Raw milk is a nutrient-dense food that contains easily absorbable nutrients that replenish vitamin and mineral stores in the cell. This boosts your fertility by supporting organ function and regulating hormones.
For your body, fertility is optional. It is not a function that’s needed to keep you living and breathing so if you are lacking in food to eat which depletes your nutrient stores then your body can shut off reproduction.
When you’re desperately wanting to have a baby, reproduction doesn’t feel optional, it feels like the most important priority on the list!
In order to get reproduction back to the top of your body’s to-do list, you need to be eating enough nutrient dense foods to replenish your micronutrient stores so your body can function optimally and know that you’re not starving.
Sadly the modernized processing of our food strips milk and other foods of a lot of nutrients.
Milk is one of the biggest examples of this. In its raw state milk contains vitamins, minerals, easily digestible protein, fat, carbohydrates, enzymes and probiotics!
When milk is pasteurized and homogenized (as you find on store shelves) probiotics are killed, enzymes that help your body digest milk sugar (lactose) are destroyed, and proteins are denatured which makes them hard to digest causing inflammation. In the cases of non whole milk products so much nutrition has been lost that they actually have to add in synthetic vitamins in order to be allowed to sell the product as milk.
But don’t despair! Even though in most states raw milk can’t be found in the grocery store, there are raw milk producers all over America who provide clean, nourishing milk that is teeming with nutrients.
Below are specific nutrients found in raw milk and how they can help boost your fertility.
Minerals
Minerals are a huge part of keeping all the systems in our body balanced. Both magnesium and zinc are needed for over 300 processes in the body! We need minerals to balance blood sugar and have a well working thyroid.
When we have dysregulated blood sugar it negatively affects our adrenals and thyroid which affect all of our hormones and ultimately our fertility.
“Raw milk contains all twenty-two essential minerals including calcium, chlorine, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur, zinc, iodine and other trace minerals. Raw milk provides a special enzyme for each of the minerals, so they are 100 percent absorbed. For example, lactoferrin in raw milk ensures the assimilation of iron; it is destroyed by pasteurization.” Source
Vitamins
Milk produced by cows that are eating rapidly growing green grass is full of fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K2. This is what gives butter a rich yellow color. K2 is vitally important because vitamins A and D can’t do their jobs as well without it! In some primitive cultures that Dr. Price studied it was tradition for the young married couples to wait until fall to get pregnant because they had built up their nutrient stores all summer long with raw milk and butter.
Vitamin A is needed for cell differentiation which is a huge part of the first few weeks of life in the womb for a baby because all the organs are forming. When a mother’s diet is depleted in vitamin A from animal sources (retinyl palmitate not beta carotene) the structure of the baby cannot grow optimally which may result in the need for glasses or braces later in life. Raw milk is one of the biggest sources of vitamin A.
Raw milk also contains B vitamins which are essential for fertility and maintaining a pregnancy.
Enzymes
When milk is raw and not processed with heat all the enzymes stay intact and working. This helps us digest the milk and make use of the vitamins and minerals.
Probiotics
Raw milk is a living food. Even without being turned into yogurt or kefir there are strains of good bacteria in the milk that are good for your gut! Yogurt and kefir made from raw milk are super foods for your health and fermented dairy products contain even more nutrients.
Probiotics are important for gut health and regulating hormones which means they are essential when it comes to fertility.
In summary
Raw milk is an easy-to-digest complete food full of micronutrients that we need for hormone regulation and fertility! It would be hard to get enough of these nutrients in your diet without raw milk.
For instance…
One cup of milk contains 305 milligrams of calcium. To get that much calcium from a nondairy source you’d have to eat a cup of almonds to get 246 milligrams of calcium or 2 cups of kale to get 358 Milligrams of calcium.
Both of these non-dairy options pose some problems. Raw kale contains goitrogenic properties which are harmful to thyroid health. Eating that much kale every day or even multiple times a week would not be wise. Almonds that have not been soaked contain nutrient binding properties so while they contain some calcium they are also going to bind to vitamins and minerals in your body which makes them inaccessible for your body to use.
Keep in mind that once you get pregnant the goal is to consume 1500mg of calcium a day….that’s a whole lot of almonds, cooked spinach, kale, and sardines.
For me, raw milk is not optional, it's a must! I’d be hard-pressed to get enough calcium, vitamin A and vitamin K in my diet from other sources.
If you’re looking for a raw milk source near you check out rawmilkfinder.com
If you are concerned about the potential risks of drinking milk raw check out this article.
If you’ve had a dairy sensitivity in the past and are worried that you can’t drink milk…stay tuned. I'm working on a post all about what to do to properly digest milk!
Finding a way to get raw dairy into your diet will greatly benefit your fertility and pregnancy journey by supplying you with vital minerals and vitamins to support your thyroid and regulate hormones.
