Sally Fallon-Morell of the Weston A. Price Foundation would have you believe that raw milk kills pathogens...to the point that it renders raw milk completely safe to drink? I don't know. She doesn't clarify that last part, but she certainly has said it kills pathogens a lot. In my last post I showed how she still claims this as of 2011 and exposed the network she has created to carry this message.
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| This subject was covered extensively almost 3 years ago on the Ethicurean blog |
"Among survivors, at least five percent will suffer end stage renal disease (“ESRD”) with the resultant need for dialysis or transplantation. But, “[b] ecause renal failure can progress slowly over decades, the eventual incidence of ESRD cannot yet be determined.” Other long-term problems include the risk for hypertension, proteinuria (abnormal amounts of protein in the urine that can portend a decline in renal function), and reduced kidney filtration rate. Since the longest available follow-up studies of HUS victims are 25 years, an accurate lifetime prognosis is not really available and remains controversial. All that can be said for certain is that HUS causes permanent injury, and it requires a lifetime of close medical monitoring." http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/the-e-coli-o157h7-bacteria-and-hemolytic-uremic-syndrome-hus/
Then flip to the uninformed statement that many raw milk supporters keep saying and keep believing, despite lack of peer-reviewed scientific evidence to support their claims.
On The Bovine blog today they posted a video:
39 seconds in, a woman says, "E.coli can't even SURVIVE in, uh, raw milk. It can't."
If you think raw milk can kill pathogens, and that e.coli can't survive in raw milk so that raw milk is completely without risk to drink, then please read this excellent paper by Dr. Amanda Rose: www.rawmilkwhitepapers.com
From the Amanda Rose:
"Like a whole lot of other foods, raw milk can be contaminated. The temperature of the milk and the type of pathogen both matter to the discussion. The research is really not as simple as advocacy groups would suggest.
And then there is the FDA. The had a FAQ with the question “Does raw milk kill pathogens?” Their answer: “No.”
Life and research should be as simple as these two sides suggest.
I got heckled by one side at a symposium. Then my little white paper was just weeks old when a surprising review of it appeared in the journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation written by Ted Beals, M.D. [PDF]. I actually had a lot of respect for Beals’ testimony here in California a couple of years ago and recommended him as a speaker for the aforementioned symposium, so I was surprised first to read his review. I wrote a detailed response to his review at the Rebuild blog.
I have continued to be surprised that he has not backed up his review with citations from the scientific literature. I write this update about one year since I first asked for citations. In the concluding paragraph of his review of my white paper, he essentially accuses me of cherry picking and argues that “raw milk does kill off pathogens in realistic real-life situations. That fresh raw milk has the properties to kill off pathogens is no urban legend, it is proven science.”
If you see Ted Beals at a raw milk conference, you might ask him for the citations that support his conclusion because I have had no luck. The “proven science” remains locked in the WAPF chambers in Virginia."
Before you go on to send Dr. Rose hatemail, read what she says here. She staunchly defends a consumers right to purchase and consume the food of their choice. She firmly believes, however, as do I, that the consumers need to have information that is correct when making the decision to buy and consume said food.
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