Raw Milk

That’s it. That’s the whole heading. Raw Milk.

For the last several years, Amos Miller, an Amish man in Pennsylvania, has been absolutely embroiled in a legal battle over being able to sell raw milk to the public. It took literally years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to get our “here to help” government to leave this guy alone and let him sell his milk to whoever wanted it. Last update earlier this year, he prevailed. Our government tied this innocent man up in courts for years over selling the kind of milk we’ve been drinking for… I mean, for as long as there have been cows. Pasteurization is a relatively new thing in human civilization, and it has actually harmed us through the killing of good enzymes and bacteria in the milk straight from the udder. If any readers are in Pennsylvania, go get some milk and food goodies from this guy. I just scoped his online store and I have never wished to be among the Pennsylvania Amish more. Give me the modest dresses and the bonnets. I’m down.

I’ve been learning a ton in school about our gut and its connection to our brain health. In just a few weeks, I’ve completely overhauled how I’ve begun to think about health, and I couldn’t be happier. Lately I’ve been reading testimonials from parents of autistic children who fed their children raw milk and they actually healed their child. And of course, our government shuts down research into cures, because, remember, they want us sick, depressed, fat, and unhealthy, so that they can sell us pills. They want our children autistic. They want to cause harm to families in any way possible.

Last week, my husband and I tracked down raw milk at a local co-op. It was thirteen dollars per gallon, but I ponied up the dough and home I went with our milk.

People.

We have absolutely been robbed.

It’s nectar of the GODS.

It’s as creamy as half and half, it’s a lovely creamy ivory color, it just feels good on the belly. And it apparently cures autism in kefir form.

Lately I’ve started a trend of buying fewer groceries but more expensive, higher quality ones. I’ll pay $9 for a dozen pasture raised eggs. I’ll pay $20 for raw honey. I’ll pay $13 for milk. Yep, sign me up. Know why? Because I’ve noticed that the higher quality of food I have begun eating, the less of it I actually need. This has blown my mind. The amounts I have eaten each day have dropped easily in half.

Of course, trying to get my very hungry carpenter husband to stop after the third bowl of cereal in a row is like trying to put an octopus into pants, but I’ll take the little wins where I can find them, considering he now refuses to eat any bioengineered ingredients anymore, either. Read your labels, people. If it comes in a box, look for the Non-GMO Project logo. Yeah, that means your crackers are six dollars per box, but it’s worth it. Trash food is cheap and plentiful, and if you go for cheap and widely available, you’ll be miserable past age 50. My beloved sweetie lamented his Cheez-It loss until I learned how to make those from scratch, too. Kitchen-Aid Mixer for the win. Yes, I am a busy wife.

Another thing I learned in classes the last couple of weeks is just how important “ferments” and “krauts” are to the belly. I’ve begun enjoying kimchi, saurkraut, and kombucha lately. My belly is so happy, it sings my praises. A few mouthfuls of ferments on an empty stomach will probably extend your life.

For women, our gut health is especially important. It’s our second brain! Men tend to base things on left-brained ideas like logic, facts, and evidence. Women kind of just go… “Uh, ick feeling. Maybe avoid that.” So when our gut health is thrown off, our whole system of intuition goes by the wayside, too.

An excerpt from my nutritionist teacher’s lesson this last week:

“I was actually at a thyroid conference, several years ago, sitting next to a Russian doctor. She now practices naturopathy here in the states, but she was trained as a medical doctor in Russia. As we chatted along and she got a sense of the work I do, she started to pepper me with questions about how I work with the gut and gut healing. Somewhere along our conversation she said to me: “every time I see someone with IBS, they also seem to have mental health challenges (depression, anxiety, ADD/ADHD), do you see that too?”

She was clearly starting to connect the dots — move into the physiological associations that help us to be better problem-solvers. And I had to admit to her that, yes, we’ve seen particular temperaments — mental temperaments — in relation to particular states of dysbiosis in the gut. It's very fascinating. You can start to be a detective about someone’s gut by the way they behave!Ponder that for a moment. And if you have digestive issues yourself, don’t fret, but maybe think about if your mental state or your emotional temperament is different now than it was before you began to experience those issues. How do the two (gut and brain function) track on a functional timeline? Toward that end, have you ever wondered why an impending job interview can cause an attack of intestinal cramps or butterflies in your stomach? And why do antidepressants cause nausea or abdominal upset in millions of people who take them?The reason for these common experiences is because each of us literally has two brains — the familiar one encased in our skulls and our second brain, the gut. They’re kind of like Siamese twins, completely interconnected; when one gets upset, the other does, too. When people say to me that they don’t know if what they’re experiencing, like sugar cravings for instance, is psychological or physiological, I always say you cannot separate the two.”

Listen, I know we’re all starved for time and resources, but making conscious choices as to what you put into your body is paramount to a happy life. If you set aside a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to do food prep for your week instead of scrolling TikTok dance videos, you’d avoid eating out, you’d save money, and your health will be better. If you were to make just a handful of healthy swaps in your diet, over time, you’d notice your entire world changes! You’re happier about yourself, you’re losing weight, you’re more optimistic, less prone to depression, and have more energy! I’m the living case study for this!

What are some of the swaps I make? My next blog post will be all about swaps. Stick a pin in it.

Now, I hear you saying, “Holly, I just can’t afford that expensive food.” As yourself how much random Chinese crap you bought off of Amazon or Temu this month. Look at your video subscriptions. How much did you blow at Starbucks? Yes, you can afford more expensive food. You just have to decide what your health is worth to you, because for the cost of a McMeal, you could invest in a package of six low-carb side dishes. Knowing how to cook is absolutely paramount in this day and age- because, as previously stated, no one who orders in eats salads every night.

For me, cutting back on trash and buying carefully chosen indulgences has been priceless, and I recommend it.

Maybe just start with the raw milk and go from there. (There’s a warning for elderly people and pregnant women, but all of you outside those two categories, you need raw milk in your life. Trust me. Google is your friend. “Raw Milk Near Me” is how I found the two local co-ops.)

If an Amish person eats it, chances are it’s great for your diet. Now please excuse me while I invest in a bonnet and a butter churn.