RAW DAIRY STORIES

A DIFFERENT CHILD

            I’d like to report a success story regarding my 10-year-old daughter, Chelsea. We had some extensive evaluations done last year as it seemed she was having some academic and social problems in school. I immediately started her on fish oil supplement and last summer when I discovered your work, I incorporated the dietary information as soon as I could. We started using only raw dairy products from a local farmer and we purchased 1/2 a pasture-fed cow. We avoid refined sugar, white flour, and hydrogenated garbage.

            Just a week ago, the school counselor called me to tell me that Chelsea is doing wonderfully and she seems “so different.” Her “eyes look different.” She asked me if I had put Chelsea on medication. I answered with a very distinct “NO!” I told her about the dietary changes and about your work and hope that she follows up and educates herself so that she can help other children. Thank you for everything! L.F.

MIRACULOUSLY RECOVERED

            Thank you so much for your advice to switch my children’s milk to raw milk! My kids seem healthier to me. My little Adam now has chubbier cheeks. We miraculously recover from all of our colds in 1-2 days. And these colds are less frequent and much less severe. . My husband used to wonder what was wrong with us because we were always sick.   K.B.

CLA IN REAL MILK  

            My wife and I operate a 100 percent grass-based seasonal dairy. Your readers need to know that just because a dairy is organic doesn’t mean these cows are eating a grain-free diet. These dairies can feed organic grain, hay or silage and still sell organic milk. This may be slightly better than regular store-bought milk, BUT these cows can still be confined just like the cows in conventional dairies.

            If that doesn’t sound like a concern to you yet, then here is another bit of info. The national average lactation period of a dairy cow in the USA is 1.6 lactations. This means these cows are slaughtered when less than four years old for various health reasons too numerous to mention. Now keep in mind these organic dairies may also operate in the exact same manner, which means that these cows are living in an unhealthy environment and are sick. We are eating organic products and thinking we are doing the right thing only to find out that big industry has once again ruined a good thing.

            We had our milk checked for CLA(conjugated linoleic acid) levels. [CLA helps prevent cancer and obesity.] We also checked two neighbors’ milk. All three of these are Jersey herds checked the very same day. One herd is totally confined. The other herd is one-half grass and one-half total mixed ration. The results were interesting. Our all-grass herd had a CLA level 3 to 4 times higher than regular store-bought milk. The other two herds were basically the same as regular store-bought milk. I found it very interesting how the herd getting half grain had CLA levels the same as the totally confined herd.

            There is no room for cheating. Know your dairy farmer! And remember, when the price for grass-based dairy products is higher, the products contain three to four times more nutrients and that the dairyman is producing about one-third the milk of the modern conventional dairies. He needs to make a living also. K.B.      

DAIRY DELIVERY     

            I enjoy your website, realmilk.com. I am a 62-year-old retiree and have returned to our family farm after having retired from American Electric Power Co after 38 years, and also am a retired government official, having served local government for twelve years here in Botetourt County, Virginia. Back in 1947 my father purchased a milk route from a farmer who was giving it up after many years of operating a Grade C raw milk dairy. Our family operated this route from then until 1961. We sold milk in the town of Buchanan, Virginia, and made a good living doing it. Doctors took children off of pasteurized milk and put them on raw milk because of its health benefits at that time. It’s amazing how times have changed. Dad stopped the dairy and switched to beef when he lost his labor force. His children left the farm for college and work outside the farm. We heard many testimonials of the benefits of raw milk over the years and still have folks recall the times that they were able to obtain and enjoy real milk. W. L.

GOAT MILK FORMULA    

            I spoke with you about a year ago because I wanted to use a homemade raw goat milk formula for my adopted baby. Well, almost a year has gone by and my baby has thrived, thrived, thrived. Thank you for making this information available for mothers of adopted children. J. U.

MAN AND MILK    

            You often hear the argument, Man is the only animal that continues to drink milk after being weaned, presuming the animals stop milk ingestion because they don’t need or it is harmful to continue it and therefore humans should follow suit. Having witnessed our sheep wean their lambs, I assure you there is only one reason they stop drinking milk that was because the source was no longer available to them! American mothers often discontinue nursing their babies for their own convenience, but most children would continue nursing or taking a bottle for years if allowed. Hence, the length of time animals or humans nurse their young says nothing about vital nutrients in the milk and its benefits.

            If it not difficult to determine why animals and humans must wean their young the population of both would have long ceased otherwise as neither animals nor humans can continue nursing the first offspring while at the same time reproducing and nursing others. Until the last century, the average family included seven children. Our sheep would have had to nurse half a dozen offspring simultaneously before they stopped bearing. Animals with multiple births could not possibly nurse countless offspring; except for weaning and forcibly denying a continual supply of milk, animal and human life could not have survived. Certain wild animals do fairly well with raw meat or grazing. However, today’s depleted soils on which fruits and vegetables are grown, plus countless other reasons for less-than-optimal human nutrition, give reasons to compensate with raw, whole milk from cows grazed on green grass. I do not recommend supermarket milk. (I suspect that confined cows fed grains and hay rather than grazing on untreated, growing green grass, and pasteurized/homogenized dairy products with pesticides, hormones and antibiotics are the cause of allergy and intolerance to milk.) But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. We must differentiate between real foods and faux foods be they milk, fats and oils, or meat substitutes. S.Z.                           

POOR BONE STRUCTURE

            Thank you for your ministry of health, truly lives have been changed. I also wanted to commend those chapter leaders, teachers, farmers, mothers and fathers who have helped others learn the facts about nutrition and health.

            Recently I attended our town’s farmers’ fair (a local festival celebrating the farm and farm products). We were at the children’s field day and I was taken aback by the children’s poor bone structure. Many were mouth-breathers and no one seemed to have that radiant glow of health. I felt scared for the next generation, many of whom rarely, if ever, taste high quality food. It seemed ironic that we were at a farmers’ fair and health so very lacking. What kind of farming were we celebrating anyway!? It made a person want to shout, Where’s the raw milk and butter? Or, Why can’t we use raw farm-fresh eggs for the ice cream churning contest?

            This experience led me to begin nutrition seminars with our home-schooled children. I showed pictures of good versus bad bone structure and the children loved it. We read back issues from Wise Traditions and we talked about how one should eat to have healthy children.

            It’s such fun to be able to teach children so young. Instead of trying to fix broken bodies, I can prevent them from getting broken in the first place. Besides, I’m preparing them to be the parents of my future grandchildren. I can’t wait to be the grandmother of all those round, rosy and pleasant grandbabies. What a family picture that will make!   “Train your child up in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it. Proverbs M.K.      

RAW MILK AND FERMENTED FOODS TO THE RESCUE            

            I want to acknowledge you for the incredible gift of life the Foundation is giving with their information on traditional diets. It has made an enormous positive change in our lives.   About three years ago my kids (now 8 and 9) and I were diagnosed with giardia. For six months we had been dealing with continual vomiting and diarrhea. My daughter, who only weighed 40 pounds to start with, had lost one-third of her body weight and things were not looking good.

            The medical profession had basically given up on us. We had tried every antibiotic we could with no success. It was on one such trip to the emergency room that the doctors told us we needed to look at alternative forms of healing as they had nothing else to offer us. We were referred to a naturopath who tested each of us and immediately changed our diets and got us started on a homeopathic remedy for giardia. We were reacting to numerous foods and still do. He had us quit eating most additives and preservatives as well as all forms of goat and cow milk, including whey, butter, yogurt and cheese. My son had to stay away from all forms of MSG, chemically produced as well as naturally occurring.

            Our diets were so restrictive that eating became something we did out of necessity, and cooking was a chore. As long as we ate all meals at home and I cooked everything from scratch, I could count on a peaceful night’s sleep. But one treat at school, or a snack at a friend’s house, and I knew we would be up for a good four hours with vomiting and diarrhea. I dreaded holidays and family get-togethers. I felt so sorry for my kids who got sick whenever they ate things other kids took for granted, like pizza, tacos and lasagna.

            Last year, however, a couple things happened that left me in the inquiry stage. We visited my aunt and uncle’s farm when they happened to be milking the goats. My kids have always reacted to goat’s milk. However, this time they went down to the barn with my uncle, milked the goats and proceeded to consume very large quantities of goat milk fresh from the goat before I realized what they were doing. They had had so much fun it crushed me to know in a few hours they would be deathly ill. Evening came and went and neither of them got sick. Then a couple months ago we were visiting them again and we all tried some homemade ice cream, once again made from raw goat milk. Again, no one became ill. On a subsequent visit to our naturopath, he shared his thoughts on why he felt pasteurized, homogenized milk products were behind the rising rate of heart disease. The pieces began falling into place. Why could my kids drink goat milk fresh from the goat and not get sick? Yet when they were tested, they reacted to store-bought milk and it made them sick. It clicked. The naturopath’s machine tests products in the form that most people use. His machine was testing pasteurized products or commercially prepared products, not products fresh from the farm or cultured in my kitchen. The milk from the store was pasteurized. The milk on the farm was raw.

            Then I got into culturing foods, like piima, kefir, and cultured butter, and have been sampling it all with none of the usual side effects. Yesterday I had the opportunity to use the machine to have all of the products I’ve made tested on my children. The kids were cheering every time a new food product was added to their diet and I was stunned to see the results. The results were fascinating. The kefir I had left sitting out for 12 hours didn’t work for the kids. The kefir that had sat out for 2 days passed easily. I used whole, non-homogenized milk when making the kefir. I also had several brands of raw cheese (goat and cow) tested on them. The raw cheese was fine. The pasteurized cheese was not. We tried two different bottles of soy sauce. The first one was some organic soy sauce that was fermented two summers and it didn’t pass the test. The second bottle was some organic soy sauce that was fermented four years and it was unpasteurized. It passed!

            My kids are on cloud nine. They ate cheese in the car on the way home and had real butter on toast for a bedtime snack! They had oatmeal soaked in whey for breakfast and butter on their green beans and broccoli for dinner.   Learning about raw dairy products and cultured foods has opened a whole new world up to our family. I am once again excited about cooking and even spent some time hanging out in a kitchen store today looking at the new gadgets available! Thank you for making a difference in so many people’s lives. B.R.

RAW MILK AND OSTEOPOROSIS      

            I recently met an expert on pasteurization who casually mentioned that the process destroys 34 enzymes in milk. As one of the great many people lost to the dairy industry as a customer because of alternative practitioner advice that I had
lactose intolerance, I wondered whether the destruction of the lactase enzyme might be significant in my store-bought milk.

            I started drinking quantities of fresh raw milk and had no signs of indigestion nor the mucus I used to get. My wife had both kinds of milk in the fridge for some months and I found if I had just a little of the pasteurized stuff, within an hour the mucus returned.

            Then I realized that an arthritic joint at the base of one of my big toes an old injury site which had gotten so bad my orthopaedic surgeon wanted to fuse the joint to alleviate the pain had majorly improved. The range of movement deficit which had caused me to limp during the last ten years was almost rectified and the pain gone. This previously swollen joint also reduced in size back to normal.

            I am a test group of one, however there were no other variables in my life except the addition to my diet of one-half to one pint each day of fresh Jersey milk for about three months. My doctors can’t believe you can reverse arthritis, but I just did, through sheer inadvertence, not any placebo effect or wishful thinking.

            All of the above makes me wonder whether it is pasteurization and the destruction of enzymes that has led to the current plague of arthritis and osteoporosis, because the calcium in processed milk is less assailable. A.B.

RAW MILK BENEFITS

            I have been involved in your organization for a year now and my health keeps improving. I had hypoglycemia and was a vegetarian. I could not understand why I craved sugar and gained weight. My periods were coming every two weeks. Then I stopped eating soy and began taking cod liver oil. My periods evened out to every six weeks, and were much less painful. In addition, my blood sugar is much more balanced.

            Raw milk and fats have changed the way I think about food. Now I look forward to meals, knowing that I’m eating well and giving my body what it needs to be well.

            An older lady friend of mine has been suffering terribly from arthritis. I introduced her to your literature and she started drinking raw milk and eating more eggs and butter. Within two weeks her symptoms were 80 percent better.

            My sister has suffered from severe allergies for years and resorted to using Benadryl whenever she would visit our house with all its pets. She started drinking raw milk and her allergies have dramatically improved. I have so many stories, I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, thank you! M. K.

RAW MILK DURING PREGNANCY            

            First of all, I want to thank you for the wealth of information that you have made available. It has completely changed the way we eat. I have children that are very allergic to dairy. Pasteurized dairy, that is. I’m just now getting ready to introduce raw milk to my three-year-old son, and the other two (twins) are only 6 months old and exclusively breastfed. I have had to eliminate dairy from my diet completely because they react when I consume commercial dairy foods. They are just so sensitive! Last week, we purchased our very first gallon of raw milk from local farmers and I’m just now starting to use it. I made butter and ate some the other night, and my babies didn’t have any reaction! I just wanted to share that. They have so many severe food allergies, and I have to avoid so many foods, so being able to have dairy will be such a help nutritionally. I have been physically falling apart trying to eat enough of anything nutritious in order to nurse my twins. A.K.

RAW MILK RESULTS       

            Just wanted to let you know that my family and I have been drinking raw milk for about the last three weeks. My husband has had the most noticeable results. He’s had a problem with diarrhea for at least the last two years and since drinking the raw milk, this has pretty much stopped. N.W.

SAVED BY REAL MILK   

            I have been furnishing my son’s pediatrician with information on trans fats and soy products. She is the second pediatrician that I have spoken to that had heard nothing about the problems with soy infant formula. What’s going on? Seems to me, if anyone should know, it would be the pediatricians.

            As for raw milk, Cody, my son, has always been tiny. He was full term, but only weighed just over four pounds at birth. His growth rate had always remained below what it should be. At almost six years, he only weighed 32 pounds. He also had been on four different allergy medications Claritin, Flonase, Tanafed and Extendryl. Two weeks after my finding a source of raw Jersey milk, he no longer needed any medicine.

            When I took him to the pediatrician, she wanted to know what I had done because Cody had gained four pounds and grown about one-and-one-half inches in a month. I told her and, surprisingly, she was for it. After all, what could she say? She has been his doctor since his birth. Another story: Years ago Elton Maddox had a dairy. Some people he knew had a very sick baby. Elton said, The little thing was as poor as a rail, and cried all of the time. A baby specialist in Charleston told the baby’s father to find someone with a cow that had not been fresh for more than six weeks, and get the milk for the baby. Elton’s wife told the baby’s father that she was afraid that the milk would be too rich, give the baby diarrhea and that they might lose it. The father said that they were going to lose it anyway, so he wanted to try the milk. Elton separated out a Guernsey, milked her especially for the baby. The next day the baby’s mother wanted him to come in and see something.

 He went in and there was the baby sleeping peacefully. After putting it on the milk, the little thing got better, and did just fine. B.P.

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: REAL MILK   

            In our family, Real (raw) Milk has improved the quality of everyone’s life. For our boys and our toddler, they get to drink healthy milk whenever they want. They love the taste and the good feeling they get from this wholesome food and Mom feels good about letting them have it anytime. Our eleven-year-old girl was plagued with allergies to many, many environmental things for most of her life. She was taking three prescription medicines a day. (With insurance, this cost us over $60/month, which will pay for a lot of raw milk!) Within six months of abstinence from pasteurized and homogenized milk and normal consumption of raw milk, she was off all medicine and has been faring well ever since. She still is bothered by cats but leads a normal, healthy, medicine-free life.

            Dad is grateful for raw milk because it helped him to get his pre-baby, svelte wife back. Doing nothing else, she lost 30 pounds and returned to her wedding dress size in six months. Mom loves real milk because she knows how good it is for her family, and because it has greatly reduced Dad’s snoring. Yippee something for everyone!! A.S.

SUPER BABY            

            Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thanks. Our new baby son, Derek, was born 2 1/2 weeks ago, and he barely cries at all! He is the quintessential, healthy baby described by Weston Price in his book. We are so thrilled. Such a change from our first son, who is now 3 1/2, who was a good baby, but cried a lot and I never could figure out why. Now I know he was just hungry and my milk was not rich enough in what he needed. My milk is certainly rich enough now with all the pasture-fed butter, meat and raw cheeses I’m eating. Another astounding thing. . . I can eat anything and my milk does not cause our baby any digestive problems. He does not spit up and does not even need to be burped. He burps himself!

            One piece of amazing news. Little Derek turned over at just two weeks old! I put him to sleep on his tummy, and he turned himself onto his back. I’m wondering whether this was commonplace back when folks had a nutritious diet. Perhaps our expectation that babies don’t roll over until several months old is not based on what they should really do if fed rich, nutritious breast milk. Have you heard similar stories from other mothers?

            Today little Derek turned over the other direction my husband thought it was a fluke, so little Derek had to prove him wrong! He has now turned from tummy to back and back to tummy in the span of four days. He can also pick his head up to 90 degrees while on his tummy and can hold his head steady while I am holding him upright (albeit for only 10-15 seconds or so). I am starting to understand what a truly healthy baby is supposed to be like. It certainly is different from what the baby books describe! Anyway, thank you for getting the word out and helping to make our second baby such a delight. S.P.  

THE SEARCH FOR RAW MILK  

            Recently I was able to obtain some raw milk. I started my search by calling every dairy I could find, and couldn’t find any that were willing to sell raw milk. Then I tried to locate individuals who might have a family cow, but couldn’t find any.

            Finally, I bought some local eggs from the food co-op here and they were of very high quality. Nice, tall, deep yellow yolks. I called the producer and complemented him on the obvious quality of the eggs. I asked if I might bring my children out to his farm to see the animals for a field trip (I home school my children). He said sure. I then asked if he knew of anyone who had a family cow or goat so I could get some fresh milk. He said he gets his from a local Jersey dairy and has for years. I previously had called this dairy and they wouldn’t sell to me. Probably because they don’t know me. Anyway, I asked if he could get a few extra gallons for me. He said sure! I tell you I was dancing on the ceiling for an hour singing praises to the Lord!

            Then I went out to meet this man and see his farm. Two things struck me. He was much older than I had imagined. I thought maybe he’d be in his late 50s but he was 89 years old, still strong and vigorous, doing his chores on the farm! What a testament to real foods!

            This was my first taste of raw milk, and I found it to be wonderful! The body, texture and flavor is absolutely fantastic. I can taste that it has life and vitality in it. It doesn’t taste like the lifeless, homogenized, pasteurized, plastic flavor of milk from the store, milk that is left on the shelf for weeks. I know this was a huge step in the right direction for our family’s health. Thank you for helping to keep the raw milk movement alive. L.G.

TOOTH PROTECTION         

I’m writing in appreciation the information you have provided on raw milk. Living on a small farm, our two children grew up on this milk. At ages 4 and 5, the dentist was curious as to why they had such good teeth,
Did they get sweets?

 In abundance, actually, thanks to doting friends of the family. Twenty some years later the mystery is solved, when I read that raw milk protects teeth, even in the presence of a diet high in refined carbohydrates.  Now as the grandchildren are coming, our expectant daughter, (and, in turn, three of her expectant friends) is counseled to eliminate raw milk from her diet, the implication being that it is a constant carrier of listeriosis. We still offer our milk for sale, and suddenly it seems to be a polluted product. We wonder ourselves what the facts are. Thanks to your work, we now know how beneficial bacteria in raw milk keep pathogens at bay, which imparts empowering, strengthening information to address implanted anxieties and make educated decisions, renewing loyalty to the product, at least in two households. A
thank you is small in comparison to the magnitude of what he has undertaken, but it is heartfelt all the same. And to the Foundation, without which there would be no medium to disperse such information widely and give voice to truth. G.A.

WONDERFUL NEWS         

            Just a short story to share. Our pastor and his wife were told many years ago that she was infertile and would never be able to conceive something to do with a cyst. About 18 months ago I got her to take some butter oil and cod liver oil home and they both started to drink raw milk. Well, today was a joyous day because we learned that our pastor’s wife is pregnant and due this August. I am so happy for them. Her personality is one that begs to have 12 children around her feet at all times. (The doctors don’t know what happened to the cyst.) D.W.