I told you earlier that when you choose non organic produce you may be consuming up to 67 different pesticides right along with your snack.
And just last fall—through a study funded mostly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture—we learned that organic strawberry farms have superior soil and that they produce higher-quality and better-tasting fruit.
Now, a recent study published in the Journal of Dairy Science has confirmed that organic milk is better for you.
Over a two-year period, scientists in the UK compared the fat and protein content in 22 different brands of milk found on supermarket shelves. What they uncovered may…or may not…surprise you.
They found that the organic varieties—the ones coming from cows being fed a primarily grass-based diet—had a slightly higher fat content but significantly higher levels of beneficial fatty acids, including the essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and a-linolenic acid (a-LN).
Now, to understand why this is important, you need to know just a little bit about essential fatty acids (EFAs).
EFAs serve a variety of important functions in the body, helping with everything from quelling the inflammation that’s the hallmark of heart disease and cancer to regulating one’s mood. But since our bodies are incapable of producing their own EFAs we have to rely on what we eat to supply them for us.
However, the stark reality is that very few of us are getting enough of these essential fatty acids in our regular diets and we’re paying the price with our health.
But if you’re a milk drinker, just making the switch to a certified organic brand can make a huge difference in your health. In fact, according to the authors of the study, if the UK were to make a switch to drinking only organic milk, the public would increase its heart-healthy cancer-fighting CLA intake alone by up to 40 percent.
So the next time you go to grab a carton of milk off the supermarket shelf, don’t just skip the nutrition-robbed skim varieties but be sure to pass by any that aren’t certified organic also.
References:
“Fat composition of organic and conventional retail milk in northeast England,” Journal of Dairy Science, Volume 94, Issue 1 , Pages 24-36, January 2011
“Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry Agroecosystems,” PLoS ONE, (2010), 5(9): e12346. oi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012346
“Pesticide Data Program Annual Summary, Calendar Year 2008,” United States Department of Agriculture, December 2009
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