Why organic milk that is UHT processed is unhealthy and certainly not a better choice than regular supermarket milk despite the sky-high prices and misleading marketing which leads consumers to believe it is healthy.
Fact: Organic milk companies are pulling the wool over the eyes of the consumer to boost profits.
By marketing their UHT milk as certified USDA Organic, an ever-increasing consumer base willingly buys it. The prices are roughly double the price per gallon of regular, pasteurized store milk. The sad truth is that ultrapasteurized (UHT) organic milk is just as unhealthy as regular, pasteurized store milk.
I’ve often thought if I HAD to choose between them, which milk would I select as being better: regular pasteurized milk from the store or ultrapasteurized organic milk? That’s a toughie. Neither choice is optimal as there is no clear winner.
Both are highly processed milks, both contribute to poor health and chronic illness in general.
Pasteurized Store Milk. Clearly Not Good for You
On the one hand, you have regular, pasteurized store milk that comes from sick, confined cows that are injected with hormones and other drugs. The cows are fed unnatural, GMO, pesticide, and antibiotic laced feed with no access to fresh air or green grass. These poor animals stand on cement floors their entire lives. No surprise that they usually die within about a year and half. Incidentally, the true lifespan for a healthy dairy cow should approach 15 years.
Milk from these confined cows NEEDS to be pasteurized. It is nasty stuff loaded with pus and pathogens because of the filth and chronic mastitis the cows endure.
Ultrapasteurized Organic Milk. Still Bad for You!
On the other hand, you have ultrapasteurized, organic milk. A consumer with only partial knowledge of how milk is processed is easily lured into buying this milk. On the surface, it seems so much healthier. After all, the cows don’t get any antibiotics, steroids or hormones, right? It’s certified USDA Organic. Doesn’t that mean something?
While the cows producing organic milk may not be subjected to the drugs and antibiotics used on conventional dairy operations, the milk coming from an organic-industrial complex is even more highly processed. For example, ultrapasteurized (UHT) organic milk must be subjected to a temperature of 280F for at least 2 seconds.
This compares with standard pasteurization temperature of about 161F. Such a high temperature results in a product that has extended shelf life. UHT milk can remain unrefrigerated for up to 6 months in aseptic packaging.
I find it outrageous that Organic Valley and Horizon frequently display their aseptically packaged, organic dairy in the refrigerated section of the health food store!
Turns out that consumers (particularly those in the US) are much more likely to be duped into buying organic milk if it is displayed in the refrigerated section. Buying organic milk unrefrigerated on the shelf goes against intuition and just doesn’t seem very natural, does it?
Moms buy individually sized aseptic packages of Organic Valley milk and put them in their children’s lunchboxes with ice packs! If they only knew that this milk is so dead that it doesn’t even require refrigeration they might rethink their choice of beverage.
Auto-Immune Disorder Link
Why is ultrapasteurization so bad? The high temperatures used to ultrapasteurize organic milk damage the fragile milk proteins totally and completely. The same thing happens when sweetened condensed milk is manufactured too.
When this happens, the enzymes the body produces to digest these proteins do not work as they no longer “fit together” like puzzle pieces. The undigested proteins then make their way into the bloodstream due to “leaky gut” syndrome, which nearly all Westerners suffer from to some degree. At that point, the body identifies them as foreign proteins and mounts an immune response.
This translates into symptoms better known as allergies, asthma, eczema, and other symptoms of autoimmune disorders! Ultrapasteurized milk is so completely sterilized that sometimes it cannot even be cultured into homemade kefir or yogurt.
This stuff is dead, dead, dead folks.
There is no way that it can be considered healthy even if it is labeled USDA organic.
The enhanced immune response that occurs from drinking ultrapasteurized milk has the potential to lead to milk and dairy allergies pretty quickly. I remember when my first child was nursing, I drank a lot of Organic Valley ultrapasteurized milk.
My son spit up so badly during that time that there was some concern that he had a reflux disorder. Remarkably but not surprisingly, when I stopped drinking the Organic Valley milk, his reflux problem resolved. No treatment was required.
I have no doubt that if I had continued drinking this milk and had weaned my son onto it that he would undoubtedly have a milk allergy today. Fortunately, I wised up in time to get off that poison!
Trading Drug/Pesticide Residues for Estrogen Mimickers
While a consumer may be reducing his/her exposure to antibiotic and pesticide residues by choosing Organic Valley milk, this is by no means a guarantee to less chemical exposure. Processors of organic milk frequently heat the milk to the required 270F AFTER the milk is in the aseptic package or plastic jug! Another option, just as bad, is to fill the package or jug with boiling hot milk that has not yet cooled down!
This releases high levels of endocrine-disrupting phthalates (the notorious BPA as well as several others) used in the packaging into the milk! Most everyone now knows never to heat food in a microwave with plastic wrap on top for this very reason. It’s a shame more people aren’t aware of the tremendous endocrine-disrupting potential of drinking ultrapasteurized, organic milk!
What to Drink Instead of UHT Organic Milk
As you can see, it is an extremely hard decision to pick which milk is more unhealthy: regular pasteurized store milk or ultrapasteurized organic milk.
Better not to have to make the decision at all! Seek out fresh raw grassfed milk straight from the cow (or goat) from a farmer in your local area. And, if you are fortunate enough to have a source for this type of health-giving milk, don’t run out and buy a half-gallon of ultrapasteurized organic milk if you temporarily run out of the fresh from the farm variety. In those situations, it is best to simply go without. The risks from consuming UHT organic milk even on occasion are simply too enormous to ignore.
Another option is to make healthy milk substitutes like this recipe for coconut milk tonic or homemade sprouted oat milk until the next local dairy delivery.
More Information
101 Uses for Raw Soured Milk
Tips for Freezing Milk and other Dairy Products
A1 and A2 Milk: Do Cow Genetics Even Matter?
Not all Organic Valley milk is ultra-pasteurized. In our area, the half gallon cartons are, but the gallon bottles are pasteurized. It might be a good idea to check with the company to understand their distribution decisions and look carefully at the labeling before deciding not to drink their milk. We have started to incorporate raw milk from a local dairy into our household, but not all family members are willing to go that route and we rely on Organic Valley to fill in the gaps.
I can't even buy regular pasteurized milk at my local grocery store. Everything is ultrapasteurized. Luckily, I have a source for real milk and can avoid the whole grocery store milk issue!
You only mentioned Organic Valley and Horizon Organic milk… what about Stonyfield Organic milk?
And for that matter their yogurt, etc.?
ahem sister! great post! it drives me crazy when i see people buying horizon milk at target and think their getting something healthful. you can't trust your government with your health. you must research yourself… ALWAYS. as i heard once…. "uncle sam is not your uncle" 🙂
Cynthia, thanks so much for commenting! Yes, this ultrapasteurization thing is so infuriating and so many people have been caught in its web of deception. Hope you can use some of this info with your gang down south of the Bay!
Hi Lana, the healthfood stores in my area do not carry Stonyfield organic milk .. Horizon and Organic Valley have most of the market share for this type of product. If the Stonyfield organic milk is ultrapasteurized, then yes, avoid it like the plague. Their yogurt is ok .. not as good as what you would make yourself at home with fresh from the farm, grassfed milk but something ok to use in a pinch.
GREAT write-up Sarah!!
Sarah,
This a great story to SCREAM from the mountaintops. Thank you for making it so clear. I always advise to avoid store milk if fresh, raw is not available. Now I can explain it so much better. Well written with facts and not too much emotion which I know is so hard to do.
Thanks again,
Cynthia in Sarasota
Hi Sarah! I am really enjoying your blog! What do you do if you run out of raw milk for your milk kefir grains? Would you ever use pasturized milk to keep them going until you can get more raw? I have access to a biweekly delivery of raw milk, but often we run out a few days before the next shipment. I often wonder if using store bought milk will compromise my kefir grains. What are your thoughts? Thanks so much! -Clare S.
I have sucessfully made Kefir many times from pasteurized milk- both the cheap stuff and the organic variety. All I used was the kefir grains and the so called “dead” milk. It tasted fabulous also. I assume the author has never actually attempted to make kefir from pasteurized milk to make the false statement.
The author was clearly talking about ULTRAPASTURIZED milk, not PASTURIZED milk. You are the one who should check your facts.
Being unable to obtain raw, organic milk in my area, I have cultured and am culturing yogurt and kefir on a daily basis using UHT Milk. It has been and is still providing consistently good results.
I’ve used Stonyfield organic whole-milk, which is UHT, to make kefir for 3 years. It makes great kefir. But my kefir grains do not themselves grow in size, as they used to when I lived elsewhere and bought non-UHT milk.
I don’t know for sure that UHT milk is causing my non-growing-grains issue, but it’s worth thinking about for kefir makers, esp. if you also have access to non-UHT milk.
-Sean
My kids are living proof that raw whole milk from grass fed cows is much better for you than the junk sold in stores. All my life I was told I had a milk allergy. Asthma and allergies run in my husband's family. I thought for sure my kids were doomed by genetics. I found out about raw milk when my boys were still babies so once they were weaned off breastmilk that is the only kind of milk they have ever had. No sign of asthma or ANY type of allergies even though it supposedly runs in the family. In fact they have never even had an ear infection. All of my brother's and sister's kids, on the other hand, who drink gallons of pasteurized milk because "milk does a body good" have constant problems with asthma, seasonal allergies, eczma, and ear infections.
I read your post to this article about raw grass fed milk in earnest. I was a healthy child & got asthma and allergies at 13 yrs old, I live in N.C. which doesn’t have raw milk, but I can drive an hour to get it in another state.
I was curious did your asthma and allergies improve when you started drinking the raw grass fed milk by chance? I just started my research so I don’t know if it could close up my Leaky Gut while I change everything to non-GMO Organic, veggies and grass fed beef and wild caught salmon and some fruits that I don’t react to. Thank you for any tip
You live in NC which has very high humidity, have you had your home checked for mold???
By drinking milk from grass-fed cows, your children have probably become immunized to the various grasses, flowers, pollen, and other sources of allergens that the cows have ingested. This is probably an analogous immunizing effect as that produced when people eat different types of honey, also produced from various pollens. The amount ingested when drinking the milk or eating the honey is low enough not to produce an allergic reaction but enough to produce immunization over time. So, yes, grass-fed milk is probably a very good thing, especially for growing children. They immunization will last, even if they choose to stop drinking milk as adults.
By the way, although homemade non-dairy milks (with only almonds, quinoa, etc. and water) are very good tasting and very good for you, commercial non-dairy milk have a panoply of other ingredients that ought to make us skeptical. Soy milk has other issues as well, but even almond, etc. commercial milks have carageenan, for example. If you look it up, you will see that it is something that is added as a thickener to make these milks more palatable to the average consumer. Although it is a natural ingredient, hat doesn’t mean it should be a regular part of our diet. Some people (like me) do not tolerate it in our GI system. It can either cause or aggravate IBS something fierce.
Carageenan was never a part of the human food supply, until commercial non-dairy milk producers began adding it to those products, and now many people ingest it everyday, without knowing it, thinking that they are doing something healthy. For those who believe that drinking ‘breast’ milk from other mammals is unnatural, I would ask if ingesting carageenan every day, sometimes in large doses, is what they recommend.