Chow Line: Raw milk can give you a raw deal

Martha Filipic from Ohio State University recently responded to a question posed to her on the North Texas E-news, where she was asked about raw milk.
Filipic answered a generic question about the fat content of raw milk by saying that the issue of how much fat is in raw milk is overshadowed by the safety risks of drinking it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 300 people in the United States became sick from drinking raw milk or eating products made from raw milk in 2001, and nearly 200 became ill from these products in 2002.
Raw milk contains all sorts of bacteria — some that are harmless or even beneficial, some that cause spoilage, and some, such as E. coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella typhimurium DT-104, that can cause severe illness. Before pasteurization became the norm, contaminated milk was linked to diseases such as typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, dysentery, and even tuberculosis.