But consuming farm milk that hasn’t been boiled poses serious health risks and further research is needed to develop a safe product that still provides good protection against these common childhood diseases.

Researchers from Europe and the USA studied 14,893 children aged between five and 13 in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.

The children were drawn from farm children, rural and suburban communities and Rudolph Steiner schools, which primarily cater for families with anthroposcopic lifestyles, who restrict their use of antibiotics, vaccinations, fever-reducing drugs and often follow a biodynamic diet.

Parents were asked to complete detailed questionnaires about their child’s consumption of milk, butter, yoghurt, eggs and fruit and vegetables and whether they were farm-produced or shop-bought.

They also answered questions about their child’s height and weight, whether they were breastfed and any allergies or asthma problems affecting the child or their family.

Allergy- related blood tests were also carried out on just under 4,000 children from across the five countries and the questionnaire results were validated with random telephone interviews with 493 respondents

The researchers discovered that children who drank farm milk were much less likely to suffer from hayfever and asthma.

Source: SpiritIndia