Support for health benefits of raw milk

[near horse]

As i was searching for something unrelated I came across this citation of a study looking at “farm milk” consumption and its potential positive health benefits. I am assuming that farm milk=raw milk but perhaps I’m mistaken. For those of you in the raw milk battles, perhaps this can be of some value for your case. I’ve highlighted the take home message after the stats.

Waser, M., K. B. Michels, et al. (2007). “Inverse association of farm milk consumption with asthma and allergy in rural and suburban populations across Europe.” Clin Exp Allergy 37(5): 661-670.

BACKGROUND: Dietary interventions as a means for atopy prevention attract great interest. Some studies in rural environments claimed an inverse association between consumption of farm-produced dairy products and the prevalence of allergic diseases, but current evidence is controversial. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether consumption of farm-produced products is associated with a lower prevalence of asthma and allergy when compared with shop-purchased products. METHODS: Cross sectional multi-centre study (PARSIFAL) including 14,893 children aged 5-13 years from five European countries (2823 from farm families and 4606 attending Steiner Schools as well as 5440 farm reference and 2024 Steiner reference children). A detailed questionnaire including a dietary component was completed and allergen-specific IgE was measured in serum. RESULTS: Farm milk consumption ever in life showed a statistically significant inverse association with asthma: covariate adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.74 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61-0.88], rhinoconjunctivitis: aOR 0.56 (0.43-0.73) and sensitization to pollen and the food mix fx5 (cut-off level of >or=3.5 kU/L): aOR 0.67 (0.47-0.96) and aOR 0.42 (0.19-0.92), respectively, and sensitization to horse dander: aOR 0.50 (95% CI 0.28-0.87). The associations were observed in all four subpopulations and independent of farm-related co-exposures. Other farm-produced products were not independently related to any allergy-related health outcome. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that consumption of farm milk may offer protection against asthma and allergy. A deepened understanding of the relevant protective components of farm milk and a better insight into the biological mechanisms underlying this association are warranted as a basis for the development of a safe product for prevention.

[J-L]

Thanks for the heads up Geoff. I’m sitting here reading this, drinking a glass of milk from my cow (good stuff). She just calved a week ago and we’ve been on the milk for about three days or so. I grew up on raw milk (also drank from the creek a lot during haying season:eek:), and never have had allergies or asthma.
I’ve been perusing the information on raw milk many folks have posted here and other places and am happy to have my family on raw milk now.
I knew a fellow who claimed a person’s health was greatly benefited by growing and eating his food from the very soil where that person lives. This includes not only vegetables, but meat and dairy as well. This is the way my grandmothers did it and one lived to 96 (worked until age 85) and the other is 98 and still going. Might be something to that.

[mitchmaine]

I read a story about digging up this body at jamestown plantation. They started studing the guy and took a tooth and ground it up and discovered he came from wales in England. The soil where he came from was the same mineral makeup of his tooth. They went on to say if you lived on the same land your food grew on and ate animals that ate grass from the same place, and you came from parents who did the same from the same place, you didn’t have to go back too many generations before you became the same as the topsoil you came from.

You are what you eat.

And when you die, if they just laid you in the earth and let you decompose the proper way, you’d turn back into the very soil you came from.

…..dust to dust.

My dad used to rub dirt together between his thumb and forefinger and put it up to his tongue. Even after he’d just harrowd in two loads of cow dung. Wanted to know if it was sweet enough. Don’t remember him ever getting e coli. My grandmother did the same thing with her biscuits up in the house, and she never got e coli either.

mitch

[Author]

Posts