Page 86 - Spring2008

A Campaign for Real Milk

PASTEURIZATION DOES HARM RAW MILK!
By Robert Irons, PhD

Proponents of raw milk know that govern- poultry, ground beef, and eggs thoroughly before
ment websites and reports on raw milk are fi lled eating. Do not eat or drink foods containing raw
with bias and even outright errors. I recently wrote eggs, or raw unpasteurized milk” (http://www.
to the Centers for Disease Control to point out cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/salmonello-
a serious error on their website. My comments sis_g.htm).
apply to milk in general, regardless of species, However, later on this page we read:
because pasteurization degrades the nutritional “Mother’s milk is the safest food for young in-
value of all species’ milk in the same manner. fants. Breastfeeding prevents salmonellosis and
Just as a calf cannot thrive on pasteurized cow’s many other health problems.”
milk, so a human baby fails to thrive on pasteur- In one instance the CDC warns not to
ized mother’s milk. drink unpasteurized milk, and seven points
later—within the same section—states that an
NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF RAW MILK unpasteurized milk (i.e., mother’s milk) is the
In paragraph two of a section entitled safest food for young infants and that breast-
“Pasteurization Is Key to Making Dairy Products feeding prevents salmonellosis and many other
A Campaign Safe” is the statement “Pasteurization does not health problems. This is highly misleading to the
for Real Milk harm the nutritional value of milk and cheese” average citizen.
is a project of (http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/cheesespotlight/ GROWTH IN PREMATURE BABIES
cheese_spotlight.htm).
the Weston A. This statement is erroneous, misleading, There is no question that pasteurization
Price and factually incorrect. Many nutrients and im- compromises the nutritional value of breast milk.
Foundation. mune-enhancing components are destroyed by For example, research carried out in 1986 came
To obtain exposure to high heat and the temperatures used to the following conclusion (emphasis mine):
some of our during pasteurization. Vitamin A is degraded, “As part of a randomised controlled study to
proteins and enzymes are denatured, and immu-
assess the effect of pasteurization of breast milk
informative noglobulins are destroyed. on the growth of very-low-birth-weight infants,
Real Milk the longitudinal changes in serum calcium, phos-
brochures, VITAMIN A phorus, alkaline phosphatase, 25-hydroxyvitamin
contact the Regarding vitamin A, an important fat- D, and bone-gla-protein concentrations were
Foundation at soluble nutrient, a paper on this subject published investigated. Infants fed untreated own mother’s
in January, 2000 contains the following statement milk grew more rapidly than those fed pasteur-
(202) in the abstract. “Vitamin A is very sensitive to ized pooled preterm milk and had higher serum
363-4394. chemical degradation caused by oxygen, light, alkaline phosphatase and lower phosphorus
Check out our heat, and other stress factors. If light and oxygen values. Serum calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D
website, are excluded, the dominant degradation reaction (25-OHD) concentrations were similar in the two
www. for vitamin A derivatives is heat-induced forma- groups. Despite the provision of 750 IU vitamin
RealMilk.com tion of kitols, that is, dimers or higher oligomers” D daily from the 2nd week of life, serum 25-OHD
(Runge FE and Heger R. Use of microcalorimetry values remained low in a number of infants in
for additional in monitoring stability studies. J Agric Food both groups, suggesting that either malabsorp-
information Chem. 2000 Jan;48(1):47-55). tion of vitamin D or hepatic immaturity might
and sources be responsible for the persistently low values.

of Real Milk SALMONELLA Bone gla protein rose significantly after birth and
products. A related error on the CDC site concerns was correlated with alkaline phosphatase values,
salmonella. The agency’s official advice is: “Cook but not with 25-OHD or phosphorus values. The

86 Wise Traditions SPRING 2008