Humans love to worry about new technology. In the 1500s, some fretted over the rise of the printing press. In the early 1900s, there were reports that the dangers of telephones included ghosts. Now, a growing number of our foremost thinkers (influencers and bearded men in sleeveless muscle tanks on TikTok) are bemoaning the modern scourge of *checks notes* … pasteurization?
Raw milk is growing in popularity. Here’s what you need to know about the trend.
What is raw milk and why are people talking about it?
Raw milk comes straight from the cow (or sheep or goat) and has not been pasteurized. As Women’s Wear Daily observed this month: “Raw milk is the internet’s latest wellness craze.” Last summer, NBC News reported that “the raw milk debate is pitting TikTokers and farmers against doctors”, and the New York Times noted that more states were legalizing the sale of raw milk.
Take one video posted on TikTok by a supplement company called Heart and Soil. In it, three young people toss a gallon of (presumably raw) milk to each other, take a deep swig, and say things like, “Raw milk is generally misunderstood by most people,” and “Unfortunately, most of the milk you find in grocery stores is pasteurized.”
In another, Paul Saladino, a popular fitness influencer also known as Carnivore MD, shirtlessly sings the supposed praises of raw milk, saying, “This is nothing like that pasteurized, homogenized milk you get in the store, guys.”
What is pasteurization?
In these videos, the word “pasteurized” is uttered with a sneer that suggests it’s a dangerous byproduct of humankind’s gluttonous perversions, the way you might say “microplastics” or “Mountain Dew Code Red”.
This negativity seems to tap into the anxiety many consumers feel about ultra-processed foods. We regularly hear that the modern grocery store is a repository of food-like substances, and that one must practice constant vigilance to avoid them. But pasteurization does not reduce milk’s nutritional value to that of a soda.
Developed by Louis Pasteur at the end of the 19th century to help kill harmful bacteria in wine, pasteurization is simply the process of heating liquids in order to eliminate harmful pathogens and make them safe to drink.
Food safety experts are “absolutely horrified” by the growing raw milk trend, says Dr Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.
“Pasteurizing milk is one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century,” Nestle says. “Drinking cow’s milk used to kill babies.”
Nestle adds that she thinks the embrace of raw milk goes beyond an anxiety about ultra-processed foods – which pasteurized milk, she underscores, is not. “It’s part of the whole anti-authoritarian, anti-science, anti-expertise waves that we’re seeing in this country right now.”
Is unpasteurized milk safe?
Raw milk’s adherents claim it has more vitamins and minerals than pasteurized milk. The CDC disputes this, saying “scientists do not have any evidence that shows a nutritional benefit from raw milk,” and that “raw milk can carry harmful germs, such as campylobacter, cryptosporidium, E coli, listeria, brucella, and salmonella”.
These germs can lead to food poisoning and symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach cramping, vomiting, fever, headaches and body aches.
A popular rejoinder from raw milk fans is that humans were drinking untreated milk for centuries before Pasteur came along. But as the FDA notes, “while most healthy people will recover from an illness caused by harmful bacteria in raw milk – or in foods made with raw milk – within a short time, some can develop symptoms that are chronic, severe, or even life threatening.”
Per the CDC, the serious conditions associated with consuming unpasteurized dairy include Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves, and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which affects the kidneys and the body’s blood-clotting functions.
Still, more than two dozen states including California, Idaho, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Utah have legalized the sale of raw milk. According to studies conducted by the CDC, between 1998 and 2018, outbreaks linked to raw milk led to 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations.
It is possible to drink raw milk with no issues. But as Dr Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of pediatrics, infectious diseases and epidemiology at Stanford Medicine, told the New York Times: “Well, yeah, you can also drive around without a seatbelt or ride a motorcycle without a helmet.” The implication: these behaviors are risky nonetheless.
“The consequences of drinking raw milk are so serious,” Nestle says. But while these consequences are rare, she says, “the probability of getting sick from raw milk is higher than the probability of getting sick from pasteurized milk”.
There are plenty of modern technologies to worry about – massive SUVs, AI, people who talk about AI at parties, those robot dogs. But the regular, pasteurized milk at your grocery store isn’t one of them.
