The alarm has jumped in the population and has run through social networks like gunpowder, after hearing the news that the Generalitat had approved on Wednesday the sale of unpasteurized and unused milk in Catalonia.
Direct to the Palate explains that "since 1990 it has been prohibited in Spain the sale in bulk of raw milk or what is the same, as it is extracted from animals, without sterilizing or pasteurizing." This practice, which was common in most countries, gradually became extinct because of the serious health problems it caused.
Now, 28 years later, the Generalitat legislates against it alleging that “it will serve to revalue and diversify livestock farms and, responds to the demands of some groups of consumers, who insist on drinking milk“ as before ”.
The example of Italy
The Government defends its measure explaining that in Italy the consumption of unpasteurized milk has been allowed since 2007. But experts warn that this country is not a good example and that drinking raw milk is harmful to everyone's health and even more so for children, since their main diet (at least during their first years of life) is dairy.
According to El Confidencial, Italy approved the sale of unpasteurized milk in 2007, directly from farmers to customers and in automatic machines enabled for it. In practice it was already done since 2004, when some health problems derived from its consumption were reported. However, it was from its generalization with the approval of the law when the problems of pathogens and infections began.
The newspaper adds, that only two years after its approval, a study by the Institute of Health found that the main cause of hemolytic uremic syndrome in children was precisely due to untreated milk. And more cases appeared in the following months of this disease characterized by renal failure, hemolytic anemia and coagulation defects.
The alarm was such that the Italian Ministry of Health established the obligation to sell raw milk only if it had been previously boiled.
What health hazards involves drinking raw milk?
The official US food and drug agency, FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration), explains that “Milk and dairy products provide abundant nutritional benefits. But raw milk can also harbor dangerous microorganisms that pose serious health risks. ”
In addition, it includes in its argumentation a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States (CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), which ensures that “Unpasteurized milk is 150 times more likely to cause foodborne illness and generates 13 times more hospitalizations than diseases that involve pasteurized dairy products. ”
Experts warn that Untreated milk may contain dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria, responsible for causing numerous diseases. Among its symptoms, like other food diseases: vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. You can also go with flu-like discomfort: fever, headache and body aches.
In addition, these micro-organisms can be particularly dangerous for people with weakened immune systems, older adults, pregnant women and children. What's more, the CDC analysis revealed that They mostly affect teenagers and children.
Prohibited totally in pregnant women!
The bacteria listeria, present in raw milk, can cause pregnancy loss, diseases in the fetus or even the death of the newborn.
Therefore, during pregnancy it is totally forbidden to consume unpasteurized milk or its derived foods (such as cheese). It can harm the baby, even if the mother does not feel bad.
The benefits of pasteurization
In 1864 Louis Pasteur created a warming process that destroyed the harmful microorganisms responsible for diseases such as listeriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria and brucellosis, diseases that attacked society at that time by consuming raw milk.
Now, a few years later, we decide that this scientific discovery is not relevant and we return to 'the natural'. And all that, regardless of the opinion of pediatricians and doctors, or the results of studies that have shown that there are no significant differences in the nutritional values of pasteurized and unpasteurized milk. The differences are only from the presence of bacteria.
What do pediatricians say?
We also wanted to know what Spanish pediatricians think about whether or not to drink raw milk. Dr. Salvador Martínez Arenas, head of the pediatric service of the Vithas Nisa Virgen del Consuelo Hospital, October 9 and King Don Jaime, is clear:
"The consumption of raw milk in young children is a risk to their health that does not seem acceptable in the 21st century, in which the priority is the safety of people.
Pasteurization of milk at 62.5ºC for 30 minutes is a treatment that guarantees the microbiological safety and biological quality of milk, destroys saprophytic and pathogenic flora of milk (both viruses and bacteria) and makes factors of great biological importance such as lactose, oligosaccharides, LCPUFA, gangliosides and vitamins remain unchanged while maintaining their nutritional value. "
And in the children? "The type of feeding determines, in large part, the establishment of the intestinal microbial flora during the first three years of the child's life. We do not know if the intake of raw milk with a greater number of microorganisms alters the barrier functions and modulation of the defenses against infections that intestinal microbiota has increasing the frequency of infections and allergies, "adds Dr. Martínez Arenas.
But he is not the only one to oppose the intake of unpasteurized milk. These are other of the dissenting voices that have taken the voice in social networks against the regulation of the sale of raw milk in Catalonia:
-My grandparents drank raw milk and nothing ever happened to them.
- Julio Basulto (@JulioBasulto_DN) July 19, 2018
-My grandparents drove without a seat belt and nothing ever happened to them.
Don't get tied up: food safety is as important as road safety.
Come on, raw milk, anti-vaccines; Yes, you are giving us health professionals work, huh?
- Lucia, my Pediatrician (@luciapediatra) July 19, 2018
To the readers: Vaccinate your children and do not consume raw milk.
To governments: promote vaccination and safe food consumption. //t.co/HpzpIuSmsV
Raw milk: 7 reasons to say NO. Drinking raw milk is a risk, as the Government says or the Government says. //t.co/1dzHqkMePc
- Marián García (@boticariagarcia) July 19, 2018
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