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?
well what if i cant get my hands on fresh grass grown cows milk? i love in the city and there is no way ill find a cow near buy. so u saying there is no organic brands that i should drink @ all?
Hello, I know this is an older comment but if you’re still wondering about this I have a suggestion. 🙂 I live in the Dallas area and we’re part of a raw milk co-op. Every other week a few people in the group take turns driving an hour to a dairy farm and then everyone in the group comes to that person’s home to pickup their milk from the driveway (everything is in big coolers). They also usually have certain grassfed meats and pastured eggs available. So I only have to drive 10-20 minutes to get my milk every other week. If I want to purchase less often, sometimes I buy a bunch at once and freeze what we don’t need yet.
Hi All,
Great discussion. Living in Oregon, buying raw milk is not an option. But, I have found Organic Valley’s Grassmilk to be quite good. It is minimally pasteurized, not homogenized, and is very flavorful. I can’t get it at all stores, but there are enough who carry it to make it fairly easy to find. Their Grassfed butter is good, too. Unfortunately, these products are only available in Oregon, Washington, California, Utah and Colorado (I just checked the website). If you want it in your area, it can’t hurt to make a request. As awareness increases, these products will become easier to find.
Keep up the good work on getting the words out!
Cheri
I beg to differ on the availability of raw milk in Oregon. I’ve been there and you just have to find a dairy farmer, small time farmer, or a family with some cows who will sell their milk. I drank the raw milk up there for my entire visit and too, a ton back to CA with me and I still miss that rich creamy milk. Of course, do be sure to check out their methods and sanitation procedures. Also, if you cross over into Washington, say, from Portland into Vancouver, we also found raw milk in the health food store, along with other raw products. Check into it. Ask around.
I live in Oregon and buy two gallons of raw milk a week. You have to get on a wait list for most farms as Oregon law only allows 2 to 4 cows which isn’t a ton of milk to go around. If you are close to Washington, they sell it in stores there I believe. I haven’t bought any as knowing my farmer is key. Weston A Price website has a list of local chapter leaders that will help you find a farm. That is how I found my awesome farmer.
No facts here whatsoever. In most countries in Europe (like Germany and France) UHT milk is standard. If we believe you people there should have more allergies which I have never heard of.
Also think about this. The milk is heated to 280F for 2 sec. That kind of temperature is easily reached for an extended period of time when cooking. So even if you get your fresh milk, if you use it to cook something you’ll end up with the same poisonous dead milk.
Answer to Skeptic:
I don’t know where you got this info from…..!
I used to live in italy and no one there would ever think of drinking UHT there, people mostly drink HTST which is second best, if opened it would last 4days in my fridge, normal right!. It scares me to drink in the US milk that doesn’t go bad….
The UHT ( not kept in the fridge compartment in italy) is called sterilized milk and the HTST is called pasteurized. No one would like to drink anything sterile.
Just wanted to point his out.
I lived in Germany and none of their milk was refrigerated at all.
I know this is old but I still wanted to comment. 🙂 Cooking with milk isn’t a problem if you consume healthier foods a majority of the time. You just don’t want your dairy consumption to always be these dead foods because we need the probiotics and other nutrients found in fresh dairy. Additionally, there’s more to fresh milk than it being raw. If you’re careful about where you source from you get a much, much cleaner product and from cows that are treated better and that get fresh air, sunlight and are able to forage. When I bake and so forth I always use my raw milk even though I realize it will be heated…
Also, cooked milk is gently heated to a high temperature unlike violent UHT milk where it is brought to just below boiling within a split second.
There is Not a single Paper, article, science journal, or proof in this article. Absurd stuff without any scientific proof.
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This kind of thing has been going on for years in the UK, and is a particular bug-bear of mine.
It’s kind of heart-breaking when you see how capitalism moves inn on every area of life, to the point where it even controls what once were ‘alternative’ systems.
Reminds me of that movie The Blob, where the monster just consumes everything and moves on.
Like I say, heart-breaking, when you think about it.
I try to avoid UHT when I can (mostly due to the flavor). However, if it’s what I have in the house I do use it to make yogurt and it works just fine!
Read your blog and got freaked out about the Horizon milk I’ve started supplementing with my almost 1 year old’s formula. Thankfully we have this alternative available locally and is even sold at our specialty grocers now too:
It’s now in the fridge and aside from being a healthy milk for my little guy to drink, I’m hoping it will cure my recent development of lactose intolerance!
You do not develop lactose intolerance, it is genetic. If you are experiencing problems since switching the milk you drink that is the cause of your discomfort. I would NEVER give my child raw milk! It is not advised by any Doctor just as you do not give a baby honey. Raw milk has not been heated to kill bacteria. My grandparents had a dairy in the 50s and they did pasteurize all milk they sold. There is a reason the scientist who invented pasteurization is celebrated.
Read “The Untold Story of Milk”. Your view of the history of milk and pasteurization is incorrect.
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