slow food

[Vangel]

Originally Posted by markg91359

To each his own. I come from a family where my spouse is employed in the public health field. You do realize that "raw milk" is milk that hasn't been pasteurized and is therefore potentially full of harmful bacteria don't you? I guess an adult can drink whatever they want. I find a parent who would feed this concoction to their children to be highly irresponsible.

I'm not really interested in anecdotes like "Uncle Bim drank raw milk his whole life and was never sick for a day".

The reason raw milk cannot be sold in a grocery store or public place legally for human consumption is because its deemed unsafe by the weight of scientific evidence. Some have mentioned food poisoning as a possible complication of drinking raw milk. Believe me, its not the only disease you have to be concerned about. Unpasteurized milk is a perfect medium for transmitting diseases. Bacteria will thrive in it because they are life forms like we are.

The Utah Alliance for Raw Milk is a bunch of crackpots with a dangerous idea. They ignore or gloss over the problems and instead dwell on personal stories about the alleged benefits of raw milk. An educated person can see right through this. I could argue that wearing a necklace with a piece of sandstone in it prevents disease and that would be as "scientific" as maintaining what ARM argues.

I have to admit that one of the greatest mysteries in my life are people who reject proven approaches at staying healthy such as vaccination, avoiding tobacco, avoiding drinking alcohol to an excess, getting exercise, and eating a diet which is a good mixture of all food groups in favor of approaches like drinking raw milk, eating organic food, or taking vitamins. It may be unfair, though, to lump organic food and vitamins with raw milk. At least those don't appear to harm people. However, there is no scientific proof that any of them actually prolong life or prevent disease. (At least for people eating a normal, vitamin-rich diet)

The only 'crackpot' is yourself I am afraid - why is it that if people don't agree with you or the consensus - then we are wrong ?! I see that is how Mormonism is as well, you don't buy into it, you are the one totally wrong and going to hell...
Sorry but your idea of jumping on the bandwagon is a lost cause...

I can see you are one of the many disillusioned people out there blindly buying into what the media spouts at you. What do you think people did for thousands of years before pasteurization become the norm ? YES Jr. that's right, they milked the cow and drank it, what a concept ! God produced the cows and the milk that comes out in a very perfect state - its only the government (= yourself) who got involved once again with their 'WE know best' ideas and destroyed that concept for many.... I guess you too believe the sun is bad for you ? That it'll give you cancer ? You are SO uninformed and ignorant I don't even words to express how foolish you are with your asinine comments. Anyone who actually DOES the research knows how beneficial raw milk is. I feed it to my kids all the time, they are the healthiest kids I (and our doctors who rarely see them) have ever seen. Never have we had a problem - not once. Your tainted view is out of sheer ignorance, and I do hope you do the research before stating utter nonsense. I will give you some sites that you can read up on the benefits of raw milk and BECOME INFORMED !!!

Search Center * - Search.mercola.com (http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?k=raw%20milk - broken link)

A CAMPAIGN FOR REAL (RAW) MILK!

Search Center * - Search.mercola.com (http://search.mercola.com/Results.aspx?k=vaccination - broken link)

Search Center * - Search.mercola.com (http://search.mercola.com/results.aspx?k=sunlight - broken link)

[osugirl2]

There is no need whatsoever to turn a post about raw milk into a thread about Mormonism. Not everything is about relgion believe it or not. That being said, we use raw milk in our household (though not exclusively). I cook with it, and make cheese and yogurt with it. There are legitimate arguments on both sides of the issue about the health benefits. I believe that the American Veterninary Association has some legitimate arguments in that cattle can be shedding various viruses without there being a way to detect it therefore possibly contaminating the milk. I also buy the fact that cattle who get viruses and infections mainly do so because of how they are kept, and handled. Cattle are biologically designed to graze on grass and not be fed grain. I say this coming from a family who has raised cattle for many years (not here in Utah). It is very important to know where you food is coming from and how it's being raised. Most of the diseases and problems that came along (which brought the need for pastuerization into play) didn't become a problem until cattle started eating food their bodies weren't designed for. Problems such as Ecoli (spl?) and mad cow disease stem from cattle being crammed into feed lots until they are ready to be sent off to be butchered. Keeping an animal knee deep in manure with no room to move is the perfect breeding ground for disease. Better animal practices would lead to better product. Modern medicine and sanitary food practices are beneficial and have their place, but I don't buy everything I'm told by the USDA, FDA or any other government organization for that matter. I don't think it means I"m a "crackpot" for having an alternative view on things such as raw milk, organic food, slow food or anything along those lines. One could also argue that "modernization" has made our health worse in many ways. We have more disease than we did 50 or 60 years ago, and I think the only reason life spans have increased is because we have pills to take to keep everything moving. Not all progress is good progress. Sometimes there is benefit in the way something used to be done.......

[Vangel]

I agree with you osugirl2 - yes, there are problems with cattle raised in poor conditions - but tell me, do you know of anyone whom buys raw milk from someone who mistreats their cows and keeps them in knee deep crap ? I know of no one - most 'small farms' do take pride in caring for their cows, and keep things sanitary. Raw milk is not something purchased in a 'large scale operation' with thousands of cows (those places are the big dairy's who do the pasteurization route - then again, not all of those places are dirty/unsanitary either). I think it is the consumer who must research where they are obtaining it and get a good clean source for their raw milk (which is totally do-able). And no, this post is not being turned into a thread about Mormonism - I made a one line inference because of the mindset I found this poster having, and felt compelled to make the comparison. The topic was brought right back to where we started, and I also included helpful links for someone to read up on the subject.

[osugirl2]

Vangel,

Except for the first couple of sentences, I was referring more to what Mark was saying about the diseases that milk is capable of carrying. He is correct in that milk can be the perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria. If one were to drink raw milk from some of the cattle that produce the bulk of America's milk supply, I would imagine that many of us would get sick. I fully support the local food movement and the farmers who run the small operations. Even if someone doesn't want to drink raw milk, Utah has some pretty decent local dairies that sell pastuerized milk in the stores. At least you can see when it's local that the animals are healthy