Latest news with #rawmilk
Medical News Today
a day ago
- Health
- Medical News Today
Can drinking raw milk make a person sick?
Raw milk describes milk that has not undergone the pasteurization process. As pasteurization removes disease-causing germs from milk, it is not advisable for people to drink raw milk. Raw milk, also known as unpasteurized milk, comes directly from animals, such as cows, goats, and sheep. Raw milk has not undergone pasteurization. This is a process that involves heating the milk to kill potentially harmful bacteria. Proponents of consuming raw milk may suggest that it provides additional health benefits. However, pasteurized milk offers the same nutritional benefits, without the risk of raw milk consumption. While good practices on farms may help to reduce contamination in milk, they cannot guarantee safety from bacteria without the pasteurization process. As such, due to the potential risks of consuming raw milk, it is advisable for people to instead drink milk that has undergone pasteurization to avoid the risk of milk-borne is the process of using heat to destroy pathogens present in food. The most common method of pasteurization in the U.S. is High Temperature Short Time (HTST) pasteurization. This method uses metal plates and hot water to raise milk temperatures to at least 161° F for no less than 15 seconds, then rapidly cooling the milk. This process kills the potentially harmful bacteria that may be present in raw milk. Some evidence suggests that it may be possible to produce raw milk with a lower risk of milk-borne illness. However, no scientific research supports that any possible benefit of raw milk outweighs the potential risks or safety concerns, particularly for certain people. people aged 65 or over pregnant people infants and small children people with a weakened immune system Proponents of drinking raw milk suggest that it tastes better, is nutritionally superior, and may also provide more health benefits than pasteurized milk. They note that these benefits may include: However, the FDA emphasize that there is no scientific evidence to support these claims. Additionally, as there are no federal standards for raw milk, and it does not undergo pasteurization, there is no way to guarantee that the raw milk is safe to consume. The FDA highlight that individuals consuming raw milk are instead at a higher risk of becoming ill or even dying from foodborne illness due to drinking raw milk. To avoid foodborne illnesses and other potentially serious health risks from drinking raw milk, people should instead choose to consume pasteurized milk and dairy products. People can check the labels of milk products to ensure they have undergone pasteurization. Other tips to avoid food poisoning can include : refrigerating perishable foods at a suitable temperature to slow bacterial growth avoid leaving perishable foods out for long periods throwing away any expired or spoiled foods Raw milk is milk that has not undergone the pasteurization process. This is a process that uses heat to kill potentially harmful bacteria that may be present in food. As such, health experts do not advise consuming raw milk. Proponents suggest that raw milk may possess additional health benefits. However, no scientific evidence supports these claims. Consuming raw milk can make people very ill, particularly those with weaker immune systems, such as children, older adults, pregnant people, and immunocompromised people. Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses Nutrition / Diet
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Raw milk advocates wonder: Where is Kennedy?
When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health and human services secretary, advocates for raw milk were thrilled to have one of their own at the helm in Washington. A self-professed fan of the drink, Kennedy had included raw milk in a list of foods and drugs that he felt federal officials had unfairly suppressed. 'FDA's war on public health is about to end,' he wrote shortly after the November election. But Kennedy hasn't actively taken up the cause yet — even amid his sweeping effort to upend federal health agencies and his Make America Healthy Again campaign to change how Americans eat, frustrating and concerning some of the most prominent raw milk advocates. Federal officials have long warned that raw milk is unsafe for drinking because it hasn't gone through the heat process of pasteurization that kills off harmful bacteria, and sales across state lines have been banned since 1987. Kennedy helped champion and elevate raw milk and has criticized resistance from health officials, but he has yet to relax federal rules or reverse warnings against drinking it. His inaction so far is in contrast to his campaigns against childhood vaccines and artificial food dyes, longtime causes now at the center of his efforts as secretary. The Department of Health and Human Services didn't respond to questions seeking comment about Kennedy's plans. Mark McAfee, one of the country's leading raw milk producers, had expected to advise Kennedy's department on ways to support raw milk farmers and expand access to consumers and hoped to help reverse the federal government's official stance that raw milk is too risky to consume. McAfee said he had been in close touch with Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy's presidential running mate, who interviewed him for a video she produced about raw milk. McAfee said that Kennedy texted him in February, shortly after his confirmation, that he would be in touch — but that there has been silence since then. A recent federal report on children's health commissioned by President Donald Trump — titled 'The MAHA Report'— stressed the importance of whole milk and other unprocessed foods but made no mention of raw milk, even though Kennedy celebrated its release by doing shots of raw milk at the White House with a leading health influencer last month. The Food and Drug Administration's stance that 'raw milk puts all consumers at risk' because of potential contamination hasn't been changed or updated, nor has the federal ban on selling it across state lines. And when McAfee recently reached out to the FDA for a meeting, he was rebuffed. 'It appears that the FDA culture will continue its war against raw milk,' McAfee said. There's a long-standing consensus among U.S. public health agencies that pasteurization is an essential step to kill bacteria in milk — one of the most important mainstays of the American diet, especially for children. Then again, there's also consensus that vaccines don't cause autism and that they're necessary for public health and safety, and that hasn't stopped Kennedy from raising the issue. 'We've had this message, all of these decades, that raw milk is dangerous,' said Judith McGeary, executive director of the Farm and Ranch Alliance in Texas, which has advocated for expanding access to raw milk. 'It's not going to change overnight, no matter who's in charge.' Meghan Davis, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said the federal warnings and restrictions on selling raw milk have been in place for good reason. 'Humans drank raw milk for a long time, but they got diseases from it for a long time,' said Davis, a former dairy veterinarian. 'Raw milk is among the more risky of the foodstuffs that we can consume.' Without pasteurization, which heats milk to high temperatures, raw milk is likelier to transmit dangerous pathogens like E. coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter, Davis said. But raw milk advocates like McAfee argue that the risks have been overstated and the health and nutritional benefits have been undersold, arguing that consuming raw milk provides healthy gut bacteria, decreases asthma and allergies and strengthens our immune systems — all claims the FDA challenged in a post last year about 'raw milk misconceptions.' Peg Coleman, a raw milk advocate and former Agriculture Department microbiologist, argues that a 'pro-pasteurization bias' remains entrenched in federal agencies and wants Kennedy's Health and Human Services Department to take down such information. But even despite the persistence of such warnings, 'there is the demand,' she said. 'People are still choosing raw milk.' Like many of the other health trends and beliefs that Kennedy has embraced, raw milk was once considered a fringe health food associated with the new-age left that has transformed into a signifier of the right — a mainstay of the MAHA health influencers in Kennedy's orbit and a rallying cry for conservatives who have pushed states to legalize raw milk sales and oppose government crackdowns on unlicensed raw milk producers. Small farmers, especially, have successfully lobbied both blue and red states to legalize sales as a way to diversify their offerings, overcoming major opposition from the pasteurized milk industry. But the sale of raw milk remains banned across state lines. And even though new state laws have expanded access and expanded raw milk production, sales remain highly restricted in most states: Only 14 permit retail sales to consumers. In many others, consumers must buy it on site from farms. And state health officials typically look to federal health agencies for guidance about safety. While some states have their own safety rules and testing requirements for raw milk, there are no federal standards or guidance for producers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that from 1998 to 2018, drinking raw milk was linked to 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations. The agency also found that outbreaks linked to unpasteurized dairy products are far more likely than those linked to pasteurized dairy. While the overall numbers are low compared with other raw foods like oysters and leafy greens, such foods are consumed far more widely. Davis added that more research is necessary to prove that specific standards or testing protocols are effective at making raw milk safe or safer to consume. 'We have to do that study,' she said. McAfee's own raw milk has been subject to multiple voluntary recalls, as well as outbreaks of foodborne illness. California officials linked raw milk from his company, Raw Farm, to dozens of salmonella cases in 2023. McAfee said the company has since strengthened its testing protocols and created an on-site pathogen lab to prevent future problems. 'We learned from that incident,' he said. 'We owned that we had a problem, and we fixed it.' Last year, the company also issued a recall after its raw milk tested positive for bird flu but said its products were never associated with any infections. McAfee says that proper guidelines and testing can make raw milk safe to drink — and that the federal government has an important role to play in establishing safety standards. He drafted a proposal for the FDA to develop standards and guidance for raw milk producers, which he sent to the agency after Kennedy became health and human services secretary. 'We are not looking for the FDA to regulate raw milk, but we would love to have the best FDA scientists in the world acknowledge the benefits of raw milk, if it is produced under the High Standards that we will discuss,' McAfee wrote in a recent email to FDA officials that he shared with NBC News. The FDA turned him down. 'Given our need to balance agency priorities, the Human Foods Program respectfully declines your request for a meeting at this time, though we remain open to dialogue with the raw milk industry,' Donald Prater, principal deputy director of the FDA's Human Foods Program, wrote in response. The FDA didn't respond to a request for comment. Kelsey Barefoot of Dunn, North Carolina, who became a raw milk producer in 2021, said, 'It's our basic human right to be able to have the freedom to choose our food.' As a former critical care nurse, Barefoot was taught about the dangers of raw milk, but she said she was won over after she tried it herself. 'I had been prepared to think that raw milk was going to kill me,' Barefoot said. 'I started drinking it. I loved it. I didn't die, and my kids drank it, and so I started producing the milk for myself.' She now works for the Raw Milk Institute, founded by McAfee, which seeks to support 'low-risk raw milk production' through safety standards and testing protocols, including test results that are publicly posted. The advocates haven't given up on Kennedy, bolstered by the MAHA movement's push to eradicate food dyes and other top concerns. It may just take more time for him to come around, McAfee said. 'It's really, really crowded with people trying to saturate him. He's trying to sort things out.' Sally Fallon Morell, founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit alternative nutrition organization, said she first spoke with Kennedy about milk in 2021, when she was seated next to him at the foundation's annual holistic health conference, held that year in Texas. She said Kennedy recalled drinking raw milk when he was a child and said he wished he were drinking it again but wasn't sure where to find it. Morell directed him to a website her foundation had set up, which had a searchable database of raw milk purveyors. The following year, Kennedy was invited to speak at the same conference. 'Since I was here last year, I only drink raw milk,' he said from the stage. The audience burst into applause. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. slammed raw milk shots with podcast host in the White House
It's no secret that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has some ... eccentric ... views about public health issues. But he might have reached a personal best this week when he did raw milk shooters in the White House with a podcast host who goes by Carnivore MD, according to NYMag's The Cut. Kennedy recorded the interview with the host, the wellness influencer born Paul Saladino, who posted a teaser for the episode. In it, a cameraman presents Kennedy with shots of raw milk mixed with glyphosate-free honey, according to The Cut. 'I strongly believe diet is the biggest lever you can pull to heal and improve your health,' Saladino wrote in the caption for the clip, which shows him RFK Jr. slamming a product that the Centers for Disease Control warns 'can expose people to germs such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella," The Cut reported. Read More: RFK Jr.'s error-filled MAHA report sparks speculation it was written by AI Saladino, an influencer with more than 2 million followers, 'primarily advocates for an animal product-based diet, though occasionally he will use his platform to champion other pet causes, such as why shampoo and soap are overrated and why wiping yourself is bad for your hormonal health," according to The Cut. He was at the White House last week for the rollout of Kennedy's 72-page MAHA Commission report, which has come under scrutiny for errors and omissions. There's also speculation that the document may have been written by artificial intelligence. Pentagon boss Hegseth warns of 'devastating' consequences if China looks to 'conquer' Taiwan Major Trump foe says Republicans keep approaching her with shocking message 'Turning a blind eye to genocide': Mass. Rep. Neal's visit to Ireland protested 'Incredibly ironic': Trump antisemitism effort may force out Harvard's Israeli Jews 'We're not sanctuary cities': WMass mayors push back at feds over DHS target list Read the original article on MassLive.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
TikTok brings ‘raw milk' craze to Britain – despite it being 45 times more likely to put you in hospital
On a sunny Wednesday morning in London's Borough Market, the Hook & Son Raw Dairy Shop is abuzz with customers. 'I drink a glass of raw milk with a couple of egg yolks and some raw honey mixed in every day, it's better for you because it hasn't been processed,' says Mostafa, a 17-year-old schoolboy who began drinking raw dairy about a year ago after discovering it on TikTok. 'Raw milk is so good for us, and when you think about it, big companies might not want us to be our healthiest because they profit from our poor health,' adds Lola, 21, a recent UCL graduate and weekly regular at the shop. 'That said, the main reason I continued to drink raw milk after trying it is because how it makes me feel, it makes me feel alive!' Hook & Son is just one of several British businesses riding the raw dairy wave – sales of which have soared in recent years to the point where three million litres of raw milk are now sold in the UK annually, an almost five-fold jump from 600,000 litres in 2014. Unlike dairy sold in the supermarket, the products – not only milk but raw ice cream, butter, yoghurt, and crème fraîche – are all unpasteurised. Pasteurisation, invented by French chemist Louis Pasteur in the 19th century, is a heating process that kills off any harmful bacteria and viruses contained in dairy products. One of the most important scientific breakthroughs in history, it is credited with saving millions of lives from diseases like bovine tuberculosis, diphtheria, listeria, and salmonella. All the more curious, then, that the TikTok generation is abandoning it – especially given the threat posed by H5N1 bird flu which has been found in raw milk supplies across America. While advocates claim – without robust evidence – that raw dairy can treat chronic illnesses, rebalance hormones, and strengthen the gut microbiome, UK health watchdogs have repeatedly warned that such products pose serious risks and strongly advise against consuming it. Unpasteurised dairy products are 840 times more likely to cause illness than pasteurised dairy, and 45 times more likely to put you in hospital, according to a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. 'We advise that raw or unpasteurised drinking milk and cream may contain harmful bacteria that can cause food poisoning. People with a weaker immune system are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning and should not consume it,' says the Food Standards Agency, the government body responsible for food safety and hygiene. The risks are higher for pregnant women, young children, and the elderly, adds the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Why then, are people suddenly going mad for unpasteurised dairy products in Britain? Much of the craze can be traced back to the US, where the raw dairy movement has exploded on the back of social media. Once the preserve of the health-conscious fringe, raw milk is now championed by figures across the cultural spectrum — from Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow to anti-vaxxers and MAGA-esque preppers. US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, have both described US regulations on raw dairy as a 'war on public health,' arguing that unpasteurised products are 'superfoods' that should be made more widely accessible. An estimated 10 million people are now thought to regularly consume raw dairy in America – at least 2,000 of which have fallen ill as a direct result of raw dairy consumption in the last 20 years, resulting in hundreds of hospitalisations and at least three deaths, according to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC). Concern among US health watchdogs has soared as H5N1 has spread throughout the nation's dairy farms, contaminating its vast milk supply chains. Live traces of H5N1 have been found in raw milk sold in supermarkets in California, the epicentre of the outbreak. The US CDC has reacted by issuing strongly worded warnings against consuming any raw dairy. 'The CDC strongly advises against consuming raw (unpasteurised) milk, even if it may not be contaminated with the H5N1 virus, due to the potential for various foodborne illnesses. While the risk of H5N1 transmission from raw milk is still being investigated, the CDC recommends avoiding raw milk products to minimise the risk of infection, including H5N1.' The US CDC has also detailed the deaths of a dozen cats who died horribly after catching H5N1 from consuming untreated farmyard milk in Texas last year. 'Clinical signs in affected cats were depressed mental state, stiff body movements, ataxia, blindness, circling, and copious oculonasal discharge,' the CDC reported. @coachcarnivorecam Always Go For Raw Milk 🥛 #carnivore #carnivorediet #milk #rawmilk #healthy #health ♬ original sound - Coach Carnivore Cam In Britain, H5N1 has infected many poultry farms, causing millions of birds to be slaughtered, but it has not so far been found in dairy farms or raw milk supplies. Nevertheless, experts are worried that the trend in unpasteurised dairy is now taking off here. 'Raw milk doesn't offer any proven health benefits,' says Dr Tim Spector, British epidemiologist and founder of Zoe, a company specialising in gut health. 'What it does come with is a significantly high risk of infection.' 'Why is it so popular? Well, I think it taps into the idea that 'natural' is always better – but this naturalistic fallacy can be dangerous, just because something is natural, doesn't make it safe. Skip raw milk, and stick to the science.' That certainly seems to chime with the vibe at Borough Market. 'We've really seen a rise in young customers over the past few years – teenagers, students, loads of them,' said a member of staff at the Hook & Son Raw Dairy Shop. She added that she drinks a litre of raw milk a day herself, and says she has never felt better. Scrolling through social media, it's easy to get swept up in the trend. There are hundreds of thousands of videos promoting the supposed health benefits of unpasteurised dairy – claims often made with confidence, but little scientific backing. 'The truth is, when you boil milk it denatures the proteins [...] you lose the enzymes, the digestive enzymes,' says Niall Kiddle, an internet personality who advocates for a return to 'ancestral eating' as a path to better health. In another clip, Coach Carnivore Cam – a manosphere influencer whose daily meals include two rare rib eye steaks, two lamb mince burgers, and ten fried eggs – says: 'It's funny to me how people think they are being healthier by drinking skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, but that couldn't be further from the truth'. The trend seems to be popular with Notting Hill-type mums too. 'Let's talk about raw milk. I drink it and I give it to my daughter. I'm not a scientist or a nutritionist, but it aids digestion and boosts the immune system,' says Clara on TikTok, her infant child strapped to her chest in a £370 terry towelling baby carrier. The online dialogue taps into a new-age obsession with 'natural' eating, driven in part by a growing anxiety around ultra-processed foods. The same impulse may explain the rise of the so-called 'carnivore diet', which encourages people to consume a diet made up entirely of raw meat. Rigorous studies, including systematic reviews published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, show no health benefits for raw milk over pasteurised milk. The same studies confirm that all key nutrients survive pasteurisation in pasteurised milk. That science has been unable to penetrate the online movement, however. 'I'm into organic, healthy living,' says Monica, who comes to the Hook & Sons stand every week with her three year old daughter, Mia. 'In the beginning I was a bit scared, but it's absolutely lovely. My kids love it and I think it's very nutritious and very healthy.' Since January, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) ordered the temporary closure of 43 more poultry farms after they became infected with H5N1. Over the last year, more than two million farmed birds have been culled in Britain to try and stamp out H5N1 infection. A recent survey of dairy farms in England, Scotland, and Wales tested 508 bulk milk samples and found no evidence of H5N1. But the same study confirmed that H5N1 could survive in raw milk. Only with pasteurisation could it reliably be killed off.
