My Name is Andrew Rhodes, and I Drink Raw Milk

I drink Raw Milk because I am an athlete. Any physical exertion of the body damages the proteins that make up muscles and connective tissue. The more you workout, the more you stress these tissues. If you want to restore your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones to their best, you need a source of high-quality protein. By its very definition, Pasteurized Milk is not high-quality. Pasteurized Milk is Milk that has been – let’s admit it, OK? – killed. Think you’ll be able to restore life to your body with a dead food? Really? Think harder.

I could also go on and talk about how Vitamin C is one of the primary nutrients required for the production of collagen, a fundamental building block of connective tissue and bones. Vitamin C is extremely heat-sensitive. Raw Milk is an excellent source of Vitamin C. Any Vitamin C left in Pasteurized Milk has been crippled by the heating process. I don’t want to be crippled after a workout. That’s why I drink Raw Milk.

How many times have you heard, “Drink your milk to get calcium! Calcium for strong bones!” It’s true, calcium is one of the primary minerals found in bone. Exercise produces micro-fractures in bone, and you need calcium to repair these fractures. Think you’re getting enough calcium? One of the tests dairy plants use to determine if milk has been ‘successfully’ pasteurized, is the absence of the enzyme phosphatase in the finished product. Without phosphatase, the body cannot absorb calcium. This is independent of homogenization, which degrades the fats in milk to the point that they are much less effective in aiding assimilation of this essential mineral. Pasteurizing cuts milk off at the knees, and it is just as harmful to whoever drinks it. That’s why I drink Raw Milk.

I drink Raw Milk because, someday, I am going to be someone’s father. Raw Milk has nourished humans around the world for thousands of generations. Raw Milk is the first food a child takes in after it emerges into the world. This is no coincidence, and it points to Raw Milk’s completeness as a food. The fact that Raw Milk can give a child everything it needs for the first 18 months of its life (or more), fills me with awe and an incredible sense of respect. Knowing all of this… how would I explain to my child that I chose to drink Pasteurized Milk in the years leading up to their conception? Whatever I put in my body, today or at any time in the past, will in some way end up in my children.

When I was growing up, I knew nothing about the sanctity of Pure, Nutrient-Dense Foods. I drank two glasses of Pasteurized Milk with dinner every night. My parents didn’t know about Raw Milk, and I didn’t know any better to ask. There is no way to determine how my health would have been different, had I gained this knowledge at an earlier age. My parents and I fit neatly into two of the last generations on Earth to fall for the myth that Milk must be Pasteurized to be healthy. I can’t change what I did in my past, but I can change what I do right now, and this moment will change every moment to come. For my own health, for the health of my children, I drink Raw Milk.

I drink Raw Milk because it is a Political Act. Know any good aphorisms about the persistence of truth amidst falsehood? Use them here. We don’t need Laws to tell us which foods are good for our health. We need perspective, and perspective has a long, tragic history of being corrupted by legislation. When did we stop looking to earlier generations for guidance? When did we give up our power of choice? If you don’t make a choice, sooner or later your ability to make that choice will disappear. Many people no longer associate specific foods with better health: for most people, what you see is what you want is what you get. And what we see, by a wide margin, is Pasteurized Milk.

Ask. Ask why. “Why has our Milk been Pasteurized?” “What does Pasteurization do to Milk?” “What does Pasteurized Milk do to my body?” In all but a few rare instances, our elected officials are not asking these questions. We must ask these questions first. But it’s not enough to ask. We must act even as we ask. If you believe in the heretical notion that health is more than a state of not-being-sick, then you owe it to yourself to find out why so many of our foods are fundamentally altered before they are offered to us as the only choice for nourishment.

I’m inspired by Mark McAfee at Organic Pastures and Ron Schmid, author of The Untold Story of Milk. And I’m inspired and MOTIVATED by the farmers from whom I purchase Raw Milk products.

My Name is Andrew Rhodes, and I Drink Raw Milk.

If you like your Milk Raw, do more than just tell your friends about this post. Tell them why you drink Raw Milk! And then tell me why you drink Raw Milk, and leave a link to your blog.

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