Social media creators are not well renowned for promoting high-quality information, especially about diet. So when I see influencers telling me to drink raw milk, it’s like a punch in the gut to everything I know about real science as a nutrition major.

There is very little evidence that proves raw milk has any beneficial effects over drinking regular milk, whether it be whole milk, reduced fat or fat free.

The reason why raw milk is not recommended to be consumed, and is illegal to sell in many states, is because it contains bacteria like e. Coli and salmonella, which are capable of hospitalizing people, according to an Aug. 5, 2025 Brown University Health article.

The way that this bacteria is killed to reduce the amount of pathogens able to spread foodborne illness is through a process called pasteurization.

This may sound like a fancy word if you don’t know what pasteurization is, but it is simply heating up food to kill pathogens, then cooling it to normal temperatures.

This is one of the most basic forms of food processing and yet it is so vital to help us consume foods that have previously caused these problems.

About 3.2% of U.S. citizens consume raw dairy, however, it makes up 96% of illnesses from contaminated dairy consumption, according to a 2017 report from Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal published by the CDC.

This is not something we just recently discovered. We have been pasteurizing milk for decades, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) banned sales of raw milk across state borders in 1987, according to the FDA.

And yet for some reason, wellness influencers come along ignoring the science to make a quick buck.

This isn’t just some niche community on the outskirts of social media anymore, this idea of drinking raw milk has made it all the way up to the highest level of government.

In a May 29, 2025 post on X, popular wellness influencer Doctor Paul Saladino, a psychiatrist, posted a video of himself drinking raw milk shooters inside the White House with the Secretary of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Unfortunately, drinking raw milk can, and has had extreme consequences for people in the present day. 

Just last year, a Florida woman filed a lawsuit against Keely Farms Dairy, a farm in Florida, claiming that she lost her unborn child from an outbreak caused by consumption of raw milk, according to a Aug. 18, 2025 NBC News article.

 State health department officials have linked the same Keely Farms Dairy to at least 21 cases of foodborne illness starting from January of 2025, according to the article.

And it’s not just raw milk that people are saying you should be eating, it’s also raw meat.

Of course, there are some forms of raw meat that are safe to consume, provided they stay fresh and stored properly. 

But some of these influencers are telling you to eat raw meat that is not recognized as safe.

The same day Saladino posted himself drinking raw milk shooters with RFK Jr., he posted another video of showing he brought a smoothie containing both raw milk and raw meat in an Instagram post.

Another instance of influencers telling people to eat raw food is the Liver King, an influencer who promotes an “ancestral lifestyle,” which consists of eating raw meat, bull testicles and other organs.

The Liver King was extremely popular until he confessed to using steroids after facing significant pressure on social media, and was even arrested for making terroristic threats toward Joe Rogan, according to a June 25, 2025 ABC News article.

Although it’s just one case, this just goes to show why influencers aren’t always the best source of information. 

They aren’t required or even expected to hold themselves to the same standards that real scientists are required to follow.

In other words, people on social media often lie. Especially if it means they’re going to make money off of whatever it is they are lying about.

Whether it’s to sell you an exercise or diet program, a supplement or just because what influencers say to gets clicks, they don’t have to follow the same rules, which inevitably results in bad science.

Some of these claims around raw milk’s benefits include improvement of the gut microbiome, lactose intolerance alleviance and significantly increased amounts of different vitamins and minerals, according to a review article published in the journal Nutrition Today.

Unfortunately for them, there is no evidence that raw milk has any beneficial effects over regular pasteurized milk, according to the same review article.

Please do not drink raw milk. Claims that it has beneficial effects over regular pasteurized milk are unsubstantiated, and you can contract serious illnesses from consuming it.

The wellness industry has a lot of bad actors in it, and you should be very hesitant to trust anything that comes out of the mouth of someone who promotes drinking raw milk.