Does Drinking Raw Milk Give You Trouble?

photo credit: kthread

How to Drink Raw Milk

By Stanley A. Fishman, Author of Tender Grassfed Meat

Raw milk from healthy pastured cows is full of vital minerals and vitamins, beneficial bacteria, active enzymes, and many other nutritional factors. Many people have reported wonderful results from drinking this most natural of foods. Most members of the real food movement strongly support the drinking of raw milk as one of the most nutrient-dense foods available.

But there is a negative aspect to raw milk, an aspect that many of us experience, but rarely discuss. Many of us who drink raw milk, or want to drink raw milk, get indigestion symptoms after drinking it.

This was a problem for me until twelve days ago, when I learned how to drink raw milk.

My Raw Milk Problem

My generation was not breastfed. The formula industry and its friends in the medical profession convinced our parents that formula was better. As a child, I was unable to drink most milk, though I was finally able to drink nonfat milk. I did not particularly like it, and stopped drinking it as soon as I reached my teens.

After reading about the wonderful benefits of raw milk on the website of the Weston A. Price Foundation, I decided to drink raw milk. I am fortunate to live in a state that allows the purchase of raw milk, and I was able to get superb milk from Organic Pastures, Mark McAfee’s magnificent dairy. I was so excited when I gulped down my first glass of cold, raw, real milk. It tasted like ice cream to me, and I immediately felt charged with energy, as if I had drunk a magic elixir, full of life-giving nutrients. Which I had. My excitement turned to uncomfortable dismay some time later, when I experienced mild stomach pains, constipation, and later, diarrhea.

I stopped drinking raw milk for a while, then tried it again, had indigestion, stopped for a while, tried again. My tolerance seemed to be slowly improving, and my body certainly wanted the nutrients. But the indigestion persisted. Twelve days ago, I went through this cycle once again. After I recovered, I decided to solve the problem.

How could something that tasted so good, felt so good when I drank it, something my body craved, give me stomach problems? There had to be an answer. There had to be a way to tolerate this incredibly nutrient-dense food, which had nourished humankind for thousands of years.

My Raw Milk Solution—Or How I Learned to Drink Raw Milk

I thought about my own history. My digestive system had no experience with raw milk before my fifties. It seemed to lack something it needed to properly digest this live, nutrient-rich food. My system had adapted to drinking pasteurized, nonfat milk, a dead processed food that had very little in common with real milk. I thought about how milk is drunk, in the most basic way.

First, milk comes warm to the baby from the mother, from the cow to the calf. The milk comes into the mouth in small spurts. But milk needs to be stored cold. Heating milk over a stove can pasteurize it, if the temperature gets too high.
I decided to try taking small amounts of cold milk into my mouth, and to hold it there until it was warm, then swallow it slowly.

I drank a big glass of raw milk this way. It felt really good going down. My stomach was fine, and stayed fine. No symptoms. I have continued to drink raw milk this way for twelve days, and have been absolutely fine the entire time.

Why Did this Work?

First, milk was designed to be drunk warm. It makes sense that our digestive systems would be genetically programmed to expect warm milk.

Second, our saliva contains special digestive enzymes that prepare food for digestion in our stomachs. By holding the milk in my mouth until it was warm, I was mixing the milk with the enzymes from my saliva, which were starting the digestion process. I was not getting enough of these enzymes when I used to gulp it down.

Third, by swallowing it slowly, I was eating slowly, something that every traditional people I know valued. Our modern habit of gulping down food is just not good for our digestion.

My Method for Drinking Raw Milk

1.    Take a small amount of milk into your mouth.
2.    Hold the milk in your mouth until it is warm.
3.    Swallow it slowly.

I do not know if this method will work for everybody, but it certainly worked for me!

Stan Fishman is the author of Tender Grassfed Meat. His book describes in detail how to cook grassfed beef, grassfed bison, and grassfed lamb. The book follows the nutritional principles of Dr. Weston A. Price, and uses only the best natural ingredients. The book can be purchased through Amazon.com.

Note from Kimberly: I just love Stanley! And I wish all Americans used the same deductive reasoning to tackle their problems. In much the same way as he figured out how to successfully cook grassfed meats, he has figured out the optimum method of drinking raw milk! And by the way, I one time overheard Weston A. Price Foundation president, Sally Fallon Morell, the leading advocate for raw dairy in the world say, “the ideal way to drink raw milk is room temperature.” So, he is right on target!

Here is my review of Stanley’s cookbook.

Stanley is a frequent contributor to Hartke is Online! Click here to read Stan Fishman’s other articles:

Russian Immigrant to Canada Discovers the Healing Power of Raw Milk

How to Get Soy Out of your Diet

Fat on Grassfed Meat is Healthy, Claims Cookbook Author

On diarrhea see this blog for natural remedies for diarrhea!

 

If you have a raw milk testimonial to share on Hartke is Online!, please see my contact page.

Paid Endorsement Disclosure: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of renumeration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.