Dairy: Yes or no?

Most of us don’t need dairy in our diets. But if you enjoy it, here’s why pastured, unprocessed, full-fat options are best.

Milk and dairy products are not essential foods for optimal human nutrition. Dairy can be addictive, and many people feel better when they take a break from it. But if milk, cream, butter, cheese, and yogurt appeal to you, we think it’s helpful to consume the best versions available. For this edition of Fix the Food, we’ve compiled the latest insights on how dairy affects the human body and attempted to answer the questions that come up most frequently across our wellness community.

Let’s start with a definition of what constitutes “real” dairy. In our interpretation, these foods ideally should be:

• Made by animals that graze on pasture that’s free of pesticides

• Consumed in their full-fat, unprocessed states 

• Free of additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, added sweeteners, and anything else that is not naturally part of the food

• Not packaged and/or stored in plastic containers that leach chemicals into the food

The problem with modern dairy 

Over a decade ago, Senza’s co-founders joined a “herdshare,” through which they obtained raw cow’s milk, heavy cream, butter, and yogurt from a local creamery. The cows were raised following regenerative farming practices. Everything came in glass mason jars, and we picked up our weekly share at a drop-off point in town. These foods were the gold standard, and we haven’t found anything since that compares to the Jersey cows we came to love and appreciate at this northern California farm. 

Sadly, few people get to try farm-fresh dairy like this. Mainstream supermarkets stock the aisles with a host of competing products that look and taste nothing like the real thing. Sweetened, flavored, low-fat, and non-fat products clutter the shelves.

By law, conventional milk and cream products must be pasteurized at high temperatures to remove potentially harmful bacteria. Yet, these processes are not foolproof and not without side effects. Pasteurization removes some or all of the naturally-occurring good bacteria, degrades micronutrients, and affects the digestibility and flavor of the original food.

Meanwhile, we are in the midst of a food allergy epidemic that affects 33 million Americans, with milk topping the list of common food allergens. According to Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE), 6.1 million people in the U.S. reported experiencing “convincing symptoms of allergy” to milk as of 2019. In some cases, the adverse response comes from lactose intolerance. (The enzyme needed to digest milk, lactase, is denatured during pasteurization.) But it doesn’t stop there. As Dr. Georgia Ede explains in her book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind, the casein proteins found in dairy can be difficult to digest and cause addictive and inflammatory attributes that interfere with hunger signaling and contribute to metabolic dysfunction.

If you are transitioning to a ketogenic diet for improved metabolic health, check out Senza’s collection of digital nutrition resources:

Food safety timeline

How did we get to this place? Scientists believe that humans started consuming cow’s milk about 6,000 years ago, and up until the late 1800s, most people drank it raw. As cities grew during the industrial era, farmers moved into crowded urban environments, where milk production collided with unsanitary living conditions, opening the door to pathogens that threatened human health. 

Pasteurization, a sterilization process borrowed from the wine industry, showed promise in addressing food safety concerns and got written into U.S. law beginning in the early 1900s. Ultra-pasteurization came along in the 1960s, together with well-funded marketing campaigns to convince consumers to buy these new dairy products, even though this process strips the original product of even more natural benefits. (The main justification for Ultra High Temperature (UHT) processing seems to be extending the shelf life of products regardless of how it affects nutritional integrity.) These days, we’ve noticed UHT is the norm, and it’s getting difficult to find regular pasteurized products in many stores.

After a century of mandatory pasteurization, a movement to bring back raw milk started with organizations like the Weston A. Price Foundation in the early 2000s. Its spinoff project, the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI), has worked since 2011 to develop standard dairy farming practices and increase consumer access to raw milk products. “We can now produce clean, safe raw milk, and consumers are demanding it more and more as they abandon highly processed allergenic and lactose intolerance-producing pasteurized dairy products,” writes the RAWMI team on its blog.

Real dairy benefits and controversies

Definitive research is difficult to find, but anecdotally, we understand that people are seeking out raw milk because it’s easier to digest and may offer health benefits not present in highly processed products. Whether you’ve wanted to overcome a dairy intolerance, boost your immune system, or support local producers and reduce “food miles,” you may be considering real dairy as an option. So how does one decide if this path is worth exploring?

First, the benefits: Raw milk provides a high-quality source of protein with a good balance of dietary fat and carbs, as well as a healthy dose of micronutrients, including calcium (provided you’re also getting sufficient amounts of Vitamins D3 and K2). It has a rich, creamy taste completely different from ultra-pasteurized products that have been stripped of any nuances in flavor. You can use raw milk to make your own yogurt, ricotta cheese, and other delicious spin-offs. According to the Real Milk Campaign:

Raw milk contains numerous components that kill pathogenic bacteria in the milk, strengthen the immune system, protect the intestinal tract, prevent the absorption of toxins and ensure full assimilation of all the nutrients in the milk. These components are largely destroyed by pasteurization.

With so much goodness to consider, what are the main concerns? 

For decades, U.S. government agencies have warned that raw milk is dangerous and unsafe for human consumption; however, when critics dive into the available data, they don’t find strong evidence for this claim. As functional medicine and ancestral health expert Chris Kresser explains, when it comes to food-borne illnesses, dairy products cause the fewest outbreaks compared to beef, eggs, poultry, produce, and seafood - and the illnesses that do develop are mild compared to other foods. After studying the CDC’s own report, Kresser concluded:

Approximately 5,000 people are killed every year by food-borne illness. Yet there have only been a handful of deaths from pasteurized dairy products in the last decade, and there hasn’t been a single death attributed to raw fluid milk since the mid-1980s, in spite of the fact that almost 10 million people are now consuming it regularly.

To drill down into the stats that Kresser analyzed, read part one of the Raw Milk Reality series: Is Raw Milk Dangerous?

But what about the latest scare, bird flu? Throughout 2024, the FDA, CDC, and USDA have issued an escalating series of alerts and updates regarding the possibility of raw milk becoming contaminated with avian influenza virus. The most recent FDA post from June 28 covers results of a study designed to show that pasteurization inactivates the virus making the commercial milk supply safe for human consumption. After making these points, the update goes on to read:

Based on the limited research and information available, we do not know at this time if the HPAI H5N1 virus can be transmitted to humans through consumption of raw milk and products made from raw milk from infected cows.

For a counter-perspective, Sally Fallon Morell, author of Nourishing Traditions and founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, addresses each of the FDA claims in her recent post, Raw Milk at the Crossroads… Again.

Although definitive facts are difficult to pin down, we find Morell’s argument to be well documented and consistent with our own approach to making decisions about what to eat. Unfortunately, in modern times, there is no guarantee that any commercial product is 100% safe. Each of us must decide what level of risk we are willing to take in order to source and consume foods we believe to be the most nourishing and helpful to our individual health journeys.

The price of unprocessed food

The biggest deterrents to raw milk that we’ve heard from the Senza community over the years are access and cost. Although raw milk is legal in 46 states, pasteurization favors large industrialized operations, and Big Food does a good job of discouraging consumers from discovering smaller producers. Moreover, the few creameries that are committed to traditional methods incur much higher costs than conventional dairy operations that prioritize increasing output per cow. 

In the end, we conclude that decisions around whether to eliminate dairy or try pastured, full-fat, or raw products are personal choices. There is no right or wrong answer here. But if you’re feeling stuck on the matter, here are some first steps you can take:

• Visit your local dairy farm and ask about their practices

• Research real dairy brands available in your area

• Simplify your nutrition plan and take a break from dairy

• Ask for personalized guidance in the Senza app for ketogenic and fasting lifestyles

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Dairy lingo cheat sheet

Consult this glossary of terms before your next trip down the dairy aisle:

A2 milk - This type of milk exclusively contains a type of casein called A2 beta-casein that is easier for some people to digest than the more common A1 beta-casein found in conventional dairy. Alexandre Family Farm is a popular A2 brand available in the U.S.

Batch-pasteurized - This “low and slow” method of pasteurization is used mainly by small-scale creameries to preserve flavor and micronutrient profiles while removing dangerous pathogens; Kalona SuperNatural is a popular brand found in co-ops and specialty grocers in the U.S.

Casein - This type of protein contained in most dairy can be problematic for digestion.

Fortified - Fortified milk has had micronutrients added after processing, such as Vitamin D3 to support calcium absorption.

Lactase - This enzyme helps humans digest lactose but is denatured in the pasteurization process.

Lactose - The only type of carbohydrate naturally found in dairy consists of glucose and galactose molecules.

Lactose intolerance - An inability to digest lactose can cause bloating and painful GI distress.

Low-temp pasteurization - In this process, raw milk is heated but to a much lower degree than standard or ultra-pasteurized levels. Some brands such as Kalona SuperNatural produce all of their dairy products through the lowest possible level of pasteurization in an attempt to kill off any harmful bacteria while still preserving as many enzymes as possible. 

Pasteurization - In this High Temperature-Short Time (HTST) process, dairy is heated to 145°F for 30 minutes or 161°F for 15 seconds to remove most potentially harmful bacteria and prevent spoilage.

Raw milk - Raw or real milk comes from grass-fed/pastured mammals and is bottled in its full-fat, unprocessed (not pasteurized or homogenized) state; once outlawed, it is now legal in 46 states.

Ultra-pasteurized - This type of highly processed milk was invented in the 1960s and involves heating to a minimum of 280°F for a minimum of two seconds to kill all bacteria and extend shelf life.

Whey - The second type of protein found in natural dairy is popular with athletes since it can be rapidly digested to support growth and repair of muscle after strenuous workouts.

More dairy resources

• Raw Milk Reality, by Chris Kresser

• Should People Eat Dairy Products? By Georgia Ede

• Here’s Why People Are Drinking Raw Milk in 2024 | Raw Farm

• The Complete Guide to Regenerative Dairy Farming | Inbound Pursuit

• Raw vs. Pasteurized. The benefits and downfalls of each. It's your choice! By Miller’s Bio Farm

• Raw Milk Finder maintained by the Campaign for Real Milk