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I only drink organic whole raw milk. Of course, raw milk is unavailable in most states, but eating whatever health food we want is one of the few freedoms California still allows.

Yes, raw milk is delicious. I enjoyed going to my uncle's dairy and having it about two minutes after it had been milked and cooled down. You just have to hope that the cow hasn't contracted tuberculosis between the time it was last tested and when you got the milk from it. This is why pasteurization is a good thing. It won't make the milk any less nutritious, just safer.

As far as bovine growth hormone is concerned, you could drink a vial of it and it would have no effect on you at all. Primate growth hormone receptors are incapable of interacting with non-primate growth hormones.

As far as bovine growth hormone is concerned, you could drink a vial of it and it would have no effect on you at all. Primate growth hormone receptors are incapable of interacting with non-primate growth hormones.

That was my initial thoughts regarding bovine hormones.

But I have thought that the non-hormone certified milk tastes more rich.

Also a certain brand of milk (they do not use any hormones), Jilbert's, from my hometown area (say yah to da UP eh?) tastes much better to me than the milk we drink around here! I wonder why. Been meaning to call the dairy when I'm home and ask them. My sister hates it, says it tastes like grass.

[pasteurization] won't make the milk any less nutritious, just safer.

I beg to differ. Raw milk has very different effects on my body than does the pasteurized stuff -- and I am by no means the only person who reports this. I'd go dairy-free rather than go back to pasteurized.

True, and also, your digestive enzymes would treat it as just another polypeptide... it would be chopped up into its component amino acids like any other protein. But it is possible that exogenous BGH does unpleasant things to the cattle themselves -- and cattle, unlike people, can't tell us if they're in pain. I may be a meateater and a hunter but I don't believe in being cruel, and so I'd prefer to err on the side of caution and keep the cows happy.