Well, we are a bit in love with raw milk and its many extraordinary health benefits. Not for nought has it earned its reputation as one of the world’s most powerful superfoods. Here are just a few interesting facts about raw milk:
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 utilise all of the nutrients available in the milk. Heat treatment (pasteurisation) destroys the greater proportion of 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 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 will have died of old age.
The calcium in raw milk is fully soluble and digestible, however higher pasteurisation temperatures can cause the calcium to become insoluble, a bit like the scale on the element of a kettle. 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 less calcium can be absorbed by the body.
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.
