Although pasteurization of milk (it's heated to kill microbes) didn't become widespread in America until the 1930s, Purdue University professor of pharmacy John Newell Hurty had been sounding the alarm about raw milk teeming with bacteria and toxins for decades.

“People do not appreciate the danger lurking in milk that isn't pure,” he wrote after one particularly severe spate of deaths.

In early days, tuberculosis, scarlet fever, typhoid, and diphtheria were likely to be "caught" from raw milk. Today, E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter, and listeria infections are the concern.

Nonetheless, many states once again allow the sale of raw milk, even though the federal government doesn't permit sales across state lines.

And once again, children are at increased risk. A recent paper from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases found that over a five-year period almost half of the illnesses linked to unpasteurized milk affected kids ages 19 and younger.

The researchers say: "Even though only 1% to 2% of the U.S. population is consuming [raw milk], the amount of illness in that population is very, very high, leading us to put unpasteurized milk on our list of food products that are very risky." 

To be fair, the CDC reported only 202 outbreaks from drinking raw milk over 20 years, causing 2,645 illnesses, 228 hospitalizations and one child death every five years. But those health threats are totally unnecessary.

The bottom line: There are no proven health benefits of unpasteurized milk, along with rare, but significant, health risks.