HWN Suggests

Organic milk is not the same as better milk

My impulse, when facing the wall of milk at the grocery store, is to reach for the organic gallon. “Organic” casts a halo that makes me interpret the higher price as a sign that there’s something better about it. But is there?

I used to buy organic milk by default, under this very assumption. But even though I care about where my milk comes from, I’m no dairy industry expert, and I haven’t spent months studying the nuances of organic agricultural practices.

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We investigated organic milk in Ontario, tracking its journey from cow to carton, and found the product is no different than cheaper conventional milk. So why are we paying more? “It’s a myth,” professor Tim Caulfield, Canada research chair in Health Law and Policy, says about organic milk. Caulfield, who is writing a book about how we make our basic, every day decisions, including what kind of milk to buy, says the organic industry’s marketing creates a “health halo” that endows its product with benefits that don’t exist. “The evidence just isn’t there.”

  The Truth About Organic Milk

Cows are suffering on even the most “humane” dairy farms.

Articles of Interest

Is Organic Milk Better For You?

What do you think? Is organic milk really that different from conventional milk? Is it better for you? Let’s start by taking a look at the nutrition label.

Just Say No To UHT Milk

When you rapidly heat milk, it denatures the proteins, flattening them so the enzymes can’t do what they’re supposed to do. In other words, it makes the milk protein significantly harder to digest! Look at what happens when milk is ultra-pasteurized at high temperatures versus when it is pasteurized at low temperatures:

Experts Explain The Real Difference Between Organic And Non-Organic Milk

One of the key questions these days is whether we should hand over the extra cash for organic milk. It’s important to know exactly what we’re getting when we buy organic milk vs. non-organic milk (which we’ll call “conventional” milk for the purpose of this story). We reached out to experts in both fields to really understand the difference between organic and conventional milk, specifically in terms of antibiotics and hormones.

Horizon Organic Milk: Is it All Just Lies?

Under the advice of several colleagues and readers, I decided to pick up a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Fascinating read to say the least, and one thing that cropped up was the term 'organic' and how the word has become perverted and practically raped by the agricultural industry.

How Organic Milk Differs From Regular Milk

Organic milk has a longer shelf life than regular milk. It is also high in Omega-3 fatty acids, and comes from drug-free, open pasture cows. Some consumers believe that for health reasons alone, it's worth paying extra for organic milk. There are certainly some advantages to organic milk, but it is up to you if they are worth it to pay a premium.

How To Choose The "Right" Milk

Since there are so many players now and the vast majority of them do not have your best interests (or the best interests of farmers, animals, or the planet) at heart, there are now a truly dizzying array of factors to consider and choices to make every time you shop.

Is It Ever Worth Buying Organic Milk?

Most studies show that organic milk is superior to its regular counterpart, but that's not always the case. "About half of the organic milk sold in the U.S. is coming from very large factory farms that have no intention of living up to organic principles," said Mark Kastel, a senior farm policy analyst, in an interview with The Washington Post.

Is it healthier to drink grass-fed or organic milk?

Move over almond milk. Thanks to the appearance of grass-fed dairy in grocery stores, cow's milk could be making a comeback with health-conscious consumers already looking for nearly-natural foods. While all types of milk are equivalent when it comes to calcium and vitamin D, it turns out grass-fed milk has other nutritional advantages.

Is Organic Milk Healthy? 4 Myths about Organic Milk

While it is true that organic milk doesn’t contain pesticides, antibiotics or growth hormones, there are some dirty little secrets about some organic milk brands that you probably don’t know. Going organic for most is a really good baby step and I commend those who have made it this far in their real food journey. However, as you fall down the proverbial real food rabbit hole here is some further information to understand just how much marketing impacts our views about where our food comes from and how it is processed. Perception is not reality.

Is Organic Milk Worth the Extra Cost?

There are a few clear distinctions between regular and organic milk: The latter comes from cows who have never been treated with antibiotics. They’ll also never receive synthetic growth hormones, like Bovine Somatotropin (bST), which have been given to dairy cows since World War II to increase milk yields.

Just How Organic Is Your Milk? Well, It Depends On The Dairy It Came From

Organic milk is widely available these days, but what does that label really mean? A new investigation from The Washington Post found that there are considerable differences between the organic milk you can buy in a grocery store and the kind you can buy straight from farmers.

Mooove over organic milk! Conventional milk is just as good

New research published in the Journal of Dairy Science finds there are no added nutritional benefits from drinking organic cow’s milk versus non-organic milk. New Zealand researchers reviewed 200 separate studies on the differences between organic and conventional milk for their conclusions.

More Helpful Fatty Acids Found in Organic Milk

Drinking whole organic milk “will certainly lessen the risk factor for cardiovascular disease,” said the study’s lead author, Charles M. Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources. “All milk is healthy and good for people,” he continued, “but organic milk is better, because it has a more favorable balance of these fatty acids” — omega-3, typically found in fish and flaxseed, versus omega-6, which is abundant in many fried foods like potato chips.

Organic milk not good for the land, says ad watchdog

Buy a pack of organic milk and generally you feel you have done the world and the environment a service - albeit a small, litre-sized one. After all, you think, a happy cow in a grassy field is probably a good thing, environmentally speaking.

Organic Milk Proves Higher in Healthy Fats

The long-simmering debate over whether organically grown food packs more nutritional punch than conventional has a new data point. In a recent study published in the peer-reviewed PLOS-One, a research team led by Washington State University’s Charles Benbrook found that organic milk delivers significantly healthier fats than its non-organic counterpart.

Organic Milk vs Non-Organic Milk: Which is Better?

“I’m often asked if organic milk is healthier than non-organic, and never have a short answer. I should be able to say “yes”, but when it comes to promoting the nutritional benefits of food, there are strict rules that must be followed to keep the public protected from misleading claims. We know organic milk contains up to 50% more omega-3s than non-organic but this is only found in the fat content, and in the grand scheme of our entire diets this would only increase our intake by 1.5%, too small to be officially ‘nutritionally relevant’.” So, instead of thinking solely in terms of nutrition, let’s consider the myriad of other ways in which organic milk goes above and beyond, benefitting our animals and our planet.

Organic Milk vs. Regular Milk (+ The Skinny on Raw Milk)

While there is a world of difference between raw and conventional milk, the differences between organic and regular milk are fewer.

Organic Milk Vs. Regular Milk: Why I’m Ditching Organic

But since I started this research about what we should really be eating, I came to realize that organic is hype and hence – I had to ditch it.

Organic Milk Will Wait and Wait for You

Most organic milk undergoes the hotter pasteurization process because the organic market is smaller, meaning the milk spends more time in the commercial distribution system and thus has to last longer, Dr. Moraru said.

Organic Milk: Is it Really worth the Price?

Some consumers are willing to pay a significantly greater price for organic milk because they believe it to be superior to conventional milk. However, there are very few scientifically sound studies to illustrate differences in nutritional quality or value of organic versus conventional milk, and there is little or no scientific research examining possible differences in sensory attributes of the two types of milk.

Organic milk: Worth the splurge?

It can be hard to justify a higher price tag, but the nutrition factor on organic milk may just sway you, especially if you have little ones at home who drink a lot of whole milk.

Organic vs. Regular Milk: Which One Is Better For You?

We examine the nutritional difference between organic and conventional milk to determine if organic milk's higher price tag is worth it.

Six reasons why you should drink organic milk

Ever since we were weaned from the bottle and onto flat whites, our love of milk has gone hand in hand with our appreciation for its calcium-rich (good for the bones) and protein-filled (good for everything) qualities. That is until new diets, animal rights campaigners and price wars started to give it a bad rep…

The Science of Organic Milk

If you’re like me, you’ve noticed that organic milk tends to have a longer shelf life and tastes better so I tend to spend the extra money because aside from our 1 year-old, the family drinks milk erratically and I prefer the taste. But are these properties of the organic nature of the milk? It turns out that there is a simple explanation for both that is quite interesting and may (or may not) change your mind on spending extra on organic milk.

What Is 'Grassmilk'? Is It Better for You?

Demand is booming for organic milk from cows that eat only grass. But convincing farmers to feed cows only grass is tricky.

Why Does Organic Milk Have a Longer Shelf Life Than The Regular Kind?

SHARE It all has to do with where the cow was milked. “Organic milk often has to travel thousands of miles to reach distribution points,” says Dean Sommer, a cheese and food technologist at the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin. To survive the journey and leave time to spare in the fridge, farmers pasteurize organic milk at higher temperatures than conventional milk.

Why does organic milk last so much longer than regular milk?

The process that gives the milk a longer shelf life is called ultrahigh temperature (UHT) processing or treatment, in which milk is heated to 280 degrees Fahrenheit (138 degrees Celsius) for two to four seconds, killing any bacteria in it. Compare that to pasteurization, the standard preservation process. The different temperatures hint at why UHT-treated milk lasts longer: Pasteurization doesn’t kill all bacteria in the milk, just enough so that you don't get a disease with your milk mustache. UHT, on the other hand, kills everything.

Why is organic milk healthier?

Researchers at the universities of Glasgow and Liverpool looked at milk from different types of farms over a three-year period. It turns out that "you are what you eat" applies not just to humans but to cows too.

Why your ‘organic’ milk may not be organic

“About half of the organic milk sold in the U.S. is coming from very large factory farms that have no intention of living up to organic principles,” said Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit group representing thousands of organic farmers. “Thousands of small organic farmers across the United States depend on the USDA organic system working. Unfortunately, right now, it’s not working for small farmers or for consumers.”

Resources

4 myths and truths about milk

Myth #4: Organic milk is healthier than non-organic milk.