As listeners of my radio show and readers of my blog know, I’m strongly opposed to foods being pasteurized. I’m against it so much, that I’ve taken a challenge from someone to go an entire month without consuming anything that’s pasteurized.
Most people associate pasteurization mainly with milk, but so many other foods that we consume are also pasteurized. Some other items that are also often pasteurized are vinegars, beers, almonds, oils, and wines.
Why am I anti-pasteurization? The high temperature heating process kills beneficial bacteria. It’s used on items such as milk because dairies were unsanitary and cows were fed things they shouldn’t eat. So instead of dairies doing their job to keep up to health standards, they found it was easier to just pasteurize the milk. But the problem is pasteurization kills healthy nutrients. And we don’t properly digest pasteurized food.
In my house, I do my best to avoid anything pasteurized, except for some cheese and butter due to the high costs of raw dairy products. The bigger challenge comes when eating out as I don’t strive to be perfect when I’m at a restaurant. Already, I know that this challenge won’t be a piece of cake (I’m referring of course to a cake made with raw milk butter). But I know that when I hit the end of Rawgust, I’ll feel very rewarded and more knowledgeable about just how much food is pasteurized. Louis Pasteur, you’re not going to win this!