To switch to Raw milk?

Look at the Nova food categories for an idea of what makes something ultra-processed. Pasteurising is not ultra-processing. A lot of misinformation about processed v ultra-processed. Homemade bread is category 3, processed food, salted nuts, smoked meat. Pasteurised milk is category 1, unprocessed/minimally processed.

Only category 4 is UPF.

I usually think I’m of average intelligence and then threads like this come along and make me feel like some kind of genius.

I have seen that it can have lots of health benefits

No it can't. There's no evidence that raw milk is any better for your health than pasteurised milk.

You know pasteurised milk doesn't have anything added to it, right? It's literally just been heated up and then cooled down again. It's just to kill off dangerous bacteria - things like tuberculosis, salmonella, e-coli and the myriad other diseases you'd find knocking around in a) a farmyard and b) a cow.

Assuming that pasteurised milk is less healthy than raw milk is equivalent to assuming a cooked and chilled chicken breast is less healthy than a raw one. It's the same process - heating the food for a certain amount of time and then rapidly cooling it down again to kill harmful bacteria and to slightly prolong its shelf life. That's all. It's not ultra-processed or anything. Just heated and cooled.

If you've some bee in your bonnet about healthy gut bacteria or something, there are plenty of other sources of probiotics that won't also give you a life-threatening illness.

Because the other half are such morons?

Unless you are literally milking the cow yourself, I wouldn’t do this. I grew up on raw milk because my dad was a dairy farmer. People who came to stay with us would sometimes get ill from the milk that they weren’t used to. And, frankly, pasteurization is not ultra-processing!

Pasteurised milk isn’t ultra processed though.

What do you think pasteurisation is?
It’s not adding or taking anything away, it’s heating it. That’s it.

If you’re happy drinking trace particle fecal matter and other nasties then rock on.

If you're going to change then just go organic.

I did not know that!
Thankfully I've never contemplated drinking unpasteurised milk!

Cows are just minging. So is their milk IMO but if I do consume it, I want it pasteurised thanks.

Cow shit splatters. Udders are low.

We bought raw milk in the 80s and boiled it ourselves. It’s tedious.

It’s not difficult to pasteurise the milk yourself. That’s how I was brought up when my mother’s milk dried up. A mate gave her milk from her house cow and DM pasteurised it and served it to me.

Survival of the fittest as they say...

No.

Raw milk is delicious . There 's a farm near (ish) me that's all set up with vending machines for milk, milkshakes, butter, cheese and ice-cream. Just wish it was closer 🐄

I don't usually consume milk, as I have an intolerance. I experimented with RAW MILK and found the digestion side didn't change, but I felt much better in my head (menopausal) so I think there are benefits.

The milk processing is necessary as it comes from all over, and is mixed.

The RAW I buy 2l once a month is single source, filtered & refrigerated on site.

Neutral opinion tbh.

I've not had raw milk for years but I have had raw cheese from the Isle of Mull. (Friends of the family own the farm).

It’s weird enough that we drink milk meant for other animals (I do drink milk, but it is objectively weird that we do), to do it straight from the teet (or udder) seems even more bizarre to me.

I’ve never researched it, but there are many obvious reasons why I would want to boil or treat the milk before I drank it, but I don’t know, and can’t think of, of any obvious health benefits of NOT treating it.

Why would you drink raw milk? I’d cut out dairy before I cut out pasteurisation…

But I do filter my tap water, which is literally meant for human consumption - so maybe I’m the wrong audience here.

Milk is regularly tested by a professional milk tester

Raw milk (at great expense) is only for those people who have never been on a dairy farm*. If you have, you immediately understand the problem. Cow shit is sloppy, and it gets everywhere. Unless you want a cow shit-shake, stick to pasturised please.

*Except for the farmers themselves who quite often drink it. If I were you I would a) bare in mind that farmers are exposed to those germs all day every day and must have some decent natural immunity, and b) don't take advice on how to maintain your health from farmers. No really.

The udders are washed.

I would never do that. The risk of food poisoning is too high. Milk is pasteurised for a reason

Why not go the whole hog and only eat completely “unprocessed” food.

no cooking, no boiling water, no preparation of any sort.

is harvesting plants processing?

The best advice I have seen regarding this is go to a field of dairy cows and look at them. They don't get washed before milking... pasteurisation is an extremely good idea.

You may want to look for unhomegenised milk which is slightly less processed but still pasteurised.

(cont)

…but you will have competition.