USATODAY.com - Raw milk: Fit for human consumption?

[Guest guest]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-08-06-raw-milk-usat_x.htm

Interesting conclusion.

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Raw milk: Fit for human consumption?Updated 8/6/2006 8:43 PM ET

By Weise, USA TODAY

Langlois feels so strongly about the benefits of unpasteurized goat

milk that he pays $19 a gallon to have it shipped from a South Carolina

dairy to his home in Estillfork, Ala. He credits it with giving him more

energy, curing his grandson's chronic diarrhea when he was an infant and

keeping the boy " steady " rather than " bouncing off the walls " now that

he's 5.

Benner of Rochester, N.Y., drives 45 minutes each way to a

dairy to get a week's worth of raw cow's milk for nine families in the

milk club she organized. She says she was " really struggling " on a

low-fat, vegan diet but regained her strength when she added whole raw

milk and cream to her diet.

Trecaso of Copley, Ohio, is in a herd share program. She and

150 other families pay boarding costs for " their " cows and take their

profits in milk, butter and cream. For her, it's about " buying food that

is minimally processed, food that is procured in a 100-mile radius. ...

It's about relationships and shaking the hand that feeds you. "

Each of them is a strong believer in the importance of unpasteurized

milk. Each of them is also breaking the law. Selling raw milk is illegal

in 25 states and the District of Columbia. In New York, dairies

providing raw must be state certified. Benner's is not.

*THE RAW MILK DEBATE*: See if it's available in your area

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But each believes that the benefits outweigh the expense, inconvenience

and illegality. They've got lots of company.

Advocates of raw milk are behind legislative efforts in Tennessee, Ohio,

Kentucky and Nebraska to legalize selling raw milk. Moves to introduce

legislation have begun in North Carolina and land.

Raw milk appeals to consumers who seek natural and unprocessed foods, to

those with health concerns who believe it has curative powers, and most

recently to a new wave of evangelical Christians who follow the

teachings of Jordan Rubin's /The Maker's Diet/, a Bible-based diet of

unprocessed foods.

But this is a dangerous game, public health officials say.

•In June, more than 58 people in Wisconsin became ill with

/Campylobacter jejuni /from unpasteurized cheese curds.

•In January, five people became ill with campylobacteriosis after

drinking raw milk from a dairy in Larimer County, Colo.

•In December 2005, six children in Washington state were infected with a

potentially deadly form of /E. coli /O157:H7 bacteria from drinking

unpasteurized milk.

No matter how clean the cows or the barn, all milk contains fecal

material, says Keene, senior epidemiologist in Oregon's Acute

and Communicable Disease Program. " This is what happens when you hose

down a cow and then put a vacuum down at the south end of it. "

Sally Fallon disagrees. She is president of the Weston A. Price

Foundation, which follows the teachings of a Cleveland dentist who wrote

on the power of natural foods in the 1930s and '40s. She believes cows

raised on pasture grass, rather than in pens eating corn, are healthy

and pathogen-free. A statement on the foundation's website says

pasteurized milk " is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay,

colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis,

heart disease and cancer. "

That's simply not supported by science, says Sheehan, director of

the Food and Drug Administration's Division of Dairy and Egg Safety.

Drinking raw milk is " like playing Russian roulette with your health, "

he says.

Advocates are employing various strategies in states where they can't

legally buy the milk, including selling it as pet food, selling it

frozen because it's not in " final consumable form, " and selling cow

shares, because in most states farmers can drink unpasteurized milk from

their own cows.

For those who are convinced that pasteurized milk is unhealthy, there's

little that health workers can do to change their minds, says

Lynch, a food-borne-illness expert at the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention.

" But we want to get the word out to people who may not understand, " he

says. " If you explained the dangers to them, they would probably not

want to drink the raw milk. They're confusing it with organic, and

organic has positive connotations. "