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Q & A
Is Raw Milk More Nutritious than Pasteurized Milk?
Weighing the risks and benefits of raw milk; plus, what’s the best milk for your family?
By Matthew G. Kadey, R.D., for EatingWell September/October 2008
Is raw milk more nutritious than pasteurized milk?
—Katie Barone, Burlington, VT
It depends on who you ask. Raw milk—milk that is not pasteurized or homogenized—is making its way into more cereal bowls, with 29 states now allowing the sale of raw milk under varying restrictions. Raw-milk proponents will pay upwards of $10 a gallon, because they believe it is safe and healthier. A swell of testimonials about raw milk’s ability to relieve asthma, autism and allergies is further fueling the demand, though much of this praise remains anecdotal with few studies to back up these claims. Enthusiasts claim raw milk dishes out more flavor, vitamins, minerals and beneficial proteins, enzymes and bacteria than milk that has been “degraded” during pasteurization.
But the Centers for Disease Control and the FDA beg to differ, stating that pasteurized milk has all the same nutrients as raw milk and that raw milk comes with an added formidable risk of pathogen outbreaks. According to the CDC, these outbreaks accounted for more than 1,000 illnesses, more than 100 hospitalizations and two deaths between 1998 and 2005.
Catherine W. Donnelly, Ph.D., a food microbiologist at the University of Vermont, believes that the dangers cancel out any potential nutritional benefits. “Of particular concern is Listeria [a bacterium that results in a foodborne illness, listeriosis], which has a 30 percent mortality rate,” Donnelly warns. “If raw milk is your choice, it’s buyer beware.” When USDA scientists collected raw milk samples from 861 farms in 21 states, nearly a quarter of them contained bacteria linked to human illness, including 5 percent that tested positive for Listeria.
In short, it’s still too early to tell if raw milk lives up to its purported benefits, but the risks are real. We don’t recommend drinking raw milk or eating a raw-milk cheese that’s been aged less than the minimum of 60 days required for legal sale. (However, that caveat doesn’t apply to raw-milk cheeses aged 60 days or more, since the salt and acidity of the cheesemaking process make for a hostile environment to pathogens, says Donnelly.)
Deciding whether to take the risks associated with drinking raw milk is only one of the health-related choices you need to make when it comes to choosing the best milk for your family. When making a decision about which milk to buy, here are two other issues you may want to consider:
Fat content. Nutrition experts recommend drinking low-fat (a.k.a. 1%) or nonfat milk to limit intake of the saturated fats that boost risk of heart disease. Don’t be fooled: reduced-fat, or 2%, milk is not a low-fat food. One cup has 5 grams fat, 3 of them the saturated kind. Drink whole milk, which contains 5 grams of saturated fat per cup, only once in a while, if at all. The one exception to this rule is infants. Children under age 2 need extra fat in their diets to support their developing brains. Whole milk can help provide that fat.
Lactose. Up to 50 million Americans lack the enzyme lactase, which is needed to digest lactose, the sugar naturally found in milk. For these people, drinking most milks can cause digestive problems. Solution: Choosing lactose-free milk. This product is basically regular cow’s milk minus lactose. It provides all of the same healthful nutrients (e.g., protein and calcium), just not the sugar that stokes the digestive issues.
Related Articles
A Buyer's Guide to Milk, part I
A Buyer's Guide to Milk, part II
A New Reason to Smile About Yogurt
How to Eat Around Allergies
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| USER COMMENTS — Add Your Comment |
I started buying raw milk from a local farmer as a political (buy local and small) decision about 2 years ago. I make kefir with it, drink it every day, and I no longer have any digestive problems.
Kathleen, Dorchester, MA |
I think part of the problem with needing to pasteurize comes from the mixing together milk from many sorces. Raw milk usually comes from one point of origin, is used sooner (fresher)AND the argument that pasterized has the same protein content is skewed because the proteins are altered (not removed) during pasterization. Enzymes and beneficial bacteria are destroyed.
ALice, Oklahoma City, OK |
My brother is a dairy farmer who sells raw milk in Vermont. I can't drink pasteurized milk because of a whey allergy, but have no problem with the raw milk. As with any raw food you need to process it safely - for example, the ecoli outbreak from "raw" spinach.
Lexie Haselton, Bolton, VT |
I grew up on raw milk as did my children and now it is the only type of milk that I can drink in small amounts. I became lactose intolerant a few years ago.
Susie, Santa Ynez, CA |
I grew up in a dairy community, and EVERYONE drank milk "out of the tank" and is perfectly fine. I started buying raw milk so that I could make cheese, and have since done a lot of research and I am now enjoying the benefits and taste of raw milk. I have to wonder about some of those statistics . . . like where are they getting this contaminated milk? I know that a lot of the stories touted as examples of why not to drink raw milk are from products that were imported or improperly cared for.
Wendy, Grand Rapids, MI |
This article upsets me because we have altered milk and other fruits and vegtables and the goverment has saying it is all good for you. I can tell you from my own experience that homonized, pasturized has cut our enzimes and probiotic that are naturally in Raw milk. A lot of people have become allergic to the milk they buy in the grocerie stores and have flooded the market with the homo and past milk and have made it so that we no longer have a choice in the food markets. Now they are going to radiate all of our food before we get it in the name of protecting us from samonila. It is all about money. Raw milk is better for babies, kids and adults just as our natural fruits and vegtables are better for us . Our goverment has allowed big farmers to put hormones , pestisides and other stuff in our preciouse foods in the name of protections. I say we let the goverment know we don't like it and yes raw milk and natural food is better for us.
Alice, Spokane, WA |
The comment "it's still to early to tell..." is funny considering ppl have been drinking raw milk years before pasturization. I hate that I can't find raw milk for my son!!!!!
jz, Louisville, KY |
I am lactose intolerant, but have no problems when I drink raw milk. I get it from my neighbors who have their own cow. Raw milk, like other non processed foods, is probably way better for us anyway. what we need to get rid of is all the growth hormones and antibiotics in our food, and the high fructose corn syrup.
Krista, Saugerties, NY |
I am lactose intolerant, but have no problems when I drink raw milk. I get it from my neighbors who have their own cow. Raw milk, like other non processed foods, is probably way better for us anyway. What we need to get rid of is all the growth hormones and antibiotics in our food, and the high fructose corn syrup.
Krista, Saugerties, NY |
I agree with all of you who grew up on raw milk. I was one of five children who grew up on it. We milked our cows, didn't run a dairy farm so didn't have milking machines. If you are careful to wash off the cows teats before milking, chances of contamination are very minimal. We were and still are some of the healthiest people we know.
Patricia, San Marcos, TX |
I was raised on raw milk also felt better then since all this processed milk and food.
connie, Coffeyville, KS |
I am now almost 60. I spent my teenage summers working on my uncle's dairy farm in Door County, WI. I poured my daily allowance of milk from the milk can into a pot (he was a Grade B dairy farmer) each mrning after milking was done. Let it chill in the frig 24 hours and skimmed the cream layer off the top. The rest was mine to enjoy. Never had a health problem as a result of drinking this natural milk.
Theo, Morton Grove, IL |
I drank raw milk since i was a kid to adulthood it never seemed to hurt me.
connie, Coffeyville, KS |
I have drank raw milk all of my life. My family owns a dairy and my parents raised me on it and I in turn have raised my children on it. They have never been sick from the raw milk, in fact I think it helps build up the immune system, my kids don't have allergies and are very rarely sick.
Shannon, Downey, ID |
I grew up on raw milk and drank it exclusively until I was about 18. My parents then sold their cow and we started having milk from the store. I believe that raw milk is better for you are just like babies being given breast milk rather than formula, I think it has properties that help the immune system.
Gail, Monroe, NC |
If I am buying milk from an unknown dairy, I want pasteurized milk, I have seen commercial dairy farms milk, they use a lot of chemicals to clean the cow before milking. If I want good milk I would prefer to buy from an organic dairy farm, but still want it pasteurized. We did have a milk cow when I was younger and it was good milk, but that was just one cow and mom and dad milked it.
Lat, , |
Every comment on this page is positive for raw milk. As in every food(tomatoes for example) contamination can happen along the processing line. That is human error, not natural raw milk error. God didn't make pasteurizers, but he did make milk.
Velma Ward, Capitan, NM |
25% are contaminated? Even if that's true it's irrelevant because CLEARLY 25% of people drinking the milk do not get sick...did you know 100% of vaccines contain harmful organisms? True story! I drink raw milk and I never get sick from anything =)
Natalie, Mission Viejo, CA |
I, along with my three brothers, were all raised on raw milk. We lived on a farm out in the country and were very rough, even jumping off of roofs, and none of us has ever had a broken bone. My oldest brother was even hit by a car so hard his shoes and socks flew off and only ended up with scrapes and bruises. My family is the healthiest group of people I know.
Kristin, St. Joseph, MO |
I'm 77 and for the first 16 years of my life had no milk to drink except raw. I believe that as a result I built up an immunity to whatever it contained. Since I have had so many years of "treated" milk and food it could well be that I have lost that immunity and raw milk could possibly not be good for me.
Don Black, Denton, TX |
As a country boy from arkansas I grew up on the farm, drank raw milk drank well water, my grand ma passed away at the age of 98 did nit have a cavity in her head pasturerization DDT groth injection have put our health in danger cancer is killing us at an alarming rate. Why dont our goverment tell us the truth. WHY becayse its all about big buisness& & money.
willie kelley, Arlington, TX |
I agree with these people. I have not had raw milk since I was a small child and can't even remember what it tastes like, but my grandfather was a dairy farmer and raised his kids on it. My mom who is 25 years older than me, at 68 has twice the energy I have and rarely catches a cold. Must have something to do with fresh food as a child and mostly fresh now as an adult.
vickie, Cleveland, OH |
I was also raised on a dairy farm and we drank the raw milk. I can't stand to drink the pasteurized milk in the stores now! We are killing off the healthy enzymes in the milk by pasteurizing it and that explains why people can drink raw milk and not the store bought. We just shouldn't be messing with nature!
Renae, Apple Creek, OH |
I like the comment that 1000 illneses, 100 hospitalizations and 2 deaths between 1998 and 2005 were the cause of raw milk. What about the many deaths due to medicines. what about the millions of deaths due to all the chemicals and the kind of stuff that the FDA has allowed in our foods its called CANCER.
carol, Fremont, MO |
The FDA is in bed with the food companies, namely the dairy industry in this instance. So of course they don't want to allow raw milk. Read up on all the great things about raw milk on the Weston A. Price site and books by Dr. William Douglass, Dr. Ron Schmid, Dr. Joseph Mercola, nutritionist Mike Adams, even Ron Paul... Even Ahnold drank it as a kid but now because of the dairy industry, he wants to criminalize it in CA. It's soooo much healthier than pasteurized milk.
Suz, St. Davids, PA |
Cow's milk is for calves. We are the only species that drinks milk beyond lactation age and it's not even our own species!! The high protein content in milk actually blocks the absorption of calcium in it. Stop the madness!!. You DO NOT need milk, nor is it ideal for optimum health.
Tia, Kansas City, MO |
My dad had a cow when I was young and I drand fresh milk all the time til I was 6 and we moved and he couldn't have a cow anymore. My mom had to startr buying milk from the store and I quit drinking milk. I never been able to drink milk fom the store since and I'm 67 now and have Osteo. Have broken both hips and fractured my pelvic in the last 6 yrs. I 've never had the chance to try 'fresh' milk again. I've often wondered if I could stand to drink it again. My guess is that, it must taste different from pasturized
Patricia Gillespie, Soddy Daisy, TN |
I know an owner of a small farm. He and his wife do not have a milk cow any more but they still raise a calf or 2 every couple of years, for their own freezer. He told me a calf would die from malnutrition if it was fed store bought milk. What does that say about the quality of our milk supply. After it is homogenized & pasteurized there is basically no nutrition left. I wish I had a source I could trust to buy some raw milk. I have never even tasted it. My father was raised on it and he is pushing 80 and is so healthy that he rarely if ever gets sick. He is so active he can run circles around me.
JaniceT, Valparaiso, IN |
I also grew up on a Spring Valley, NY dairy farm in the 1950's. I stripped the cows udders once my dad was done milking by hand. I grew up on raw milk that was carefully handled by loving parents and was actually sold to the Hassidic Jews in our town because it was Kosher. When I moved out on my own, and began drinking homogenized milk- that's when I became lactose intolerant. I find I love all dairy products and I can still enjoy them by taking milk digestive enzymes that are missing in the store bought milk. Raw milk is hard to find here.
Shirley (Simpson) Millar, Sedona, AR |
So happy to see the overwhelming positive feedback on here to raw milk experience. Shows this article was useless and skewed. I also have been drinking raw milk with my family and we all love it. I can't drink regular milk (even organic) - it dramatically increases my allergies. Raw milk has almost eliminated my seasonal allergies within a few months. If you are concerned about contamination, buy only from dairy you can visit and inspect. If it looks clean (like the one I buy from) and there is transparency, it's a go! I am a nutrition counselor and agree that we don't need milk to be healthy or survive, but while it's available, I will tke advantage of it. If I can't get it anymore due to laws, I will become vegan.
Jan, Wichita, KS |
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