Raw Milk vs. Pasteurised Milk

Jodie emailed me and asked me my opinion of the raw milk versus pasteurised milk debate, and after doing some research I have to say, wow! What a can of worms. So much information and mis-information is out there, it really is hard to know what to do; my head is still spinning. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the points in my research that I thought were important, sorry it's taken so long Jodie!

What's the deal?

There is a growing movement around the world towards the use of "raw" milk in our diet, instead of the regular pasteurised and homogenised milk we buy at the supermarket. This movement is primarily lead by the Real Milk campaign, a project of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Why pasteurise milk?

Milk and milk products naturally contain both beneficial and harmful bacteria. Beneficial bacteria include Lactobaccillus which is great for intestinal health, and is one of the reasons that yoghurt is so good for you. Harmful (pathogenic) bacteria may include Campylobacter, E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria, all of which can cause very serious illness, such as tuberculosis, salmonella poisoning, diphtheria and typhoid fever. Milk is a very nutrient-rich fluid, so these harmful bacteria can multiply rapidly if contamination occurs. Pasteurising the milk also aids in extending the shelf life of the milk by killing off spoilage bacteria.

Homogenisation is the process whereby milk is forced through a fine straining device to break up the fat globules and ensure they are evenly distributed in the milk. There is also some controversy about this process; raw milk proponents claim that the fat and cholesterol is then more likely to form disease-causing free-radicals.

"Raw" milk has been neither pasteurised nor homogenised.

What is pasteurisation?

Pasteurisation is the process of heating the milk to a high temperature, holding it at that temperature for a set period of time and then cooling it quickly to below 4' Celsius. This kills off a large percentage of the bacteria in the milk.

Ultra pasteurisation (UP) heats the milk to a much higher temperature giving it a much longer refrigerated shelf life (up to 8 weeks - much of the organic milk in Australia is treated in this way), and ultra-high temperature pasteurisation (UHT) makes it shelf-stable at room temperature for a long period of time.

Legislation and Raw Milk in Australia

By law, all cows' milk sold in Australia for human consumption must be pasteurised, therefore raw cows' milk may not be sold legally, although you may buy raw goat's milk (because the diseases Brucellosis and Tuberculosis have never been found in goats in Australia). One company is getting around that by selling raw cows' milk labelled as "bath milk" for "cosmetic purposes" only (Cleopatra's Bath Milk). You may also buy shares in a cow or cow herd, in order to drink your "own" milk without purchasing it, as such.

Arguments against pasteurisation.

Proponents of raw milk commonly claim that heating milk to high temperatures can result in the following health and nutrient issues:
1. The denaturing of milk proteins, making them less usable and even harmful to your body;
2. The destruction of enzymes in the milk, including phosphatase and lactase. They claim that without these two enzymes milk is not absorbed or digested well and may result in "lactose intolerance" (I would add here that these are COW enzymes, not HUMAN digestive enzymes, and so I'm a bit confused as to how they aid OUR digestion of cows' milk);
3. A decrease in the amount of soluble calcium;
4. The destruction of vitamins B12, B6, and C; and the
5. Destruction of beneficial bacteria in the milk.

In addition, the usual method of pasteurisation generally alters many flavours in the milk and can introduce some other tastes such as an "eggy" flavour, which is now the norm in supermarket milk and is expected by the average consumers! Some cheese-makers also prefer raw milk to make their cheeses with, as it they claim it has superior flavour properties, although many others argue that it isn't the pasteurisation that is the issue, it's the quality of the milk in the first place.

Milk Production

Most modern dairies use Holstein cows, bred to consistently produce more milk and less butterfat in their milk. Older breeds of cows such as Jersey, Guernseys and Red Devons on the other hand, produce milk with a high cream and butterfat content. I liken this to the comparison between the modern "supermarket" fruit and vegetable varieties and the old heirloom or heritage varieties, which (in my opinion) are invariably superior in taste. It is the older breeds of cows that are also commonly used for the production of the relatively new "A2" milk that recently has become popular:

"Regular" milk contains either "A1" beta-casein protein, a mixture of "A1" and "A2" beta-casein proteins, or only the "A2" beta-casein protein. Promoters of A2 milk claim that the A1 protein is responsible for numerous health problems and disorders, including heart disease, eczema, asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes, schizophrenia and autism. Milk from jersey cows, goats, sheep, yaks and buffalo is all A2. It is widely promoted as a "failsafe" food for children with food allergies and intolerance (a situation close to my heart as DD#2 has a number of food intolerances), and is claimed to be less likely to cause allergies than A1 milk. It should be pointed out however, that a milk "allergy" and a milk "intolerance" are two quite different things and that recent Australian research has shown that children who are allergic to A1 milk, are also allergic to A2 milk. There is, as yet, no scientific evidence to back up the health claims of A2 milk.

Organic milk production in Australia is also tending toward using the older breeds of dairy cattle for the same reason; flavour (quality over quantity), and many are also producing unhomogenised milk.

The Don't Drink Milk Argument

"The amazingly successful and expensive advertising campaigns of the dairy industry not only got our mothers to feed us formula instead of breast milk, but seem to have convinced us that it is "natural" for people to drink cows' milk. Nothing could be less natural. No species drinks milk beyond infancy and none consumes the milk of other species."--Neal Barnard, M.D.

The milk of every animal is uniquely tailored to that animal, and is the reason that the World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for (human) infants up to the age of 12 months.

There are two reasons that cows' milk is promoted as an essential part of our diet. Firstly because cow's milk is very high in protein. This is because calves are, naturally, much bigger and grow much faster than human infants, and so require a much higher level of protein. However, one of the problems currently touted with our Western diet is that we consume far too much protein: the Australian Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for protein is 55g per day, the average Aussie man eats at least twice this (100g of meat is the equivalent of a piece of steak the size of a deck of cards) . Incidentally, human breast milk has the lowest protein levels of all mammal milk, 0.9%. Vegetable proteins provides identical nutritional qualities and don't come with the added fat and cholesterol.

Secondly, milk is high in calcium, an essential element in our diet helping in particular, to provide for strong bones. There's no doubt that the calcium in milk and dairy products is a really easy way to boost our calcium intake. But then, look at the size of fully grown cows: they are big animals with big bones requiring lots of calcium, but even they don't drink their own milk past weaning, so they must be getting it from the vegetative matter they eat, as humans once did.

Environmental and Ethical Issues

I know this isn't directly related to the topic, but I personally, can't discuss milk without also talking about the environmental impact of dairying in Australia, and the ethical issues of milking animals.

In short, the dairy industry in Australia uses more water than cotton farming; 39.5% of total water use for irrigation, versus 15.5% for cotton and 4.4% for fruit. One litre of milk requires 1000 litres of water to produce.

And in regard to ethical issues, I've posted about it briefly before, but essentially my concerns with commercial dairying are the intensive cycle of pregnancy that dairy cows are generally subjected to, and the stress-causing removal of their calves shortly after birth (clearly some are kept as new stock [the average commercial dairy cow is milked for only 5 years], but there must be a lot of others that go off to the cannery). Organic dairying practices ensure that many of these issues are addressed, such as a longer cycle between pregnancies and not removing the calves until they are weaned (by milking once a day instead of twice for instance), but I still have concerns over large-scale organic dairys.

My Thoughts

So, are you confused yet? LOL. OK, here are my thoughts, which are, naturally, open for discussion :-)

Once upon a time I worked in a laboratory, and although it wasn't our speciality, we did do bacterial sampling and testing. More than enough to make me shudder and think twice about what goes into my mouth, LOL. Having said that, a lot of the bacteriological testing we did was on rainwater tanks where the owners had been drinking it happily for many years with no ill effects, but suddenly new visitors from the city were coming down with a nasty gastroenteritis bug. Testing revealed rather horrible levels of bacteria in the water (usually from contamination from bird droppings on their roof or small dead animals like mice and frogs in the tank), so no wonder the visitors were sick! But my main point here is that the regular drinkers had no problems at all, so the human body has a pretty remarkable ability to develop an immunity to many types of bacteria in our surrounds.

However, having had three pregnancies in the last six years, I am very aware of possible sources of bacterial contamination in foods, and their effects in unborn babies and infants. This was particularly driven home when a friend had her baby prematurely at 24 weeks gestation due to a Listeria infection. Any number of women over the years have told me how they think the recommended restrictions on eating particular foods and drinking in pregnancy are a load of bunkum because THEY ate sushi/drank wine/ smoked heavily every day and THEIR kids were fine. Listeria infections might be rare, but I wouldn't wish what my friend and her family went through on my worst enemy (the baby is now 16 months old and thriving, luckily).

So, what is the upshot of all that? The Listeria experience makes me a bit wary of raw milk, especially when given to infants and immuno-compromised adults. I do believe that being born and raised drinking raw milk straight from the cow as it were, is unlikely to cause illness, due the natural immunity I talked about above . However, once that raw milk then starts to be stored, bottled and distributed from the farm, especially on a large scale, the number of points of possible contamination starts to rise, particularly as you get further away (distance and time-wise) from the source of the raw milk. By my reckoning this could have implications for a) those of us not used to raw milk, and b) the occurrence of serious illnesses. On the latter point, where raw cows' milk is legally available for sale overseas, the bacterial control conditions are extremely stringent (far more so than for regular milk), but where are the safety guidelines when purchasing raw milk for "cosmetic use" from an unknown source at your local health food store?

Clearly, drinking raw milk from your own cow, if you are lucky enough to have one, is a great option, as is sourcing milk from a local, organic dairy farm. But I just have to wonder about raw milk being bottled in Queensland and then trucked to Victoria, for instance? Promoters of raw milk claim that rather than spoiling like pasteurised milk, raw milk sours, and is still very edible and nutritious, but still...

In regards to giving up dairy foods, the National Nutrition Survey (conducted in 1995 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics) showed 75% of girls and 50% of boys aged 4-7 years obtain less than the RDI for calcium from their diet with 22% and 12% respectively receiving less than 70% of the RDI . The equivalent of 2-3 serves of dairy foods daily reach the recommended dietary intake for calcium for children. So although, drinking too much milk can be an a health issue with toddlers (it is very filling and can cause them to exclude other more nutritious foods, resulting in illness such as iron-deficiency anaemia), I won't be giving up providing organic dairy products, particularly yoghurt and cheese to my kids (or me!) just yet. And I'm not convinced of the wonder powers of A2 milk just yet, so I won't be switching - I am much more interested in the organic dairying practices at this stage and am prepared to pay a premium for that, although out of curiosity I'd be interested to find out the percentage of A2 milk in the organic milk produced in Australia anyway if anyone ever does any surveys.

As for pasteurised milk being less nutritious than raw milk - if you read anything written by raw foods advocates, the same can be said of all foods that have been processed in any way, including cooking. Vitamin C deteriorates rapidly in orange juice for instance, which is why commercial juices are supplemented. The bulk of vitamins are located in or just under the surface of the skin of vegetables, so peeling your carrots and potatoes compromises their nutritional value even before you start cooking them. All water-soluble vitamins are sensitive to high heat, so you could equally argue that any foods that have preserved by canning in your Fowler's Vacola unit are the equivalent of pasteurised milk, so why bother?

So what are my conclusions? My personal perspective, at this point in time, is that I'm more concerned about environment issues than natural wholefoods (although these two issues are closely linked and I realise that many people reading this will have the opposite viewpoint). If *I* had my own cow or lived next door to an organic farm with ready access to fresh, raw milk, I'd switch in an instant, as much for the freshness and flavour as anything else. If I had to buy it bottled from the local health food shop, no I wouldn't. And if tomorrow someone were to provide me with solid scientific evidence (and there is none so far) that pasteurised milk is a health hazard, in light of the "don't drink milk" argument and the environmental/ ethical reasons, I'd give up drinking milk, use cheese made from raw milk and look to alternatives such as organic soy milk (which has greater environmental benefits). It really is such an individual thing though, and if you want to go that way I think you need to do some more research of your own.

Links

The Real Milk campaign and the Australian website
Nourished Magazine
Safe Food QLD