Buy Organic Milk!

Should you buy only organic milk? I think so. Here is why:

Here is a basic list of rules that a farm must follow to be certified organic. This is not a complete list. The laws are quite strict. Please remember when reading labels that "organic" and "natural" are very different!

1. No pesticides or chemical fertilizers are allowed on the ground where the cows graze or where their feed is grown.
2. NO bovine growth hormones (BGH) are allowed to increase milk production. There's no genetic mutation or irradiation allowed.
3. They do not allow antibiotics. If a cow becomes sick and must be treated with antibiotics the farmer must wait an entire year before that animal will be allowed to return to milk production.
4. Cows which produce Organic milk must have “access to pasture” What this means varies from farm to farm. Some animals graze exclusively, some have only limited grazing time.
Organic Farms Benefit Us All
Organic Farms help the environment. No pesticides, chemical or synthetic fertilizers are used. This is important because such chemicals wash away in rain water and end up in your water supply.
Did you know that on regular farms (not organic) cows are given food made from other (dead) animals? This can spread diseases such as Mad Cow Disease.
On regular (not Organic) farms the cows are treated with BGH (bovine growth hormone) or rbST (recombinant bovine somatotropin). This dramatically increases milk production. These chemicals cause IGF-1 (an insulin like growth factor) in the milk. This survives pasteurization! It is thereby passed to humans and absorbed into your body! There is a great deal of debate on whether or not this is a cause of breast and colon cancer.
The USDA and FDA have approved this hormone and claim that it is safe, however the US seems to be alone in their belief. It has been banned in Europe, Canada and Japan.
The hormones also make the cows sick. It over-stimulates the cows udders and milk glands, causing mastitis. (an infection in the udder) This subsequently can cause pus to be emitted along with the milk. There are those who say that most of the pus is eradicated during pasteurization, however; the thought of giving my children milk mixed with pus is sickening!
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Antibiotics
Since the non-organic cow is constantly sick it must be treated with antibiotics.
Although it is illegal to receive milk from a cow being treated with antibiotics, the antibiotics seem to be showing up in the samples at an alarming rate. Some studies show this at 21%, while others as high as 38%

This can make you and your children immune to antibiotics when you actually need them.

Next time you are in the grocery store, take a good look at the expiration dates on the organic milk. How does it stay good for so long? One reason is because organic farms use a different method of pasteurization. Regular milk farms use a process known as Flash pasteurization. This means it is brought to a temp of between 140 and 160 degrees for a short amount of time and then cool very quickly in order to destroy bacteria, molds and yeasts.
Organic milk farms use the UHT method. This means it is heated to 275 degrees for a couple of seconds. This method is superior in killing micro-organisms and because of the shorter processing time, also better preserves the nutrients.

UHT treated milk also can stay out of the refrigerator (before it’s opened). Neat huh?

Just ask your parents or grandparents how long the milk used to sit on their doorsteps after delivery by the milkman. Why was it that it didn’t go bad? Less bacteria! The growth hormones were approved in the 1990s, that combined with using an inferior method for pasteurization had led to milk that spoils very quickly.

What about the taste? Pus in the milk gives it an “off” taste as you might imagine. The taste and texture of organic milk is much smoother and creamier.

The USDA and FDA claim that there are no nutritional differences between organic milk and their hormonally treated milk; however, there are several independent studies that provide evidence to the contrary.

Protect our children! Buy organic!

=) Amy

CDC Finds Rocket Fuel chemical in baby formula & city water

The following is a direct reprint of an AP story. I thought this was a very important article because we all want to keep our families safe and healthy. My thanks to Mike Stobbe for keeping us informed.

Bottom line- Breast feed, buy locally grown organic fruits and vegetables and hopefully we can all minimize the effects of the things we cannot avoid- like contaminated water.

CDC: Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer - Fri Apr 3, 3:36 AM PDT
ATLANTA - Traces of a chemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of powdered baby formula, and could exceed what's considered a safe dose for adults if mixed with water also contaminated with the ingredient, a government study has found.
The study by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered baby formula. It was published last month, but the Environmental Working Group issued a press release Thursday drawing attention to it.
The chemical has turned up in several cities' drinking water supplies. It can occur naturally, but most perchlorate contamination has been tied to defense and aerospace sites.
No tests have ever shown the chemical caused health problems, but scientists have said significant amounts of perchlorate can affect thyroid function. The thyroid helps set the body's metabolism. Thyroid problems can impact fetal and infant brain development.
However, the extent of the risk is hard to assess. The government requires that formula contain iodine, which counteracts perchlorate's effects. The size of the infant and how much formula they consume are other factors that can influence risk.
The study itself sheds little light on how dangerous the perchlorate in baby formula is. "This wasn't a study of health effects," said Dr. Joshua Schier, one of the authors.
The largest amounts of the chemical were in formulas derived from cow's milk, the study said.
The researchers would not disclose the brands of formula they studied. Only a few samples were studied, so it's hard to know if the perchlorate levels would be found in all containers of those brands, a CDC spokesman said.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was considering setting new limits on the amount of perchlorate that would be acceptable in drinking water. A few states have already set their own limits.
The EPA has checked nearly 4,000 public water supplies serving 10,000 people or more. About 160 of the water systems had detectable levels of perchlorate, and 31 had levels high enough to exceed a new safety level the EPA is considering.