Raw milk enthusiasts on Reddit are getting mocked online after multiple posts asked whether the drink should be heated to kill bacteria before consumption.
Critics say the question amounts to rediscovering pasteurization, the exact process many raw milk advocates reject as unnecessary or harmful.
Health agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warn that pasteurization simply heats milk to eliminate dangerous pathogens and does not add chemicals or strip it of nutrients, despite common claims within the raw milk movement.
Boil your raw milk for safety
Popular X user @tragicbirdapp highlighted this phenomenon with a post on Wednesday containing screenshots of a Reddit argument on the subject of heating raw milk. On r/rawprimal, one user asked a question that critics of the anti-pasteurization movement found hilarious.
"Should I heat my raw milk before I drink it to kill toxins?" inquired r/glassofjuice786.
In a reply, raw milk fan r/Exact-Pride-3267 asked, "um what, what's the point of getting raw milk if your [sic] gonna heat it up and basically pasteurise it."
"I'm just heating it up I'm not gonna pasturise or anything," the OP responded.
OP then admitted to boiling their milk, and r/Exact-Pride-3267 pointed out that this creates "home made pasteurised milk."
This exchange led the X user to write "we are regressing," to which many agreed.
"They are reinventing pasteurization," said @DreamLeaf5.
Other Redditors in that thread accused the OP of trolling, which is a possibility. Around the same time as the r/rawprimal post, an entry on r/raw_milk asked if others "heat your raw milk before drinking."
"Has to be troll bait?" r/UnequalRaccoon replied.
"That’s literally pasteurising it. Just buy milk from the grocery store then."
The dangers of raw milk, eliminated by pasteurization
Pasteurizing milk or any other food is the simple process of heating it to a certain temperature for a minimum amount of time in order to kill harmful pathogens. This process does not include adding chemicals as some raw milk proponents claim.
In milk, bacteria from animal feces are a danger, especially to vulnerable populations like young children.
Despite purging other useful health information that the Trump administration didn't like, the FDA's website still contains warnings about raw milk and debunks myths about pasteurization. It cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in reporting 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations from raw milk consumption between 1998 and, 2018
"Raw milk can carry dangerous germs such as Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Campylobacter, and others that cause foodborne illness, often called 'food poisoning,'" the department explains.
Additionally, a long and well-cited FDA report puts many claims by raw milk proponents to bed. Alongside references to many studies, it assures readers that pasteurization only heats milk up to kill harmful bacteria while leaving healthy bacteria and enzymes unharmed.
It denies claims that raw milk cures lactose intolerance or helps with conditions like asthma and osteoporosis, promotes healthy gut bacteria, or assist the immune system.
"Raw milk is not nutritionally superior to pasteurized milk," it concludes.
Why did the right embrace raw milk?
Despite this, raw milk became something of a virtue signal for the right in recent years.
A 2024 Politico report traces the history of how the organic food movement declined on the left, leaving room to give rise to a "raw" food movement on the right.
Raw milk fits neatly into conservative ideals that romanticize the past (such as the tradwife movement) and resist government regulation.
It's notable, however, that the raw milk message from the Trump administration seemed to suddenly switch to promoting whole milk.
In RFK Jr. and Kid Rock's baffling jeans workout video, the pair drank whole milk rather than raw while in the pool.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
