Drinking Raw Milk Increases Risk for Food-Borne Illness

A new study shows that drinking raw milk, instead of pasteurised milk, can increase your risk of getting a food-borne illness by over 100 times.

These food-borne illnesses include diarrhoea, vomiting, cramping, fevers, and sometimes more serious consequences such as kidney failure or death, said the study published in the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs.

Raw Milk Unsafe for Health
Australian food authorities are determined to rule out the sale of raw milk and raw-milk products. Raw milk and raw-milk products poses health risks in humans, say experts.

"The scientific literature showed that the risk of food-borne illness from raw milk is over 100 times greater than the risk of food-borne illness from pasteurised milk," said the study's lead author Benjamin Davis from Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF).

Raw milk has become more popular in recent years. Advocates believed that raw milk, which contains more natural antibodies, proteins and bacteria than pasteurised milk, is healthier, cleaner, tastes better and reduces lactose intolerance and allergies in certain people.

But the new study found that microbial contaminants commonly found in milk include infectious Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Listeria species along with the Escherichia coli type O157:H7. These bacteria can cause foodborne illness in humans, especially among children, pregnant women and the elderly, the researchers warned.

Claim That Raw Milk Reduces Lactose Intolerance Fails to Materialize in Study
There is little difference in digestibility between raw milk and pasteurized milk, a pilot study from the Stanford University School of Medicine shows.

Source-Medindia

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