With the avian influenza virus added to the long list of dangerous pathogens, raw milk is riskier than ever. That reality is well known to the nation’s healthcare providers and their patients, but they aren’t discussing it. In a new poll of more than 1,000 healthcare providers, the Sermo Barometer 40, a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” mentality appears to be emerging in their practices.
Sermo is a physician-only online community designed to foster collaboration, share insights, and facilitate meaningful discussions in the real world of medicine. It pays honoraria for medical surveys. Its latest survey, the Sermo Barometer 40, examines sentiments across supplements, diets, food safety and nutritional training.
The recently released data show that the majority of healthcare professionals — 65 percent — believe there are moderate to significant safety issues associated with consuming raw milk. Despite all the recent buzz about raw milk, 68 percent of healthcare providers report that patients in their practice rarely or never ask them about raw milk.
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized, a process that removes disease-causing germs by heating milk to a high enough temperature for a few seconds. Since the early 1900s, pasteurization has significantly reduced the incidence of milkborne illnesses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consuming raw milk is linked to a significant number of foodborne illnesses, some of which can result in serious complications and death.
A variety of pathogens have long been associated with these illnesses, including:
E. coli
Campylobacter jejuni
Salmonella
Listeria monocytogenes
Brucella abortus
The avian flu virus has been detected in raw milk over the past two years, and pasteurization has been found effective in removing it.
The Sermo barometer also found that healthcare providers support increasing food safety regulations because of their direct impact on public health, including in these areas:
Surgeon General’s Warning on Alcohol and Cancer: 86 percent of U.S. healthcare providers strongly support cancer warning labels being added to alcoholic beverages.
Consensus Supporting Cutting Back on Processed Foods: 79 percent support reducing consumption of processed foods.
Colorful Additives Pose Serious Health Risks: 78 percent support a full ban on all artificial food dyes.
Ringing Alarms About Microplastics: 61 percent of healthcare providers are extremely or very concerned about the presence of microplastics in the food and water supply.
Here is a link to the full barometer findings. The barometer also explored how healthcare providers feel about supplements, nutritional training they received in medical school, and updates to nutritional guidelines.
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