inconsistent and most people didn't have refrigerators. Today's sanitation practices,
Speaker 1: such as refrigerated tanks and trucks, make milk safer than
Speaker 1: it was then. Fallon said that raw milk contains factors
Speaker 1: that help our immune systems, and that the calcium in
Speaker 1: raw milk is more easily absorbed by our bodies than
Speaker 1: the calcium in pasteurized milk, making it better for children
Speaker 1: and older adults. Some research does seem to back her up,
Speaker 1: showing that pasteurization alters proteins so that human bodies can't
Speaker 1: digest them as easily, and a twenty sixteen study published
Speaker 1: in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology showed that
Speaker 1: of the one thousand, one thirty four children who participated,
Speaker 1: those who drank raw milk were less likely to develop asthma,
Speaker 1: with the benefits due to greater concentrations of Omega three
Speaker 1: fatty acids in raw milk. The same study determined that
Speaker 1: the children who had raw house milk early in life
Speaker 1: also experienced fewer respiratory infections and fevers. Many proponents of
Speaker 1: raw milk also say that homogenization ruins the texture of milk,
Speaker 1: homogenization being a process that's separate from pasteurization, which makes
Speaker 1: milk fat molecules smaller in order to emulsify the milk
Speaker 1: so that the cream no longer rises to the top.
Speaker 1: This allows for a more stable regular product and for
Speaker 1: easier production of milk products with different fat contents. In
Speaker 1: the United States, each individual state regulates raw milk policies. However,
Speaker 1: on a federal level, the FTA bans the sale of
Speaker 1: raw milk across state lines. As of April, selling raw
Speaker 1: milk in stores was legal in thirteen states, seventeen states
Speaker 1: permitted raw milk sale only on farms, and in twenty
Speaker 1: states all sales of raw milk were illegal. Raw milk
Speaker 1: advocates like Fallon say that selling unpasteurized milk products is
Speaker 1: a great way for small, independent farmers to thrive in
Speaker 1: a time when dairy farms go out of business daily. Fallon,
Speaker 1: a dairy farmer herself, says it's the dairy industry that
Speaker 1: is lobbied to maintain policies restricting interstate raw milk sales.
Speaker 1: Fallon said, if the farmers have a choice, they don't
Speaker 1: have to sell to dairy processing companies for a dollar
Speaker 1: thirty a gallon. If the price of milk reflected pay
Speaker 1: raises since the nineteen hundreds, it would cost twenty dollars
Speaker 1: a gallon. Allowing dairy farms to sell raw milk anywhere
Speaker 1: from five to twenty dollars a gallon helps offset their costs,
Speaker 1: and even at those high prices, Fallon says demand would
Speaker 1: still be so great that raw milk and raw milk
Speaker 1: products would remain among the fastest growing agricultural products in
Speaker 1: the United States. But back to the risks of consuming
Speaker 1: raw milk of food safety laws in the United States
Speaker 1: exist for a reason. Food poisoning is serious and could
Speaker 1: lead to hospitalization, disability, and even death. A children, people
Speaker 1: with weakened immune systems, the elderly, and pregnant women are
Speaker 1: at increased risk from ingesting unpasteurized milk or milk products.
Speaker 1: The CDC declared in twenty fifteen that no raw milk
Speaker 1: was safe to drink after finding a relatively small number
Speaker 1: of outbreaks. A total of eighty one outbreaks reported in
Speaker 1: twenty six states between two thousand seven and twelve. These
Speaker 1: outbreaks resulted in nine seventy nine illnesses and seventy three hospitalizations,
Speaker 1: but no deaths. The cdc S report also stated that
Speaker 1: outbreaks increased as more states allowed sales of raw milk,
Speaker 1: but advocates disagree, pointing to a newer eighteen study published
Speaker 1: in the journal plos. It analyzed food born outbreaks from
Speaker 1: unpasteurized milk from two thousand five to six and determined
Speaker 1: outbreaks caused by raw milk had decreased during that time
Speaker 1: by sevent If raw dairy products concern you, or if
Speaker 1: you have a compromise commune system, check for the word
Speaker 1: pasteurized on packages and containers before you buy, read product
Speaker 1: information and used by or sell by dates carefully, and
Speaker 1: consult your retailer. If you have any doubts about an
Speaker 1: item that isn't clearly labeled, ask questions. If you're buying
Speaker 1: milk or dairy from a farmer's market or co op.
Speaker 1: Felon recommends visiting a dairy yourself to get to know
Speaker 1: the producers and check out the cleanliness and the animal health.
Speaker 1: Though usually the cow itself isn't the problem, it's the
Speaker 1: contaminants around the cow that make raw milk dangerous. Harmful
Speaker 1: bacteria from a cow's betting, soil, manure, feed, or the
Speaker 1: milking equipment the cow teats and utters can become infected
Speaker 1: with bacteria from these other items, so attention to sanitation practices,
Speaker 1: temperature control, and animal health are key to a good product.
Speaker 1: By the way, the used by and sell by dates
Speaker 1: on milk and on products in the United States in
Speaker 1: general were lobbied for it by al Capone after the
Speaker 1: toppling of his prohibition Booze Empire. Day's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Sean Chavis and produced by Tyler clang. A Brainstuff
Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other health topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And
Speaker 1: for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit th heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.