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Well, folks, the man in charge of our health just keeps doing grosser and grosser things, like making disgusting comments about autism, dismantling our country's health infrastructure, and, uhhh, maybe swimming in raw sewage (???). Yep, gross!
So it might not come as a surprise that vaccine skeptic, conspiracy theorist, and US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a fan of raw milk, or cow's milk that hasn't been pasteurized. No processing, just straight from the udder. Proponents of raw milk like to say that pasteurization, a heating process that eliminates harmful bacteria that could make you sick if consumed, also gets rid of the "good stuff" in the milk, but there's zero proof of that.
In fact, the raw milk brand favored by RFK Jr. faced a safety recall in California just this winter. The CEO of Raw Farm, who also runs a leading proponent of raw milk called the Raw Milk Institute, said the recall was "a political decision" and that FDA officials "don't want [...] raw milk to thrive."
Clearly, a lot can change in six months. The national public health agency that warns consumers about the potential dangers of raw milk consumption is now under the purview of a guy who's taken to doing shots of the stuff in the White House. Before we get into that, though, I have to introduce you to a health influencer named Paul Saladino.
Saladino is a health influencer and double board-certified MD according to his Instagram bio, but says on his YouTube that he doesn't see patients "so he can focus on educating people as a full time activity." He also had a lapsed medical license due to non-payment for a while, but he seems to have cleared that up. Saladino is one of the faces of the carnivore diet, a fad that has no evidence of providing its supposed myriad health benefits…but that's a whole other can of worms (or should I say brain worms?).
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Saladino, who boasts around 4.5 million followers across his TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram pages, was recently invited to the White House as part of a group of influencers to watch Kennedy unveil his "Make America Healthy Again" commission report (which cited fake scientific studies, BTW). He interviewed RFK Jr. for his podcast, too, but the part that got the most buzz was when they took shooters of raw milk. Mmm!
A food scientist who goes by @hydroxide.foodscience on Instagram saw the Saladino-Kennedy raw milk collab and hopped on camera to give her food safety take on it (after a wisdom tooth extraction like the icon she is).
Besides giving some relatable side-eye...
...she also debunked the health concerns Saladino references in his raw milk video with RFK Jr. She starts by saying that you can develop things like hemolytic uremic syndrome (which includes kidney failure) and fatal listeriosis (which can lead to fetal loss in pregnancy) from drinking raw milk.
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"Raw milk can also give you Campylobacter or salmonella or Cryptosporidium or potentially bird flu," she goes on, with a picture of how all of those infections might, uhh, make you feel.
"And all of the health benefits it touts aren't even true, so raw milk can't even reduce allergies or reduce osteoporosis or provide any sort of beneficial gut bacteria," she says. "In fact, it's probably wreaking havoc on your gut, because you are just eating the doo doo on da udder."
She then dives into Saladino and Kennedy's concern about the pesticide glyphosate, highlighted by Saladino's comment that he knows RFK Jr. is concerned about "this huge amount of glyphosate" and that they'd be toasting their meeting with glyphosate-free honey and raw milk. While Saladino might only have been calling the honey glyphosate-free, it's a bit unclear, so our food scientist clears things up anyway.
"Glyphosate residues are very much not present in milk or dairy products. It's usually less than 0.1%," she says. "So if glyphosate is the thing you're worried about, but not everything else I've listed in the latter, then I don't even know what to tell you, buddy."
People in the comments felt her pain (because we're ALL exhausted, but I can't imagine being a food scientist right about now).
This person shared a horrifying personal anecdote about the dangers of raw milk.
People, of course, made RFK Jr. brain worm jokes on her Instagram...
...and on Saladino's raw milk shooter video.
A few people pointed out the perhaps conveniently placed Lineage Provisions packages in the background of Saladino's video — a company he co-founded and co-owns. The brand self-proclaims to be "purveyors of the highest-quality, most nutrient-dense animal based snacks on the planet."
All I can say is "sigh."
What do you think? Sound off in the comments.
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