An article published in August 2006 in the Daily Mail covering research published in the Journal Of allergy, asthma And Immunology on raw milk:

Untreated milk cuts children's allergies

Drinking "raw" milk could reduce children's risk of suffering allergy-related conditions such as eczema and hayfever, new research suggests.

British academics investigating why farmers' families suffer fewer allergies than others found that even occasional consumption of raw unpasteurised milk had a powerful effect.

Just a couple of glasses a week reduced a child's chances of developing eczema by almost 40 per cent and hayfever by 10 per cent

Blood tests revealed that drinking raw milk more than halves levels of histamine, a chemical pumped out by cells in response to an allergen.

It is thought the milk contains bacteria that help to prime the immune system.

The article continues:

But the findings, published in the Journal Of allergy, asthma And Immunology, are controversial because unpasteurized milk is also a source of potentially fatal food-poisoning bugs.

Raw milk was banned from sale in Scotland 20 years ago, and can be sold by farmers in England and Wales only with labels clearly warning of the risks.

The reality is that pasteurized milk is also a source of potentially fatal food-poisoning bugs. The difference is that fresh raw milk has inherent immunity built in, whereas pasteurized milk does not, so any contamination post-pasteurization will elevate the risk of food-poisoning. That's why you see extremely severe cases of food-poisoning occurring with pasteurized milk. Take for example, this case in 1987 involving almost 200,000 people with 3000 hospitalizations and 18 deaths

Here are details of other outbreaks arising from pasteurized milk. These outbreaks have been attributed to "inadequate pasteurization", or "post-pasteurization contamination". The number of cases are indicated:

• 1966 - Florida - Shigella flexneri - 97
• 1975 - Louisiana - Salmonella Newport - 49
• 1976 - New York - Y. enterocolitica - 38
• 1978 - Arizona - S. Typhimurium - 23
• 1979 - UK - Campylobacter jejuni - 3,500
• 1982 - Tenn., Ark., Miss. - Y. enterocolitica - 172
• 1983 - Massachusetts - Listeria monocytogenes - 49
• 1984 - Kentucky - S. Typhimurium - 16
• 1985 - Illinois - S. Typhimurium - >150,000
• 1986 - Vermont - Campylobacter jejuni - 35
• 1992 - UK - Campylobacter jejuni - 23
• 1992 - UK - Campylobacter sp. - 110
• 1994 - Illinois - L. monocytogenes - 45
• 1995 - UK - Campylobacter sp. - 12
• 1995 - Vermont, New Hampshire - Y. enterocolitica - 10
• 1999 - UK - E. coli O157:H7 - 114
• 2000 - Pennsylvania, New Jersey - S. Typhimurium - 93
• 2004 - Denmark - E. coli O157:H7 - 25
• 2005 - Colorado - Campylobacter jejuni - 40
• 2006 - California - Campylobacter jejuni - 1,644

As someone has rightly said: "Its too hot. It's not hot enough". What this means is that the temperature in pasteurization is too hot in that it kills off a lot of the goodness and inherent immunity in milk and its not hot enough because even at that temperature it will not kill all pathogenic bacteria. So there's the dilemma.

Other issues with pasteurized milk:

• It destroys part of the Vitamin C content of milk,
• It also encourages the growth of harmful bacteria (as half of its inherent immunity is destroyed).
• It also turns lactose into beta-lactose causing intolerance in some people.
• One of the main things is that it makes a very large part of the calcium content insoluble, which means you can't absorb it efficiently. This means that milk itself leads to rickets, bad teeth and other troubles related to calcium deficiency.
• Pasteurization also destroys a fifth of the iodine content which can lead to constipation and makes the milk lose part of its vitality.

The article continues later:

There has been a huge increase in the number of children suffering allergies in the past 30 years. One in three is now affected by eczema, hayfever or asthma - double the level 20 years ago.

And in the past ten years, the number of people needing emergency hospital treatment for severe allergic reactions has trebled to about 6,000 a year.

One of the biggest mysteries is why children raised on farms seem to suffer less than those in towns and cities, even though they are exposed to many more allergens.

When researchers at the University of London analysed the diet and health of 4,700 primary school children in Shropshire, they found that those who lived on farms had significantly fewer symptoms of asthma, hayfever and eczema.

The study looked at whether children were breast-fed and how often they were in contact with animals or played in barns. The greatest benefits were found to come from drinking raw milk.

Great, nations for thousands of years have been having fresh unprocessed milk from pasture fed animals and enjoying its benefits. Later:

The Chartered Institute Of Environmental health is pushing for a ban on sales of unpasteurised milk in England.

Food poisoning occurs all the time, from eating salad, to meat and other foods where contamination has taken place, or due to inadequate cooking. For example between 2000 and 2007 there were on average 85,000 total cases of food poisoning per year in UK.

When you dig further you find that as antibiotics are used in farm animals, the developed antibiotic resistance leads to outbreaks of food poisoning where inadequate cooking is combined with previous use of antibiotics in affected people.

Just because outbreaks occur, it does not mean you have to ban the food, it means you've got to make hygiene standards better. Currently, in the UK raw milk is legal and the government resisted a call for its ban, implementing instead regulations for better safety standards.

But John Barron, from Beaconhill Farm in Herefordshire, says demand is growing for raw milk produced by his 40-strong herd of Jersey cows.

He sells about 50 litres a week, at £1 a litre, from his farm and through markets.

"I've got lots of customers who give it to their children and there has never been a single case of food poisoning," he says.

"I get inquiries from as far as Manchester, Birmingham and Yorkshire from people wanting to know where they can get hold of raw milk."

The secret is out. People have cottoned on. They've figured it out.

More and more people are recognizing what real milk is. Its happening all across America, in the UK and across Europe. People are realizing that sound nutrition and good eating habits do away with most illnesses.

On a closing note, if you want to get raw milk you should ensure hygiene standards are maintained in farms that provide it. Fresh milk, just like any other type of food, can undergo contamination - its not something unique to fresh milk. So hygiene is important. The added advantage with fresh unprocessed milk is that it does have inherent immunity.