Yet Another Poor Study Shows Benefits For Organic

There are many studies that show benefits to organic foods over traditional foods, with an equal number showing no difference at all. The only difference is that the ones showing no difference are usually of a greater scale, both in sample size and time. This new study is of decent size, twenty-two brands in all, done over two years. They sampled milk during the winter and during the summer and it's that bit of info that I find interesting, which I'll get to in a bit.

The study was measuring levels of various fatty compounds in the milk and it found that organic milks had higher levels of good fats and lower levels of bad fats. Ohh, but the story isn't nearly that simple. As I mentioned, measurements were taken during the summer and winter, which produced wild fluctuations in fat levels for both conventional and organic. This indicates, as they mention in the article, that diet likely has a large part to play, since both milk and meat from grass-fed cows is lower in fat than cows fed with feed products. But one then has to ask, why bother advocating organic foods and not simply say we should feed our cows grass? Easy! You can't get self-righteous about grass.

Moreover, there are areas where conventional milk did better than organic, namely one C12 and all four measures of C14 fats. It is too much of a stretch to advocate organic from this study, or any of the other studies measuring similar things, even from a purely healthful perspective.

One interesting aspect of the data that they briefly mention in the article is that bad fats appear to be trending up in both types of milk as time goes on and good fats are trending down. Obviously, within ten years, cows will be producing 100% butter directly from their udders.

More About Raw Milk

I've been gearing up to buy some raw milk, I just haven't gotten around to it yet because I'm lazy. Truth be told, though, I also have a little bit of lingering fear about all of the nasty little pathogens inside of raw milk that are just eagerly waiting to kill me, because almost every other living thing on Earth is in some way eager to kill me.

Scientific American has a work-up of the current debate over raw milk, discussing as much as space allows from both perspectives. They have an utterly (udderly?)amazing reference to a form of microbe purification that is apparently used on things like canned hams, where the food isn't actually heated, instead it's subjected to intense pressure, which, I assume, literally crushes the bacteria. Cool, very cool. But not nearly as cool as killing all the bad stuff with sound waves? Sound waves?! I would totally kill my bacteria with The Beastie Boys.



I still feel that if someone wants to buy raw milk, they should be allowed to. I have an internal debate going on if raw milk should be labeled as dangerous, like cigarettes, by law or not. Still, even though the chances of getting sick are higher from raw milk than from pasteurized, they're still rather low. I also have the immune system of a shark (look it up). It's too bad that Rhode Island has laws against raw milk, since that means I have to make a trek to some farms in Massachusetts. That also means that, in the hot, hot days of summer, my trip home, and to the waiting deep chill, is going to be longer than I would like. So either I can bring an ice-filled cooler or wait till fall.

Got E. coli? Raw Milk's Appeal Grows Despite Health Risks (Scientific American)

Raw Milk.

I generally side with the scientists, and they say raw milk has no benefits in comparison to pasteurized milk, nor does it cure anything. But, it HAS to taste different. Even though pasteurization doesn't take the milk past its heat tolerance point, it gets it damned close. Changes in chemical structure do occur, as any scientist will admit, and I'd love to find out how raw milk tastes. I'm healthy enough, I think that I can take a shot of ebola, or hanta, or whatever raw milk carries.

If you're drinking Hood, stop, and start drinking Rhody Fresh. If you're drinking Rhody Fresh, stop and start ordering from Munroe Dairy. Munroe's 2% tastes better than Hood's whole. There's a big difference. So I'm left to wonder if there can even be a big difference moving from Munroe to raw. I'm especially intrigued because of my latte making. Steaming milk requires the proteins and fats in milk, both of which are damaged by heat. Could raw be the sweet, creamy, milk-filled, holy grail of latte production?

I'm going to try, and if you want to, this page has the info you need. Be aware of the risks. You can get sick from this! It's of a low probability, but it can happen. As for me, I look forward to my lattes.

Pasteurization Without Representation (The Atlantic)