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Raw Cheese

My farmer friend brought me back some raw cheese from Vermont. He also has raw dairy on his farm. I have no desire to try either but I am curious to see how my body would react. Maybe other people could spare me the experience and let me know how it went for them. Has anyone tried raw dairy since being raw vegan?

James

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Comments

  • humanimalhumanimal Raw Newbie

    I bought my mom raw cheese once and she got really sick. I think raw dairy is a little unsafe and to be honest it really does not sound too appetizing to me. I have heard about others who drink and eat raw cheese regularly and they are fine. I will try to find that link of raw family who consumes raw dairy.

  • Carol Alt eats raw dairy, she talkes about it in her book “Eating in the Raw”. This was the first book I read on the raw food lifestyle.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Hi Nagev, since being vegan means no animal products, no, I haven’t tried raw dairy since being raw vegan!

  • I don’t eat raw dairy… but if you are tempted to try it, I do know that it’s supposed to be good for you. Things like kefir and yogurt are supposed to help the digestion because of the probiotics. However, unless you are really craving something like that… I would stay away… it’s still an animal product, even if it hasn’t been heated.

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    I don’t eat raw dairy…. I am trying to be a 100% raw food vegan eventually but since I am now a vegan I won’t touch dairy. I guess Carol Alt is a raw food vegetarian. Because only vegetarians consume dairy not vegans.

  • Priceless OnePriceless One Raw Newbie

    I have eaten raw cheese and loved it. It was delicious with a pear. :) I plan on putting my whole family on raw milk in April, when my friend’s cow freshens. It is a good compromise between vegan, which is what I prefer, and SAD, which is what my hubby prefers. :)

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    Raw or Not! I don’t consume dairy because of serious health reasons. Dairy products contain animal protein and cholesterol. Many assume that dairy is safe compared to animal flesh. It is not! A glass of milk is equal to 7 strips of bacon.

    Our bodies make all the cholesterol we need. Eating extra cholesterol has killed more people than: all the wars, natural disasters and car accidents of the twentieth century added together. Eating Vegan means eating no animal based foods. The only source of cholesterol is animal foods. Plant foods contain no cholesterol.

    It’s simple, the extra cholesterol clogs our veins and arteries restricting the flow of blood. Restrict blood flow to the brain and you’ll have a stroke. Restrict blood flow to the heart and you’ll get Heart Disease. Restrict blood flow to your cells and you’ll get Cancer.

    Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the UK and US. Heart disease kills one in five men and one in six women. The number two killer of course is Cancer. A recent study of autopsies shows that 80% of those over 40 have some form of cancer.

    There has never been a single case of calcium deficiency from diet in human history. We’ve been taught we need the calcium in dairy products to build strong bones. The opposite is actually true. The animal protein in dairy products makes our blood pH acidic. Our bodies then draw calcium from our bones to balance our blood pH. Yes, that means that milk actually causes bone loss. Osteoporosis is most common in cultures that consume the most animal foods.

    Consuming dairy Raw or Not will lead you into the same health problems as eating SAD. If we were meant to have dairy we would keep getting it from our mother. What animal can you name that nurses thoughout their life? Oh and by the way, dairy is about 16% protein and human milk is less than 2%.

    Allthough I love animals, I am not vegan for that reason. I am vegan because it doesn’t seem natural for me to consume something meant for another animals offspring. The more I research the more one thing holds true. Living un-naturally is bad for my health.

  • While at times I still crave cheese, I won’t eat it. As a former breastfeeding mom, all I can ever think about milk is, it’s a cows breast milk!! It’s meant to take a baby calf to a cow!!! I am not a cow!

    Though, I will say, the offer of raw cheese, cheese at all…is so tempting….Oh, how i loved cheese….

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    Cheese was my weakness. I hated milk and whats funny is I felt the same as you did that cow milk was meant for cows. When I did the master cleanse I had dreams about food, one of the dreams I was eating crackers and cheese and I just threw the crackers away and ate the cheese. Oh how I miss sharp cheddar cheese.

  • Not only do i agree with Chriscarlton, I am also reading the China Study and the fact the there is a VERY high relation between casein (an enzyme found in milk) and cancer. NO THANKS!

  • The China Study – definitely a must-read. A real eye-opener for me.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    I agree with Zoe and chriscarlton now about the dairy. It is bad, just bad.

  • kminty3kminty3 Raw Newbie

    nagev: raw cheese is really good tasting and doesn’t feel bad in the body. I do not eat it anymore as I went the vegan route in january.. but prior to that for about 8 months I did the carol alt version of raw with some raw dairy and really enjoyed it

  • Luna bluLuna blu Raw Newbie

    NO WAY! Dairy is just NOT good for you, raw or not!! Nasty. Consuming another species milk and milk products after we are weened from mothers milk, makes NO sense to me!! We are the only creatures who do this. You don’t see a full grown cow going up to a goat and suckling it do you?

  • pianissimapianissima Raw Newbie

    chriscalton—that was really well written. i never know where to start when people ask me why i don’t eat dairy. that was helpful.

  • I was vegan since last summer and then I tried raw goat cheese, kind of made me nose stuffy. However now we get our milk locally and raw from a goat farmer. I have no side effects and my tummy bulge finally went away, IDK if thats just a coincidence. I have read the China Study too, but not sure if they did a lot of research on whether dairy was raw or not. If you want dairy then just eat it raw, its a good compromise dont beat yourself up about it and create more stress for the body emotionally, life is too short, enjoy it.

  • Raw_ChocoholicRaw_Chocoholic Raw Newbie

    Back when I was learning to scuba dive I read up on how to best equalize the pressure in your ears. One of the main tips was to avoid dairy for two full days before as it can increase the mucous in your eustachian tubes fourfold. If it’s doing that, then what is it doing to the rest of my body? Personally I’d say to pass on the dairy.

    Plus, wouldn’t cheeses be full of molds? I mean, we don’t see the mold until it’s fully developed, but isn’t it a good bet that it’s still growing somewhere in there?

  • i know, i know…raw or not, cheese is no good. but i’ve tried raw cheddar cheese and enjoyed the taste. i dont do milk, or other dairy products….but every so often i get a hankerin’ for sum cheese and go for it. a few lil slices of raw cheese w/some homemade ginger/flax crakers is good (to me). i’m a recovering cheese addict. i relapse on it every once in awhile. oh well. i sometimes go for some raw honey too. raw vegetarian…not a total vegan. i’m good.

  • I bought some raw cheese when I fisrt started trying raw food a few months ago before I had any intentions of really going vegan. It was very tasty and tasted much fresher than regular cheese you buy. I got it from the organic market in my neighborhood. HOwever, I found that the more raw vegan foods I incorporated into my diet, the less I was craving dairy. I ended up feeding the last half of it to my husband because I didn’t even want to eat it. I find dairy foods to be addicting, and I believe I read somewhere (sorry, don’t have the source) that dairy products actually produce some type of opiate derivative when digested which increases their addictive proporties. I personally have found this to be true and find that I am much better off taking dairy out of my diet, as I lose my desire for them when I eliminate them. Whereas if I try to regulate myself, I end up overindulging and want cheese on everything. I’d say if you already have no desire for them, no use in messing up your digestion. The value I found in them was just because when I was trying to transition a little bit help quell my cravings.

  • stylistchickstylistchick Raw Newbie

    i consider myself more of a raw foodist than a raw vegan. i love raw cheese! i’m not much of a milk drinker unless its almond milk, so i haven’t tried raw milk. i think since the enzymes are still intact you shouldn’t have any digestive problems. i don’t get any sort of mucous reaction or digestive problems whatsoever. but i definately do with pasteurized dairy.

    i have problems with food addiction, and i haven’t had the problem rawrach describes. i seem to keep it around for a while and use it sparingly. i kind of feel as though i need the protein every once in a while. but maybe it is all psychological.

    i don’t think the same health problems apply to raw dairy, i have heard of someone who credits drinking raw milk to getting rid of cancer. if it was that bad for you it seems like it would make a sick person sicker, but in this case it healed.

  • I agree that dairy is bad, for many reasons stated above. When I was vegetarian (before I went vegan) I used to get these horrible abdominal pains and I didn’t know what caused them. I even went to the emergency room and the doctors couldn’t figure it out. I started paying attention to what I was eating before it happened and it would always be after I had consumed a bunch of dairy (mostly cheese). I haven’t drank cow’s milk since I was a little kid, and even then I was not able to digest it well, but I used to eat a lot of cheese. So I figured out that if I had cheese in more than one meal or snack, I would be in awful pain. Once I went vegan, I never had those pains again. Every once in a while when I would cheat and have even just a little bit of cheese, I would feel so so sick that it wasn’t even worth it to try one bite.

    Even since I’ve been raw, I have cheated every so often with a little soy cheese, but no more dairy for me! I made a delicious macadamia nut “ricotta” last night that was really good!

  • Check out http://www.notmilk.com/ for a long list of milk’s potential ill effects.

  • Carol Alt isn’t even a vegetarian, she eats seared steak and everything. Eating in the Raw was also the first raw book I read.

  • southernloversouthernlover Raw Newbie

    Wow, RawNutrition, thanks for the site! I have been reading stuff for the past 2 hours! I just read some serious stuff about B12…it makes sooo much sense!

  • CarmentinaCarmentina Raw Newbie

    Much of the cheese here in Italy is raw. I try to avoid it, but they use it everywhere. Raw dairy is far better for you than pasteurized, but your body doesn’t have resistance to the bacteria it contains, so you might get the runs. Whatever the case, I believe we consume far too much dairy. I personally mostly buy buffalo, goat, or sheep cheese, which my body seems to tolerate better, but right now that we’re in full allergy season I’ve avoiding all dairy. Not far from where I live there’s a dispenser that sells raw organic milk. I think it’s awesome that kids can ride up and buy a glass of raw organic milk instead of a can of Coke. Moderation is the key, unless you have inflamation, auto-immune or allergy issues, in which case it’s best avoided.

  • CarmentinaCarmentina Raw Newbie

    Much of the cheese here in Italy is raw. I try to avoid it, but they use it everywhere. Raw dairy is far better for you than pasteurized, but your body doesn’t have resistance to the bacteria it contains, so you might get the runs. Whatever the case, I believe we consume far too much dairy. I personally mostly buy buffalo, goat, or sheep cheese, which my body seems to tolerate better, but right now that we’re in full allergy season I’ve avoiding all dairy. Not far from where I live there’s a dispenser that sells raw organic milk. I think it’s awesome that kids can ride up and buy a glass of raw organic milk instead of a can of Coke. Moderation is the key, unless you have inflamation, auto-immune or allergy issues, in which case it’s best avoided

  • MarichiesaMarichiesa Raw Newbie

    I eat raw goat cheese once in a blue moon. I love the taste. As I progress with the whole raw food thing I have found that I will become stuffed up the next day after eating it. Digestion however is not problematic for me the way pasteurized cows milk cheese can be. In general though I consider it a cheat. Its not so good for ya methinks.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    I very much agree with what Chris Carlton said. Well written!! Personally, I think dairy is gross – I couldn’t possibly eat it, with everything that I know about how if affects my body, what’s in the milk – not to mention, why are we stealing milk from cute baby calves to give to humans? it’s ridiculous!

  • Normal milk, I think, is just awful…all the million things that are bad about it are injected. I think all the articles that are written about milk, is about the normal, pastuerized milk. My personal belief is raw dairy is fine and actually good for you, if your body likes it. Some people don’t respond well to dairy, but then, I think these are the people who are used to the ordinary, pasteurized dairy junk out there.

    Raw goat’s milk is easier assimilated than cow’s, most certainly. I myself, rarely, rarely drink milk. I don’t consider myself vegan, yet right now that’s the way I eat, pretty much. Raw dairy would appeal to me a thousand times more than raw meat. If the place where one gets raw milk/cheeses/kefir is a good organic farm where the animals are treated humanely, I think it’s perfectly logical to get some milk there, if that is what your body is craving. Unless you are strictly trying to be vegan.

    Here’s a link I thought was really interesting: http://www.rawcuisine.co.uk/2008/04/23/the-amaz…

  • blujett8blujett8 Raw Newbie

    the more I eat raw, the less interested I am in eating cheese. When I do have a craving, I eat raw cheese…..though less and less as time goes on. At this point I may have even given it up all together. Entertaining negative thoughts about what might happen If I did eat cheese has led me to some uncomfortable places.

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