Intro to Nutrition #56: Pros and Cons of Pasteurization! WEIGHT LOSS TIPS From Holistic Health Coach

Is pasteurization as important as it's made out to be? Holistic Health Coach, Stephen Daniele, discusses the pros and cons of pasteurization.

Pasteurization is the process of heating a liquid to below the boiling point to destroy harmful pathogens in it. It was developed in 1856 by Louis Pasteur, initially to prevent fermented wine from spoiling. It wasn’t until the late 1800s that milk was commercially pasteurized. Europe adopted pasteurization first, followed by the United States in the early 1900s.

The need for milk pasteurization arose because of increased production and distribution with poor sanitary conditions, which led to outbreaks of milk borne illnesses, including typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal diseases. The original pasteurization method, known as vat pasteurization, simply involved heating milk, or other liquids, in a large tank for at least 30 minutes.

When you drink milk that has gone through the pasteurization process, you’re basically getting a “dead” beverage that is lacking in nutrients. It denatures milk by altering its chemical structure, and destroys enzymes like lactase, galactase, and phosphatase, essential for the assimilation of nutrients like lactose, galactose, and phosphate. Without these, milk becomes very difficult to digest. In fact, the lack of lactase in pasteurized milk can contribute to lactose intolerance.

Unfortunately, the pancreas cannot produce these enzymes, so it becomes overstressed. Pasteurization also diminishes the vitamins in milk, such as vitamins B6, B12, and vitamin C, and kills beneficial bacteria essential in digestion. Furthermore, the pathogenic bacteria killed by pasteurization are not removed, so their dead cell fragments remain in the milk, igniting immune reactions that can cause milk allergies.

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