Raw milk: nature's most controversial superfood

Raw milk has become a huge area of debate. More and more people are returning to something that was once completely normal, yet online arguments can make you feel like you're doing something dangerous by drinking it. So the question is: why is raw milk so popular, what can it give you that supermarket milk cannot, and is it really as unsafe as people claim?

Unfortunately, we live in a world where bacteria is routinely demonised. We pasteurise everything from milk to juice and even honey. We're told that once treated, these foods are exactly the same, just "safer." But are we losing something that can only be obtained when consumed fresh, consumed raw?

We buy more probiotics than ever before, yet offer someone bacteria in its natural form and they run a mile. We spend fortunes on highly synthetic supplements while turning away from natural healing foods. In this article we'll deep dive into raw milk, how can it heal you, and why so many people are lactose intolerant. Let's go.

Our fear of bacteria

Most people understand that there is both good and bad bacteria, yet we've been led down the path of fearing all of it. We sterilise surfaces, reach for products claiming to kill 99.9% of bacteria, wash our hands with harsh chemical cleansers, and use dish detergents so strong they can damage the gut lining. 

We've labelled all bacteria the same and feared it greatly, driven largely by companies selling us the idea of "clean." There is a difference between hygienic and obliterating all bacteria. 

The truth is that we need bacteria. We need our gut microbiome to flourish, to be a diverse and thriving garden. But for many people, their gut health is far from good, leaving them reactive to any outside stimulus. The gut is our first line of defence, it is a major part of our immune system. Those with strong gut health are the ones who rarely get sick; they can come into contact with harmful bacteria and handle it absolutely fine.

This doesn't mean throwing hygiene out of the window. It means prioritising your gut and ensuring you're building a balanced, flourishing microbiome, one free from overgrowths such as candida and SIBO, tightly sealed, and continuously nourished with natural beneficial bacteria.

So where does raw milk come into this? Because it isn't heat treated, raw milk keeps its natural bacteria fully intact. Key strains include:

• Lactobacillus : Often considered the most valuable, strains such as L. plantarum, L. fermentum, and L. caseisurvive bile, suppress pathogens, and aid digestion.
• Lactococcus: Includes Lactococcus lactis, commonly found in raw milk and central to traditional dairy fermentation.
• Leuconostoc: Strains such as Leuconostoc mesenteroides act as natural biopreservatives by producing antimicrobial compounds.
• Enterococcus: Species like E. faecium are considered part of a healthy microbiota that can inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria.
• Propionibacterium: Specifically P. freudenreichii, recognised for its potential probiotic effects on gut health.

Pasteurisation significantly reduces some of these strains and eliminates others entirely, as they are heat sensitive. And yes, harmful bacteria has been found in raw milk in the past, but the same is true of lettuce, fermented vegetables, and even pasteurised milk itself.

Where milk went wrong

While Louis Pasteur developed the pasteurisation process in 1864, it wasn't widely applied to milk until the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the United States, Chicago became the first major city to mandate pasteurisation in 1908, followed by New York and Philadelphia in the 1910s. It became commonplace through the 1920s and 1930s, with the U.S. Public Health Service formally recommending it in 1924. Federal law eventually required that all milk sold across state lines be pasteurised, enacted in 1973.

In the United Kingdom, the 1922 Milk and Dairies Act was an early step toward regulation, though it stopped short of a universal mandate. Mandatory heat treatment of cow's milk for public sale arrived with the Milk (Special Designations) Act of 1949, though full national implementation didn't follow until around 1985. Scotland went further, banning the sale of raw cow's milk for direct consumption in 1983.

The shift to pasteurisation wasn't only a public health story. Large dairy processors and middlemen with the infrastructure to process and transport milk at scale were clear beneficiaries, consolidating the market and squeezing out smaller, local producers in the process. Prominent industrial investors saw a highly lucrative business opportunity in the mass processing of milk.

But pasteurisation was only the beginning of milk's transformation. Homogenisation, the process of forcing fat molecules through fine meshes to stop the cream from naturally rising to the top, breaking fat into tiny particles that are far harder for the body to digest. Most people who struggle with milk today are reacting not to milk itself, but to this unnatural alteration of its fat structure. Since then, ultra-pasteurisation, standardisation, and fortification have pushed milk even further from its origins, to the point where it can reasonably be classified as an ultra-processed food.

Then there is the A1 versus A2 protein issue. A2 was the original protein found in milk, but selective breeding made A1 increasingly common, with scientists formally identifying the distinction in the 1990s. A1 has since been linked to greater inflammation and digestive difficulty compared to A2.

Finally, there is the matter of what the cows are actually eating. Feeding cows grain and keeping them largely indoors will never produce high quality milk. Cows living in their natural environment, eating the diet they were intended to eat, go on to produce milk that is in an entirely different league. The difference is night and day.

The benefits of keeping it raw

Beyond the bacterial strains already discussed, raw milk is exceptionally rich in lactoferrin a protein with a remarkable range of benefits. Lactoferrin supports gut health, delivers potent antimicrobial effects by binding to the iron that harmful bacteria and pathogens rely on to grow, bolsters immune function, and carries significant anti-inflammatory properties. It is also neuro-protective and has shown striking results in studies of colorectal cancer, with one study finding a 68% reduction in polyp formation compared to a control group.

Pasteurisation reduces lactoferrin by approximately 80%. Raw milk is also rich in immunoglobulins, further strengthening the gut and immune system.

There are countless gut healing protocols out there, but sometimes simply drinking raw milk is nature's own answer. It can act simultaneously as an antimicrobial, an anti-pathogen agent, a probiotic, and a nutrient-dense food all in one glass. When you consider how much is lost through processing, it becomes harder to understand why raw milk was so thoroughly demonised, particularly given that clean, well-run farms have so rarely been the source of outbreaks or issues.

In my experience as a health coach, I’ve seen how raw milk has helped clients gut health time after time, raw milk is truly a superfood that was demonised and forgotten, until now.

Pasteurised vs raw

Does all of this mean pasteurised milk is worthless? Not at all. It is simply a reduced version of what raw milk offers. If you cannot access raw milk, sourcing a high quality pasteurised-only option, ideally from grass-fed cows, is the next best step.

One of the more remarkable things reported by raw milk drinkers is an improvement in their ability to tolerate milk more broadly. Many have found that after drinking just a few litres of raw milk, they were able to handle pasteurised milk again. The same has been reported by people who considered themselves lactose intolerant, the lactase naturally present in raw milk appearing to help them digest lactose and, over time, resolve the intolerance. Results will vary and nothing is guaranteed, but the reports are genuinely striking and deserve far more scientific attention than they currently receive.

There is also an important difference in how the two milks age. Pasteurised milk simply goes bad, turning mouldy and inedible.. Raw milk, by contrast, moves through natural stages of fermentation:

• Days 1-5: Fresh and sweet, ideal for drinking, with cream naturally rising to the top.
• Days 5-10: Lacto-fermentation begins, developing a pleasant tartness similar to yoghurt, still very much usable, and excellent for pancakes or baking.
• Days 10-20+: The milk thickens and separates into curds and whey, known as clabber. Its high acidity prevents harmful bacterial growth, making it great for smoothies or baking.
• Beyond: Sour raw milk can be used to make cottage cheese, cream cheese, or cultured buttermilk.

The safety aspects of raw milk

Raw milk is now being consumed by many on a daily basis without issues, when sourced from well run farms with strict standards (which they are legally required to do so) the risk with milk is extremely minimal. As mentioned at the start, there is just the same risk with most raw and fresh food, harmful bacteria can be hiding anywhere, its not about avoiding all sources of bacteria as that quickly leads to a fragile immune system. It’s about building a strong gut, buying from farms who carry good practices and cows that are healthy.

Many people are happy to take the risk when it comes to undercooked steak, steak tartare, raw fish (such as sushi) and most definitely with most fruits, vegetables and honey. There will always be an element of risk with any fresh/raw food, it comes down to sourcing and your own gut health.

With the vast number of people consuming raw dairy products across both UK and US, the taboo around raw milk is wearing off as people realise that it isn’t the demon that authorities are making it out to be, always source well and you should have no issue.

The restoration of connection to food

Above all else, choosing raw milk is about reconnecting to where your food comes from, to the farmers who produce it, and to a way of drinking milk that existed long before supermarkets and industrial processing reshaped it.

Supermarkets pushed pasteurisation because it allowed mass production, extended shelf life, and gave them greater control over supply chains, cutting what they paid farmers while charging consumers more per litre. In the UK, raw milk can only legally be sold direct from the farm, which turns out to be something of a blessing. Most farmers are happy to show you around, introduce you to their herd, and talk about how their animals are cared for.

Milk used to be raw. It was taken and turned into an ultra-processed product that left millions of people intolerant to something they were never meant to struggle with. It's time to return to the original, milk in its real form, and to support the people who dedicate their lives to the animals who produce it.

If you're not yet ready for raw milk, or can't find it locally, milk vending machines have been appearing across the UK in recent years, offering pasteurised-only, grass-fed milk with your money going directly to the farmer. It's a step in the right direction. Reconnect with where your milk comes from and heal your health in the process. What more could you want?

The choice is yours

I hope this article has given you a clearer picture of raw milk, the safety considerations, why it is nutritionally superior, and how it might help you. The choice, of course, is entirely yours. But if nothing else, consider it an invitation to reconnect with your local farmers and support them. And as it turns out, the fact that raw milk is sold direct from the farm is often less of an inconvenience and more of a gift. 

We're also premiering our new documentary, The Death of Normal: Milk. This year we sent a film crew to a 45-year-old biodynamic dairy farm in Sussex. What we've been taught about milk in this country is the wrong way round, and we spent a year making a film about it. Be the first to watch it on the 31st of May.