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Last year, Paula Jager, owner of Crossfit Jaguar in Tampa Florida, wrote a series of riveting posts about her 15 day raw milk fast. This series on The Milk Cure sparked much interest from readers from around the world who became interested in reviving this age-old remedy for improving vitality, bodily cleansing and even reversal of serious illness as practiced in the early 1900s by the Mayo Foundation, a forerunner of the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota.
At the end of Paula’s raw milk fast last year, she said that she was so pleased with the results (she had the best bloodwork of her life at the conclusion of the fast) that she vowed to do a raw milk fast every year around the beginning of Spring.
A few days ago, Paula told me that she planned to start her annual raw milk fast very soon. What’s more, this year she asked me to do it with her.
My immediate and knee jerk response was, “Uh, fasts don’t really work for me. I don’t want to lose any weight either, so I think I’ll pass.”
Paula, being her persistent and tenacious self, continued to work to convince me.
Yeah, you guys think I’m such a hard nose, but the truth is, on most things I’m very much “go with the flow”. That cooperative middle child thing, you know?
Paula assured me that I needn’t lose any weight on the fast unless I tried to. One of the benefits of raw milk from pastured cows is that it is a complete food, a perfectly balanced elixir of highly digestible, nutrient-dense fats, protein, and carbohydrates. If you consume an adequate amount of ounces and calories for your body weight each day, no weight loss should occur.
She also assured me that she experienced no hunger or cravings during her fast last year, once again, a strong testament to the complete nature of pastured raw milk, known as “white blood” to physicians that have used it therapeutically.
Still unconvinced, I talked to my husband about it hoping to get a bit of moral support for my decision not to do the raw milk fast with Paula this year.
Sigh.
I got no help from hubby.
As soon as I told him the story, he says, “Hey, what a great idea! I’ll do it too!”
At that point, I started to get a teeny weeny bit excited about the fast. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if hubby joined in too. My biggest concern was cooking all this delicious, traditional food day in and day out for the kids and not eating any myself.
Talk about torture!
But, if what Paula told me is true, I shouldn’t feel hungry at all.
At that point, I was willing to give it a go.
Then, it hit me. Why don’t we do this together as a group for anyone who wants to join in? I know that a bunch of readers would like to do a raw milk fast based on emails I’ve received about it over the past year, so let’s do it as a 10 day raw milk challenge!
The Milk Cure (aka Raw Milk Fast)
Here’s how The Milk Cure 2012 will work …
Paula and I will start our raw milk fast on March 1, 2012.
Any of you who wish to join us should plan to start on that date as well.
The fast will go for 10 days and will conclude at midnight on March 10, 2012.
The only thing you are to consume on this fast is pastured raw milk. Water of course is fine too, but no other food or liquids but raw milk.
The reason I’m putting this post up a full week before the fast starts is to give those of you who are going to join us a chance to prepare and stock up on your raw milk. You may even need to freeze some if necessary if you don’t have access to weekly pickups.
You will need anywhere from 2-5 quarts of raw milk per day per person depending on your current height and weight. If you are trying to lose weight, then drink less. If you don’t want to lose any weight, drink as much as you need to stay satisfied at all times.
Paula drank 3 – 3 1/2 quarts per day last year. She is 5’3″ and 117 lbs.
Please read her 15-day Milk Cure diary from last year to prepare if you plan to join the challenge.
If you’re considering something less rigorous, this journal of a 3-day raw milk fast may prove helpful to your decision.
What worked for Paula was a pint of raw milk every 2 hours or so which translates to approximately 2,000 calories per day (if your raw milk comes from Jersey cows with tons of cream). If you drink raw milk from Holstein cows, you probably should think about adding some additional raw cream to each glass. A cup or so every hour or even a few ounces every 30 minutes works fine too – just adjust the amount and timeframe as it works best for you.
Also, please read about The Milk Cure and how it was used to cure very sick patients at the Mayo Foundation by clicking here.
I plan to drink closer to a gallon a day. I am just shy of 5’7″ and 124 lbs. I do not want to lose any weight so am shooting for 2,500-3,000 calories per day.
Feel free to stop the fast at any time if you choose to join in and discover that it isn’t working for you. I told Paula that if I start to lose weight after a few days, I plan to drop out. I lost 8 lbs on GAPS 2 years ago and although GAPS did me a world of good, I don’t want to go there again. My digestion is really good right now and I don’t have any health issues that I am addressing at the moment, so if this rocks the boat for me too much, I plan to drop out.
Why You Might Want to Fast With Us
I am attempting this raw milk fast primarily as a seasonal cleansing.
You might choose to join in to lose some weight. Perhaps you have some digestive or other health issues you want to turn the corner on and start to heal from.
Perhaps you might want to do it for spiritual reasons. Fasting is encouraged by many spiritual disciplines and that may appeal to you.
Whatever reasons you choose to join in are yours and yours alone. You can choose to share them with the rest of us or not.
Each day during the fast, I will post an update on how Paula, my husband, and I are doing. My hope is that any of you who are joining in will update all of us with your progress in the comments section.
The goal for this 10-day journey is to have available to the world a written diary of the experiences and observations of hundreds of people of various backgrounds and health challenges while on a raw milk fast.
Will this happen? I don’t know.
Maybe it will just be Paula and me and my husband.
I do hope at least a few of you will join us though!
If you do join in, please be sure to check with your doctor first before undertaking this fast particularly if you are doing it to help resolve any health issues.
Also, do not attempt this milk cure fast with pasteurized or even low temp pasteurized “cream top” milk.
Milk becomes a completely different food once it’s pasteurized and many vital nutrients and enzymes are either totally lost or significantly reduced. Pasteurized milk is not a complete food like raw milk is.
Please indicate in the comments section below if you plan to join us! If you want to add your reasons for joining in, that would be cool too but is not necessary.
10-Day Milk Cure Series
Below are links to each day of the Milk Cure 10 day raw milk fast so you can follow along and track our progress!
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Breaking the Fast
Throwing this out to anyone who might have a resource for me – I would LOVE to do this, but I live in Indianapolis, and the only way I’ve found to get raw milk so far is to be part of a herd share – which is not something I can afford right now, being as I’m only one person. (No spouse or family to feed.)
Does anyone know a way to get safe raw milk in or near Indianapolis so I can try this?
Thanks in advance,
Seph
I live about 3 hours north of Indy and the herd shares really aren’t expensive. I’m not sure what their might be around you but maybe ask at local health food stores for ideas. Or drive out to the country, find some amish people and ask them. 🙂
Trader’s Point Creamery sells pet milk, also at their winter market there is an Amish family that sells it. Hope that helps!!
I think I’m in. Although it is not quite spring here in PA the raw milk and cream I get from my local, 13 min away, Amish Farmer is the best quality I have seen. I am starting to see a bit of green around here now so I will be interested to see what our spring milk and cream are like. By the way, my gallon of cream costs me $17. I don’t know if that is a good price but it is incredible in my morning coffee. =)
I buy my cream for $10 a quart that makes it $40 a gallon! Which means I don’t buy it too often.
=/ Sorry to hear that but I have to admit it makes me happy to know I’m getting such a great price.
This just hit my email box from Melanie who asked me to post it. WOW, what a testimonial to the healing power of raw milk!
“i have been very ill for 4 years and dropped to less than 70 lbs while losing most of my strength and having debilitating pain. after much research, including on your site, i decided to do a raw milk fast. amazingly, i am on day 97. i have gained 25 lbs and am slowly regaining strength. i would like to post if this might be helpful to others. “
in our beloved country INDIA there is no availability of pure milk.milk is not here. we are getting synthetic milk.synthetic milk is harmful for health.production and demand varies . we are not getting pure and healthy milk. taking the milk is dangerous in our country, milk based products like curd, ghee KHOA are dangerous for health. it is very common in our country
Sadhu, I am so very sorry for your situation and not being able to access quality milk at all. I so love my Indian readers – you are such lovers of quality dairy. I am so praying you will have access sometime in the future.
When I heard about Vernon Hershberger, I was going to do a raw milk fast and then wondered if it would be ok to do it for an extended time. I do CrossFit like Paula as well as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Both VERY demanding on the body. I think I will give this a go for two weeks and see how I feel. I’ve been wanting to do a cleanse of sorts and this may be the way to do it. Thanks Sarah and Paula (esp for all the TMI info from Paula) LOL.
Hi Rick, Please keep me posted on your progress. Last year I scaled back on my exercise but this year I am going to continue full force with my CrossFit training. A coach of mine and an outstanding athlete–young man of 35 did a fast for 7 days last year and had no negative effects on his performance at all. He trains very intensely about 6 days a week.
When I read Milk Diet as a Remedy for Chronic Disease, by Dr. Charles Sanford Porter, M.D., he recommended doing the diet for several weeks for severe cases of illness, but that was with bed rest. I see no reason why you could not do the diet for a couple weeks with all the exercise, provided that you are healthy to start with, which you must be if you are already doing so much demanding training.
Will do, this is Day one for me. It is almost lunch and I feel great. Did a tough wod this morning and I was missing my backyard bird eggs fried in raw butter… but 3 pints of milk filled me up. 🙂 I workout over at CrossFit Rebels in Clearwater.
I would totally do it if I had access to more milk! Good luck! 🙂
I am excited about doing this fast with you. We have been drinking raw milk for a few months now and we can feel the difference in our bodies. We love it!
You mentioned freezing raw milk in your post. I didn’t know that was possible. We have to drive about 1 1/2 hours to get raw milk so freezing would be great. Can you tell me more? Is the texture and quality still the same once thawed? What kind of container can you freeze it in?
Thanks,
The higher the quality of raw milk, the better and smoother it thaws i am told by grassbased farmer extraordinaire Tim Wightman. My milk freezes and thaws nicely. Sometimes very tiny bits but not many. I do much prefer it fresh though but sometimes freezing is necessary.
Does anyone here know about a study that the Mayo clinic did in the early 1900’s with raw milk diet for curing diseases? A few years ago I read something about this…that they were curing all sorts of things with the patients on just raw milk. ?? Funny how it was just about that same time that the gov. started pushing for pasturized milk…makes you wonder.
Sarah has a link to the study in her blog above. 🙂
So quick question. I am toying with the idea of this fast since i just found my local dairy CSA. I am nursing my 11 month old daughter almost exclusively, we giver whatever we eat so far. Would it be okay to fast while nursing?
I am not sure about that, Megan. I don’t think I would do it if I were you.
I did the milk fast for two weeks while I was nursing. My milk was never better, but I had to drink a 4-5 quarts/ day. Then a dairy in our area shut down so it was too complicated to continue, but I felt great while I did. I’ll do it again next year!