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Arch Bishop Mark Grenon reminded me about the benefits of raw milk today:

When I say “advantages of raw milk” I don’t mean advantages over pasteurized milk. I’m talking about overfeeding with raw milk, and what the potential advantages may be of a milk diet vs. a mixed, whole foods diet used specifically for overfeeding and stimulating the metabolism.

Advantages include:

1) Milk is 100% raw, with lots of digestive enzymes including lipases, lactase, and proteases which assist in full assimilation of the milk.

2) Raw milk doesn’t contain trace amounts of harmful substances found in cooked foods, like lipid peroxides, heterocyclic amines, and polycyclic whatchamacallits

3) Raw milk contains nutrients that may be destroyed by cooking in other foods, such as heat-sensitive vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), thought to be one of the most lacking and important nutrients in the Western world.

4) Milk wants to be eaten. The whole purpose of milk is to be the ultimate food, and it is designed to be the optimal form of complete nutrition.

5) Milk is low in iron. Some believe that excessive consumption of dietary iron is a net-negative.

6) Milk is much higher in iodine than 99% of foods on earth.

7) Milk has far more minerals than you could ever get from a mixed diet. As my nutrition software shows below, I’m getting far more calcium, phosphorous, iodine, and selenium than most Westerners get in an entire week. Calcium is tough to get from other foods, and other foods contain anti-nutrients that increase calcium secretion.

Milk is alkalinizing – this promotes maximal calcium absorption and utilization, and the typical modern diet tends to be very acid-forming, which leaches calcium from bones no matter how much you consume to help buffer the acid and keep body pH stable.

9) Milk has an excellent balance of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids. By standard references, the ratio is 1.6. It’s very tough to hit these ratios with a mixed diet without eating tons of fish, and much of the omega 3 in cooked fish, and omega 6 in other foods, has been oxidized.

10) Milk is less filling. When trying to create a calorie surplus, milk is a great tool because it is generally less satiating on a calorie to calorie basis.

11) Milk contains tons of butyric acid. Butyric acid is a profound stimulator of the metabolism, found in highest concentration in butterfat. To see what butyric acid is capable of, and also see why the metabolism is without question the kingpin when it comes to preventing and reversing metabolic syndrome, read this post by Stephan Guyenet.

12) Milk contains no fiber. Fiber has some advantages, but it also generally decreases nutrient absorption, and in many can cause inflammation in the digestive tract. A milk diet may be very therapeutic for digestion and increased nutrient assimilation.

13) Milk contains no anti-nutrients like phytic acid or lectins found in plant foods to deter creatures from eating them, which are known to be net-negatives and bind with minerals in the case of phytic acid – causing nutrients to be excreted.

14) Milk is more convenient and realistic for some. It requires no preparation or cleanup to just drink some milk.

15) Milk contains no fructose. Fructose is thought to be capable of slowing down the metabolism. Milk contains carbohydrate that breaks down into glucose which has the opposite effect, increasing leptin sensitivity and raising the metabolism.

16) Milk contains no oxidized cholesterol, like that found in cooked meats, pasteurized dairy, eggs, etc.

17) Lactobacillus are known to play positive roles in digestion and immune function, and drinking large quantities of milk by itself may be able to provide the digestive tract with the perfect environment for fostering colonization by “healthy bacteria.”

18) Milk may have unique immune system enhancing properties not found in other foods.

Hi Amanda,

Can a cancer patient take organic raw milk? I have read several times that in case of cancer is very important to avoid all dairy products.

I suffer from a lymphoma.

Thanks a lot!

pasturised milk and dairy products are mass produced products, they take out the natural nutients etc Most dairy products are not good for you, but raw organic real farm produce from grass fed healthy animals are different and are good for cancer patients, this has been a very contraversial subject with how animals are raised.