Gourmet Articles

Most people accept that organic food is better for health than nonorganic food. At the very least it is not thought that organic food is worse for health. Milk though is a different matter entirely. Dramatic new research is emerging clearly showing that organic milk is significantly worse for health than regular pasteurized milk. The evidence for this is revealed for the first time in a new book 'Organic Milk Myth'.

Many people will understandably be shocked by this news. The price of organic milk can be nearly double that of its nonorganic equivalent. Individuals and families are prepared to pay extra for organic milk if it is better for you (or at least not as bad as regular milk). But it has become clear that this is not the case.

How, you may ask, is it possible that organic milk sold widely in stores everywhere can actually be worse for health than regular pasteurized milk? Some may think that organic milk is probably not much better than regular milk. But to think that organic milk is actually much worse for health than regular milk is quite a different thing.

However, just about all the latest research is showing exactly this. Worse still is the fact that UHT milk (also known as Long Life milk) is actually even worse for health than organic milk. About 80% of organic milk sold throughout the world is UHT milk; so if you consume organic milk it is very likely to be UHT.

It is hardly surprising that most organic milk is UHT when you consider that in many countries nearly all milk sold is UHT. For example in Belgium, Spain, Brazil, and France over 95% of total milk consumed is UHT. Throughout the world UHT sales are fast catching up or overtaking non-UHT sales. This is welcomed by milk producers because UHT has a much longer shelf life, making the supply chain to the consumer an easier task as no refrigeration is required. Governments worldwide are also encouraging the production of UHT milk because this is considered to be better for the environment (less emissions from less use of refrigeration). In fact, the opposite is true - organic milk is considerably worse for the environment.

Research carried out by Rusty Bishop, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, shows that even in countries such as Canada and the USA (where UHT sales are considerably less than half of all milk sales) "over 80% of organic milk is sold as organic UHT milk."

All kinds of UHT milk (whether organic or nonorganic) are worse for health than non-UHT milk for a variety of reasons. For example, it is a fact that UHT is much higher in damaged whey proteins compared to non-UHT milk. Damaged whey proteins are a major cause of brain diseases such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, and Alzheimer's disease. There is plenty of research to support this view.

For Parkinson's Disease, for example, a large study found a clear link between the disease and milk consumption (American Journal of Epidemiology, January 2007). The diets of more than 130,000 people in the study were analysed and it was found that those who consumed the most milk had a very significant 70 percent higher risk of getting the disease. Since UHT has more damaged whey proteins than regular milk, it is likely that the risk of getting Parkinson's Disease will be even higher than 70 percent for UHT milk consumers.

But why is organic milk worse than regular milk? Isn't organic milk meant to have less pesticide residues and no antibiotics? Isn't organic milk meant to be better for the environment and kinder to cows? When the evidence is examined, an astonishing picture emerges. Organic milk has no less pesticides and antibiotics than regular milk. Furthermore, the vast majority of organic cows (in the world generally) are treated no better than nonorganic cows. They are kept in confined spaces in cow sheds most of their lives, and the belief that organic cows are allowed out to pasture most of the time is very much a myth.

Regarding the environment, all the research is showing that organic milk is very much worse for the environment in terms of global warming emissions and energy consumption. This occurs because organic milk requires greater energy consumption (pint for pint) for transportation, distribution, and warehousing. Most organic milk is produced on smaller farms, and consequently cannot match the economies of scale applicable to nonorganic pasteurized milk.