225. Heal your gut with RAW MILK: a conversation with Mark McAfee from Raw Farm

Raw milk is the most healing food for the human gut

Paul Saladino calls raw milk the single most healing food he's seen for the human gut, based on both clinical reports and emerging research.

"I've not seen any food that is as healing, and I mean that word sincerely, healing for the human gut as raw milk."

Raw Farm is the world's largest raw milk dairy

Mark McAfee's Raw Farm in California's Central Valley is the world's largest raw milk dairy, setting the standard for safe raw milk production.

"Thanks for coming on the podcast. All the way, buddy. I think it's only appropriate that we start with cheers. Absolutely. Food of the ages. Food of the ages. What are we drinking? Kiefer. Raw milk kefir."

Raw milk was used at the Mayo Clinic to treat illness

Historically, clean raw milk from countryside farms was sent to the Mayo Clinic to heal patients, while contaminated city milk caused disease outbreaks.

"They call it, I think it's FOXOP3, or I can find the actual genetic loci that they talk about. But they talk about T cell maturation being affected by raw milk. And you think, okay, this is really, I can say this, but this is the kind of thing that the FDA won't let a raw milk farmer say."

Colostrum transfers the immune system to newborns

Colostrum is the antibody-rich pre-milk from a mother's blood that seals a newborn's leaky gut and bootstraps their immune system.

"Decreases my sicknesses and my child's sicknesses."

Cross-species raw milk shaped the human genome

Domestication of animals exposed humans to raw milk for 10,000-15,000 years, contributing to our genome through cross-species consumption.

"So if you look at that, wire cross-species consumption of raw milk, domestication of raw milk has contributed to our genome for 10 or 15,000 years because we cohabitated so closely to these animals."

Raw milk is the first food of life that builds the gut

A newborn's digestive tract is unformed: no enzymes, no bacterial diversity, no mucosal lining. Colostrum and breast milk build it from scratch.

"What is the role of raw milk? It's the first food of life. A baby's born without a digestive tract that's fully formed. It doesn't make its own enzyme, doesn't have bacterial diversity, the mucosal lining is not there. What creates it?"

Returning to raw milk may help rebuild a damaged gut

Since raw milk builds the gut from birth, returning to it as an adult may help repair damage from antibiotics, pesticides, and processed foods.

"So critical to understanding how you recover later when you've got things messed up, because that's how you built it to begin with."

Colostrum contains peptides studied for Alzheimer's

Colostrum isn't milk; it's an antibody-rich serum from the mother's blood. Peptides like colostrinin show benefits for Alzheimer's and immune function.

"Colostrum is before that. It's actually a collection of the antibodies and the serums from blood that circulates to the body that then collects. And there's only so much that's made."

Raw milk increases microbial diversity in the gut

A 12-week interventional study showed raw milk consumption increased gut microbial diversity and short-chain fatty acid levels like valerate.

"If people are curious about this, and this goes back to what we were saying about the benefits of raw milk across species, there are peptides."

FDA blocks raw milk producers from stating health claims

Mark McAfee is under FDA injunction from making health claims about raw milk. Stating any healing benefit legally creates a 'new drug' under US law.

"I presented my slide deck to them. They said, there's no way you can give those slide decks. We can't give any nutritional benefits to raw milk."

Pasteurized milk cultures fail without native bacteria

Added cultures in pasteurized milk are displaced by residual bacteria in the processed product. Truly raw milk retains its full native microbial ecosystem.

"And that's quite a paradigm shift. So it's truly raw milk."

Ancestral humans ate whole animals and drank raw milk

Early humans consumed organs, brains, and raw milk from domesticated animals as foundational parts of their diet.

"Would have eaten the meat. We would have eaten the brain. We would have had raw milk. The American Indians did that. First thing they did would eat the organs. Would have had raw milk if we were smart enough to domesticate the animals. When fruit was in season, you bet we were eating a piece of fruit that was colorful and sweet."

Raw milk has 4% fat, cream 40%, butterfat 87%

The fat concentration ladder from raw milk to cream to butterfat shows how dairy products vary in their fat content.

"Raw milk obviously has four. Cream has 40. And butterfat has 87%."