Pros & ons of Pasterurized Milk

[Guest guest]

What’s a building block in the food pyramid that’s important for building and

maintaining bone mass? It’s milk.

Whether it’s from cows, goats, sheep, or another mammal, milk and milk products

are an important source of calcium throughout a person’s life.

Most of the milk sold in the United States is pasteurized, a process during

which the milk is heated to 161 degrees and kept there for 15 seconds.

Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria—including salmonella, E. coli, and

listeria—that can contaminate milk before it gets to your table. The Food and

Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and

Prevention recommend pasteurization for all milk consumed by people in the

United States.

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Pasteurization Reduces Illness

Pasteurization of milk is an effective means of preventing outbreaks of

foodborne illness, including tuberculosis, brucellosis, salmonellosis, scarlet

fever, and listeriosis. It was first used in the United States more than 100

years ago and has been widely used for more than a half-century, says

Sheehan, an FDA expert on the safety of dairy products.

But increasingly, consumers are seeing “raw” milk—and cheeses, yogurts, and

other products made from it—in specialty shops, farmers’ markets, and stores.

That’s partly because many Americans have adopted a “back to nature”4 philosophy

about the foods they eat, embracing the idea that locally produced and minimally

processed foods are more nutritious.

But in the case of raw milk, FDA says that’s not true. Although the heating

process slightly affects a few of the vitamins—thiamine, vitamin B6 and folic

acid within the B-complex, and vitamin C, the changes are not significant.

Meanwhile, there is a risk that milk could be contaminated by environmental

factors such as soil or animal feces, animal diseases, or bacteria on an

animal's skin.

Consumers are also seeing more raw milk products because of the growth of the

artisanal cheese industry, Sheehan says. These cheeses are made by hand using

what are considered to be traditional methods—often on the farm where the milk

is produced. Some of these cheese makers use pasteurized milk in their products,

but others use raw milk that could contain disease-causing bacteria. Some people

believe cheese made from raw milk is better for you, but Sheehan says there is

no scientific evidence to support that belief.

In countries where pasteurization of milk is less common, outbreaks of foodborne

illness attributed to tainted milk or milk products occur more frequently than

they do in the United States. In France, for example, the rate of foodborne

illness attributed to milk and milk products was reported to be roughly three

times what it is in the U.S., says Sheehan, citing a 2001 study by researcher

Marie-Laure De Buyser and other French scientists.

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(The debate rages on about whether or not to drink pasteruized milk or use it

raw in milk products like cheese or yoghurt. Read the entire article to get the

entire gist of the story. This is the latest from the FDA about the subject.

You can subscribe to get their weekly issues sent to your email.)

http://tinyurl.com/4sao2sk

FYI,

Lottie Duthu