Not Just Organic

I believe that we live in a time that requires us to look at our many food choices holistically. Gone were the days where buying organic products meant that we were making a better choice for our health and environments. Now we know that organic does not always mean better and the time where everything was easily black and white is gone. It is safe to say that we now majorly find ourselves in an expanding and confusing gray area. This means that we the consumers must be smarter and take a more holistic approach when it comes to buying or consuming a product.

A classic example I would like to focus on today is a daily staple found in almost everyone’s fridge; milk. While milk has long been an easy, delicious way to get the daily dose of calcium (as well as countless other vitamins and nutrients) for centuries, we now are faced with a confusing array of colorful cartons of milk (some who are shelf stable for 5-6 months!) and a more complicated problem then the generations before has had to face. A typical grocery store will offer a dizzying variety and choice, organic or conventional? Raw milk, vat-pasteurized, regular pasteurized or what seems to be most popular now because of the extended shelf life, UHT (Ultra-High Temperature) Pasteurized. Which one should a person choose? It’s no surprise that we are so confused and in this case, ignorance is defiantly not bliss.

The ongoing debate over the benefits and risks of consuming raw dairy products (one that I will not delve into today) has been going on for a while and no matter what side of the fence you are on, it is safe to say, dairy that has been pasteurized at the lowest temperature possible (vat-pasteurized) will always be better than dairy pasteurized at ultra-high temperatures (UHT pasteurized). A big portion of milk products sold today is ULT (ultra-high temperature) pasteurized, and what’s even more upsetting is that almost all (if not all) organic milk is UHT pasteurized, which translates to a heating process at twice the temperature of basic pasteurization. This process inevitably strips the milk of all bad bacteria as well as all the good bacteria that is vital to keep your digestive track healthy. 

 This is where it gets confusing, because as a consumer we assume that a label stating that a product is organic means that it is overall better, but in the case of milk, this is untrue. A lot of so called organic milk comes from mass factory farms who are overcrowded, with sickening living conditions. To be certified organic, the farm feed the cows’ organic corn and grain but is this truly better? Let’s quickly compare this scenario to another dairy farm that will likely be smaller and may even be locally found. Because this farm let’s its cows graze off of grass (which they were created to eat and which will produce milk rich in vitamins not found in grain fed cows) most times they are unable to claim the milk their cows produce to me organic but as you can see, the milk produced from the grass-fed farm is a better choice for everyone. This of course is not to say that all organic products are necessarily bad all the time, because they aren’t. There are times when buying organic really pay off in quality, for instance, organic produce from a local farm is always a good choice. What I would like everyone to take from this (whether you choose this route of another) is to be more aware about what you are buying and approach it holistically. Knowledge is key and making informed decisions is important for us to take back control of our health and lives.

Eat and be happy!

-Miss Sunshine