June 30, 2016 - Study: Raw Milk Can Reduce Asthma and Allergies

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Wednesday, June 30, 2016 - Building on the common knowledge that breastfeeding is protective against respiratory infections among infants in early life, researchers at Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich, Germany studied nearly 1,000 infants from rural areas in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, and Switzerland for the first year of life.


Children who drank raw milk had a 30 percent lower risk of respiratory infections and fever compared to those who did not. Milk that was boiled at the farm had a diminished protective effect, and milk that was ultra-pasteurized, which is heated to about 135°C (275°F) for a few seconds, showed no protective effect.

Study author Georg Loss, Ph.D., epidemiology also noted, “Among children who were fed on fresh, unprocessed cow's milk the incidence of head colds and other respiratory infections, febrile and middle-ear inflammation was found to be significantly lower than in the group whose milk ration consisted of the commercially processed ultra-pasteurized product.”

Additionally, the GABRIELA study, published in “The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology” in 2011, included data from 8,000 children. It found school-aged children who drank raw milk were 41 percent less likely to develop asthma and about 50 percent less likely to develop hay fever than children who drank pasteurized milk.

While demand for raw milk is surging, so is the opposition from government agencies. Major milk producers are a primary lobby within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. food system revolves around money. What we have is not a "free market" but a massive collusion between government and big business.

In December 2015, Rep. David Murphy introduced legislation that would allow consumers to purchase raw milk directly from a farm in Wisconsin. This bill, AB697, faces stiff opposition.

The fight over raw milk stands as a symbol of the much larger fight for food freedom. If the FDA and other government agencies are allowed to impose their view of "safe food" on consumers, raw milk won't be the only thing lost — all food could potentially be pasteurized, irradiated, and genetically engineered.

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