History

Raw milk has been used by humans for thousands of years. When hunter-gatherers began settling into permanent communities, they developed agriculture to maintain a reliable food supply. But in regions where the land wasn’t ideal for farming, they had to find other ways to nourish themselves.

That’s when early humans discovered a powerful idea: there’s energy in the life around us. Grasses, weeds, and wild foliage were everywhere—but humans couldn’t digest them directly. So instead, they turned to the animals that could. By raising livestock that thrived on wild vegetation, humans found a way to indirectly convert plants into usable energy—through both meat and milk.

These early communities consumed raw milk without issue. Across continents and cultures, milk was a staple for generations. For most of human history, raw milk was not only normal—it was valued.

Historical records and anthropological research suggest that raw milk has been part of the human diet for at least ten thousand years.

Early humans didn’t have scientific journals or clinical trials. Their approach to food was simple—but incredibly effective: trial and error.

If a member of the tribe ate a berry and got sick? That berry bush was off-limits for good. If certain foods led to weak, sickly, or deformed babies, those foods were quietly abandoned over generations. The result? Traditional cuisines were born—rooted in ancestral knowledge, observed outcomes, and generational wisdom.

So what does it say that raw milk survived that process? Not just in one tribe or culture, but in many. From the Maasai of East Africa to the Swiss of the Alps, raw milk stayed in the diet, not because it was convenient or trendy, but because it worked. It nourished. It sustained life.

And in many parts of the world, it still does. So what changed?

For years we’ve been told that milk needs to be pasteurized to be safe. But that’s not the whole story.

For thousands of years, people who gave their cows the humane care they deserved thrived from drinking fresh, raw milk. The modern need for pasteurization didn’t come about because raw milk suddenly became dangerous—it arose when urban dairies began housing diseased cattle, often covered in manure. At the same time, dairymen infected with diphtheria were unknowingly spreading illness through milk—a rich, protein-dense medium for bacterial growth.

It was these unsanitary conditions—not the raw milk itself—that sparked health issues.

In fact, there are zero known epidemics that can be traced back to raw milk from healthy animals and clean human handlers.

So if the problem was isolated and environmental, why did the public turn against raw milk entirely?

The shift wasn’t organic—it was engineered.

A savvy businessman named Charles North patented the first batch-processing pasteurization machine in 1907. And with his invention, he set out to build a market for it. Charles traveled from town to town across the United States, spreading false claims that the people in the last town he visited were dying from unpasteurized milk.

It wasn’t true—but it worked.

Doctors of the time actually opposed pasteurization. They had the facts on their side. But Charles had something more persuasive: fear. And fear sells. Charles North leveraged fear to manufacture a public health crisis and in doing so, turned pasteurization into a political force.

It worked so well that even a century later, people still believe raw milk is inherently unsafe.

Despite the Fear-Mongering, Few People Have Died From Raw Milk

Many people in the West are skeptical of raw milk. And sure, the headlines make it sound dangerous. According to CDC data, between 1998 and 2018, raw milk was linked to 2,600 illnesses, 228 hospitalizations, and 3 deaths.

That sounds alarming—until you compare it to something considered completely normal.

According to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, between 2007 and 2011, emergency room visits related to energy drink consumption jumped from 10,068 to 20,783. There were also 32 confirmed deaths.

Let’s break that down:

• Raw milk: 3 deaths and 228 hospitalizations over 20 years.
  
• Energy drinks: 32 deaths and over 10,000 hospitalizations in just 4 years.
  

And yet, energy drinks are sold everywhere. They’re in gas stations, grocery stores, even school cafeterias. No one bats an eye.

Meanwhile, raw milk gets banned in some states. It’s portrayed as a threat. We’re told it’s dangerous, outdated, irresponsible.

But let’s ask the real question: Were the raw milk-related deaths even from healthy people?
Were they drinking clean, ethically sourced raw milk from a healthy animal—or some mass-produced corner case? We don’t know.

What we do know is that the narrative doesn’t add up. If energy drinks are mainstream and raw milk is the villain, something’s off.

Fresh Milk vs. Processed Milk: What’s the Difference?

There’s a fascinating fact about milk that most people never consider: unlike meat or any other food, milk exists solely to nourish. It’s not just nutritious—it’s biologically engineered to deliver that nutrition safely and efficiently,

Fresh milk contains an intricate micro-architecture designed to enhance digestion while keeping its components stable. This natural structure ensures that vital compounds don’t break down prematurely or cancel each other out.

But that entire architecture? It gets destroyed during processing.

What Pasteurization Does to Milk

During legal hearings challenging pasteurization laws, defenders of processed milk often claim there’s no nutritional difference between raw and pasteurized milk.

That depends on how you define “nutrition.”

Pasteurization denatures the proteins in milk and explodes the fat droplets. You can literally see the change: raw milk naturally separates, forming a visible cream layer at the top. Processed milk? It’s been homogenized to keep the fat dispersed, and pasteurized to withstand shelf life—not to preserve nutrition.

Even more concerning are the chemical reactions that happen during processing. The heat forces milk sugars and amino acids to react, damaging the proteins and making digestion more difficult. These reactions may contribute to symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, and intestinal irritation—which many people wrongly blame on lactose alone.

Raw Milk Protects Itself—and You

One of the most common fears surrounding raw milk is that it contains dangerous bacteria. But here’s what often gets left out:

When a cow is healthy and well cared for, her udders are colonized with beneficial bacteria—natural probiotics that protect the milk from harmful pathogens. These same probiotics also help protect you when you drink it.

Pasteurization strips those probiotics out. It also destroys the digestive enzymes naturally found in milk—enzymes that make the entire nutrient package easier for the human body to process.

So yes—pasteurized milk still contains nutrients like calcium and phosphate. But they’re less bioavailable, meaning your body can’t use them as efficiently.

Fun Fact: When compared to human breast milk, pasteurized cow’s milk shows a sixfold drop in bioavailable nutrients.

The Research Is Already There

In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors conducted a study on over 1,500 orphans, splitting them into two feeding groups: one received raw milk, the other processed. The results?

Children drinking raw milk showed:

• 40% improvement in bone growth
  
• Better mood and mental state
  
• Greater resistance to disease
  

The children who drank pasteurized milk did not see the same benefits.

So here’s the truth: pasteurization doesn’t just “clean” milk. It alters it. And what we’re left with on grocery store shelves isn’t the milk your body expects. It’s a chemically modified version with broken enzymes, altered proteins, and damaged fats.

The nutrients may still be listed on the label, but don’t be fooled.

The milk you buy at the grocery store isn’t milk.

My Experience with Raw Milk

Since I started drinking raw milk, I’ve noticed some changes—good ones.

The first thing that stood out? My skin. It used to be dry, especially in the colder months, but after regularly adding raw milk into my diet, that dryness faded. My skin feels healthier, more hydrated—and dare I say it—it glows.

A few weeks ago, I was at my cousin’s birthday party when she said to me:

“Lou, it’s not even summer yet and your skin is glowing.”

Not going to lie—that made me feel pretty damn good.

Beyond that, I’ve felt more hydrated overall. My energy feels more stable. My body seems to respond better to raw milk than it ever did to the processed stuff I grew up on.

These are just my experiences—but they line up with the history, the science, and the logic we’ve walked through in this post. Raw milk isn’t just a tradition or a trend. For me, it’s been a powerful return to something ancestral.