Find out why drinking milk straight from a cow is not recommended

It is common for people to believe that drinking milk right after milking the cow is healthy and beneficial for health. However, this is not true. It is not safe to consume milk directly from a cow unless you want to risk contracting diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis.

In addition, drinking “natural” milk can lead to problems such as constipation, indigestion and reflux. For these reasons, the sale of raw milk has been prohibited in Brazil since 1969.

_{Cow’s milk being served in a glass (Photo: Divulgation/CNA)}

Brucellosis:

Brucellosis is transmitted by the bacteria brucella spp. If not treated, it can lead to death or cause a series of symptoms over a long period of time. The first symptoms are similar to the flu, but it can also lead to meningitis, inflammation of the heart and arthritis. Other important symptoms to look out for include fever, night sweats, tiredness, weakness, chills, headache, joint pain, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Tuberculosis:

Tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It mainly affects the lungs, but it can affect other organs depending on the severity of the disease. The main symptoms include strong and frequent cough for more than two weeks, production of phlegm with the presence of blood, fever, chest pain, shortness of breath, tiredness, loss of appetite and hoarseness.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, boiling raw milk eliminates some nutritional properties of the food. In industrialization, this loss is smaller through pasteurization and sterilization processes.

Pasteurization and sterilization are preservation techniques based on the elimination of microorganisms and enzymes through heating for a certain period of time. Food is packaged in fully sealed containers.

The difference between the two techniques is that sterilization aims to eliminate all microorganisms and spores, while pasteurization leaves some more resistant forms and some surviving spores.

Definition taken from the Oxford Language Dictionary.

Spore is a unicellular and uninuclear structure resistant to heat and desiccation, capable of germinating under certain conditions and asexually reproducing the individual that originated it.

Featured photo: Farmer pours milk extracted from cow into container. Playback: Premix