Comments on: Conventional Vs. Organic Milk: No Meaningful Difference in Hormone Levels

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:11:38 +0000

I’ll make my best stab at an answer, since Terry is only a guest post-er. The study looked at macronutrients (fat, lactose, protein, total solids), hormones and antibiotics but not at the specific nutrients you mentioned.

My opinion is that while the diet may influence those levels to some extent (and I am not sure whether it is a biologically meaningful extent or not), whether the milk is organic or produced with or without rBST in and of itself does not influence those things.

One of the difficult things to figure out from studies that make it into the news is whether the reported differences are due to whatever is claimed on the label or is just coincident with those claims.

IMHO, buying organic is more about supporting specific production practices and principles than about nutrition. I do have a personal bias that because food produced under an organic label often carries a higher price tag, it sometimes is given a bit more QC than generic and istherefor of higher quality. For instance, I buy Stoneyfield or Brown Cow yogurt almost exclusively, not because they are organic but because they are an entirely different class of yogurt. I believe they would be just as good if non-organic milk was used.

By: curious

curious — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:42:31 +0000

i’m confused. so does this mean that the articles i read about research showing that organic milk has higher levels of vitamin E, omega 3 essential fatty acids and antioxidants are wrong? or did your study not really address that? i am trying to figure out what’s best to buy from all kinds of angles.

thanks.

By: Monsanto divests of Posilac (rBST)-some science | Down to Earth - Safety in Food Production

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:52:59 +0000

[…] recent JADA paper we discussed here also found no biologically meaningful differences in rBST-free, traditional and […]

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:14:09 +0000

Wow! What a great article. I hope we can find a way to get the entire article accessible to the public.
I found it interesting that the differences that were statistically, although not biologically, significant were not always in the direction one would expect based on popular press. Case in point, that estradiol and progesterone (female sex hormones) were highest in organic milk!
Thanks, Terry for the guest post and the article itself.