Drinking unpasteurized milk is as risky as playing Russian roulette ... is it worthy to go to these extremes.
By the way, if he wanted to prove a point, he should have limited his only diet to raw milk rather than water and lime alone. Could've been more appropriate!

The raw milk obsession reminds me of the unwarranted vaccination scare.

Even after doctors, medical journals--basically the entire medical community--debunked the myth that vaccines cause autism, people are still not vaccinating their kids. So now, kids are dying because of people's "distrust" of the experts.

The same with raw milk: people will listen to some Joe down the street rather than the many food safety experts who insist that pasteurization increases milk safety and doesn't adversely impact on the overall nutrition of the milk. And people will continue to die because of their "distrust" of the experts.

I have been drinking raw milk from healthy grass fed cows my whole life and so has my whole family and we have never been sick. The Mongols created the largest empire in history on a diet that consisted largly of raw milk and raw milk products. It was a great advantage to them that they could obtain their food quickly (mares milk from the horses they were riding). Needless to say, they would have had to be very strong and healthy to achieve what they did.

Miss Powers,
Could you please forward your data that shows how many people have died as a result of not being vaccinated since the 'Autism' scare. I would ask this as your comment points lead me to suspect that you are as much the 'Jo' down the street who everyone listens to rather than the real experts who are even now still finding links to Autism from the vaccines. Now we all know how hell-bent on protecting their markets the chemical industry is as a result of the efforts they have consistently made to stop BPA from being banned. Only now is the real horror story emerging of human ailments caused by this chemical. Vaccines are another of these lucrative industries that the pharmaceutical companies don't want to lose out on. My view on this is that there is no profit in a healthy nation. That is why people like you keep shouting down those of us who distrust the Emperors tailors.
So unless you can come up with some conclusive independent data that lists how many people have definitely died as a result of not being vaccinated since the autism scare I suggest you tone down your ranting before someone suggests that you are no better than the 'Jo' down the road. Now that would not do would it?
Oh and I was raised on raw milk. I am still here with a better constitution than the younger generation. I got all the ailments and it obviously didn't stop me from developing fit and healthily. Mumps, measles, chickenpox, you don't have to be a ocket scientist to work out that a natural contact with something does for us what over use of anti-biotics does for bacteria. Its how we evolve immunity. Not by having something jabbed into our arm that does the exact opposite of what it should be doing and that is 'make us ill'. Time to get wise people and question who these so called experts really are? Oh and who pays their salary? Follow the money people.

@Shelley, where do you get your "facts"? Do you even know why pasteurization is viewed as "necessary"? Tell ya what, go check out your average dairy farm, you'll see why milk from those farms needs to be pasteurized. I've seen them, the cows are is crowded conditions that encourage rampant infections, which is why farmers need to inject their cows with antibiotics every 6 months. When was the last time you had a doctor telling you to get antibiotic shots every 6 months "just in case"? That's right, it doesn't happen, because it causes greater problems, such as MRSA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004520/ and other fun stuff like that! I agree that milk produced in those situations NEEDS to be pasteurized to keep us safe. The milk produced for raw consumption comes from animals that are much healthier and better cared for. I've drank raw milk from both kinds of animals. The stuff I drank from the standard dairy gave me a nasty case of Gastroenteritis http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/gastroenteritis.html that I had for 8 days or so. Really wicked stuff that my body couldn't kill without the help of antibiotics, and that is very rare. The raw milk that I drank was fantastic, and I had no ill effects from it whatsoever. Even my friend, who had never drank raw milk before, had no ill effects.

This is all my way of saying, you need to learn why things are done in order to understand them, and how we can bypass those measures without suffering any ill effects. Remember this, people drank raw milk for MILLENNIA before pasteurization was discovered, and somehow they survived.

@Shelley, People choose to not vaccinate for a myriad of reasons. Not just the worry over autism. The heavy metals, preservatives, aborted fetal (human) cells in some, animal by-products, doubt as to the efficacy, concern over vaccine damage beyond autism, allergic reactions to vaccinations and death.

As for raw milk products, Perhaps you should do some research into the history of pasturization and why it was originally needed. Perhaps you should compare percentages of disease and illness brought on from raw milk, pasteurized milk, raw meats, deli-meats, produce and the like.

Also, research into the nutritional and structural make-up of raw vs store bought milk would help you to understand why people aren't trusting the experts and doing their own research.

Most people who make alternative choices do more research than those choosing the norm.

Pour a glass of raw milk and another of "store bought" milk. Leave them on your kitchen counter for a few days. The store stuff will turn green and stinky, the raw will simply separate into curds & whey. After four or five days, which milk would you be willing to drink? You will probably puke at the smell of the pasturized stuff.

Alos, most people who are diagnosed as "allergic" to milk, do fine on raw milk. It is the additives they have trouble with.

For other views on this claim:

A Stanford controlled study whose purpose was to determine whether there is objective validity to the anecdotal claims that people who believe they are lactose intolerant actually experience fewer symptoms after drinking raw milk relative to pasteurized milk concluded that claims that raw milk is well-tolerated by lactose intolerant individuals are unsupported and misleading for individuals with true lactose malabsorption.

Also: (source:http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/MilkSafety/ConsumerInformationAboutMilkSafety/ucm247991.htm)

Raw milk does not cure lactose intolerance.

Lactose is a unique disaccharide found in milk. Lactose concentration in bovine milk is about 4.8%. People with lactose intolerance lack the enzyme, beta-galactosidase or lactase, to break down lactose into glucose and galactose during digestion. All milk, raw or pasteurized, contains lactose and can cause lactose intolerance in sensitive individuals. There is no indigenous lactase in milk.

Raw milk advocates claim that raw milk does not cause lactose intolerance because it contains lactase secreted by “beneficial” or probiotic bacteria present in raw milk. As discussed in a later section (claim 4), raw milk does not contain probiotic organisms.

Fermented dairy products, especially yogurt, have been reported to ease lactose mal-absorption in lactose intolerant subjects (McBean and Miller, 1984; Lin et al., 1991; Onwulata et al., 1989; Savaiano et al., 1984). This enhanced digestion of lactose has been attributed to the intra-intestinal hydrolysis of lactose by lactase secreted by yogurt fermentation microorganisms (Lin et al., 1991; Savaiano et al., 1984). However, raw milk does not contain the same types of microorganisms at the similar levels that are found in yogurt. Yogurt that showed a benefit towards lactose intolerance typically contained 107cfu/ml or higher levels of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and these microorganisms were purposely inoculated during yogurt manufacturing (Lin et al., 1991; Savaiano et al., 1984).

References:

Lin, M., D. Savaiano, and S. Harlander. 1991. Influence of nonfermented dairy products containing bacterial starter cultures on lactose maldigestion in humans. Journal of Dairy Science. 74:87-95.
McBean, L. D. and G. D. Miller. 1998. Allaying fears and fallacies about lactose intolerance. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 98:671-676.
Onwulata, C. I., D. R. Rao, and P. Vankineni. 1989. Relative efficiency of yogurt, sweet acidophilus milk, hydrolyzed-lactose milk, and a commercial lactase tablet in alleviating lactose maldigestion. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 49:1233-1237.
Savaiano, D. A., A. AbouElAnouar, D. E. Smith, and M. D. Levitt. 1984. Lactose malabsorption from yogurt, pasteurized yogurt, sweet acidophilus milk, and cultured milk in lactase-deficient individuals. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 40:1219-1223.

Raw milk does not contain natural antimicrobial components that make milk safe.

The major antimicrobial compounds naturally present in milk include lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, lysozyme, and xanthine oxidase. There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that the indigenous antimicrobial compounds in raw milk kill pathogens and ensure raw milk safety.

Raw milk does not contain high enough concentration of these antimicrobial compounds to exert such an effect. In the case of lysozyme and lactoferrin, if high concentrations of these components are observed in raw milk, it is often an indication of cow’s compromised health condition (e.g. mastitis), simply due to cow’s elevated natural defense system (Chaneton et al., 2008; Schmitz et al., 2004; Farkye, 2003).

The microflora in raw milk is complex and unpredictable. The antimicrobial components in milk can have either bactericidal, bacteriostatic, or no effect at all depending on the specific pathogenic species and strains involved (Naidu, 2000a).

Pasteurization is the only method to achieve complete elimination of vegetative pathogens. Contrary to raw milk advocates’ claims, pasteurization does not completely inactive these indigenous antimicrobial components in milk.

Raw milk has not been responsible for a single death in the United States for 11 years now according to their government's own statistics. How many people have died eating at fast food restaurants since then?