I have been missing for a while. Between holidays, family visiting, updating my kitchen, researching hypothyroidism, hitting writers block, and just needing a break, I have neglected our blog for a little while. I have been meaning to write a post about the benefits of raw milk and I am just now getting around to it.
Growing up on a Dairy
So here is a little background information about me. When I was a child, my parents owned a small dairy. It was a dairy that had been passed down from my great granddad or at least I think it was, but my point is that it was a family business that was passed down. Now, they sold the dairy business when I was 8 and my dad became a teacher for 5 years before he passed away. From the time I was born until I was 8, our whole family was drinking…. ready for it…. RAW MILK **GASP**! Yep, I said the evil word, raw milk.
Drinking Raw Milk
We weren’t against pasteurized milk per say but this is how it works on a dairy or how it worked on ours. You milk the cows. The milk goes into large tanks that keep the milk cooled until the milk truck picks up the milk. The milk truck picks up the milk and takes it to a place that pasteurizes the milk. The milk is pasteurized and then packaged, trucked to the store, and sold. On a dairy, you’re not going to go buy milk from the store when you can get milk straight from the cow (figure of speech here, we did not milk by hand like the old-fashioned way. We used bucket milkers that fed the milk into the tank) for free. You simply go down to the barn with your milk jug, open the spigot on the large tank, fill your jug, and enjoy your free, fresh, creamy raw milk. We weren’t scared of the fact it’s raw, we quite enjoyed the milk that our dad, grand dad, great granddad, and generations before have always drank the milk. Just the way God intended for it to be consumed, fresh.
Family Sold out of Dairy Business and began drinking Pasteurized
I still remember the first time we began buying milk from the store. I couldn’t stand it. It was watery, bland, and was not the same as the milk I was raised on. Eventually, I got used to it but my dairy consumption basically consisted of using it to cook with or cheese. I didn’t enjoy a glass of milk like I used to. Back then, I didn’t know why the milk from the store tasted different, I didn’t even know the terms raw milk, homogenized, or pasteurized milk. I just assumed the milk from the store was coming from a different dairy and our milk was superior to theirs LOL. Not knowing the milk at the store is more than likely mixed with our milk so technically, I was probably drinking some of our milk.
I still remember the first time I went to the dentist for a check up. I was about 10 or 11 year old. I can’t remember exactly my age but I know it was either right before or right after my dad passed away. He checked my teeth and told me, “Your teeth are in great condition. No cavities. Keep brushing!” Might not have been exact words but that was basically the sum of his remarks. I simply smiled and inside was smirking. See, here was the thing. I was NOT good at brushing so it definitely was not the brushing that was keeping my teeth in good shape. And when I say I was not good at brushing, I mean I wasn’t very consistent. I don’t like to admit that, despite the evidence and personal experience, but we are taught brushing keeps the cavities away which in fact that is obviously NOT true. Come to think of it, I don’t recall any of my siblings going to the dentist except for my brother who got braces. Until later on down the road.
A look at my health throughout the years
Fast forward, to when I was about 16 years old. I noticed the first forming cavity. I find this very interesting. 8 years of drinking raw milk, no cavities and my teeth were healthy. 8 years later give or take, the health of my teeth begin degrading. I remember when I first saw the cavity, I began to ponder what has changed. I just assumed, it was due to me getting older. It wasn’t until I began researching all the benefits of raw milk that I began to put it all together and thought it could have been my consumption of raw milk that was keeping the cavities at bay.
Looking at it now, I can see how my health began declining after beginning to drink pasteurized milk. From birth to about 10-12 years old, I very rarely got sick, I didn’t have many allergy problems and they were very mild, I was a healthy weight, my hair was shiny and soft (when I hadn’t permed it), my skin looked good, and overall my health was good. About the the age of 13 it seemed as if I was sick more often, for longer periods of time, and when I got sick, I was really sick. Now, I never thought much about it because getting sick from time to time is just a normal part of life. I began having allergies and it seemed to slowly get worse. I began having cavities. Around the age of 17 is when I began gaining weight. My hair began to lose some of its luster and became frizzier. Overall, my health got worse. None of the signs were huge and was never diagnosed with any health condition until recently when I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (I recently said I was Hashimotos but I misunderstood my NP). Now, I am not saying ALL of my symptoms were related to drinking pasteurized milk. I truly think it was a mix of MANY different things but I do think raw milk did play a role into good health.
Drinking raw milk again
After all my research, talking to the milk man and connecting the dots, we have began drinking raw milk again. We found a local dairy that sells raw milk. I take pride in the fact that I know who milks the cows, I pick up the milk on their dairy, I have been in the barn where the cows are milked, I’ve personally seen him fill the milk jug up right before purchasing, and I have literally got milk from him 20 minutes after the cows were milked! To put the cherry on the top, he has also offered to let us come out so he can do a homeschool field trip of the whole process and even look under a microscope at the biology of the milk! He majored in biology, taught high school biology class and knows WAY more about the structure of the milk, cows, etc than I ever will. If you’re a homeschool mom/dad, you probably understand my excitement of all of this! LOL
Stay tuned
That is my story but I know it is going to take more than just my story and my viewpoints to show you the benefits of raw milk so this will be continued in my next post….
Our Blessed Nest Blog 