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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
Asthma, sleep apnea, eczema: gone with switch to live dairy & Real Foods.
Its astounding how many people still discount the importance of food on health. Their allergic to the pasteurization, not the milk. And this in turn could be contributing to the asthma.
Okay but how much do they have to drink….. cuz at 9$ a gallon I cant afford raw milk…. we drink 3 gallons a week… and i get the best i can right now… it is not homogonized and low temp pasturized.. grass fed. And anwhere where there is snow or cold all cows have to be supplemented with grain… That is the truth of the matter cuz there is no grass in the winter…
Can raw milk be frozen without destroying its benefits? The only milk source I know of is quite a distance from our house, and buying in bulk and freezing is the only way we could make it work.
Freezing does not harm the enzymes .. a bit of nutrition is lost but not much. It’s definitely worth it to buy in bulk and freeze it if that is what you need to do.
While this is true, and I’ve done it before, raw milk is not very smooth when thawed. The cream does not reconstitute very well. When my kids wouldn’t drink it plain, I had to use my thawed milk in smoothies and cooking- just FYI 🙂
Sarah, even though I think you are 1000% correct that everyone should drink raw or soured milk,
I STRONGLY disagree with the statement:
“There is no record of raw milk ever killing a single child.”
Dirty raw milk from sick animals in a confinement dairy is absolutely UNFIT for consumption! It will make you and me plenty sick, and HAS killed THOUSANDS of people in the past! Even pasteurized this stuff sickens people! Haven’t you read “Milk, the untold story?” I’m originally from NYC. Home of the swill diary operation (and a lot of sheisty crooks even to this day). That’s why they began pasteurizing milk in the first place!!! Please don’t forget that!!
I tell plenty people about raw milk, even my friends who still live in NYC, but if I still lived in NYC I would NOT trust ANY of the distributors on the rawmilk.com website that deliver to NY that they have on the website as of today! When ever something is illegal and you can only get blackmarketers to haul it in for you (when a commodity is a federal offense it brings the WRONG element into the equation), something can and WILL go wrong. I would get some moms together and go to a farm weekly and get it myself or alternate with them or find a distribution drop straight from the farm with a CSA. Even if I was risking a federal offense going into New Jersey to get it. My health and that of my son is worth it for all the good raw milk has done me in these short 5 months.
I think you meant to say:
“Locally produced clean Raw milk that comes from well cared for animals, and conscientious farmers has never killed anyone.”
Another good argument would be about illnesses from *pasteurized* milk. Another question could be be would be fruits & veggies where unpasteurized manure from confinement dairies are being used as fertilizer are killing people. Should we cook lettuce and canteloupes now to avoid food poisoning?
Asking them to question these things would nail your arguments, (or at least give pause) with people with half a brain instead of false statements that make you lose credibility.
I pay big bucks for my clean raw milk. BUT you couldn’t PAY ME to drink raw milk from just ANY cow or goat!! That is CRAZY talk! I’m violently lactose (pasteurized milk) intolerant and have been for 33 years. I started drinking raw goat milk 5 months ago to help with my milk supply. I now drink raw cow and goat milk with *0* problems and I believe it has helped me with my allergies. I wish I knew about raw milk when I was pregnant. I believe clean raw milk would have saved me from the malnutrition that caused my preeclampsia and converted my planned home birth into a 28 hour labor ending in kidney and liver failure and finally cesarian. With my intolerance I never drank a drop of any animal milk in my pregnancy. NOW I KNOW better. I give it to my son (with folic acid and extra FCLO) when my milk supply is low and I don’t EVER plan to stop drinking it or giving it to my son. If I am pregnant again, I will drink a quart of raw milk daily from day 1.
If the raw milk is not certified or I’ve never seen my farmers face at least once, I wouldn’t drink it or give it to my son, esp if he had asthma! Asthmatics and other immuno compromised people (like I used to be) are MORE VULNERABLE to pathogens! MANY asthma sufferers are allergic to milk and rightfully so parents would be DOUBLE afraid to give them something they believe is pathenogenic that could cause them to stop breathing! A bad batch of raw milk from a black market shiester could literally kill him/her!! Whereas a GOOD batch can cure.
If it were to give them an attack, (you never state what happens to the 59% that it doesn’t help) how could they justify their actions in a hospital emergency room?
Fortunately, YOU have not been cursed with VERY sick children, and you must not have spent enough time around crooked shiesters who will sell you poison with a smile! Desperate parents are EXTREMELY vulnerable. Your ARE correct, but you can’t convert people with blatant false statements. It ruins your credibility!
It’s irresponsible to write an article telling parents of kids with asthma to get them to drink raw milk without being specific of source (how to find CLEAN raw milk), how to introduce it, (GAPS), why raw milk is thought to be so dangerous (Milk Untold Story).
The caveats of the raw milk risks are EASY to get around if you TRUST your farmer!
You could mention that they may want to find a GOOD naturopath, or nutritionist to help them in case in the short run they begin to feel a little worse before they feel a little better.
This article is great pat on the back for people who are already converts, but you won’t be winning over any saavy parents with SICK children, whom I would think would be your intended audience.
Can you [please direct me to the record of these “thousands of deaths” that you are so very sure about? Hope you can, because I can’t find any nor can the Weston A. Price Foundation which is all over this topic day in and day out.
Not only has raw milk never killed a single child, it only makes about 42 folks a year sick which translates to one of the safest foods to consume on the planet. Other foods are about 35,000 times MORE likely to make you sick with a food borne illness … case in point, the huge listeria outbreak in cantalopes going on right now.
Here you go: http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/milk_history.html
Apparently, you did not read the rest of my rebuttal. As I’m a raw milk FAN.
What I’m looking for are actual records that say “raw milk was the cause of death”. There aren’t any that I can find.
What you’ve supplied is a history of raw milk where the cheap distillery dairies and filthy crowded, confined conditions of the dairy cows made many people sick. Yes, this is indisputable. Did it actually kill anyone? Where are the records. High infant mortality during this time was not caused by the raw milk – just the filthy living conditions and very very poor nutrition of those living in the cities.
Shaniqua, I’ve gotten clarification on the no deaths statement above. The zero deaths is over the past 12 years per the literature available for review.
Your article would be 100% more credible if it said that you are MORE likely to get sick or die from eating raw canteloupe, lettuce or *pasteurized* milk, than you are from consuming raw milk. A sentence or two about WHY it is so unlikely would be golden. Anyone *could* believe that (if they were open minded).
Assume for a second that some Mother of an asthmatic scanning the internet sees your article and knows nothing about WAPF, or raw milk, or why it was/is illegal sees your article and wants to give it a try… until they see that un believable statement that you have there as fact = Lost opportunity. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Even if you ARE right, you just sound wrong.
I drink raw milk, don’t plan on stopping, but even I don’t believe that no one has EVER died or gotten sick from (dirty) raw milk!
Seems that since we all know that eating diseased lettuce can kill you, that no one in their right mind would dismiss the possibility that drinking the bodily fluid of a (possibly) diseased animal can’t kill you, how ever unlikely.
I know, and YOU know that not all raw milk is diseased. That in a healthy animal it is filled with beneficial bacteria to prevent disease. That good bacteria in the milk consume pathogens. We also know how to get good clean milk, but does THAT mother know? Probably not.
Seems if you take the time to bring new research to light, suggesting a parent risk an asthma attack in search of a cure while they pray that their kid is not the 59% whom it DIDN’T help, that you would take a few extra minutes and talk about SOURCE, how to get safe raw milk in there somewhere and maybe mention GAPS for how some people have had success introducing raw milk with severe allergies.
I’ve no doubt that the benefit of raw milk for everyone, including immuno compromised people FAR outweigh the risk – Assuming that the milk is of GOOD quality, assuming that the farmer doesn’t allow sick employees to milk, assuming the distribution chain does not include a bunch of crooks with a car who found out that they can make a dollar importing raw milk to the upper west side from NJ, as they have 4 hours to kill each way getting to the country from the city with all that traffic and don’t care about going *back* to jail on a federal offense since federal prison is nicer than state prison…
Distribution is AS important or MORE important than source. There is a REASON you can buy this stuff on the farm in some places but not off site and it is called accountability.
What will crooks do if they are alone with some unsold milk batches and some empty return bottles? Since raw milk is (unfortunately) illegal you can’t call the cops on them or even report them if there is a problem. How many people do you think procuring raw milk illegally are then going to go report it if it DID make them sick, or tell the hospital it was raw milk if the person died?
If Nathan Strauss were alive today, you’d have as much luck trying to convince him dirty raw milk didn’t kill his child as you would trying to convince a mother today that her normal healthy child really, was autistic BEFORE they got some vaccine, she just didn’t notice (Bull). Data aside, parents know these things, and even if there is no PROOF, I’m willing to take his word for it and the word of other parents of that day.
I know, I know, my mind is in the gutter, but I’ve been hustled enough in my life to know (casualty of being a city girl) that unfortunately these scenarios are REAL, and smart enough to know not to be “had” twice.
I’ve no doubt that these shenanegans in large urban centers are what led to pasteurization in the first place. Forgetting the lesson to be learned from them in the resurgence of real raw milk, would (IMO) be a dangerous mistake.
I hear you, Shaniqua, and I totally agree. People must get the full story, especially those of us new to these ideas. I am eager to learn them but sometimes hold back due to the ‘all or none’ approach communicated here. It does tend to appear to lack credibility for that reason.
I totally agree with you Shaniqua. I am originally from LA, but have been traveling in Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan for work and based on what I have seen and heard for the past 6 years, I wouldn’t let my kid touch raw milk there with a barge pole.
shaniqua, what I meant was I agree with this:
“Locally produced clean Raw milk that comes from well cared for animals, and conscientious farmers has never killed anyone.”
I love it! Thanks so much for sharing! My hubby has asthma, so it’s great to know that we’re already doing something good to reduce our children’s risk!
I love it! Thanks so much for sharing! My hubby has asthma, so it’s great to know that we’re already doing something good to reduce our children’s risk!
Great post…and I couldn’t agree with you more- thinking for oneself truly IS a beautiful thing! 🙂
I am allergic to pasteurized milk- with lactose intolerance AND a casein allergy. However, I can have raw milk all day long- as well as cultured dairy/cheese – yay!
I am lactose intolerant and allergic to either casein or whey or maybe both? Anyways I tried raw milk kefir and still got skin erruptions on my face. Pasturized dairy gives me pimples. I was hoping I would be ok with the raw.
I would say definitely give it some time – like a previous poster had said. People often stop during a detox or die off phase, but if they had just kept on going, they would have experienced the positive benefits. It’s worth sticking it out to see if that’s the case for you!
Raw milk is a very powerful healing food – if you’re not used to eating truly raw foods, then it will definitely cause some sort of reaction as your gut flora is improved. The probiotics from the milk will fight off the nasty ones, which can cause those die off type symptoms, like the skin reaction. I hope it improves for you!
I really wish I had access to raw milk locally! I would need to drive over an hour to get some—not feasible on a weekly basis!! Or I could get it delivered. £2.50 per pint and £7 to deliver it to me! Again, not feasible on a weekly basis. Not sure the current exchange rate, but that might be $15??? We really need to get the word out so we can all access good food!
We drive more than an hour (one way) to get our milk. Every 10 days, like clockwork. No hardship if you really want the stuff!
I’m moving to Vegas and will be driving 4-5 hours each way to get raw milk. I’ll just buy in bulk and freeze in a chest freezer. I MUST have raw milk!
Driving an hour in America is different than driving an hour in the UK. For one thing, their petrol (gasoline) is a lot more expensive than ours.
Could you look into a co-op with other people interested in getting raw milk? It could help defer costs and/or traveling.
Sarah, I was wondering this too. I am lactose intolerant but when I eat things that have milk protein or whey in them, it upsets my gastro tract. So, how do you know it is whey or pasterization that is the issue?