Brit Study Says Organic Grass-Eating Cows Give Healthiest Milk

What the study actually says is that grass-fed cows (the news article describes organic cows as eating 80% grass) make healthier milk than non-grass-fed cows (non-organic cows getting 37% of their diet from grass). Given that cows evolved to eat grass, not corn, that's hardly a surprising result! What the study doesn't say is whether organic grass-fed cows have healthier milk than non-organic grass-fed cows... which would be more relevant to the "organic is better for you" discussion.

=====author's reply ====
Hi, Comet:
OK, perhaps your interpretation of the study is more accurate than mine - though if in the US in Britain the cows that get to eat the most grass are almost invariably organic, than that to me is relevant to the "Organic is better for you" discussion.

I have found that organic milk not only IS better for you, but TASTES better. Hands down. So, we made the switch about 2 years ago and will never go back.

The FSA (and the FDA in the US) have lost all credibility - they'll do anything to avoid making any finding that might upset an interest group, which is a shame because there is the impression they're there to protect the interests of consumers.

hey as long as its cow milk i will drink and support it, even goat. but that fake soy milk is crap

I don't drink grass-fed milk just because it's green, but because it actually tastes like milk!

"I have found that organic milk not only IS better for you, but TASTES better. Hands down. So, we made the switch about 2 years ago and will never go back."

Not to mention lasts longer too! I'm sure some of that is due to light exposure, but the organic milk I buy still tastes perfect two or more weeks after I have bought it. Every non-organic milk I have tried starts tasting odd, i.e., goes south, in less than a week.

Are organic cows allowed medical care, antibiotics, anthelmintics, & other medications if they fall ill?

===author's reply ====
As far as I remember visiting an organic dairy, there are certain allowed medicines but they generally don't fall under the standard "antibiotics" category.

It's not fake soy milk, chris h, it's actually soy milk. They use soy, more often in a mix with rice.
I've never liked drinking pure milk, just for my flakes, muesli and cacao, the difference is not that big. At least I don't have the picture in my mind where cows milk comes from and what it actually is.

It's also easier to milk that is hormone free if you stick with the organic milks.

after breastfeeding, i couldn't actually stomach drinking any animals milk.

just felt too weird!

cowes milk is great as a cheap, filler for protein and calcium, but you can still gets same benefits from a good diet.

The Union of Concerned Scientists' "Greener Pastures" from 2006 also found that grass-fed meat and milk are more nutritious than conventional meat and milk. See the report here: www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sustainable_food/greener-pastures.html

A couple of comments.

The term milk is not exclusively associated with animals, specifically cows. The term milk is referred to the opaque liquid substance that is produced from female mammary glands in mammals but it is also associated with similar whitish liquids from non-animal sources such as soy beans, almonds and coconuts to name a few. Neither is fake unless it is chemically altered to a non-food substance.

With that said, this study just backs up previous studies that show the difference between organic and non-organic milk and other food in terms of the increased amount of nutrients including enzymes, phytochemicals, anti-oxidants and electrolytes.

What I would like you to do next is to find studies that compare raw organic milk and it's properties to pasteurized milk and also the difference between whole milk and reduced fat milk. A 2005 study http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/159/6/543 published in Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine shows that full fat raw whole milk is a healthier and safer choice than the others.

This is actually very old news..by old I mean about 70 years old to be exact.. Weston Price who lived up till 1948 found that cows that ate fast growing grass early in the spring had the highest level of a compound at the time he called factor X. Today butter from the milk of such cows are sold for their health benefits. You can get more information @ www.westonaprice.org

ps. Unfortunately even organic grass-fed pasteurized milk is an inferior product to the raw counterpart - That site above contains lost of info on Raw milk as well as info on the negative health impacts of Soy milk and other unfermented soy products..
Check out these two videos from one of only 2 producers of Raw milk in California:

Video #1
Video #2

If anyone ever took the time to look overseas, you would find that in Australia and New Zealand, cows are not fed any grain, and the milk is not poluted with antibotics oand the meat is way down in cholesterol and saturated fats.
Who ever said that cows should get any corn or grain ? Onlyy the Fed. Gov. who seems to want the beef to be bad for our health !
LC

i switched to soymilk and whenever I taste cow milk now it tastes like animal and makes me gag.
As I kid i'd consume milk like water (i grew a thymic tumor)
now the soy is fine for me since I'm healthy now (i think) so maybe I don't need the x-tra stuff in raw cow milk.

But there is no doubt that cows/cattle are bad for the environment. the methane gas they produce is 100 times worse than co2 as a greenhouse GAS and there's lots of cows on earth.

As well as buying organic, I also look for milk that hasn't been homogenised as there is some evidence that this is better for you (and is easier to digest). It's not always obvious but it's usually printed on the bottle somewhere.
http://www.wewantrealfood.co.uk/single.htm?ipg=6899

The other day I had been thinking about how
delicious the milk we were given at school was.
You could really taste it then, because they gave
it out midmorning, without anything else to detract
from the flavor. I was wondering why milk no longer tastes like that - bingo - your article says
'why' - because in the 1930's all the cows were
grassfed and no hormones, chemicals, etc.
Looking forward to tasting some organic milk and
seeing if it tastes as good as I remember ( I drink
a lot of it everyday, so have good bones and,
tho have had some crashing falls, haven't broken
any bones in the last 50 years and I'm nearly 80.
The only bone I ever did break was when a horse fell on me, and I walked on that broken knee until it healed. Never realized until X-rayed years later,
altho I knew that my knee hurt like the devil !

======author replies======
Dear Cfiler:
I don't think organic milk will taste as good as the milk you remember, but grass-fed fresh milk from the cow does!