[00:00:00] Welcome to Planet Spoonie, the podcast for limies and spoonies healing themselves and the world. In this compassionate and collective space, we explore traditional nutrition, herbal medicine, and nature connection as tools for empowerment when living with chronic lyme and chronic illness. These are the same tools that helped me rediscover the magic, wisdom, and innate healing capacity of my own body and the body of the Earth.

[00:00:26] Even while living with chronic illness in the time of the climate crisis. I'm your host Kelsey the herbalist. Let's dig in Hi everyone. I am so happy to be back in this virtual space with you Thank you as always for tuning in and listening in the podcast Recently hit another big milestone and I am just so honored that all of you are here.

[00:00:51] We hit over 500 downloads. This happened a little while ago, but I didn't think to announce it. And then it occurred to me the other day that's actually really exciting. I just wanted to share that and say, thank you so much for listening. It means the world to me to be able to be here in this space collaborating with amazing women and people and that you all are interested enough to keep listening in and downloading week after week.

[00:01:18] This is such an important project to me, not only because it allows me to really Network and build more of a community with people really across the globe, which is so cool But also because this is free It's a way to get information out there for free and I know firsthand that living with chronic illness Particularly lyme disease can be an extraordinary Financial burden And that is why it's really important to me to be able to provide this as a free service, a free way to provide education and knowledge that might be helpful in the face of whatever else is going on in your life.

[00:01:56] So I just wanted to say that, just wanted to say thank you for being here and touch on that little exciting note. But let's talk about today's episode. So this is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart because I think animal welfare is so important. Of course nutrition is really important to me too, but raw dairy.

[00:02:22] Raw dairy is a very controversial food, which it feels like these days so many different foods are controversial. So much in the field of nutrition is controversial, but raw dairy in particular is one that there can be legal ramifications to consuming raw dairy depending on the state that you're in.

[00:02:43] So it's a big topic and that's why I want to get into it. And. This episode is of course not to recommend to anyone or to tell you to go out and consume raw dairy. That is beyond the scope of a podcast episode. I just want to share some of the reasons why I prefer raw dairy and why I have been consuming it for well over 10 years.

[00:03:04] When I was in college, I actually used to drive 45 minutes to a farm to pick up the milk and then back home. Definitely not your typical college experience, but it was a hundred percent worth it to me to get this extremely nutritious food in my diet. So let's talk about it. There are several reasons why I prefer raw dairy over pasteurized dairy.

[00:03:27] The first reason is that raw dairy is nutritionally complete. It contains the enzymes and bacteria to support digestion of the milk and dairy products themselves. For example, lactase, right? There are, lactase is an enzyme. Anything that ends in ace, A S E, is an enzyme. Lactase is an enzyme that digests lactose, right?

[00:03:49] And there's tons of over the counter products and supplements that contain lactase to help people consume dairy. And digest it better and maybe relieve some of the side effects or symptoms they have if they consume dairy by accident or as a little splurge. So raw dairy actually contains lactase.

[00:04:07] Raw dairy contains numerous different enzymes to help you digest the milk itself. In addition to this, raw dairy, whether it's milk or yogurt or kefir, contains tons of beneficial bacteria. So these beneficial bacteria help to repopulate your own microbiome. And there's lots of different categories for these beneficial microbes, which actually also can include more than just bacteria.

[00:04:33] There can also be fungi like beneficial yeast, as well as pathogenic ones. And there's a lot more to The microbiome than just good guys and bad guys. It also has to do with how much there is of a particular microbe. It has to do with the location of where that microbe is living. There's a lot, there's a lot to it.

[00:04:54] I always make this comparison of our body as an ecosystem, but That's because our body is an ecosystem. We are a walking ecosystem. And the microbiome is a reflection of that, right? And just like when we're looking at ecosystems in environmental science, it's the same with our own bodies. The greater the diversity, the healthier the system, right?

[00:05:17] So healthy microbiome is a diverse microbiome. And like I was saying, there's lots of different ways to categorize these microbes and bacteria, but one of them is residential versus transient microbes. So residential microbes are microbes that essentially live in the gut or in our body full time while transient microbes are ones that kind of can come and go.

[00:05:41] And so different forms of cultured dairy, like yogurt and kefir, contain different types of microbes. So yogurt, for example, contains more residential microbes. microbes, while kefir contains both residential and transient microbes. And there's lots of research looking at this, and there's more and more coming out every day.

[00:06:03] The microbiome is a relatively new field that there, there is constantly more being discovered all of the time. I always think it's so interesting. My sister and I are only a couple of years apart, but She, when I took microbiology, I actually took microbiology after college as a prep class for graduate school, but when I went to go purchase the textbook, I wanted to check my sister's old textbook because it was by the same publisher and I thought maybe I could get away with using an older edition.

[00:06:35] But in her edition of Microbiology, there was literally one page dedicated to the human microbiome. And in my textbook, it like the entire book was about the human microbiome. So I just thought that's really interesting and really evocative of how much this field is changing all of the time. So I won't go into too much more detail on that.

[00:06:54] Just know that The human microbiome is extraordinarily complex. It is super important that it remains diverse. And there's a delicate balance to it and there's a lot that we don't know, but there are some things that we do know and raw dairy and cultured dairy contain beneficial microbes that can help bolster the health of our microbiome.

[00:07:17] However, the biggest reason why there is controversy around raw dairy is the potential for. raw dairy to become spoiled with harmful bacteria that can make you really sick. So these things like listeria or E. coli or salmonella we obviously don't want to get an infection with any of these organisms.

[00:07:42] There's a little bit more to this story, though. When we have raw milk, for example, it's a mini ecosystem already, right? There's thousands of bacteria, fungi, microbes already living in raw milk. So it's if you were comparing the raw milk to a neighborhood, the real estate's populated, the houses are full.

[00:08:03] So there's not really a lot of space for anything new, listeria bacteria to come in and take over. The houses are full. The milk is already full of microbes. It's an ecosystem already. It's gonna be a lot harder for that to become contaminated or spoiled with bad bacteria that will make you sick if it already contains plenty of healthy and beneficial bacteria.

[00:08:23] On the contrary, pasteurized milk right? Everything's been killed off. So you essentially just have in my mind, a petri dish, something just waiting for bad bacteria to come into contact with it and essentially take over like super easily because there's milk sugars and things in there for those bad bacteria, quote, to digest.

[00:08:46] I think that's really interesting and significant to think about raw dairy already contains tons of microbes is going to be a lot harder to contaminate it with something bad than a pasteurized dairy, which contains no living microbes. So if something does come into contact with it, it's going to very easily take over and spoil that milk.

[00:09:03] So that's why if you have pasteurized milk and it becomes spoiled or contaminated, It's gonna make you sick. You cannot drink that. It's bad. On the other hand, if you have raw dairy, high quality raw dairy, which we'll get into it doesn't ever go bad. It just becomes clobbered into curds and whey, which people still use.

[00:09:23] You the very first farm that I was talking about that I went to years and years ago, they always said if your milk goes sour and becomes clobbered into curds and whey, it makes really good. pancakes. It's really good to use in baking. Raw milk when it's from fresh, cared for animals, in theory, really can't go bad because it, it's a mini ecosystem already.

[00:09:45] It's just going to ferment into different types of dairy products where pasteurized milk can go bad and you can get really sick from it. Again, I'm simplifying and we're going to go more into this and how raw dairy can be bad because raw dairy can be bad and contain bad bacteria, but only under specific circumstances.

[00:10:03] So that leads into the next point, which is when you are consuming raw dairy, You have to buy it directly from local farms unless you live in one of the few states where it is legal to sell raw dairy at the grocery store. That is why when I was in college, I had to drive 45 minutes to go pick up my raw dairy because it was illegal in that state to purchase raw dairy at the store.

[00:10:29] You had to buy it directly on site at the farm. There are downsides to this and there are upsides to this. The upside is that you are interacting directly with your local farmers. You are getting to know your local farmer. You are getting to hear about how the cow is doing or the goats or the sheep are doing.

[00:10:47] You might actually get to meet the cows, goats, or sheep where the milk is coming from and their babies. They live a really good quality of life and you get to see it. They have a pasture. They have tons of cushy hay to eat and sleep in. Their baby is still with them. They don't ever get sick. separated from the baby.

[00:11:03] You are sharing the milk with the baby instead of the baby being taken away from the mama. Another great bonus is that, so not only are you getting to know baby, mom the farmer and the family who lives on the farm, you're getting to see it, the environment that they're living in. which is generally a really high quality of life and ensure that they're living in a clean environment, being milked in a clean environment, the milk has been bottled in a clean environment.

[00:11:30] You also get to pick it up in disposable containers, like glass bottles or mason jars, which you take home, you use, and then you bring back to the farm. So instead of having disposable containers that you're throwing in the trash every week, You are reusing these glass bottles and jars over and over again, washing them, returning them to the farm and getting new ones.

[00:11:49] So it really helps to bolster your local economy, support your local farmers, and just creates this level of connection and intimacy to where your food actually is coming from. And. This means that you can truly ensure a high quality of life for the animal from whom you're getting the milk. Which is really important when it comes to any kind of agriculture but especially with our animals, especially with a mom who is working hard and giving so generously of her milk, that mom and baby are both Living a good life, that they are not being separated, that they are being fed well, they are living in a beautiful pasture and space, that they are cared for, and that they are loved, and I have only ever seen this with when I'm able to pick up raw dairy from a local farm and a local farmer.

[00:12:42] And the best, this is a side note, but the best raw milk I have ever had is from Light Root Farm which is in Lafayette, Colorado. Daphne produces the My gosh, they run their farm with horses, which is the coolest thing ever. And she has the most beautiful, sweet cows. And I am telling you that milk is the best milk I've ever had in my life.

[00:13:03] But that is a side note. But the fourth point was really, when you're buying raw dairy from a local farm, it ensures a high quality of life. And this is really important because If you're having raw dairy, you cannot be getting raw milk from a sick cow or you are going to get sick, right?

[00:13:22] Talking about the milk being a living ecosystem with all these different microbes living in it. If you are getting milk from a sick cow, you are getting dangerous microbes in your milk that are now going to be ingested by you and you are going to become sick. With pasteurization, that doesn't happen.

[00:13:40] The cow can be sick. The cow can be poorly fed, poorly treated, could be dealing with infections or mastitis. This is of course farm to farm. I don't think really any small farmers that I have ever met mistreat their animals. This is more a concern with big ag and really large scale agriculture where the cows are The goats, whomever, usually it's cows, are really being poorly treated, they're not healthy, and it doesn't really matter because at the end of the day they pasteurize it.

[00:14:12] So the cow can be sick, doesn't matter, they're gonna pasteurize the milk, so none of those microbes are gonna get into your food. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if the animals are being mistreated or if mom and baby are separated, because at the end of the day, it's about the bottom dollar and getting the product on the shelf of the big box grocery store.

[00:14:30] Now I completely acknowledge that having access to local milk and to small dairies is an absolute privilege. Not everyone has access to this. So many of us only have access to pasteurized dairy at the store. So this is not to shame you. No, this is just a kind of excuse. the goings on behind the scenes of the food industry and agriculture and why small scale agriculture and local agriculture is so important, especially for a product like dairy, like milk and cream.

[00:15:01] So that's one of the, biggest reasons I'm a huge proponent of raw dairy is it ensures a high quality of life for the mom, the animal who is offering up their milk and giving you their milk. Because if you are. Selling raw dairy and consuming raw dairy, it is absolutely imperative that the animal you are getting the milk from is healthy, right?

[00:15:25] So let's recap here. One, raw dairy is nutritionally complete. It contains enzymes and bacteria to help support digestion in general, but digestion of the dairy product itself, because it's a two it's because it's a mini ecosystem already. It really can't become spoiled or contaminated, assuming it's coming from a healthy cow and a clean facility.

[00:15:48] It'll just turn into clobbered milk, into curds and whey, which is just another type of cultured dairy or food preparation that you use differently. Three, it ensures that you have to buy directly from local farms and farmers, and that you get to know the animals themselves and the living conditions that they are in.

[00:16:06] And Four, it ensures a high quality of life for these animals, that mom and baby do not have to be separated, that you can share, that only a responsible amount of milk is taken and that it's all done in a way that really encourages high care, reciprocity and love for the animals that are offering this food, and they live really beautiful Cushioned lives in return.

[00:16:33] So these are all some of the big reasons why I love raw dairy and I think it's actually interesting when I look at California, we can buy raw dairy at the grocery store, I can get it at my local grocery store from a local farm, and I can actually pick up the bottles and then rinse them, clean them and return them to the grocery store and they'll take them back to the farm or the farm picks them up.

[00:16:57] And I love that, that, that accessibility is really important, but I also really love going to the farm itself to pick up, like I was saying, I just I think it really creates an intimacy and a level of care and connection that is so important now more than ever because we are living just with a level of kind of extreme disconnect from our food system.

[00:17:19] And I didn't mention, but another reason why this is really important right now is because recently several huge kind of box brand food companies have reversed their decision to remain antibiotic free. So companies like Tyson and Burger King Chick fil A, who, obviously there are other problems there as well.

[00:17:43] They have reversed their decision to remain antibiotic free in their farming of chicken. And this is really important because again, the use of antibiotics in this way really allows for animals to be living in very unclean, unsanitary, and Frankly unethical conditions where they are living in their own waste and each other's ways.

[00:18:09] They're exposed to really dangerous pathogens And so antibiotics are basically used blanket in their food To allow for unsanitary living conditions I'm not against Obviously using antibiotics as needed. If an animal becomes sick if an animal becomes sick and you need to treat them, please treat them.

[00:18:30] That is where there is a lot more to organic than I think people have the illusion. When I had ducks and one of my ducks became sick I don't know. The duck was actually attacked by a raccoon. We put the duck on antibiotics. I'm not going to let the duck suffer and get an infection and die just to keep it organic, right?

[00:18:49] That makes no sense. I gave it antibiotics. What I am not, what I am not a proponent of is using antibiotics as a way to cover your bases when you're mistreating an animal and letting them live in unsanitary conditions, which is what we're doing. Most of these box, most or all of these box brands are essentially doing.

[00:19:09] And originally these companies took a pledge basically to not use any antibiotics that are also important in human medicine for fighting infection because this can lead to antibiotic resistance and antibiotic resistant infections, which are very dangerous as you probably know. So it's a really big deal.

[00:19:29] That these antibiotics are now going to be used in meat again when these companies took a pledge not to do this puts the animals in danger. This especially puts the farmers who are dealing with those animals every day in danger. Because this decision is so It's very likely not in their hands it puts them in danger and it puts us in danger.

[00:19:48] So this is really not a good thing. And again, this is one of the reasons why I really love and support raw dairy because it really just ensures a high quality of life for the animals as well as for the farmer. It really creates the ideal situation that as a former farmer I can say is what, what is preferred.

[00:20:08] No one who. is farming and interacting with these animals every day wants to see them suffer. Farmers love their animals, they love their work and they do it because it's sacred to them and extremely important to them. I prefer raw dairy for all of those reasons. One kind of final bonus reason why I love raw dairy is it's so much easier to grow.

[00:20:29] to work with. If you are someone who enjoys making different types or just enjoys consuming these types of dairy products like butter and yogurt and kefir and sour cream, you would be surprised at how much easier it is to make these foods with raw dairy. And whipped cream. Who doesn't love whipped cream, right?

[00:20:48] If you are working with pasteurized dairy, again, because there is that risk of bacterial contamination, because you have pasteurized it, you have created a blank slate, which then makes it very easy for pathogenic, aka simplifying, bad bacteria to take over. You have to heat the milk before you can make anything with it, or heat the cream before you can make anything with it, like sour cream or yogurt or kefir.

[00:21:13] If you are using raw dairy, though, because you have ensured the cow had a, or goat, whatever, had a really high quality of life, was fed really well, was milked in a clean environment, the milk was bottled in a clean environment, sold to you, you don't have to reheat it because you have already ensured that cow was healthy, that this milk is healthy and clean and is filled with beneficial bacteria and microbes.

[00:21:39] So you don't have to heat it. You literally just pour it in a jar, put a scoopful of yogurt in or a spoonful of kefir in, set it in your dehydrator or your oven at a really low temp and do the whole fermentation process. When you're working with pasteurized dairy, again, you have to heat it first and then you can do the whole fermentation thing, which is just another extra step that makes it a little bit harder.

[00:22:01] So that's also a bonus reason why I love pasteurized dairy. It's so much easier to work with. So all around, in short, that's my version of a short explanation, very much simplifying why I prefer and why I consume raw dairy. I like supporting my local farmers and I like knowing the animals are I like knowing where I'm getting my food from.

[00:22:24] I like knowing that they're living good lives. I like knowing that they're not being separated from their babies. And it's important to me all around. This is what Planet Smoothie is all about. It's about these connections between our health and the health of our environment. Because when The soil we care for is healthy, the plants we grow in it for food are healthy, the animals we graze on that land are healthy and then the plants and animals we eat make us healthy and vice versa.

[00:22:53] It's all a closed loop system. That's how this world evolved. Truly this is what Planet Spoonie is about is ensuring that we care for our environment in the same ways that our environment cares for us. And I think raw dairy is a really beautiful example of how tending to our animals responsibly carefully, and with love leads to a much more nutritionally complete product that is much more environmentally friendly.

[00:23:20] It is way beyond the scope of this episode to get into animal husbandry and animal agriculture and how that impacts the climate crisis. Big Ag is definitely a big problem but again, raw dairy is not coming from Big Ag, it's coming from your mom and pop local farmers and, Yeah, I think I'm going to end it there because that will end up getting into a much bigger conversation.

[00:23:41] So if you have any questions about raw dairy, if you are curious, this is of course not a recommendation to you to go out and start consuming raw dairy. I cannot do that on a podcast episode, but if you are curious about it, if you have questions about it, Please feel free to send them my way and reach out to me.

[00:23:58] As I am available. I am seeing clients currently. So if you are looking for nutritional support if you are curious about herbal medicine, if you are dealing with chronic lyme disease or any kind of complex chronic health issue, you are looking to manage symptoms or recover from something, please reach out.

[00:24:16] I'm seeing clients. I would love to hear from you. Please let me know also what you thought about this episode. And again, as always, thank you so much for being here. I love you guys and I appreciate you. And remember, our bodies are a direct reflection of the ecosystems we inhabit. And just like this earth, our bodies know how to heal.