Milk has come up in some of the blog comments this week, and I have been learning more about milk recently, so I wanted to pass along a bit of what I am learning.

First, the milk we think of as milk is not “real milk” as it comes from the cow. It is processed to kill bacteria (pasturized), remove fat (low fat and skin milk), and incorporate fat (homogenized). Real milk separates (sold as “cream top” where the cream is floating on the top), contains all it’s fat, and is loaded with enzymes and nutrients that are destroyed by heat during pasturization.

In times past, milk fresh from cows fed on pasture grass was used as a cure for many diseases. Today’s milk doesn’t have that healing quality.

Unfortunately, it is illegal to purchase raw milk for human consumption in most states. However, we can buy cheese made from raw or “fresh” milk (cheese made from pasturized milk says “pasturized milk” on the ingredient list).

For more information on raw and pasturized milk and their health effects, go to the Real Milk website. They are campaigning to have real milk widely available in the US.

Raw milk cheeses are sold in most natural food stores. For mail order sources, see Debra’s List: Food: Cheese.