So you may be wondering, what makes Raw Milk so special, why would I want to go through the hassle of purchasing a herd share and picking my milk up from the farm every week when I can just pick “Regular Milk” up with my groceries?
All milk that you can buy from the grocery store in Michigan has undergone pasteurization. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk up and then quickly cooling it down in order to kill any potentially dangerous bacteria.
But bacteria isn’t the only thing that pasteurization kills, in addition to killing all the beneficial bacteria in milk, pasteurization also kills the natural enzymes and destroys the chemical make-up of minerals like calcium that are naturally found in milk. It destroys the naturally occurring probiotics and vitamins and alters healthy fats and proteins.
Raw milk is fresh milk from pasture-raised cows that is in its purest form and has not been altered in any way, retaining all of it’s naturally occurring health benefits.
Pasteurized milk offers little in terms of real nutritional value and alternative kinds of milk are no better.
In contrast, the nutritional benefits of raw, pasture-raised milk are astounding!
Check out these Raw Milk Benefits!
Raw milk is a complete food, loaded with minerals, protein, and vitamins.
Raw milk offers 20 of the standard amino acids
Up to 80% of the proteins in raw milk are easy to digest
Raw milk is loaded with calcium that the body can use
It is packed with health benefiting enzymes, including an enzyme that helps break down lactose which means that many lactose-intolerant people can enjoy raw milk
Raw milk is alive with beneficial bacteria that aid digestion and protect against disease-carrying organisms and can help boost the immune system (which is more important now than ever, right?!)
Raw milk is so awesome that it’s been shown to help heal many health concerns such as:
Reducing allergies
Improving skin health (psoriasis, eczema, and acne to name a few)
Helping to prevent nutritional deficiencies, supplying important calcium, magnesium, and potassium which are vital for proper cell function, hydration, bone-building density, blood circulation, detoxification, muscle health, and metabolism.
Fighting H. pylori infections which can cause vomiting and stomach ulcers
It can be used to make probiotic foods such as yogurt, kefir, and cheeses. Probiotic foods have been shown to help with disorders including:
Colon cancer
Diarrhea
Inflammatory bowel disease
Intestinal infections
Irritable bowel syndrome
Skin infections
Weakened immune systems
Urinary tract infections
Vaginal yeast infections
Yea, but is raw milk safe?
We get asked this question all the time, and it’s an excellent one because the commonly publicized opinion of raw milk is that it carries pathogens and is unsafe. The truth is that there are two types of raw milk. One raw milk is produced with the intent to pasteurize and the other is fresh raw milk meant for human consumption.
Raw milk that is produced to be pasteurized can have a huge bacteria load, if it were to be consumed prior to pasteurization, there’s a good chance it may cause illness.
Raw milk that is produced for human consumption by responsible farmers, on the other hand, is extremely safe.
Here at Six S Dairy, safety is our number one concern which is why we’ve gone a step above and become Michigan’s first Raw Milk Institute LISTED farm.
The Raw Milk Institute or RAWMI is an organization committed to raw milk safety, farmer training, and consumer outreach. They have set very high common standards and testing guidelines to help promote raw milk safety.
“Raw milk farmers who are LISTED with the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) have been trained in raw milk risk management and optimization. LISTED farmers are diligent about producing clean, safe raw milk. They test their milk often with rigorous standards to ensure that their milk is being produced in a way that discourages pathogen growth.” - www.rawmilkinstitute.org
Six S Dairy’s Raw Milk is 100% Grass-Fed and Lab Tested.
Excuse us while we get “nerdy’ with some numbers a minute to show you the safety of the milk we produce. Two of the tests that are commonly used to judge milk safety are coliform counts and standard plate counts. These measure the bacteria load in milk, obviously the lower the bacteria levels, the less chance it has to cause illness.
Pasteurized milk on the shelf store is allowed to have a coliform count of up to 10 coliforms per milliliter and a standard plate count of up to 20,000 of milk.
The standard set by RAWMI for properly produced raw milk is a coliform count of less than 10 per ml and a standard plate count of less than 5,000.
Here at Six S Dairy, our average coliform count is less than 1 and our average standard plate count is less than 200! It doesn’t get much cleaner than that!
All of our milk is tested and then held until results are read to ensure it meets our high-quality standards before leaving the farm with herd share owners.
If you have any questions at all about raw milk safety, this is a topic we’re passionate about and would love to chat with you about it.