Raw Milk Part 2

We know milk contains calcium; we have all heard it our entire lives—the age-old mantra 'drink milk for strong bones.' But what if that isn't the case with milk anymore?

What started out as a health food has transformed into an 'ultra-processed' food lacking the nutrition we began drinking it for in the first place."

In the previous post, Raw Milk: One of the World’s Oldest Foods, we scraped the surface on the benefits of raw milk over pasteurized milk.

Now let’s take a closer look at the good stuff and find out why raw milk is considered a whole or complete food and how it can help keep us full and happy throughout the day.

Have you ever heard of the term intuitive eating? It's when you have a craving, and your body is telling you it needs something. It seems fair to infer that if you consume a whole food, it turns off the cravings in your brain or desire to eat more because your brain has gotten all of the nutrition it needs to function properly.

Raw milk has been a part of human diets for thousands of years and is considered whole or complete because it is so nutrient-dense. It contains all of the essential vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins to give your body everything it needs to quiet your cravings and support overall health.

In raw milk, the vitamins and minerals are bioavailable, which means they are easily absorbed and ready to be used by the body. They play a vital role as the 'fuel' and 'building materials' for our bodies.

Vitamins

Unpasteurized milk contains fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which rely on fat for absorption and transportation within the body.

These vitamins are unstable and can easily break down, particularly when exposed to high heat. Consequently, they do not survive the pasteurization process.

Raw milk is also rich in water-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin C and the B vitamins: folate, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.

These vitamins help our bodies to do important jobs, like keeping our skin healthy, making our bones strong, turning food into energy, supporting our immune system to fight off germs, and helping our nervous system work properly.

Minerals

Raw milk contains every essential mineral and even vital trace minerals, but some of the most important ones include calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and sodium. Each mineral has its own special job in our bodies:

• Calcium helps us build strong bones and teeth.

• Iron is important for making red blood cells, which carry oxygen around our bodies.

• Magnesium helps our muscles and nerves work properly.

• Zinc is needed for our immune system to fight off infections.

• Potassium and sodium help regulate our body's water balance and keep our heart beating correctly.

These minerals might be tiny, but they play big roles in keeping us healthy.

Enzymes

Enzymes become denatured when exposed to high temperatures during the pasteurization process.

One important enzyme in raw milk is called lipase. Lipase helps break down fats into smaller parts, making it easier for our bodies to absorb and use them for energy.

Another very important enzyme in raw milk is lactase. This enzyme helps break down lactose, the natural sugar found in milk.

Many people are lactose intolerant because the milk they are drinking doesn't contain the enzyme lactase to help break down the lactose in milk. Lactase is another thing destroyed during pasteurization.

Proteins

Raw milk contains a variety of proteins that serve various functions.

Casein is the primary protein in milk. It is rich in essential amino acids, which are important for building muscle and repairing tissue.

Whey proteins help the body's immune system fight off infections and protect against harmful bacteria and viruses.

Fats

Raw milk is loaded with healthy fats: saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and CLA.

Our bodies need these fats to fulfill crucial functions, from construction of cell membranes and hormone production, to store energy and provide protection for delicate organs. These fats, as we learned earlier, also serve as transportation for important fat-soluble vitamins.

Beneficial Bacteria

Raw milk is loaded with beneficial bacteria that increase the diversity in our gut microbiome. This is a fancy way of saying, a healthy balance of good bacteria in the gut is essential for overall gut health.

Research suggests that beneficial bacteria also plays a key role in the gut-brain axis, which is the communication between the gut and the brain. This, in turn, can have an effect on our mood and mental health.

Good foods feed good bacteria, bad foods feed bad bacteria.

When milk is freshly produced and hasn't undergone pasteurization or any other heat treatment, it maintains a diverse population of living microorganisms that when consumed work together like a perfect system.

Without these living organisms in raw milk there is a disconnect from the consumption and absorption. Our bodies are not able to get the benefits from these nutrients, which used to be the reason for drinking milk in the first place. After all, 80% of our immune system cells live in our gut.

Not to mention — raw milk is utterly delicious!

Fun Fact: There is 40-60% of dark matter in our gut, which means we do not know what 40-60% of the gut is doing. This is referred to as 'microbial dark matter'.