March 7, 2026
Raw (unpasteurized) milk is sometimes marketed as a more “natural” or more nutritious alternative to pasteurized milk. But the idea that raw milk is healthier doesn’t hold up well when you look at safety and nutrition evidence. What pasteurization means: Pasteurization is a process in which milk is heated to a specific temperature for a specific amount of time and then rapidly cooled in order to kill harmful bacteria and reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Raw (unpasteurized) milk can carry dangerous bacteria. Because it has not been treated to kill harmful microbes, raw milk can lead to infections from Campylobacter, Brucella, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, and E. coli. These infections can be serious even in otherwise healthy people, and raw milk exposure can be particularly harmful to children. Certain types of E. coli can cause life‑threatening kidney disease in children. Even healthy older children can develop severe diarrhea and dehydration from these bacterial infections. Some of these bacteria are especially dangerous during pregnancy. For example, infections such as Listeria monocytogenes can be passed from a pregnant person to the unborn infant and may result in birth defects, miscarriage, stillbirth, or serious infection in the newborn. Key nutrients are mostly unchanged: A common claim is that pasteurization “destroys” the nutritional value of milk. However, multiple studies have shown that pasteurized milk contains essentially equivalent nutrients compared with unpasteurized (raw) milk products. In other words, pasteurization makes milk safer without meaningfully reducing its core nutritional benefits. The nutrients children commonly rely on milk for remain largely intact after pasteurization: -Minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are unchanged, and these are among the most important nutrients milk provides for growing children. -There may be some deactivation (denaturation) of proteins, but the overall difference is small and does not meaningfully reduce milk’s protein value in the diet. -A few vitamins—especially vitamin C and some B vitamins, may decrease somewhat. However, milk is not a primary source of vitamin C or many B vitamins in most diets, so these small reductions generally have little nutritional impact. Risk vs. Benefits: In summary, the potential risk of infection from bacteria in raw or unpasteurized milk outweighs any claimed benefits, and we recommend against the consumption of raw milk.
