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?
(I’m reposting my question here because this topic seems more applicable)
I’m probably really late to the conversation here, but I had a question about low-temperature pasteurized (non-homogenized) milk… is it still a big NO-NO? The closest raw milk farms are over an hour one way from where I live, and I’m trying to work out a way to afford buying healthier-than-organic milk without spending a lot on gas too. VERY tight budget these days! Thanks!
I would buy the low temp pasteurized, non homogenized milk and culture into kefir and then drink it. I personally will not drink even low temp pasteurized milk.
In northern california, if you would like a good source of milk for making kefir than check out Strauss creamery website. They offer a pasteurized, non homogenized ‘cream top’ organic milk. I do not drink it alone but use it for making kefir and it turns out well. Lot of info. about their pasturization and raising of their cows on website. Of course also available is Organic Pastures raw milk but you will pay twice the amount. I think $ worth it if you drink it alone or for growing children. Happy culturing!
Where I live (overseas), I only have the choice of local pasturized milk or non-local UHT milk. Until recently I was using the non-local New Zealand milk and French cream because, even though both are UHT, they are from pastured, grass-fed cows. I always ferment both the milk and the cream with no problem, so I am surprised to read the claim that it cannot be fermented. While I may switch to the local pasturized product, I still wonder whether by fermenting the UHT product, I am avoiding most of the problem, particularly because I have not been able to find out much about the locally produced milk (diet, etc.).
I like articles such as this that give out “information” (quotes because I am only beginning my research and do not take personal articles/stories as fact). What I don’t like about this article is that it is clearly pointed at the authors clear hatred of two companies-Horizon and Organic Valley. Even if all that is said is true, when it comes to something being about one (or two) particular companies vs a whole (and especially when you don’t even do the bare minimum of checking to see what products a company sells and, as you stated, assume they carry only one-UHT milk), I tend to then be skeptic of all “research” and wonder exactly what else was/is assumed. Both companies sell both UHT and regular organic milk. The information about the lack of healthyful benefits of such may or may not be true, but your personal feelings about the two companies came across loud and clear, negating any other facts for me. On to other research….
What? Organic milk doesn’t need to be refridgerated?! The news in this article is APPALLING!!! I recently learned and am still learning of the atrocious practices used by food manufacturing companies for the sake of profit. I switched to organic foods believing that there has to be some good in the world and end up coming across information like this. My head is spinning!! The fact that poison is permitted in our food supplies and vaccines and given to our children with fraudulant, minimal or no testing is outrageous. I’m sad. =( I thought we’d come a long way in America and as humans. I can’t believe that raw milk is illegal. I don’t know what to do. All my life I’ve felt sick and lethargic. Allergies, asthma, ibs, lactose intolerance, appendicitis, stunted growth… My whole family is sick with diabetes 2, hypothyroidism, autism, manic depression, alzheimers, etc. We’re a latin family and msg was a huge part of our diets as well. Now it all makes even more sense. Think I’ll go have me one big good cry. It’s all our fault. I guess vigilance is truly a price we all must pay to move forward. There’s no room for lazy-mindedness where health and survival is concerned if we want the best. Thank you for your great insight and educational information. You’ve truly been a blessing.
Sadly, Stonyfield milk IS Ultrapasteurized! 🙁 Sad, since they are from the Northeast.
Unfortunately, if you live in any urban / suburban area of the US your are basically being force-fed POISON due to government regulations / Big Ag lobbying efforts.
I live on Long Island, NY and in NY Raw Milk is ILLEGAL! So illegal that buying Heroin is easier than finding Raw Milk! (Sadly, I’m NOT kidding).
My local Target has a new “Fresh food market” and their prices are HALF that of the grocery store right next to it. They carry a LARGE assortment of milk – both regular and organic, as well as Rice, Soy, Almond and Coconut. Annoyingly, they sell-out of ALL their Half-and-Half and Organic Milk EVERY DAY! They carry Horizon, but also their own brand of Organic Milk, both regular and with added DHA (Do NOT use the added Omega-3 products – it is made with chemically processed algae).
Honestly, I didn’t look at if their Organic Whole Milk was Ultrapasteurized or not, but based on the use-by date (about a week from purchase), I doubt it. I ran out and they are usually sold out when I get there 🙁 My mother shops at BJ’s Wholesale Club, and normally buys Land-O-Lakes 2% milk and Half-and-Half. L-O-L is LOADED with antibiotics and hormones!!! She has been having sertious heart problems lately, so I convinced her to start eating like me – whole eggs and WHOLE milk, so the other day she purchased “Organic” Whole milk at BJ’s by Earth’s Pride. At first I was excited (no need for separate milk containers in the fridge), but then I saw ULTRApasteurized! EEK!!! It was purchased July 14, and the use-by date is Sept. 3. My NON-Organic Tuscan Whole Milk (made from cows NOT treated with growth hormones / antibiotics) is good until July 19 (purchased July 7).
So, if you live in the Northeast, I have some advice – if you CANNOT get RAW Milk, purchase milk from a LOCAL Northeast Dairy Co-op that says NOT TREATED with Artificial Growth Hormones. Tuscan Dairy Farmers DO NOT use these hormones! Also, Chobani Greek Yogurt comes from Upstate NY dairy cows NOT TREATED with rBST. If there is an FDA disclaimer on the product that says “No significant difference has been found between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows” then the product is PROBABLY safe. The FDA is nothing more than a propaganda arm of Big Ag – the FDA has MANDATED that NATURAL products must include a disclaimer that GMO and drugged products are “Not bad.” This is a direct violation of the First Amendment, but Big Ag (Monsanto in particular) has bankrupted MANY farmers and sued states like Vermont and Pennsylvania for trying to regulate and label products containing GMO seeds and hormones / antibiotics.
I’m from the Northeast, and I can assure you that there are VERY FEW INDUSTRIAL FARMS around here! Although the USDA has DECIMATED many rural communities over the past 50 years by “Buying out” local farmers so they would not compete against Big Ag, the few farms still remaining are mostly FAMILY farms that have been in the same families for generations. Just drive around Upstate NY, Vermont, NH and Maine and you will be hard-pressed to find a dairy farm bigger than 250 acres (mostly wooded) and most farmers average about 100 cows – and you can see those cows roaming the pastures EVERY SINGLE DAY! Honestly, the high cost of real estate and extremely HIGH TAXES has actually helped to preserve traditional ways of farming up here – the farmers barely break even, the barns average 200+ years old and many are in poor condition – the farmers survive by joining co-ops with other small farmers and their milk is pooled and distributed throughout the Northeast. Most farmers could never afford to convert their pastures into concrete industrial wastelands and pump the cows full of drugs. It’s more economical for them to keep doing things the way they have been done since before the American Revolution! And, now that people are realizing the negative effects of Factory Faming, I cannot see how the FDA / USDA is going to convince many of these farmers to go the way of Big Ag. Also, under Governor Pataki, a LOT of farmland has been saved and preserved via legislation and tax breaks and such farms must follow very strict environmental regulations, so it doesn’t make sense to go the GMO, polluting direction.
Of course, this ONLY applies to farms in the Northeast, as this land was subdivided and cleared during colonial times (my old house actually had the original stone wall from an old farm running through the woods). Most farmland has now been turned into cookie-cutter developments, but the few farms that remain are still on the same land cleared by the original Settlers. Most Milk from the Midwest (Land-O-Lakes) and California is a WHOLE OTHER STORY! Those farms are giant INDUSTRIAL WASTELANDS as far as “Agriculture” goes! The good thing out West though, is that there are still some small farms, and the laws regarding RAW Milk are not nearly as INSANE as here in NY, so you will have a much easier time getting milk direct from a small farmer out west than if you live in Downstate NY.
I have Eczema and I am running to the store now to buy raw milk. I’ve always known that food was a direct correlation to my symptoms but I never knew what to eat or how to replace foods. Thanks for “showing me the way” regarding milk.
Hi Janet … you are very welcome! We all have to hang together and help each other as individuals as this stuff is never going to be covered in health magazines or on TV that’s for sure! There’s way too much money to be made with these processed foods!
We’ve been buying the Organic whole milk for our kids, but it’s Naturally Preferred brand and just pasteurized. Is that ok or should I be looking for something better?
Plain pasteurized is certainly much much better than ultra-pasteurized … try to find some that is also nonhomogenized and that would be an acceptable compromise.
Thank you for the prompt reply!
Richard, I live in upstate NY and there is a farm nearby, Ronnybrook Farm, that sells unhomoginized, low temp pasteurized milk locally. They are supplied in 1 qt glass bottles. I know they sell in NYC at farmer’s markets year round, not sure where, but check their website out: ronnybrook.com. Best milk I’ve EVER had!
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for this article. I am one of those mom’s who buys the refrigerated organic milk at costco. I just checked it & yes indeed it is ultrapasteurized. I know a great source for raw milk – but this is my thing – and please help me out with some advice…. I am a single mom of one & we RARELY drink milk. I personally don’t like the thickness of milk – never had. Within the last couple months, I went to my friends farm & bought a half gallon of raw milk. Our problem was, we didn’t even make it through a 1/3 of it by the time it started turning sour. What would you recommend the best option be for people like us?…
Sincerely,
Sarah in Portland
Hi Sarah, buy the raw milk and put into smaller containers and freeze what you won’t use before it sours. Raw milk is fine frozen and then thawed.