So, what's up with Raw Milk?

[KentaRawr!]

Is it good or bad for you?

[Psychotic]

Why don't you go suck on a cow's titties and report back to us, chief?

[Pheesh]

Isn't raw milk a cow?

EDIT: Alas, beaten to the punch.

[Badge]

I don't udderstand ....

[KentaRawr!]

Why don't you go suck on a cow's titties and report back to us, chief?

If it's bad for me, that would be a pretty unwise choice! I wanna see if any EoFFers have done it first.

[Psychotic]

Why don't you go suck on a cow's titties and report back to us, chief?

If it's bad for me, that would be a pretty unwise choice! I wanna see if any EoFFers have done it first.

Take one for the team. Where's your sense of community?

[KentaRawr!]

Why don't you go suck on a cow's titties and report back to us, chief?

If it's bad for me, that would be a pretty unwise choice! I wanna see if any EoFFers have done it first.

Take one for the team. Where's your sense of community?

Well I'd hate to die before I can share my findings. What if it turns out no one mentioned it before because they all died before they could? D:

Besides, you're a walrus. Why don't you do it?

[Bunny]

The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk

I did not read it because milk is disgusting in any form but maybe it'll help something.

[Mirage]

Unpasteurized milk is a serious health risk if you're a goddamn pussy who's never set your foot outside your city's border.

[Bastian]

Pasteurizing milk began last century. People have been drinking unpasteurized milk for millennia.

Basically if the milk has gone bad or has gotten some bacteria it could give you stomach cramps. Not likely, but could.

However, I've been trying to convince myself for the past decade that milk and all dairy is gross, to no avail.

[Raistlin]

Pasteurizing milk began last century. People have been drinking unpasteurized milk for millennia.

People have been using shamans and witch doctors to cure diseases for millennia, too. I think modern medicine works better.

I haven't been confronted with this subject much, but I did some looking around in major sources and other sources I have found very reliable in the past. The actual medical field (I am excluding "alternative" medicine from this list) seems strongly against raw milk. Bunny linked to the FDA, but also the CDC and WHO all advise serious risks of raw milk. Apparently there is a risk for food-borne pathogens in raw milk that cannot be eliminated. And after pasteurized milk was introduced, the incidence of many of these diseases shrunk dramatically.

Science Based Medicine, Orac, and PalMD (all written by doctors I've found very reliable over the years) also denounce raw milk consumption.

I'm so far inclined to believe that raw milk does pose a health risk, making pasteurized milk a far better choice.

EDIT: Apparently the Huffington Post has writers who support drinking raw milk. That by itself is enough to make me wary.

[Chris]

If you're lactose intolerant, it is definitely not good for you. I've seen people get really, really sick on account of foolishness.

I really don't like milk just to drink. It makes me slightly sick just to think of it, actually.

[Bastian]

My point was that if people have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years with probably few instances of illness (else why would we still be drinking milk today?), it is probably safe, unless the process is currently different. And I'm allowing for the fact that it could very well be. In which case it is possibly not safe.

The FDA has been wrong in the past. Many times. They are probably right that it CAN cause abdominal discomfort in some instances, but those are probably rare.

And while you have a dislike for alternative medicines (which you reiterate in many, many threads) that cannot discredit the millions of people (billions?) who swear by them. I have to admit, I'm not keen on alternative medicine; I'm more likely to go to a traditional doctor when I have an issue. But I do have friends who swear by acupuncture and various herbs which have cured ailments when modern science failed to do so.

So is raw milk safe or not? I don't know. I've never had the stuff.
But I'm more inclined to believe those who drink it regularly without incident than I am government organizations who have a history of poor judgment.

[Raistlin]

My point was that if people have been drinking raw milk for thousands of years with probably few instances of illness (else why would we still be drinking milk today?), it is probably safe, unless the process is currently different. And I'm allowing for the fact that it could very well be. In which case it is possibly not safe.

The FDA has been wrong in the past. Many times. They are probably right that it CAN cause abdominal discomfort in some instances, but those are probably rare.

"Probably" few instances of illness... discomfort is "probably" rare. You are just outright making things up. These diseases caused by pathogens in raw milk were not rare (see the plethora of actual sources I linked to). People didn't stop drinking/using milk because 1) it was readily available if you owned cows, and 2) everything was subject to food-borne pathogens before modern technology. Raw milk may have indeed been safer than drinking water from the local pond, but it looks like there's a lot of evidence for the conclusion that it's not remotely as safe as pasteurized milk.

And while you have a dislike for alternative medicines (which you reiterate in many, many threads) that cannot discredit the millions of people (billions?) who swear by them. I have to admit, I'm not keen on alternative medicine; I'm more likely to go to a traditional doctor when I have an issue. But I do have friends who swear by acupuncture and various herbs which have cured ailments when modern science failed to do so.

I don't see myself getting anywhere on this issue, but I at least have to remark that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data." Some herbs certainly do work (aspirin was even derived from one, showing that "alternative" medicine that actually works is incorporated into actual medicine), but acupuncture has over-and-over consistently been proven bunk and no more effective than a placebo.

[Shiny]

I wouldn't know since I only drink soy milk.