When milk is homogenized (much of the milk in America is) it liberates a
substance in the milk called xanthine oxidase (X0), whose particles then
become small and dispersed through the milk and is then able to pass through
the intestines into the blood stream.  There is research suggesting that XO
scars artery walls and is a significant risk factor for heart disease.
Pasteurized and homogenized milk is very different from raw milk, just as
milk from pasture fed, drug-free cows is very different from factory farmed,
grain fattened hormone laced milk.   There is evidence that pasteurized milk
is more atherogenic, causes more digestive and allergic reactions, and is a
greater cause of cancer than unpasteurized, raw milk from pasture raised
animals.

If you want to read more about how pasteurization and homogenization
adversely alter milk, you can read a section in Ron Schmid's book,
"Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine;" for even more facts about milk
and how pasteurization and homogenization wreck it, read William Campbell
Douglass' book, "The Milk Book," which you can get throught the Price
Pottenger Nutrition Foundation or Weston A. Price Foundation.

I'm not advocating milk consumption, only answering queries about the
measurable differences between raw milk products and pasteurized or
pasteurized-homogenized milk products.  The healthy agrarian groups who do
consume milk, who do not have modern degenerative diseases consumed(d) only
raw milk products or cultured raw milk products.  If one chooses to consume
dairy foods, it is wise to use RAW (unpasteurized) organic, bio-dynamically
grown, or pasture-raised milk and milk products.  Raw milk cheeses are sold
in natural foods stores in the US and in Europe.  The sale of raw milk and
unpasteurized yogurt, cottage cheese and other milk products is illegal in
all but two states in the U.S.

Rachel