Have you ever heard of the many positive health benefits of drinking (unprocessed) milk? If not, then you are in for a pleasant and eye-opening surprise. Traditionally, this is one of nature's most nutritionally complete, and well-balanced of all foods, but only if it is ingested in its whole, raw, and unpasteurized form. Milk does, indeed, do a body good.

Arguably, one of the most debatable points many researchers, nutritionists, and nutrition-minded physicians have against the consumption of milk after infancy is that many adults seem to have some real difficulties in digesting it. Many intelligent individuals falsely assume that because no other species naturally drinks milk after weaning their young, man should not either, especially, the milk of another animal species. They also argue that drinking milk is not advisable, as a host of health problems, in general, are often associated with the over consumption of dairy foods.

While it is true that some may not genetically be able to tolerate the effects of this very healthy food, your body's reaction largely depends on the type, quality, and state of the milk being ingested. Few people realize that clean, raw milk derived from mostly grass-fed cows or goats was once actually used, prior to World War II, as a medicinal application to treat, and frequently cure, some very serious health complaints.

Large corporate dairy producers adhere to some highly accepted business practices that, for the most part, pretty much ensure that commercially mass produced milk and other dairy products sold on super market shelves will contain man-made hormones. These mass-produced dairy products will also include a various array of harmful pathogenic bacteria organisms due to widespread antibiotic use in animals. Hence, the real need for the pasteurization process.

Ultimately, the flash heating process of heating the milk (pasteurization), anywhere from 130 to 158 degrees does, indeed, kill most of the harmful microbes that are present. Pasteurization does not, however, eliminate the increased milk-producing hormones fed to the cows. The real irony in the whole pasteurization process story is, though, this heat treatment process also destroys all of the products natural germicidal properties (good for your body bacteria). It also gives the harmful bacteria remaining a green light to flourish, as the heating process did not kill all the harmful bacteria.

It is for this reason that processed milk and other dairy products are, by and large, to be considered unhealthy and unnatural for human consumption. This main reason alone contributes to the present day plagues of gastrointestinal problems, heart disease, chronic allergies, asthma, and many, many others.

Pasteurization destroys this food's natural enzymes, of which there are over 60, that enable proper digestion and absorption of this food. In this same process a good for the gut beneficial digestive bacteria, 'lactobacillus acidophilus', is also eliminated. This particular bacteria helps neutralize and keep any bad bacteria you may have in your gut in proper balance. This good bacteria also helps the body to metabolize B vitamins in the colon.

We may have been sold on the seemingly good idea of the pasteurization process. It may at first seem to be a logical procedure to put many raw foods through. But, and I wholeheartily agree, many people feel differently. It seems to be a convenient way of extending shelf life for the food retailing industry, and a way of covering up inferior food products for profit for the food processing industry. Nowhere in this equation is it about your safety, or nutritionally fit foods.

The real tragedy is this processing of raw milk also alters and/or destroys the bioavailability of vitamins A, C, and D and all of the naturally present 22 amino acids (especially lysine and tyrosine). The same goes for milk's essential fatty acids, minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and other trace mineral elements.

You might be interested to know, you can find this information to be true upon investigation, that the results of one particular animal study proved how raw foods were best at producing healthy test subjects. Two groups of cats were either fed all processed food or all raw foods. Test subjects receiving all processed foods eventually died versus the animals which were fed all raw foods that, happily, maintained their robust health to survive and thrive. This study is known as the 'Pottenger Cat Experiment', and was conducted for ten years, from 1932 to 1942.

In conclusion, each of our bodies has a unique body chemistry makeup as different as our individual genetic code. We are each so variously complex that no two of us are quite the same. Any discussions of what kind of nutrients, or how much, that each one of us might, especially, need should be viewed in compromising ranges, rather than in absolute certain amounts.

Raw milk contains a broad spectrum of complete and available minerals, amino acids, enzymes, bacteria, and vitamins ranging from the notorious 'calcium' content, of which milk is famously known for, to phosphorus and on down to the less understood trace mineral benefits. In its unadulterated form milk is most definitely a highly nutritious food.

If you are among the growing numbers of individuals who would like to be able to return to your native ancestral roots in being able to freely buy or sell, and if you enjoy the taste of this near-perfect food source, then help to restore the status of this 'live' food in our culture again.

You can join a grassroots effort to help support your small local milk producer. Would you like to help bring this healthy food product back to your community? You can get a better idea about how to do this by looking up the Real Milk website.

I enjoy drinking a small glass or two of raw milk nearly every day. For most people the health benefits can be absolutely phenomenal. Along with a noticeable improvement in a healthier digestive tract, other benefits are:

1. Prevents tooth decay

2. Promotes growth in children and calcium absorption

3. Prevents joint stiffness

4. Protection from asthma and allergic skin reactions

5. Prevents scurvy, flu, diphtheria, and pneumonia

6. Children who consume raw milk have more resistance to tuberculosis (TB)

I realize how fortunate I am to be blessed by living in a rural community with many small individual farming families. I know several families who keep milking cows, and they usually have more than enough to share. Don't be discouraged if you have a little bit of a hard time finding a source for this healthy food product. Keep searching and you will eventually find someone who can help you get some of that precious liquid substance. Your body can handle it quite nicely.