Raw milk; very few things these days ignite such a firestorm of debate in circles of those who are concerned about getting the very best foods for their families.
Why? Some feel that drinking milk without pasteurization endangers the health of people needlessly, others feel that all the good things about milk are destroyed during pasteurization.
My opinion is that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they want. Is it not up to the individual to determine if there is a risk, or not, in drinking raw milk? Or a risk to their health when consuming anything else, for that matter?
We have many agencies and inspectors, and yet people still get sick and/or die from eating spinach, or tomatoes, or beef, or eggs, heck even cantalope, that have been tainted with one thing or another.
What we eat and drink for sustenance is the most basic human endeavor. Not everyone can own dairy animals, so rely on their neighbors who can. Many states, and even the federal government, are now involved with raids and arrests of those who sell milk to people who want it. That fact is unfathomable to me.
Where do you stand on this issue?
From Misty Morning Farm in the beautiful Virginia countryside, here is Adam and Faith Schlabach's story about how their family decided that raw milk was best for them.
People ask me why we drink raw milk. I will tell you our story. Adam and I
grew up drinking raw milk, he grew up Amish and they almost all drink milk right
off of the farm, (yikes, and they’re still alive! and we were poor with 5
children and more land than money. I drank raw milk until we moved at the age
of 13. We had a wonderful smaller type Jersey.
When we got married we did not know the value of grass-fed
dairy, let alone raw, so we did not make any attempt to obtain it.
In fact, Adam being very much into healthy eating,
believed that we should not drink milk at all. There was a belief within health
circles for a long time that milk was not good for you and that it would cause
all kinds of problems such as lactose intolerance, congestion, mucous, emotional
volatility, etc. Amazingly, no one caught on that all those symptoms seem to
arise from pasteurized, homogenized milk, not raw grass-fed
milk.
In our personal family we had three who couldn’t drink milk, or so we
thought, for over 15 years. One would get very phlegmy and congested, one
would get very volatile, (He was an easy going guy until he drank milk and the
next day he was a bear! We had a joke in our house that if he drank milk today,
he went to work with his Dad tomorrow, and our daughter was lactose intolerant.
In fact, it took her three months or so before she would even try one sip of raw milk.
In my case, I could not drink milk with bovine growth hormones but seemed to “tolerate” store milk
without the hormones.
About eight years ago, we learned thru the Weston A Price
foundation (please please peruse their site and bookstore,
(it will change your health!) that it was probably not the milk
itself but what we were doing to it. So we visited a neighboring state and a
friend gave us three gallons of raw milk. Surprise surprise! We could drink
it. I cannot tell you the amazement of discovering that. I am still not over
the wonder of it. I made raw milk ice cream the other day! I wish you all
could have come over for a bowl – it WAS amazing and I didn’t feel one bit
guilty.
Since then, my daughter’s cavities which she could not get under control
although taking extremely good care of her teeth and eating VERY little sugar,
are under control. In fact, she has not had a new one since drinking raw milk.
We feel healthier, stronger, and need less sleep. My joints got dramatically
better as well. And best of all, we can now have ice cream.
Did I say amazing!?
I honestly cannot find words to express the goodness we receive out of having
all the raw milk products we can use. Can you imagine making your own ice
cream, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cream cheese, cultured butter, 100′s of
cheeses, AND raw whey to make lacto-fermented foods for all the probiotic
benefits?
Read the rest of their story, and see their beautiful cows and homestead, at Misty Morning Farm.
Why? Some feel that drinking milk without pasteurization endangers the health of people needlessly, others feel that all the good things about milk are destroyed during pasteurization.
My opinion is that people should be able to eat and drink whatever they want. Is it not up to the individual to determine if there is a risk, or not, in drinking raw milk? Or a risk to their health when consuming anything else, for that matter?
We have many agencies and inspectors, and yet people still get sick and/or die from eating spinach, or tomatoes, or beef, or eggs, heck even cantalope, that have been tainted with one thing or another.
What we eat and drink for sustenance is the most basic human endeavor. Not everyone can own dairy animals, so rely on their neighbors who can. Many states, and even the federal government, are now involved with raids and arrests of those who sell milk to people who want it. That fact is unfathomable to me.
Where do you stand on this issue?
From Misty Morning Farm in the beautiful Virginia countryside, here is Adam and Faith Schlabach's story about how their family decided that raw milk was best for them.
People ask me why we drink raw milk. I will tell you our story. Adam and I
grew up drinking raw milk, he grew up Amish and they almost all drink milk right
off of the farm, (yikes, and they’re still alive! and we were poor with 5
children and more land than money. I drank raw milk until we moved at the age
of 13. We had a wonderful smaller type Jersey.
When we got married we did not know the value of grass-fed
dairy, let alone raw, so we did not make any attempt to obtain it.
In fact, Adam being very much into healthy eating,
believed that we should not drink milk at all. There was a belief within health
circles for a long time that milk was not good for you and that it would cause
all kinds of problems such as lactose intolerance, congestion, mucous, emotional
volatility, etc. Amazingly, no one caught on that all those symptoms seem to
arise from pasteurized, homogenized milk, not raw grass-fed
milk.
In our personal family we had three who couldn’t drink milk, or so we
thought, for over 15 years. One would get very phlegmy and congested, one
would get very volatile, (He was an easy going guy until he drank milk and the
next day he was a bear! We had a joke in our house that if he drank milk today,
he went to work with his Dad tomorrow, and our daughter was lactose intolerant.
In fact, it took her three months or so before she would even try one sip of raw milk.
In my case, I could not drink milk with bovine growth hormones but seemed to “tolerate” store milk
without the hormones.
About eight years ago, we learned thru the Weston A Price
foundation (please please peruse their site and bookstore,
(it will change your health!) that it was probably not the milk
itself but what we were doing to it. So we visited a neighboring state and a
friend gave us three gallons of raw milk. Surprise surprise! We could drink
it. I cannot tell you the amazement of discovering that. I am still not over
the wonder of it. I made raw milk ice cream the other day! I wish you all
could have come over for a bowl – it WAS amazing and I didn’t feel one bit
guilty.
Since then, my daughter’s cavities which she could not get under control
although taking extremely good care of her teeth and eating VERY little sugar,
are under control. In fact, she has not had a new one since drinking raw milk.
We feel healthier, stronger, and need less sleep. My joints got dramatically
better as well. And best of all, we can now have ice cream.
Did I say amazing!?
I honestly cannot find words to express the goodness we receive out of having
all the raw milk products we can use. Can you imagine making your own ice
cream, yogurt, kefir, sour cream, cream cheese, cultured butter, 100′s of
cheeses, AND raw whey to make lacto-fermented foods for all the probiotic
benefits?
Read the rest of their story, and see their beautiful cows and homestead, at Misty Morning Farm.