I have a question that maybe your readers could answer: Is organic milk worth the price?
There is such a huge difference in price between conventional and organic milk and I wonder if there is any difference in quality. I recently read somewhere that there is no difference and that standard milk does not contain any hormones.
Buying organic milk takes up the biggest part of our grocery budget and it would be wonderful if it turns out that conventional milk is the same! -Sheri
Please note: I thought this would make for an interesting discussion, so have at it. However, as always, keep your comments cordial. If you can disagree in a friendly manner, go for it. But if you leave a comment screaming at someone that if they don’t purchase raw grass-fed milk from a goat in their backyard they are going to fall over dead tomorrow, you’re likely going to have your comment deleted. 
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I feel like buying Organic milk is worth it. Trader Joe’s brand organic milk is not much more expensive, if that option is available to you. Also, major organic companies like Organic Valley and Stonyfield Farms frequently offer coupons on their sites through promotions. Also I found that if you email a company asking for coupons they will usually send some.
If it has health benefits that either prolong life or keep an array of illnesses at bay then it is worth the price. I mean, who doesn’t want to live a nice long and healthy life? And, if you are keeping an array of illnesses at bay, you end up saving a lot of money in the long run by not having massive medical bills. It all depends on whether or not it will give those kinds of benefits. That’s my 2 cents!
I’m so glad to see this question posted, since I often wonder about this myself. Buying organic milk is our next “step” towards healthy eating, so I’m interested to see what other people have to say.
I think it’s great when you can fit it in the budget. However, it seems like it may be a wash unless you go organic on all dairy, which most people don’t do due to cost. As an alternative, I’ve researched which of our local dairy brands are hormone free and typically stick to those. Hormone free is a pretty close second, in my opinion.
@Lisette, Good points, I think most people forget about organic meat and dairy and usually just think about fruits and veggies when buying organic. I’ve heard many parents of girls who only drink organic milk comment on how their girls don’t start there monthly cycle at such and early age as girls who were raised on conventional milk – same thing with breast development. I’ve heard that meat and milk (things with fat in them) hold more pesticides than veggies and fruits.
@Amber, Whoops, that was supposed to be @Sherri!
My pediatrician understands the financial plight of parents wanting to go organic; he recommends if money is tight, go organic with milk and meat. My daughter is the only 3rd grader in her class who doesn’t need a training bra, and she’s been drinking organic milk for 5 years now. I’m not going to draw any absolute correlations on this, but we’re sticking with organic milk. *tip* Check to see if there is a Mennonite community close to where you live. I pay $3/gallon for our organic milk from a sweet Mennonite family nearby.
@sherri, We also have a family(not mennonite) that sells organic milk. You are allowed in missouri to buy from the farm. They also sell goats milk, if you really want to start something!! haha!
@sherri, I have heard other moms comment on the earlier development of their girls potentially due to hormones on milk, dairy, meat… I think their is something to it.I have heard that if you are going to go organic, dairy and fruits and vegetables are the way to go.
@sherri, Well, my DD, who drinks regular milk, didn’t start developing until 6th grade and started cycles at 12. Not having kids in school, I don’t have too many girls to compare her to, but the girls at church that I know drink regular milk are all in about the same age range as mine. I’d have to see a scientific study to believe this one.
@Sherri, I’d have to agree with that. There are SO many factors in statistics and what they mean.
@sherri, Milk is my favorite beverage. I grew up drinking regular milk (1%), but still didn’t get my period until 8th grade, at the age of 12. Also, until I started gaining weight in college, I was a A cup, and those didn’t even develop until at least 13, when I was a freshman in high school. Even after gaining weight, I am still a barely B. Especially prior to college, I hardly ever wore a bra; I still don’t really need one. Maybe I am an exception to the rule, but I would also need to see some facts to believe that correlation.
With the inception of factory farms came the need for antibiotics to reduce the sickness that promulgated in these tightly enclosed areas with 1000s of cows bunched together as well as the use of growth hormones to keep the cows in production. This has led (allegedly) to antiobiotic resistance in our population as well as earlier development of our children.
@Kate, depending on your age, it is possible that you were not affected by “regular” milk because the addition of growth hormones to animals to stimulate greater production is rather “new.” I grew up on a farm and drank milk straight from the bulk tank my entire childhood until I went to college. I did not develop earlier than others either. But looking at my nieces, I can definitely say that they are developing much more quickly than in the past. Is it due to GH in animals? who knows, but I think it may be a contributing factor.
@Mindy, Personally, I think that there are several factors that contribute to the early development and some health issues that children are facing…but I think that what goes into the animals *does* have *something* to do with it – it’s not just the hormones, its also the antibiotics and type of food they are given. There are so many artificial ingredients and additives in things that we (and animals) eat – things that did not used to be there. I think ignorance has a lot to do with it. I know it did for me. I had no idea what I was consuming or giving my family until I did some research and started reading labels! I wish we could do all organic dairy items, but we do what we can afford and milk is one that I consistently buy. I also buy as much meat from local farmers as I can.
@Mindy, sorry – that was supposed to be for everyone – not just in response to Mindy. I do agree with what she had to say
I personally think every type of milk tastes awful in the US, and I can’t have any of it, and most icecreams too. When I lived in Europe I had cereal for breakfast everyday and it was fine but here I just cannot stomache it. From my knowledge the organic milk is better just like organic meats because it is free from hormones and antibiotics.
My husband was also born and raised in a foreign country, and cannot tolerate American milk. We switched to organic milk for that reason alone. After 5 years of this, I notice a big difference in taste between conventional and organic.
@Katie,
Aw! yeah I’m convinced it’s because the cows are fed healthier things and treated in a more humane way the milk just tastes so much more natural and light. Even the eggs I used to buy at the super market were brown and sometimes still had lil bits of feathers in them LOL.
@Katie, I think it also has something to do with the pasteurization process. Milk straight from a farm tastes so much better than store-bought milk!!!
@Gosia,
Just for everyone’s information, ALL milk, conventional and organic is antibiotic free. It is illegal for milk to have antibiotics. Every truck load of milk is tested for this and if a truck is tainted with milk that contains antibiotics, it is then traced back to the dairy farmer responsible, who must pay for the entire truck load of milk…..no dairy farmer wants this to happen. If we treat a cow with antibiotics, that cow is NOT milked into the tank until all antibiotics are out of her system.
@The Wife of a Dairyman, Our family has run a dairy farm for over 60 years and you are correct. Any animal treated is not put into the bulk tank. And as far as BST or rBGH is concerned, that is a naturally occurring hormone in lactating cows and there is no way to differentiate between natural and supplemented milk. ALL milk contains BST.
@Betsy, I wanted to comment this also, being raised on a dairy farm owned and operated by our family for 60 years. Betsy and Wife of a Dairyman are both 100% correct.
@Betsy, I also come from a farm family, but I have to point out that just because the hormone occurs naturally in the cow does not mean that supplementing the cow with extra hormone has no consequences. Furthermore, just because the FDA says that there is no detectible difference between cows that have and have not been treated with hormones does not mean that there ARE no differences. The dairy lobby has enormous influence at FDA and CDC (I know, I used to work there) and, as a Farm Girl, lifelong 4-Her, AND a PhD in Public Health, you better believe that my family drinks organic milk.
@Betsy,
Ooh, thanks for that info! I’m not a pro on the statistics of milk as with meat, but taste wise conventional milk tastes like doo doo.
@The Wife of a Dairyman,
I’m finding plenty of information to the contrary. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_n6_v24/ai_9261157/
“A two-month FDA study of antibiotic drug residues in milk reveals very little misuse of animal drugs, thus showing the milk supply to be essentially safe and pure” *essentially* does not mean FREE
“The study provides further analysis of 70 milk samples collected from 14 cities and first analyzed last January. FDA reported on Feb. 5 that no antibiotics could be confirmed at or above a level of public health concern” Again, *at or above a level of public health concern* does not mean FREE of antibiotics.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/foodsci/ext/pubs/antibioticresidues.html
“Nothing the processor or the regulatory agency can do will prevent antibiotic residues from occurring in bulk tank milk”
Googling the words antibiotics milk shows many other articles that all cite references to the fact that the testing only covers some of the possible antibiotics given, and that despite regulations, trace amounts continue to show up. Also, many other articles mention that testing is RANDOM, not EVERY tank of milk. Could you elaborate?
@Jen,
Testing is not random. It is illegal for milk to contain antibiotics. Every tanker truck load is tested for antibiotics. Not one farmer wants to taint a truck load of milk. Are the articles you are reading coming from reliable sources? It doesn’t sound like it to me because as a dairy farmer, I can tell you, not one cow on our farm that is treated with antibiotics is EVER milked into our milk tank.
@Jen, Testing is not random. However, looking the other way may be random. Coming from a farm, I know that all the independent farmers were very cognizant of their animals’ situations and I can recall times that we had to dump the entire bulk tank because a cow being treated was accidentally milked into the tank. My parents voluntarily dumped the tank. But then, why risk your contract? Today, factory farms are so large that I find it hard to believe the milk is uncontaminated 100% of the time.
@The Wife of a Dairyman,
I believe a reliable source for some of this information being discussed can be found here from the National Dairy Council:http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/footer/FAQ/dairy_nutrition/OrganicMilkFAQ.pdf
I am the wife of a dairy veterinarian whose experience has seen that there are more bulk tank violations of shipped milk from organic farms than from traditional. Not all organic farmers are doing it because it is healthier or because it is better for the animals, some are doing it because they can make more $.
As I have seen from others’ postings, I would disagree that organic animals are treated more humanely. My husband feels like it is ill-treatment of animals to not give them antibiotics or pain relief when they have a raging infection or are in a great deal of pain; in most instances they die. Organic cows are not as “happy” as you might think.
@Chelsea, Everyone seriously interested in this topic would probably be also interested in this article:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_42/b4005001.htm
There were a lot of comments on Crystal’s blog post here that referred to Food, Inc. It’s interesting that if you go read the comments on the PBS website about Food, Inc., there is a guy saying that the movie is pushing the organic/vegan movement to shut down the family farms and move our food production overseas.
The article above supports that notion and provides some very interesting information.
@The Wife of a Dairyman, Thank you for providing the conventional farmer’s perspective; I was going to do so myself, but it’s already been done quite well!
For those concerned about added growth hormones, I would just like to add that they were definitely a fad in the dairy world. Some people might still use them, but when we tried them back in the late 90′s, my dad didn’t find them to be cost effective for the few cows he tried them in, so we scrapped them. We’re surrounded by small-time dairy farms–and some large ones–and I don’t know a single person who uses growth hormones anymore.
Oh, and about “happy” cows…I can’t speak for organic cows, but ours sure are; they all have names and major personalities! I had one cow who would run up to the barn, then feign injury to a front foot so you’d take her by the neck chain and lead her to her stall–talk about a princess!
@Mrs. J,
oooh…that SO makes me want to go vegetarian.
@The Wife of a Dairyman, Good to hear your perspective. I had mastitis with my first child and like you said with the cows, I would have considered it inhumane if they DIDN’T give me antibiotics. I’ve heard what you’re saying from a farmer I know but you word it very well
@Gosia, Interesting! My husband to be is coming here from Romania. I just recently found a source for organic raw milk because I’m sure he will enjoy it much more.
@Doreen,
Oh nice! I’m from Poland, so I’m sure he had yummy milk and dairy.
I actually think that organic milk tastes better, particularly the lower fat ones (like 1% and skim). It seems thicker to me. I only buy organic milk for mostly that reason, and the health benefits. However, I’m a single girl in my 20′s, so a half gallon of milk lasts me at least a week, and usually longer (unless I decide that cereal for every meal is a good thing that week, then it’s less time haha). I will likely re-think this when the time comes for me to be buying way more milk to feed to more people, because it’s wicked expensive.
@Elizabeth, I think organic milk is creamier, especially the skim and 1%. YUM!
@Elizabeth, I am in the same boat. I switched to organic milk about a year ago after reading something about puss in conventional milk. I immediately noticed it tastes better and lasts longer, which is important for me because, since I don’t have any kids, a half gallon of milk will last my fiancé and I several weeks (unless we go on a cereal binge, haha). So, the extra cost is negated for me because I no longer have to throw away bad milk.
I recently found out through frugallivingnw.com that all milk sold and/or produced in Oregon is now required to be hormone-free. Helps me in purchasing the least expensive milk, knowing it is hormone-free
It’s worth it to me!
Personally, I just think it has a better taste to it. My husband (who could care less about healthy food) even said that the better taste was worth the increased cost (first and only time!) I haven’t heard that conventional is the same though. Perhaps it is worth a try to get your general milk consumption reduced, then it won’t hurt your budget as much?
If you look at most milk cartons weather they are organic or not, they usually say “milk comes from cows not treated with rBGH”. The BGH stands for Bovine Growth Hormone which used to be a standard hormone given to cows to increase size and milk production. There had been studies showing that it isn’t good for humans so most large companies stopped giving it to their cows, organic and regular alike. So yes, you read correctly that most regular milk doesn’t contain hormones just like organic milk. The benefit you get from organic milk is that the food fed to the cows is free of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Just like the organic produce you buy is also free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides. There have been various studies about chemical fertilizers and pesticides but not conclusive enough for the FDA to ban using them–so it comes down to your personal preference. But that is why cow milk is labeled “organic” because, the cow’s food is free of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, not because the milk is free from hormones.
Sorry, I should add that organic milk is usually hormone free as well, I didn’t mean to make it sound like it’s not!
(because why would they go to the trouble to feed them pesticede free food and then give them hormones, they wouldn’t).
@Amber, From what I understand hormones are forbiden in the production of organic milk, so all organic milk is hormone free: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004445&acct=nopgeninfo
@Amber,
Thanks for an educated response that makes the issue clear! Yay!
@Jen, Thank you for the educated response! Thanks!
There are many brands of non-organic yet steriod free milk. One major differnce to me is how the farmers are paid as well as the quality of life for the cows. I know it may sound petty but it is worth the extra $2.00 a week to me!
We do not drink much milk overall, so before switching to organic, our milk was either constantly going bad or I had to buy it in such small quantities that it wasn’t cost-effective. Because organic milk has a longer expiration date, I’ve found that buying organic milk ultimately saves us money and helps us waste less.
@Kristin, This is a great point and might actually make me change to organic that I had never thought about. It would actually SAVE me money to buy organic and not have to throw half of it away each time. I just don’t drink or use much milk at all.
@Kristin, This is why we drink only organic. We are not cereal eaters and just don’t go through that much, so it just makes sense for us instead of throwing away milk that has gone bad. I also think it tastes better, but that might just be me:)
@Kristin, Organic milk does not necessarily have a longer shelf life. I buy local, organic milk that has a pretty short shelf life (two weeks or so). How long it stays good depends on whether the milk is pasteurized or ultra pasteurized. It is illegal to sell milk that is not pasteurized, but the more pasteurized the milk is, the longer the shelf life (yet the pasteurization process deteriorates some beneficial proteins in milk).
@ksenia,
The selling of non-pasturized milk is only illegal in a hand full of states. Most states allow you to purchase raw milk from the farm or an animal share.
Just wanted to clear that up.
@Kristin,
Agreed. The date usually lasts longer. You can also request coupons for Organic Valley or Horizon Organics. Organic Valley (here in the Northwest) sells a type that says, “Northwest Pastures” on the top of the carton… since it is local, it lasts MUCH longer! Sometimes I buy it when it is discounted at the store and freeze it.
@Celia, We are Northwesterners too! How did you go about requesting coupons for Organic Valley?
@Kristin,
Just email them! I told them we love their milk and asked if they offered coupons!
@Kristin, I has the same though too, until I talked with one of the food science professors at the university I work at. Actually all milk should be disgarded 10 days after opening regardless of the date on the carton. Once the milk is exposed to the air, the bacteria/microbes are introduced whether the milk is organic or not. So even though organic milk has a longer date on it, once you open the carten it spoils just like conventional milk. Additionally, the only difference between ultra-pasturized and pasturized is the temperature to which the milk is heated. The primariy difference is in shelf life — ultra pasturized has a longer shelf life, but then again, once you open it, it becomes equal to the conventional milk.
Well….we shouldn’t have dairy at all…but that is another discussion entirely!!!! However, I believe, there is a HUGE difference. There is a book called, Milk, the deadly poison, talking about all that is in our milk. The hormones, antibiotics, etc they give these cows do harm us. You know if you have breast cancer one of the first things they tell you do is STOP drinking milk!!! We personally have switched to almond, rice, oat, etc.. milks, but if you still need real dairy milk, I believe organic is a must. Do some research on it online, there’s LOTS of info out there.
@Michelle, And just out of curiosity, what do the almond, rice, etc. milks cost?
@Christy, I’ve seen almond milk go on sale for about $1.99/half gallon. Coupons come out for them regularly too making them cheaper than regular milk sometimes. But I don’t know if they are organic. I’m afraid I’m too hooked on dairy and too budget tight to care much about the “organics” of it all.
@Melodie, I hear ya. We are saving up for a soy milk maker (~$120) so we can make our own soy, rice, oat, almond milk. I’ve just started doing research and I’m seeing that for homemade organic soy milk it will cost us about $1/gallon, with the leftover soybeans also being able to be made into tofu. If we make two gallons a week, we should recover our cost to buy the machine in 6 months (as opposed to buying soy milk at the store). The only drawback, to me, is that homemade soy milk isn’t fortified.
@Christy, you can easily make your own almond, cashew or rice milk and control the flavor and sugar! you basically soak and blend; add vanilla if you want!
@Christy,
I pay about $1.69/quart for rice milk.
@Michelle,
The China Study is also a great book on this subject.
@Megan,
Much of The China Study info has been proven wrong (the results from their own studies showed different conclusions when tabulated by unbiased 3rd party) http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
@Michelle,
ALL milk is antibiotic FREE. See my response above to Gosia #6.
It’s definitely a personal preference on what you believe about drinking milk. I know I will always drink milk and continue to give my kids milk. My grandparents and my husbands grandparents have always drank milk their entire lives (and all have lived into their 90′s so far) and without any broken bones as well
@Michelle, There is also a book by a man named Ted Broer. He talks about a lot of the biblical (clean) things that fight off disease.
@Michelle,
Why not talk to real dairy farmers, not someone who wants to paint the industry as bad and make a couple bucks while they’re at it? Most dairy farmers are up before the sun starts to shine and are still working hard past dark to ensure their animals are healthy and that the products they produce are healthy (and nothing like the book promotes).
It is so worth it to me. It tastes way better, and it takes a lot longer to go bad. It isn’t a huge expense for us, as we only consume about 1/2 gallon of milk a week on average. Some weeks, we’ll use almost a gallon, and sometimes it takes us a week and a half to use a 1/2 gallon. If I buy regular milk, it almost always goes bad before we can use it, so that doesn’t feel like I’m really saving money.
I think it’s totally worth drinking organic milk. Most of the milk around here is hormone free, but that doesn’t help if the cows are eating GMO grain instead grass. I don’t want GMOs in my family’s bodies, so we have made the switch to organic dairy, meats, and produce. I figure if we eat less boxed foods, we can afford the more expensive organic foods. After seeing Food Inc. my hubby won’t let me buy anything but organic.
No complaints. I want the best for my family. Good luck with your desision.
Food Inc was instrumental in many of the switches we have made as well. We eat grass fed meat and buy organic milk, but we also drink less milk because we are also eating less processed foods (including cereal). It’s a great film.
The problem with some organic milk is that it is ultra-pasteurized so it can be transported long distances. From what I’ve read, ultra-pasteurization kills everything in the milk, including the good stuff, so I have generally opted out of buying organic.
We drink raw milk and buy rBST-free milk when we run out of our weekly raw gallon. I also use the rBST-free milk to make yogurt and in cooking.
And Amy is correct, all milk produced in Oregon and Washington state is required to be hormone free (rBST-free), even if the label does not state so. Note that this does not mean all milk SOLD in these two states is hormone free. If the tracking # starts with a 41 (Oregon) or 53 (Washington), you’re getting rBST-free milk.
@Angela, This is what I’ve read too re: ultra-pasteurization. When it comes to taste, I think that raw milk, and then perhaps milk that is flash-pasteurized at a low temperature, taste the best. But at $16 a gallon, there is no way we can afford raw milk right now! The ultra-pasteurization issue is one reason I stick with regular, hormone-free milk v. organic. But it would be interesting to hear from others if there are some versions of organic that aren’t ultra-pasteurized.
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof, Look for the plastic gallons, they are usually just pasteurized, where as the half gallon containers are ultra-pasteurized.
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof, Not all brands are ultra-pasteurized. Some are, but some aren’t – and those retain the nutrition and goodness!
@Megan, Typically the ones with longer expiration dates (like a month or more out) are the ones that are ultra high temp pasteurized. We buy only organic milk (and cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, fruits and veggies, etc) and it is definitely worth it to me. I don’t have kids yet, but my husband drinks tons of milk, and it makes me feel better that he isn’t getting the garbage found in regular milk. Also, recently new laws were passed that require a certain amount of grass grazing time for dairy cows that are producing organic milk. Although this isn’t the same as a totally grass fed cow, grass feeding brings tons of benefits such as more vitamin D, more CLA (a cancer fighting fat), and a better omega 6/omega 3 ratio.
All that for only a few dollars more per gallon? Even if the price is double conventional milk, it still only equals $2-3 a week for a gallon of milk per week. Very well worth it to me!
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof,
$16 would be a deal breaker for me as well. We are able to get our raw milk for $9-$10 a gallon, depending on the farmer.
@Angela, Wow, I should consider myself blessed, then. We’re able to get our milk for $5 a gallon, but we have to buy an actual share in the cow in order to get milk in VA.
@Angela, makes me feel blessed that I live in Missouri! we can get raw organic milk for $3.00 -$8 a gallon
@Angela,
Call us blessed too! $4 a gallon in Ok.
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof,
This line of thinking is what I have heard too – I would get “regular” milk that isn’t ULTRA-pasteurized then organic that is. For me it also depends on where I am shopping and what prices are running. I often get organic when it gets close to the sell by date and is 50% off. Otherwise I get other options that are just pasteurized and not “ultra” – my favorite is a somewhat local dairy that supplies at Whole Foods and has a “cream-top” option in their whole milk.
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof,
From what I have found, any milk in a plastic jug is just pasteurized (and has an earlier expiration date). Any milk in a carton is ultra-pasteurized (and has a later expiration date).
We drink organic, because I believe it’s better for the family, but I’ve recently been looking in to raw milk from a local farmer.
Laura
@Laura Aridgides, Not ALL Organic Valley half gallons are ultra pasteurized. If they say Heartland Pastures or Northwest Pastures (or whatever region) they are NOT ultra pasteurized.
@Jenni @ Life from the Roof, I know that Horizon Organic and Organic Valley milk are both ultra pasteurized. I did a bit of research into the Publix Greenwise Organic milk, and feel pretty confident that it is only normal pasteurization, not ultra. Hope that helps.
Organic valley gallons are not.@Amanda,
@Amanda, I didn’t even know they sell them in gallon containers, I have only seen them in the half gallon cardboard ones. Thanks for clarifying, I guess my stores just don’t carry those – I wish they did, because there seem to be fairly regular coupons for OV milk!
@Angela, I agree with you… that organic is great, if you can find it without being ultra-pasteurized. All of the organic milks sold near me are U-P. I came across a detailed blog post on another site several months ago that explains what milk choices are best: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2008/02/healthy-milk.html
We did raw for awhile, too, but the farmer near us uses holsteins and I wasn’t very comfortable with that, so I’m holding off on special milk purchases right now… I’d love to get fresh jersey milk. Wouldn’t that be great!
HyVee brand organic is vat past. and cream top. About as close to raw as you can get and still buy in the store. It’s 5.99/gallon.
@AJ,
I didn’t know that HyVee brand has cream top! Awesome.
I used to buy all organic milk with coupons/deals and it wasn’t too terribly expensive, but then we discovered our local milk delivery service and I am telling you, fresh milk is the BEST tasting milk! It is not organic, its pasturized but its local and very fresh and hormone free. I never drank much milk before but we have had to upgrade our delivery each week because our whole family, not just the 2 year old, is drinking milk now!
I think it is mostly the hormones that people are concerned about as am I. For example, I didn’t know that the opaque gallon containers (the ones you can see the milk through) actually contain a chemical that mimics the growth hormone as well! So they recommend you buy in the cardboard 1/2 gallon containers or gallons that you cannot see through!
@Fabule$$ly Frugal Mom,
I saw you were from Washington State-near Seattle (so am I) and was wondering where you get your milk from? I know a few of our neighbors get it from Smith Brothers.
Thanks!
@Shelly
, Yep my Smith Brothers box is proudly displayed on my front porch, lol! BEST milk I have ever tasted! Worth the $$!
@Fabule$$ly Frugal Mom,
just to clarify, plastic milk jugs are typically made out of #2 HDPE plastic–which is not known to leach any chemicals suspected of to cause cancer or disrupt hormones…(yet…)
see: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/which-plastics-are-safe.html#
I have done a ton of research on this subject, and the truth of the matter is, whether you are drinking organic or regular, nearly all of the good nutritional enzymes have been killed by the pasteurization process. In fact, organic milk is heated to an even higher temperature as another reader stated above. Raw milk is defintely superior when it comes to dairy. If you can find it, use it! We are a family of 7, and although my budget is really tight, this is something that is not negotiable for us. This is a GREAT video on the subject: After watching it, I would be surprised if anyone would want to drink regular milk again. http://vimeo.com/13418268
@Julie Zilkie, My husband and I just watched that video last night! It was so educational- great introduction to the topic as it covered everything you should know about the issue. I thought it was a very engaging interview as well. It’s a quick hour.
To answer the question: We decided long ago that it wasn’t worth it. Unless you care about how the cows are raised for the sake of the cow, the numerous nutritional benefits from grass fed cattle are killed by the UHT pasteurizing. Until we can get raw milk, we’ve chosen to drink hormone free non-organic milk. Organic milk is $8/galloon here, the hormone free we buy is $2/ gallon. At 4 gallons a week, that saves us over $1200!!! Well worth it since there isn’t any extra health benefit from the organic!
@Julie Zilkie, So is fresh milk safe to drink since it is not paseurized?—esp. for pregnant women?
@Christy,
No way I’d ever give my family raw milk; too darn risky. Saw this in the news a couple weeks ago:
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_15469283?source=most_viewed
There’s a reason we pasteurize beverages; it keeps us safe from bacterial illness!
@Kyallee, thanks for sharing this. how devastating for those with the illness.
@Kyallee,
Actually, more people get sick from pasturized milk than from raw milk. Pasturized milk contains twice as much bacteria because the pasturization process destroys all of the good bacteria that keep the bad bacteria in check. The majority of the Ecoli outbreaks from milk have come from pasturized, store bought milk. You just don’t hear about them as much because it’s not something that people consider “different”. It reminds me of the homeschooling community, one bad parent disguises themselves as a homeschooler to abuse their kids and suddenly the whole homeschool population is whack jobs not teaching their kids. It’s the same with raw milk. One person gets sick and the the whole world knows, but thousands get sick every year from pasturized milk and no one says a thing.
Check out the website realmilk.com. They have lots of good information.
Personally, we drink raw milk. Since switching about 3 years ago, my daughters asthma has cleared up, and my children get horribly sick anytime they have store milk. Also, the raw milk tastes SO much better.
Think about this, we are one of the few countries in the world that pasturize our milk, and we have only been doing it for about 50 years. What do you think the people in other countries drink? How about your ancestors, or your great grandparents? They all drank milk straight from the cow, and even kept it in refrigerators that were kept cool by a giant block of ice. They lived to tell about it, too.
Americans are completely lost and uniformed when it comes to food because the “big businesses” fill our heads full of lies to promote their products and make a profit.
Okay, I’m off my soapbox now, lol.
@Christy, If by fresh, you mean raw, then according to the link above, yes! More healthy than pasteurized. I’m absolutely aghast after watching that video. I think about halfway through I realized my jaw was on the floor and I had to pull it back up. I need to do more research on this. Thanks for the link, Julie!
@Christy,
We run a grass-fed cow share program for people wanting healthy, grass-fed, raw milk..so as another wife of a raw milk Guernsey cow dairyman…. I’m currently pregnant and drink a lot of raw milk every day, use raw butter, raw cream, raw butter milk…. My children also consume lots of raw milk.
Grass-fed raw milk is a completely different food product than conventional, pasteurized milk.
I wouldn’t drink raw milk out of a tanker truck…but raw milk from a trusted source with good milking practices is completely safe and healthy!
It’s also good to note that depending on the type of cow you are getting milk from…the milk will taste different. Most American milk is from the Holstein (A1 milk) — We love the old fashion cows like the Guernsey (A2 milk) who give rich, sweet, creamy milk with high amounts of vitamins and minerals.
just some thoughts…
@Christy,
Here in Minnesota, there has been recent (June ’10) news about an E Coli outbreak from consuming raw milk:
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/96169679.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDiO7aiU
At least 8 people were affected, many of them young children. Thankfully, none of them died.
I won’t question the nutritional benefits associated with clean, hygenically produced raw milk – I’m sure it’s great. But as I don’t have them time/ability to carefully investigate these conditions at area dairy farms, I’m sticking with pasteurized milk.
@Haila, Thanks ladies! I am currently pregnant and I know you cannot have unpasteurized cheeses so I was wondering about this. Beth, it sounds like you have access to fresh milk daily. At best, I would probably only be able to work out picking it up once a week and then it would have to keep in my fridge for a week; I’m assuming the more days it sits before being used, the more bacteria grows. If I ever do switch, I think I will conduct the experiment when not pregnant!
@Haila,
here’s a link: http://www.realmilk.com
It also has some information on media scare tactics in regards to raw milk.
I do eat raw milk cheese if I can get around to making it….
no…the more days raw milk sits doesn’t mean it gets bad for you. One of the beautiful designs of raw milk is that is naturally sours over time…where as pasteurized milk rots. A huge difference.
I often make Kefir yogurt where I leave the raw milk out on the counter to “ferment” with my kefir grains over night and strain it off the next morning …producing Kefir –and great pro-biotic source.
That’s how people use to make sour cream and cottage cheese …with raw milk— you can’t do that with pasteurized milk.
@Julie Zilkie,
I agree that it is nutritious and the best type of milk, but it comes with a risk. We had a local dairy farmer selling raw milk and one woman became paralyzed from her neck down from drinking only one glass due to the combylacter (sp?) contaminant found in it. It comes with risks, so make sure you do your research to make sure it is best for your family.
@Amanda, What state did this happen in? And how long ago? Do you have a link to any news information about it?
@Julie Zilkie,
Yes. It’s been all over the newspapers here, but this is just one of the articles. Here is one of the links:
http://www.triplicate.com/20091029107351/News/Local-News/MARIS-CLIMB. The first half talks about her life now, but halfway down, it talks about how she was curious about raw milk and drank it ONCE, which caused her paralysis. Hope that helps.
@Julie Zilkie, This question is actually for any of you who have commented about “raw” or “fresh” milk. What exactly constitutes “raw” milk? I’m not sure I understand what you’re all talking about. From what I’m imagining, does it only come in the whole milk variety then? Because I personally think whole milk tastes gross (I drink only skim, everything else tastes way too creamy to me). Also, if I’m not mistaken, it is held by the AAP that no one over the age of 2 should drink anything more than 1% milk (others just have too much fat). PLease correct me if I”m wrongly assuming this about raw milk; I’m simply unaware.
@Emily, Emily, Raw milk is milk that has NOT been pasteurized and homogonized. You can only get this type of milk directly from a small farm. And the fat in milk is GOOD fat, and you SHOULD Have it in your diet. Skim milk is really not good for you at all, it has synthetic vitamins added into it, as well as a lot of sugar. I read a wonderful book that really helped guide me as to our food choices for our family. Highly recommend it…Real Food by Nina Planck. I know drinking a richer milk takes getting used to, but it is much better for you as well as any children you may have. They DO need healthy fats, and milk is a good way for them to get those. What we don’t need more of is processed fats and sugars. Hope this helps!
@Julie Zilkie,
agreed….
there is so much confusion out there on what is healthy and what is not—
I’d encourage those who are unfamiliar with raw milk or whole foods to read more on the subject for sources such as:
http://www.realmilk.com and
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/
The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense is an amazing resource with lots of articles.
@Julie Zilkie,
Great video – thanks for the link. I just watched the whole thing, and passed it along to my entire local food buying club. Fantastic information – I wish I were able to remember all the talking points as well as he did; I always find myself tongue-tied when people challenge me on raw milk.
Yes, yes, and YES it is worth the extra price! USDA organic milk has to conform to very specific standards and even then there are still factors we don’t necessarily know about (treatment of the cows, etc.). But it’s better than nothing! Organic certification ensures that the cows are not treated with rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), antibiotics (often conventional farms are forced to give these to cows because their extreme maltreatment of them makes them sick) and that they are not fed anything sprayed with chemicals or pesticides. Not only do these chemicals and hormones have the potential to harm us and our children as we ingest them, but the chemical run-off into our land and water isn’t doing us any good, either.
Even further, I would encourage you to purchase grass-fed milk if you can. Cows, being ruminants, are meant to eat GRASS, not corn! Eating corn can lead to the development of physiological difficulties like acidosis, a build up of acid in the stomach. Cows suffering from acidosis often need – you guessed it – antibiotics, or can be treated by having a hose shoved down their esophagus. This happens so much more often than we would like to think.
We don’t make a bundle of money, either, I promise. But we make up those 3 or 4 dollars with the sacrifice of not going to that movie, buying that treat, purchasing that t-shirt. It can be done!
@Jennifer,
ALL milk, conventional and organic do not contain hormones……see my comment above on #6.
@The
Wife of a Dairyman,
I meant to say ALL milk conventional and organic do not contain ANTIBIOTICS (sorry) see my comment above #6
When I switched from regular milk to organic, I thought it did taste better, though we don’t really use milk as a beverage. Then I happened to run into a source for (free! well, bartered for labor) fresh raw milk, and I’ll never go back. We’ll just go without if we can’t get the raw for whatever reason. The flavor is incomparable. It lasts about ten days in the fridge, and if we don’t get through it I skim the cream and make butter, and then use the remaining milk for a tiny batch of cottage cheese.
I am committed to having only organic meat and dairy, and buying locally makes it very affordable.
When store bought milk is pasteurized it kills the lactase which aids in the digestion of lactose, which is why some many people are “lactose intolerant”.. They just aren’t able to digest the lactose with out the lactase which has been killed, along with many other beneficial aspects of our milk..
I have found a local source and purchasing raw milk costs about the same as organic milk.. plus you can sometimes get farm eggs, butter, cheese, etc. Doesn’t get much fresher/healthier than straight from a farmer.
@Stacey,
Just to clarify, no milk (besides Lactaid) contains Lactase. Lactase is an enzyme we make to digest milk. All milk contains Lactose and the pasteurization process does not impact the concentration of lactose, therefore the pasteurization process does not effect the prevelance of lactose intolerance in our society.
@Jennifer, I am lactose intolerant, so is my father… we can both drink raw milk without any adverse affects. In contrast, drinking pasteurized milk will cause the usual lactose intolerant symptoms. I don’t know all the terms and what is or is not in milk, but I know I CAN drink raw milk and I can’t drink any other kind of milk (besides Lactaid but that has a funny taste plus it’s ultra-pasteurized).
@Jennifer, my 3 year old is completely lactose intollerant and she absolutely can’t have any milk except lactose free. Raw milk affects her just as badly as pasteurized. The option we have is purchasing lactase drops (from amazon) adding them to raw milk and letting it sit in the fridge for 24 hours. . . then the raw milk also becomes lactose free. Way cheaper than buying it from the store, but not nearly as convenient. I’ve done both.
If our finances allowed it, I would preferred to purchase locally “grown” milk, regardless of organic certification. (Certification can be very expensive for small farms.). Buying local means I can talk to the producer, see the conditions the cows are kept in, etc. In fact, I would love to buy as much of my food locally as possible (I’m thinking I won’t find local bananas here in Illinois!). I think it’s important to think about WHY you want to buy organic, then find out how best to fulfill that desire.
@Mary, I completely agree! Why you are going organic matters a lot. My family cares most about conditions for workers and health, so we buy organic sugar and bananas (since workers who use pesticides on those crops have high cancer rates and are treated especially poorly). But we buy conventional milk (for now).
@Megan,
Unfortunately, being “certified organic” does not mean that laborers are treated well, though I’m sure the producers of organic products would like you to think that. It’s only certification that the products are grown/produced without certain chemicals. It means nothing about treatment/payment of workers. “Fair trade” organic bananas and sugar are your best bet if worker treatment is what you’re worried about.
@Brooklyn, The reason work conditions are so terrible for conventional sugar and banana workers is because the chemicals they use are so toxic and they are often not provided with protective gear. These populations face increasingly high cancer rates (as well as other ailments). Buying organic doesn’t ensure that the workers are paid a fair wage or only work 40 hrs/week, but it does help to ensure that they’re not being exposed to neurotoxins every day. If more people choose organic more workers will have at least somewhat better conditions. Though you’re right that fair trade products would be ideal – unfortunately there’s still far too little demand from folks like us in the west…
@Megan,
(It wouldn’t let me reply to your reply!)
You’re absolutely right; I just get concerned if it seems like certified organic is conflated with fair/humane treatment of workers or animals. Though certainly, less exposure to chemicals is a method of fair(er) treatment to workers.
It’s so difficult to stay (accurately) informed about regulations and often corporations stand to gain a lot from misconceptions about certification–my concern is that this happens at the expense of well-meaning consumers.
@Brooklyn, Such good points! Corporations not only thrive on consumers’ mis-perceptions and gullibility, but they contribute to them with confusing advertising campaigns. Both good reasons that we should have more of these types of discussions on blogs and other public forums
Standard milk can contain hormones. Only if the package says “RBST free”, can you comfortably think that the milk doesn’t contain hormones.
Conventional milk may also contain antibiotics, where as organic cannot contain antibiotics.
Feed the organic cows eat can also not contain herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Conventional cows can eat feed grow with all of those.
Any nursing or pumping Mom knows that there are certain medications that Dr.’s don’t recommend you take because it may end up in your milk, the same goes for cows. What the eat and the medications they take may end up in the milk.
I pay the extra price and feel it is worth it. I also use coupons and sales to reduce the cost. Organic Valley, Horizon and Stonyfield provide coupons for milk on a regular basis. If you cannot afford organic, I would look for RBST free milk to at least avoid the bovine growth hormones.
@Susan (Organic Deals & Coupons),
ALL milk, conventional and organic do not contain antibiotics…it is illegal for milk to contain antibiotics and every truck load is tested for it. See my comment above on #6
@The Wife of a Dairyman is right. They test every. single. tanker. of milk when it gets to the milk plant before unloading for drug residue. If the load tests positive, the whole tanker gets dumped. Every tank of milk also gets sample tested at the farm (for a variety of things, including drug residue), and the tests run at the lab in the milk plant.
Feels like you’re shouting to the wind, doesn’t it, Wifey?
@Farmer’s Daughter,
Some of us have concerns about antibotics that extend beyond ingesting them.
The use (and often misuse)of antibotics in both beef and dairy cattle builds up in the soil over time and increases the overall chance of some antibotic resistant super bug taking hold. It’s the same reason that I really dislike the antibactrial hand sanitizer junk too.
Also I perfer to vote with my pocketbook on the issue of GMO’s. I’d rather my meat and milk not come from animals that ate massive amounts of GMO corn or beans. I haven’t had any sucess at getting my in laws to not plant the roundup ready ick (which nearly all of the corn and bean raised in the US is) but I don’t have to feed it to my kids.
@The Wife of a Dairyman, I hear what you are saying about the antibiotics in the milk. What I have a hard time understanding is how you can be so adamant that ALL MILK does not contain ANY antibiotics? There is, has been, and will always be times that things get by the “regulators.” When it comes to making money, companies are more than willing to look the other way to ensure that their profits remain. They just have the bean counters decide if it is more profitable to dump or recall the products or to just pay out on the potential lawsuits that could be brought against the company. Just look at the latest recalls – Toyota and McNeil to name just two. It has come to light that Toyota knew of the problems, yet failed to do anything about it. Also, look at the numerous companies that historically continued to dump chemicals despite EPA guidelines about proper disposal.
While I have no doubt that YOU do not send contaminated milk, I think it is naive to believe that ALL milk is antibiotic-free.
@Mindy,
It is not the ‘Big Companies’ that are out the money. If milk is tested positive for antibiotics, it is traced back to the farmer who tainted it and that farmer pays for all the milk in the tanker truck that has been tainted. Each time milk is picked up from a dairy, samples are taken from the dairy milk being picked up, then if an issue arrises, such as the tanker truck is tested positive for antibiotics, they test each of the samples taken from each of the dairies and the responsible dairy farmer then needs to pay for the entire tanker truck full of milk. The big companies don’t look the other way because they are not the ones that will be out the money. As a dairy farmer and as a consumer, I feel confident that my kids are not drinking or eating antibiotics in their food.
I’ve never bought organic milk, so I can’t comment on the taste. From a frugal standpoint, the organic milk looks so much for expensive in the store and it’s not worth it to me to pay the extra price. I think regular old 1% milk is fine for me and my kids.
@Jen, We buy 1% milk also.My teenage son drinks lots of milk so i would be broke if I bought organic milk.
FINALLY! I thought I was the only one on here who likes regular milk!
@Jessica, Oh no you’re not alone at ALL. I buy regular milk all the time, my budget and my milk drinkers do NOT allow for anything else.
@Jessica, Nope – not alone; my family of 3 goes through about 3 gallons each week. I buy my milk at CVS because they have the best price in my area.
I have purchased organic milk when there was a sale I could combine with coupons so it was less expensive. I liked it just fine; but I haven’t found any compelling reason to drastically cut our milk consumption since that would be the only way to afford organic. For every “factual, scienticifally-supported” article or documentary you find supporting one idea, you’ll find an equally “factual, scienticifally-supported” article or documentary for the opposition.
I think it’s all personal choice; I’ll support your right to decide what’s best for your family even if I don’t feel it’s what best for mine.
We drink a TON of milk (well, my husband and kids do – about 2 gallons per week). I don’t buy organic because it is too expensive and for us, the benefits don’t outweigh the cost. Also, I tend to buy the hormone-free milk. It may be slightly more expensive than regular milk (although more brands of “regular” milk seem to be going hormone free which is good), but not as pricey as organic.
I would suggest you watch the documentary Food Inc., and then draw your own conclusions, I think it is a Must Watch. I totally changed the way I see food now…and the answer to me on weather to buy Organic or not is knowing how are cows treated at the farm…I like to drink milk from cows that have space to roam around in the grass and not confined all day long next to others cows, without being able to move, and eating corn all day long…I can totally taste the difference on the milk produced from cows treated humanly…just my thought.
I had to do a report on this for my nutrition class a few years ago and it is pretty gross actually the hormones they put in the milk. They actually do cause the cows to get infections sometimes from the injection site and it creates puss around the utters which then comes out in the milk.. Plus there have been many circumstances where children who drink milk regularly as well as other dairy items like yogurt have begun to develop prematurely. So for my house we try to buy as much organic as possible because everything we put into our body becomes a part of us in some way and will undoubtedly affect us sometime.
I only buy pasteurized organic milk (not ULTRApasteurized), but its really hard to find it in the supermarkets, I buy mine in Fairway here in Brooklyn.
We buy organic milk and eggs faithfully. We aren’t able to buy anything else organic right now due to cost and budget. I want every dairy product that goes in my children to be hormone free, so the few dollars we have available for organic items goes to that.
Have you tried Stoneyfield Farm milk? My husband and I seriously call it ‘crack milk’ because you just can’t stop drinking it it’s so good!!! And I am not a milk drinker.
Once we were hooked on Stoneyfield Farm, there was no way we were going back to the taste of regular, non-organic milk! Bleh.
-Lauren
My favorite part of organic milk is that it doesn’t expire very quickly. It’s just my husband and I, so we don’t go through milk quickly. I totally think it’s worth the effort and has incredible health benefits.
We would buy organic, but it doesn’t fit in our budget at all. We go through 2 gallons of milk a week, it’s crazy! I told my husband we just need a cow in the backyard (and some chickens). It’s illegal to purchase raw milk for human consumption here, although places sell it for “pet and agriculture” use. It’s $11 a gallon. We do get milk that is antibiotic/growth hormone free. I’ve tried to go organic, but just can’t find it in the budget to do so….we barely scrap by month to month as it is. Hopefully one day we’ll be out of this dreaded debt hole and things will be better…but until then……. *sigh* I do what I can!
We go through 3 -4 gallons a week here in this house. At 2 bucks extra per gallon of organic, that would be 24-32 dollars extra a month. We just can’t do it.
My opinion is that anything that may help your family have better health is worth the price….esp. when it comes to staying away from conventional milk. I’ve done plenty of research and seen differences first hand. Although, I also don’t believe that “organic” is always the best route either. We opt for milk from a local farm. It is unhomogenized and pasteurized at the lowest legal temperature. It’s illegal to sell raw milk where we live and this option seems to be the next best thing for us.
To me, the biggest issue is the hormones. And standard milk *does* have hormones unless it says otherwise. I’m not sure if that is state-specific or not. I buy brands that say they are hormone-free. These are not organic brands, just brands that have made a point of not using hormones on their cows.
We drink only organic milk (and use organic half and half, butter, sour cream, and cheeses (when we can find them)), mostly to avoid the hormones, antibiotics AND pesticides used in conventional dairy farming.
Organic milk is a great item to start going organic with – most families with children always buy milk – it’s rare when I go to the store and don’t pick up a gallon! At first it’s a bit of a sticker shock, but we got used to it, and continued to add in other organic dairy products, trying the ones we like the best, for the best price (we much prefer Trader Joe’s organic dairy products – their sour cream is AMAZING!). We do try to buy most of our produce organic as well.
If the pesticide use doesn’t bother you, I don’t see any reason why conventional milk would be “worse.” You can find conventional milk that is hormone and antibiotic-free.
I’ve thought about raw milk. We used to get raw goat milk from my sister’s in-laws, but never made a switch for cow’s. A good friend of ours is a doctor and says, regarding raw milk, “TB is still TB.” As with anything unpasteurized, raw milk does have food-borne risks. It’s a matter of how comfortable you are taking those risks. For some, the risk isn’t bothersome, for others, it’s a deal breaker.
Hello fellow Money Saving Mom readers!
Aldi sells milk with the “Farmer’s Pledge” that their cows are not treated with growth hormones. I also found that Sam’s club and Costco do the same thing. Hope this helps!!
~Christal
@christal b., Thanks for that info! We’re not able to buy organic anything these days and I’ve felt guilty about the milk most of all because of worries about what hormones are doing to us. Yea!
Absolutely worth every penny!! Horizon Fat Free Organic is the best! No weird smell that regular milk has, the expiration date is about a month longer which in my opinion saves you money in the long run. No spoiled milk!! Definitely worth the price!!!
I just want to mention almond milk as a healthy alternative to cow’s milk. It’s cheaper than regular or organic milk and since it’s made from almonds, obviously you don’t have to worry about hormones or pesticides or anything weird. And, health-wise, it’s actually pretty unnatural for humans to drink the milk of another species–I’ve read that this is why so many people are lactose-intolerant or just have digestive issues when drinking cow’s milk. My family drinks almond milk exclusively and we love it. It’s easy on our grocery budget and we’re healthy as can be. It also tastes really good! I hope this wasn’t too off-topic–I just love almond milk so much I had to bring it up!
@Megan, yes, humans are the odd balls in this world. We’re the only ones who cook our food, breastfeed our young for years, and drink other animal’s milk
@Megan,
I’m not sure, but don’t you have to worry about pesticides used in the almond-growing process? I’ve been thinking about switching to almond milk myself…is there organic almond milk?
@Marie,
I’m not sure, but I would think that the almonds shells would protect us from most of the pesticides. I don’t know how much get sucked up from the roots or anything, but I would think it’s safe. (BTW, I am a new lover of Almond Milk! Recently tried it, and the only regret is that I can’t get it more often.)
@Megan, We love almond milk! My doctor, who practices holistic health care as primary and mainstream medicine as secondary, encourages using almond milk exclusively.
We do not buy Organic products, from the things I have read/seen/researched I do not believe they are worth the extra cost, but that is only my opinion
@Nicole, I totally agree!
@Candice, Agree with you both. It’s a great deal—-for the Organic Farmer.
) If someone is willing to pay through the nose for something, I am all for them having the right to sell it.
AGREED!!!!
@Nicole, I agree as well. I drink hormone free milk but there are too many other things that are worse than milk that I need to keep my kids away from.
I’ve been lactose intolerant my whole life, but for some reason I can drink Organic Jersey Cow milk, like Promised Land or Fresh Market Milk, without any digestive problems. Though it works out to $10 a gallon, I feel its worth it just to drink milk and not worry.
We just recently switched from store bought milk to Raw milk and the raw milk taste SO much better it taste a lot fresher and creamier and it also has A LOT more health benefits than the store bought milk. They add a lot of unnecessary additives to the store bought and store bought is actually not as fresh as people think…. Just cause it don’t smell bad or look bad does not mean it is fresh…
@charity,
The pasteurization process does not actually destroy any of the nutritional properities of milk so nutritionally speaking, conventional milk and raw milk are equal.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm079516.htm
@Jennifer, The FDA has approved of many things they later decided were unsafe. Just saying… All that page did was state a bunch of “facts” but it gives no backup, no details of the studies done… Just listen to someone who drinks raw milk (from a dairy farm that practices good hygiene and cleanliness) you will hear personal stories of lives changed because of diseases cured and many, many other benefits. I trust personal stories over the FDA’s tests. There is such a thing as good bacteria in milk and the high heat of pasteurization which kills the bad bacteria must also kill the good bacteria. It’s also helpful to know that there is not bad bacteria in all milk, the way the cows are fed and pastured and how they are treated can be the difference between healthy raw milk with good bacteria and milk I wouldn’t want to drink even if it was ultra-pasteurized.
@Jennifer, the FDA has a HUGE reason for wanting us to believe that, and it’s called MONEY. Just use your common sense, if it it hot enough to kill BAD bacteria, than it is obviously hot enough to kill GOOD bacteria. That page is just an advertisement, with no real back up of any sort to their claims.
@Jennifer,
Consider the source… the FDA…..
Conventional milk and Raw milk are not the same…. and are far from equal! There is much documented evidence that proves otherwise.
Here’s an experiment someone did showing the difference in two calves…one on raw milk, one on conventional milk. There is a huge difference!
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/the-tale-of-two-calves-one-calf-got-raw-milk-the-other-pasteurized/#more-16769
We buy it for my daughter, and have since she started drinking milk (she’s 3 now). It’s worth the extra cost to us. I don’t even like milk but it tastes much better than “regular” milk to me. The deciding factor for me was a simple test. If you leave out a sippy cup of regular milk and a sippy cup of organic milk, take a look after the milk starts to sour. The regular milk looks disgusting and smells awful. The organic milk is nowhere near as nasty or smelly.
@Amber,
I’m not an expert by any means and there seems to be a lot of “evidence” supporting all kinds of different things regarding milk (and all other foodstuffs for that matter). However, the reason regular milk in your test gets “disgusting” is because there are live cultures in the milk. Just like peaches will mold after awhile–a natural process (McDonald’s food, however, does not mold even after years). The organic milk you used for the test is most likely ultra-pasteurized milk. That process, while it extends the shelf life of the milk, kills off the live and active cultures that are in the milk. It is a good thing when food molds or becomes gross when not refrigerated or after time–this means it’s a whole food subject to natural biological processes.
I believe it was Michael Pollan who said something like, “don’t eat anything that doesn’t rot…food is alive and it should die.”
@Brooklyn, You’re right. We get the ultra-pasteurized kind. I did not think about it this way. However it still tastes better than regular milk to me
I bought organic milk for a couple months then stopped because it was eating up my food budget! I also read about the UHT (ultra high temp) pasteurization negating any beneficial aspects of it, I think I read about it on KitchenStewardship.com. I would love it if we could find a way to get raw milk but I don’t know of any in my area. Until then, it will be hormone free milk for us.
I found this post very helpful when making that same decision: http://www.foodrenegade.com/healthy-milk-what-to-buy/
Good luck in your decision making. Who would have thought that which milk to choose would be such a personal decision?
Can you buy organic milk in skim or 1% or 2% varieties?–just wondering. I know a lot of people are in to whole foods so I guess not altering at all would be the way to go, but there is so much fat!
@Christy, Yes, every brand of organic milk that I’ve seen is available in skim, 2%, etc.
We don’t drink much cows milk- but for cooking I use the store brand milk because it is hormone free. Also I never buy skim or 1% milk because they add soy lecithin to it to make it look thicker. We drink almond or rice milk. I am pretty anti-soy so we don’t use soy milk either. If we could buy raw milk here I would but you can’t.
I just don’t buy into the whole organic craze that is sweeping the country. I think it’s comparable to the debate about the correct sleeping position for newborns – every few years it changes! Right now what “they” say is good for you will not be what is “good” for you in 4 years. I don’t want to start a debate, but I think it’s just a bunch of hype to boost that particular market.
@Jenni, I absolutely 100% agree!! I refer to it as “jumping on the organic bandwagon.” It’s just one big advertising ploy!
@Jenni, Inherent in this is an assumption that everyone who buys it is doing so because it’s healthier for them. There’s also the position that you buy it because it lasts longer (due to ultra-pasteurization), that you are choosing to support those specific farms with certain practices, or that you simply like the taste better.
@Jenni, I agree with you. It seems very trendy right now, along with going green. I have looked into buying organic and I don’t feel that it is worth the extra money. If I can get it for the same price or cheaper than conventional products then I will buy it. I would rather be able to offer my kids a variety of healthy foods than a few organic foods because of the cost difference and I belive that eating a variety of foods (even treats in moderation) is what is most healthy.
by the way if you’re worried about the hormones in milk having an estrogen effect- you should avoid soy lecithin- which is what they add to skim milk to make it look thicker- and almost all package processed /foods if you read the label- it’s harder to avoid than high fructose corn syrup
To those who feel raw milk is healthy, read this article that recently appeared in Slate by Pulitzer-prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum:
http://www.slate.com/id/2260389
“The golden, creamy milk of those 19th-century farms killed people, often enough that public health crusaders fought for years for the protection of pasteurization.”
(Full disclosure: She’s my cousin, but she is indeed a Pulitzer laureat)
@Carrie, I study domestic history, including the 19th and early 20th and raw milk does have a dangerous side. Not that you should not drink it, but go in with eyes open and do your research. Safe milk was a big public health fight for our great-great-grandmothers. They would be glad to see us have so many choices.
@Carrie, When I lived in Romania we heated our milk to a certain temperature (now I can’t remember what it was) It was just enough to kill the bad without ruining the taste and the benefits. Cream still rose after that. If a person wants fresh from the farm milk and yet is worried about possible milk borne illness investigate this.
@Doreen,
We did that too in Romania. I even remember one time my mom tricking us into thinking we were drinking warm cow’s milk but it was actually warm water buffalo milk (which in my opinion tastes better anyway)!!
Where and when were you in Romania?
@Julie, I was in Paltinis Romania for a year 2003-2004. That’s near Caransebes in the Caras Severin district. I’ve been back twice since then, once for two months, and now I am marrying a young man from there.
We are planning on living here in Missouri so we can adopt my foster daughter.
@Carrie,
This article only talks about how the milk was making people sick and this is true BUT, they conveniently leave out WHY the milk was bad. Please refer to this blog post on how the dairy farms in NY were feeding their cows leftover “slop” from the whiskey distilleries and this was making the cows AND their milk sick. Milk was not pastuerized prior to this, yet people did not get sick and die left and right from raw milk until dairy factories came about. Like others on here have said and I will say again…There is a HUGE diference between milk from a cow being fed poison and milk from a cow that eats real food meant for it to eat. I would never ever suggest anyone drink raw milk from a factory or grain-fed cow. Especially not from cows that eat leftover chemical slop. I hope people will actually take the time to read this and research the incidences of sickness related to milk. All milk is not created equal.
Jenn
@Carrie,
Ooops, here is the blog post
http://journal.livingfood.us/2010/07/21/the-truth-about-raw-milk-2/
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