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What if you were told of a simple way to reduce your child’s chances of developing asthma and even allergies by almost half.
Wouldn’t you sit up and take notice?
Wouldn’t you listen very carefully and fall all over yourself to implement that strategy immediately?
Asthma, after all, is a life threatening disease. It is not just a minor inconvenience to everyday life.
An inhaler in your pocket is not comparable in any way to carrying around a pair of reading glasses.
Asthma affects a child’s ability to fully participate in life and may even threaten his/her life if an attack occurs in a place where medical help is not readily and immediately available.
The numbers of children suffering from asthma are staggering. Over 10 million children in the United States alone suffer from this life threatening illness. Any parent would be nuts unwise not to implement such a simple strategy if it could indeed reduce the odds of developing asthma by almost half.
So what is this simple strategy for reducing your child’s asthma risk?
A drug? A vitamin? A supplement or special nutrient of some kind?
None of the above.
Before reading on … remember that just because answers sometimes come in a brown paper bag doesn’t make them any less important or worthy of our rapt attention.
Children That Drink Raw Milk Have 41% Less Asthma
The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology reported on August 29, 2011 that children who drank raw milk had a 41% reduced chance of developing asthma. These same children had a nearly 50% reduction in hay fever as well even when other relevant factors were considered.
The large European study reported by Reuters Health earlier this month included survey results where parents answered detailed questions about their children’s milk consumption. 800 milk samples were collected from the households of those participating in the study.
Researchers linked the protective effects of raw milk to the fragile whey proteins BSA and alpha-lactalbumin which are destroyed by pasteurization.
It is important to note that children who drank raw milk that was boiled before drinking had no less asthma than those children drinking pasteurized milk.
Only completely unheated raw milk from farm to glass provided the protective effects against asthma and allergies.
What if You Are Afraid to Give Your Child Raw Milk?
Here’s the bottom line if you find yourself afraid of raw milk due to the tedious and misguided government warnings about this healthy whole food.
There is no record of raw milk ever killing a single child per review of the available literature over the past 12 years.
Did you get that?
Zero deaths.
Nada.
Nil.
Asthma, on the other hand, kills thousands of people each and every year and causes millions of annual visits to hospital emergency rooms.
What seems to be the common sense, obvious decision to you? Most people don’t trust the government about much of anything anyway (and with good reason), so why wouldn’t they be skeptical of government warnings about raw milk too?
As it turns out, more and more people really are ignoring government warnings about raw milk given that raw milk consumption increased by 25% in California alone in 2010 while pasteurized milk consumption shrank by 3%.
Thinking for oneself is truly a beautiful thing.
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist.com
Source: The Protective Effect of Farm Milk on Childhood Asthma and Atopy, The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
Would u do this to reduce Your Child’s Asthma Risk by 41%? http://t.co/mFzC4wvT
I can see from the previous posts that raw milk must work the same for adults, so I’m excited to try it! I already buy raw milk for my son, and I LOVE the taste – it just adds a lot of calories to my daily intake, so I don’t have it regularly. Any suggestions on what amount I should drink to get reduced asthma symptoms? Thanks, Sarah!
Don’t worry about calories. If you’re eating healthy, whole foods, then you don’t need to count calories or worry. The mainstream likes to say weight gain/loss is as simple as how many calories you consume and it’s not. At all. Drink milk and enjoy it.
I drink raw milk regularly- every day. I also regularly endulge in bacon and other high-calorie foods. The other day, I went to the doctor and found out that I am 3 lbs UNDERweight (according to government recommendations) for my height! I agree- calories are not the culprit. Go ahead and endulge. I do 😉
Right, so what people think is “lactose intolerance” is really “pasteurization intolerance”.
Amen to that! Not only does pasteurization destroy the lactASE (the enzyme that digests lactOSE) but it also flattens the protein (casein) from 3D (natural) to 2D (unrecognizable by the body) and causes dairy allergy symptoms.
I can’t open the link 🙁
What about children who are lactose intolerant?
The enzyme to digest lactose is present in raw milk .. this enzyme is destroyed by pasteurization. Most folks who cannot drink pasteurized milk have no problem with raw milk.
I am intolerant of pasteurized milk/milk products and can drink raw milk no problem! So go for it – the health benefits are unmatched 😀
My daughter cannot drink Pasteurized milk and cannot eat certain milk products (commercial), but she does well with raw milk, but does best with her daily dose of kefir.
Here’s a neat story about my experiance with raw milk:
In the autumn I used to get the most horrific allergies, even after I stopped drinking pasturized/homogenized milk. My nose would constantly be clogged and I would always get sinus infections. However, I found a farm that would sell me raw milk. A month after I began drinking it, I realized that my allergies were gone! I can breathe perfectly normal.
I’ve heard that milk is mucous producing, is this the case with raw milk as well?
If you have gut imbalance, then yes even raw milk can cause some mucous. If that is the case in your situation, you can reduce what little mucous is produced by fermenting the raw milk into raw yogurt or raw kefir which should eliminate that problem unless your gut imbalance issues are very severe.
Reduce Your Child’s Asthma Risk by 41% – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/gtBle7Ox
Sarah thanks for sharing this. In my experience hidden food allergies can be an important and overlooked trigger for asthma. Cows milk is a major culprit.
Now I’m questioning whether it’s ‘pasteurised cows milk’ that is the true villain in this story.
In Australia we have very strict legislation against raw milk, perhaps the strictest in the world. But informed consumers are fighting back.
I agree completely with this. Once my daughter stopped drinking cow’s milk we never needed the puffer again. If she is having a bad day with breathing, we use herbal medicine, teas, etc.
No doubt about it. Pasteurized milk is a highly allergenic food. When those fragile whey proteins are destroyed, milk becomes a different food completely.
And that organic ultrapasteurized milk? Asthma in a carton is what that stuff is.
Hi Sarah,
Is sub-pasteurized cheese a very different food as well even if it is grass-fed?
Absolutley. I have had asthma for 38 years but am now on a path to cmplete healing! I got off of pasturized cow’s milk about 10 years ago. I can drink raw goat and cow milk with no ill effects as it is not mucus producing as is pasteurized milk.
Hi Kelleigh, I have asthma and have found that pasturised milk makes it worse, but I’m fine with raw. I luckily grew up on a farm, drinking raw milk and when I was, there was much less asthma attacks than when I grew up and moved away from home 🙂
Reduce Your Child’s Asthma Risk by 41% http://t.co/su66tpR0 http://bc.vc/TpGmY