The Complete Patient

Julie is a 27-year-old Floridian who, like many people these days, is seeking to make the transition from dependence on processed foods and Big Pharma to a healthier lifestyle. So when one of her daughters recently came down with a urinary tract infection, she held off on going to the doctor for antibiotics, and instead took girl off sugar and put her on a diet of yogurt and fruit, together with cranberry capsules and lots of water. The girl quickly recovered.

As another part of the family's transition, Julie and her husband joined a food co-op and have begun consuming raw milk. But here Julie is more discreet, voicing a fear I've heard from a number of parents--that if they feed their children raw milk, the parents will be reported by a neighbor or teacher, accused of negligence, and lose their kids.

I can understand if parents want to try the milk first to be sure it’s safe. But to worry about losing their children to overzealous an overzealous government…well, that’s something else.

Here's how Julie puts it in a post yesterday, under Health Changes:

“Hubby and I are drinking raw milk. We are not comfortable giving it to the children yet and I don't know if I will say when we do, because some people might twist it around and try to accuse us of being negligent. I will report on how hubby and I do on the raw milk. We did a ton of research before we decided to go for it. We read a lot of pro and a lot of con and eventually decided to try it. Taking the kefir daily will help any stomache problems we might encounter. I will tell you this about the milk: it’s the best stuff ever. It’s so yummy. It's thick and creamy and very filling.”

I wish I could tell Julie that this is a free country and if she wants to serve her kids raw milk, and tell the world about it, well, by all means do it. A few years ago, I would have said that. But in today's climate, with stings and home searches and confiscation of food co-op records and snitching neighbors reporting to Big Brother, I don't feel comfortable doing that. Here's what we've come to: if you put raw milk on your kids' Cocoa Puffs, Big Brother cares not a whit that the Cocoa Puffs are much more dangerous than the raw milk.