This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 7:43am and is filed under Media and information, Food Safety, Organic foods, Labels, Agriculture, Food Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
WARNING: Take the headline with a grain of salt.
I came across a blog post claiming organic milk is worse than regular milk, and is in fact dangerous. The blog editor has posted liberally elsewhere about dioxins in organic milk: As background to the quote below, the author states that 80% of organic milk worldwide is Ultra-High Temperature processed.
You get far more dioxins with UHT milk than you do with regular pasteurized milk because more dioxins gets digested instead of being flushed out of the body. This occurs because the micronized fat globules in UHT milk are much smaller. As a result, significantly more dioxins from organic UHT milk get into the bloodstream.
This “news” even made it into the mainstream ag news service to which I subscribe.
BUT-being the skeptic I am, I followed up… The bottom line is that I don’t trust the author. His posts claim milk is responsible for acne, death, global warming and is the biggest cause of illness in the world. He is selling a book called “Organic Milk Myth”, among several other books, all of which seem to be aimed at eliminating milk consumption altogether (to be substituted by the “milks” he’ll gladly sell you the recipes to make). Anyone with that clear an agenda is not going to weigh the often conflicting scientific data. In my book, if you don’t consider the validity of the other side’s viewpoint, your arguments don’t hold much water.
There are some valid points in his posts, however. The main thing of value I see in his writing is a point that I have made here many times. Often people buy organic thinking they are getting something they are not. Most organic milk is produced in very similar ways to regular milk. Many organic milk products are UHT pasteurized where their regular counterparts may not be.
There was a good study published recently in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (JADA) on nutrient and hormone composition of conventional, rbST-free and organic milk. More on that soon.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:54pm
Sara, thanks as always for a thoughtful post.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:56pm
For a reasonably thorough treatment of the milk issue and why many believe what they do, you might read the article “Is Soda Pop or Milk Healthier?” at http://achinook.squarespace.com/
Other natural health issues are addressed there also, all in a strictly noncommercial environment :o)
My best to you and yours,
Lee C
September 13th, 2008 at 7:40am
Lee: Thanks for the link to a very thorough article. You make some very good points, [although I have to take you to task for using some of the same verbal tactics that you abhor to imply conclusions in some of points.]
Healthy raw milk is a good thing. The problem I see is that the safety of raw milk requires scrupulous cleanliness and integrity on the part of the producer. As you point out so rightly about organic, large scale lends itself to shortcuts. I have a hard time trusting “commercial” raw milk if I’m more than one step away from the dairy itself.
I have decided against having our own milk cow, because I don’t feel like I have the facilities to maintain the cleanliness I need. I also won’t buy raw milk at whole foods. BUT, I do know a local dairy, whose bacterial counts I see every month, and whose integrity, knowledge and commitment to cleanliness I trust, that I will buy raw milk from.
September 13th, 2008 at 12:07pm
Sara: Good points and readily accepted :o) Actually the bold paragraph at the end of the article is the main thread of most of my articles. That and what is most dear to my heart - how we treat our animals.
A friend that is trying to write an article for a working dog magazine commented: “I have to keep it short and noncontroversial - it’s like I’m writing for ostriches.”
How does one get through the pervasive industry fog to effectively let those unaware “discover” the reality of the manipulation? Yes I’ve read those “marketing” books, and have been there in what I call my past life :o)
I completely agree with being very careful about source, and that is why I’m as close as is possible to my source :o) Otherwise I would avoid milk, and having done considerable research on the subject I believe industrial milk, as with much of food processing, has a net negative effect on our health (but I’m just one of those natural health nuts). Of course, if on my site you read my poem “Buddy Bear Tale” then you already know where I’m coming from.
My best to you and yours,
Lee C