Women's Health May 6, 2026 0 Comments

Raw Milk Resurgence: The Controversial Health Trend That’s Shaking Up Nutrition Circles—What You Absolutely Must Know Now

Milk has been pasteurized—and perfectly safe—for so long that the mere mention of raw milk might make you do a double-take . But suddenly, this old-school, unheated dairy delight is making a bold comeback, popping up in state legislatures and TikTok feeds alike. Why the buzz? Is raw milk the next big wellness trend, or is it a ticking time bomb in a glass? As lawmakers push dozens of bills aimed at making it easier to buy (and sell), and as public figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. step up as vocal advocates, the debate heats up. Buckle up—because the buzz around raw milk is anything but mild, and what you think you know might just be a lot more complicated than a simple pour. Ready to dive into the frothy world of raw milk’s comeback? LEARN MORE

6 min read

For years, pasteurized milk has been the norm for dairy drinks. But recently, interest in raw milk has gone mainstream. Last week, the Associated Press reported on a growing push by legislators to make it more accessible, citing more than 40 bills across the country supporting raw milk. More states have made raw milk legal to sell, and there’s been a surge of posts on social media talking up the supposed health perks of this drink.

Before his confirmation, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly championed raw milk, writing that he wanted to end what he called the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of the drink.

While some people are huge supporters of raw milk, plenty of others aren’t totally sure what all the fuss is about. Here’s what you need to know about raw milk, why it’s controversial, and what this legislation means for the future of raw milk and the general public.

Meet the experts: Ellen Shumaker, PhD, food safety expert and director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at North Carolina State University; Darin Detwiler, author of the book Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and a professor at Northeastern University; Tony Yang, DSc, MPH, professor in the Milken Institute School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management and associate dean for Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University; and Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

What makes milk ‘raw’?

Most milk sold in the U.S. goes through a process known as pasteurization. “This is the process of heating to a specific time and temperature combination to reduce bacteria and viruses,” explains Ellen Shumaker, PhD, food safety expert and director of outreach for the Safe Plates program at North Carolina State University.

Raw milk, on the other hand, has not been pasteurized. “Pasteurization—the ideal ‘kill-step’—is simply heating milk to kill harmful microbes,” says Darin Detwiler, author of the book Food Safety: Past, Present, and Predictions and a professor at Northeastern University. “This was one of the most important public health advances of the last century. It turned milk from a frequent source of illness into something families could trust.”

Why do some people claim it’s better for you?

The heat involved in pasteurization seems to throw some people off. “Proponents of raw milk cite health benefits of raw milk due to the fact that it has not been heat-treated,” Shumaker says. “However, there is no data to support these health claims, and numerous studies demonstrate that pasteurization does not have a significant impact on milk nutrition or quality.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also states online that “pasteurized milk offers the same nutritional benefits without the risks of raw milk consumption.”

Detwiler points out that raw milk appeals to some because “people often equate raw with healthier. It feels closer to the source, less processed.” Some people also mistrust institutions and believe that regulating a product like milk makes it worse, instead of focusing on the reduced risk of foodborne illness, he explains.

“A simple way to think about it: We don’t skip seatbelts because driving feels more ‘natural’ without them,” Detwiler says. “Pasteurization is the seatbelt.”

Risks of raw milk

There are many risks linked with drinking raw milk. “Raw milk is a risky product because it can contain harmful bacteria such as pathogenic E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria, and others,” Shumaker says. “Contamination of milk can occur directly from the animal, during milking through equipment, or through the environment.”

“These are not mild inconveniences.”

Raw milk has been linked to outbreaks of illness caused by those pathogens, Detwiler points out. “These are not mild inconveniences,” he says. “They can lead to severe dehydration, kidney failure, miscarriage or stillbirth, long-term health complications, and even death.”

Listeria infections can be “devastating” for pregnant women, says Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. It’s also possible to develop Guillain-Barré syndrome after drinking raw milk. “Guillain-Barré syndrome can be triggered by specific infections, including Campylobacter, which can proliferate in unpasteurized milk,” Adalja says.

Most recently, an E. coli outbreak was linked to raw cheddar cheese and raw milk sold by Raw Farm, LLC. Three people were hospitalized in the outbreak.

“The CDC has consistently found that raw milk is responsible for a disproportionate number of dairy-related outbreaks, despite being consumed by a relatively small portion of the population,” Detwiler says.

What’s new about the legislation?

Raw milk itself is not new. “What is new is the effort to move raw milk from the margins to the mainstream,” explains Tony Yang, DSc, MPH, professor in the Milken Institute School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management and associate dean for Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University.

“[This] is deregulation with a wellness label.”

“Historically, raw milk access was often limited to farms, herd shares, or workaround markets,” Yang says. “Now, more than 40 bills in 18 states are trying to make it easier to buy, sell, or consume raw milk, with federal legislation also seeking to protect interstate movement where sales are legal.”

Yang refers to this as “deregulation with a wellness label,” adding, “This is raw milk being reframed from a preventable food-safety hazard into a symbol of personal freedom, local food, and distrust of public health authority.”

Every piece of legislation is slightly different, but it has a common thread of accessibility. What used to only be available on a farm might soon be sold at farmers’ markets, grocery stores, or across state lines. “But easier access should not be confused with safer access,” Yang cautions.

“When a risky product moves into normal retail spaces, many consumers assume someone has made it safe.”

“When a risky product moves into normal retail spaces, many consumers assume someone has made it safe,” he says. “The sharper public-facing point is: This is being sold as adult choice, but the people most likely to pay the highest price may be children.”

Raw milk is already legal in some states and restricted in others, but Yang explains that it’s not legal to move raw milk between states for human consumption. “This is not a simple illegal-to-legal switch,” he says. “It is about lowering barriers, expanding markets, and giving raw milk more public legitimacy. States allowing raw milk sales have more outbreaks and illnesses than states where sales are illegal.”

“The main difference is scale,” he says. “Legalization changes the denominator. If more people drink it more often, rare events stop being rare. That is the core concern.”

How this might affect you

Even if you don’t drink raw milk, you could still feel the effects. Yang says there’s potential that lowering barriers to access raw milk will loosen regulations on other products linked to health risks.

“The raw milk debate creates a template: Take a product with known risks, wrap it in ‘choice,’ ‘natural health,’ and ‘local food,’ add a warning label, and argue that government should step back,” he says. “The slippery slope is not raw milk itself. It is treating preventable foodborne illness as a lifestyle preference.”

Food safety experts say they’re concerned about where this is headed. “We have known for over a century how to make milk safer,” Detwiler says. “Choosing to expand access to a higher-risk product without clear safeguards is not innovation. It is regression.”

The consequences of easier access to raw milk may affect more than just those who personally choose to drink it. Detwiler’s own toddler son, Riley, passed away in 1993 amid an E. coli outbreak that was later linked to bacteria in hamburgers at a fast food restaurant.

Riley had not eaten any hamburger meat, but attended the same daycare center as a toddler who had. The child who did eat the hamburger meat had diarrhea at daycare, which likely led to person-to-person spread via contaminated surfaces and infected Riley.

Cases of person-to-person E. coli transmission from diarrhea are less common than foodborne transmission, but have been documented, particularly with E. coli O157:H7—the bacteria implicated in the 1993 hamburger outbreak and in the recent outbreak linked to RAW FARM-brand cheddar cheese recalled by the FDA.

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.

Carina Hsieh, MPH, is the deputy features editor of Women’s Health. She has more than a decade’s worth of experience working in media and has covered everything from beauty, fashion, travel, lifestyle, pets, to health.

She began her career as an intern in the fashion closet at Cosmopolitan where she worked her way up to Senior Sex & Relationships Editor. While covering women’s health there, she discovered her passion for health service journalism and took a break to get her Masters in Public Health. Post-grad school, she worked as a freelance writer and as The Daily Beast’s first Beauty, Health, and Wellness Reporter.

Carina is an alum of the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Yale School of Public Health. She and her French Bulldog, Bao Bao, split their time between Brooklyn and Connecticut. She enjoys reformer Pilates, (slow) running, and smelling the fancy toiletries in boutique fitness class locker rooms.