Anna Merlin

And there have been, you know, a bunch of foodborne illness outbreaks.

So, yeah, I think this is a concern for people because raw milk can carry E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter, things that can make you really, really sick.

So there are concerns here, right?

One, obviously, is the increasing availability of raw milk in various places.

Another concern is that it is being marketed by health influencers and other people with big social media followings as like a miracle cure.

Mm-hmm.

In a very simplistic way, and it is especially being marketed to parents as a cure-all for children, which is concerning because raw milk and dairy are especially risky for infants, immune-compromised people, and elderly people.

You know, an illness like E. coli that could be, you know, serious, but you would make it through...

potentially as an adult is incredibly serious for a child and can lead to this thing called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which has sickened and killed children.

The raw milk industry tends to talk about this idea that raw milk is safe if you trust your farmer.

But when you talk to like a virologist, they will tell you that no matter how well

You know your farmer, how much you think you trust the dairy.

If you're not pasteurizing your milk, you're going to be at more risk of common foodborne pathogens.

So, you know, you can find the farm to be delightful in every way, and it will not prevent you from illness.

You know, ideally, we would not be continuing to litigate like really well-established pieces of science and we could move on to other stuff.

But instead, we are, you know, talking about raw milk again and whether it's a good idea.

You know, I grew up partly on a ranch and I have actually seen cows before and I know how they're shaped and I know where the udder is compared to, for instance, the cow's asshole.

So no, I am personally not going to drink raw milk.

If your listeners want to look at the FDA or the CDC, there's a page on the FDA right now at the moment called Raw Milk Misconceptions and the Danger of Raw Milk Consumption.

And you can read a lot about the counterarguments to these common claims that people make about raw milk.