Earlier this week, we explored the controversy surrounding raw milk, and where to buy it in Arizona. Today, I'll share my personal experience with the stuff.
As mentioned previously, many of the usual suspects don't sell raw milk, including Whole Foods, which sent us a statement explaining it discontinued selling it nationwide.
You can find it here if you look hard enough, and earlier this summer I drove to Healthy Habit to obtain my controversial calcium. At the central Phoenix health food store, the raw milk's not located in the refrigerated display case along with other dairy products. It's held in the back room; you have to ask a clerk for it.
Luckily they didn't ask for a password, but still, I felt like I was on a bit of a secret mission. And a pricey one, too. The milk cost $12.50 a gallon, the only quantity available for purchase. Since my pickup truck doesn't have A/C, I was kindly given a couple of ice packs to put with the milk, which was wrapped in a large brown paper bag. This was all just to be extra safe, and make sure that nothing happened to it on the drive to a refrigerator.
With so much at my disposal, I decided to drink raw milk every day for a little over a week, to see what (if anything) would happen.
I must provide a bit of a disclaimer. While I was excited and intrigued by the concept, I'm not a raw food-eater. I do eat meat, and I don't consider myself especially health-conscious, aside from the fairly recent changes to my diet and nutrition as a way to lose weight and get in (slightly) better shape. Since raw milk is high in fat and calories, I limited my intake to about four ounces every day instead of a full eight.
I expected the raw milk to be sweet, off-color, or odd-tasting in some way, but the opposite was true. I found it to be thick and rich, almost like drinking cream. It was so heavy, in fact, that simply tilting the glass and putting it up to your mouth and then back down on the counter leaves a white lining on the inside of the glass.
And here's the important part: It never once made me sick. I even spilled a few drops on the table for my finicky kitten to try. He licked it up and didn't get sick, either.
