When we were all much younger, our mothers told us we had to drink lots of milk if we wanted to grow up to be healthy and strong. Mom knew what she was talking about.
Well, we are in love with our raw milk and its extraordinary health benefits. No wonder, raw milk has earned its reputation as one of the world’s most powerful healing foods. So what makes the raw milk look so healthy? Here are a few interesting facts that you should know.
All mothers, including cows, provide natural enzymes in their milk. These enzymes act like a toolkit to enable infants, whose digestive systems are not yet fully developed, to absorb and utilize all of the nutrients available in the milk. Heat treatment destroys the greater proportion on these natural enzymes.
Fresh raw milk contains a full range of B & C vitamins, which are very delicate creatures. They are easily killed off by heat treatment (pasteurization) and they don’t stick around for long after milking. By the time milk is 7-10 days old, most of the B & C vitamins would have died of old age.
The calcium in raw milk is fully soluble and digestible, however higher pasteurization temperatures can cause the calcium to become insoluble. Once it has reached this state, the human body cannot absorb it and it becomes useless.
In order to make use of calcium, your body needs soluble vitamin D. Whole raw milk is choc-full fat-soluble vitamin D but here’s the catch: it’s only soluble and digestible when there is plenty of raw milk-fat available for it to dissolve in. So in order to get the calcium and vitamin D from your milk, you need to drink it raw and full fat. Skimmed milk contains hardly any vitamin D and therefore the body can absorb less calcium.
Another fat-soluble vitamin available abundantly in raw milk, is vitamin A. Like vitamin D however, if the fat in the milk is damaged or removed, the levels of vitamins drop to almost nothing. This can happen when milk is being carted around by tanker, collected from the dairy and delivered via multiple pumps and pipes to the processing plant. During all this upheaval, the milk becomes aerated and oxidation of the fats occurs. This can cause milk to taste “off” and also significantly reduces the amount of vitamins available in the milk. Milk drunk straight from the farm has not had excessive aeration and pumping. The fat soluble vitamins are conserved and the flavour remains fresh.
So in essence, drinking raw milk straight from the farm and as fresh from milking as you can possibly get it, will ensure you get the full compliment of vitamins, digestive enzymes and health benefits.
Word of Caution: Ensure that the raw milk you buy comes from farms that maintain strict hygiene and quality standards of milking.
