What the heck is raw milk anyway?

Before we got our first milk cow, and really went all-in with the raw milk journey, I never ran into the problem of having milk I needed to use up before it went bad. In fact, it was actually the other way around. If we ran out of milk, that was enough to warrant a trip to the store.

We are a family of six and easily go through that many gallons of milk per week just using it for drinking, eating cereal, and using a little here and there in recipes. I know, that sounds like a lot. But shoot, I've got a couple boys who could drink 2-3 gallons/week alone!

Fast forward to today and there are several milk cows out in the pasture, and we have not one, but two refrigerators strictly dedicated to milk. The difference between those six gallons of milk I used to buy at the grocery store and the milk I now have filling up two refrigerators is that it’s raw.

So, what the heck is raw milk, anyway? Well, raw milk is straight from the cow without any of the processing done to it that milk from the grocery store has experienced. All we do is filter and chill it before it’s ready to drink.

Raw milk has not been pasteurized, which is the process of heating (sometimes to really high temperatures) to kill any bad bacteria or pathogens. Killing bad bacteria and germs is not a bad thing, but when the germs are killed, so are all of the good prebiotic and probiotic bacteria that your body, and specifically your gut, needs to stay healthy.

Raw milk has also not been homogenized. If you’ve seen the word “homogenized” on milk jugs but didn’t really know what it meant, here you go… milk that’s been homogenized has been processed at really high pressure to break up the milk fat globules, so it stays mixed in with the milk instead of rising to the top. It doesn’t change the nutrient profile or taste, but one theory by raw milk advocates and consumers is that this affects some people's ability to digest and tolerate dairy products.

In fact, a 2007 survey of raw milk drinkers in Michigan, 155 people had been diagnosed with lactose intolerance by a healthcare professional. 118 of those 155 people reported that they did not experience those same symptoms from consuming raw milk. That’s 76%!

(source: Raw Milk Institute)

If you’d like to read more about the history of pasteurization and the potential benefits of raw milk, check out this blog post I wrote a little while ago.

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