Haar: No Nutritional Benefit to Consuming Raw Milk

The UK-based outlet Dazed interviewed Mindy Haar, Ph.D., RDN, clinical professor and chair for the Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, regarding the growing number of social media users drinking raw milk. While TikTok influencers have touted the milk’s benefits as a superfood, claiming that it contains more vitamins and minerals than its pasteurized equivalent, Haar explains that this is not the case. Although consumers are right to be concerned about the dangers of ultra-processed foods, this thinking should not be applied to pasteurized milk, Haar notes, as it undergoes a much-needed process to remove illness-causing bacteria and viruses. In addition, raw milk offers little nutritional benefit, if any, over the pasteurized kind.

“Many now understand the dangers of ultra-processed foods. Some then extend the desire to eat a less processed diet to consuming unpasteurized dairy products, but they don’t realize that this is a very different issue,” she says.