The Raw Milk Revolution by David E. Gumpert

Author:David E. Gumpert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Published: 2011-02-14T05:00:00+00:00

As I said, it’s difficult to overstate the importance of such research findings and the favorable statements of well-regarded scientists. Whether it was because of these articles or the rapidly growing interest in raw milk, America’s medical and scientific establishments came out in 2008 with a literal barrage of adamant objections. First, Harvard Medical School published an article on the widely read Microsoft Network via its Harvard Health Publications, which supposedly answered a question by a parent about serving raw milk to children. It concluded: “There are parents who believe raw milk is more nutritious than pasteurized milk. Research has shown this is not true. There is no nutritional advantage to drinking raw rather than pasteurized milk.”26

Not long afterward, in December 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics published an article in its “official news magazine” telling its members in a heading, “Advise families against giving children unpasteurized milk.”27

It used language similar to Harvard Medical School in concluding that “there are no documented health benefits associated with ingestion of unpasteurized milk or milk products.”

Then, in January 2009, the scientific journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published an article titled “Unpasteurized Milk: A Continued Public Health Threat” in which it concluded: “Scientific evidence to substantiate the assertions of the health benefits of unpasteurized milk is generally lacking.”28

What is interesting about this particular paper is that it at least acknowledges the growing popularity of raw milk: “Despite the overwhelming scientific understanding of pathogens in milk and the public health benefits of pasteurization, there is considerable disagreement between the medical community and raw-milk advocates concerning the alleged benefits of consumption of raw milk and the purported disadvantages of pasteurization.”

But interestingly, none of the bastions of establishment health and science confront the very real research showing the benefits of raw milk. The closest thing to an objective assessment of the research has come from an attorney prominent in the food-borne illness world, Bill Marler of Seattle firm MarlerClark. The firm has represented families who became ill from raw milk. He runs several blogs on food-borne illness, and on one of them, he published a review of research assessing the benefits of raw milk. Given his anti-raw-milk orientation, he had some favorable things to say.

“There is substantial epidemiological evidence from studies in Europe that consumption of raw milk products in childhood has a ‘protective’ effect for some allergic conditions (e.g., asthma, hay fever, eczema),” he said in the 2008 assessment. He added, “Raw milk and cheeses may contain microflora (‘beneficial bacteria’) that produce metabolites and other antibacterial compounds that may be toxic to food-borne pathogens.”29

American establishment scientists could argue, for example, that the research isn’t complete enough, or has flaws. But they don’t do that. Instead they repeat the contention that no research exists to support the possibility that raw milk confers health benefits, when clearly that is a lie.

All of which raises this question: If you can’t believe what they say about the existence of research supporting the nutritional benefits of raw milk, can you believe what they say about the dangers of raw milk? That is the subject of the next chapter.

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