The Truth About Pasteurization » » DrAxe.comDrAxe.com IF you have any questions about dairy milk pasteurization, this video may answer them. I am merely sending a link to Dr. Axe’s website, for your information. There is also a helpful infographic.
Btw, every “carton” (not jug) of Organic milk I’ve ever come across is “ultra pasteurized”. Don’t waste your money. None of the good stuff is left in there after this process.
Encouraging Health,
OrganicEater
Organic Eater 
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I agree. I never drink milk and actually almost never use to touch dairy in general. Just recently started having Greek yogurt and some fat free cheeses like feta. What’s your thoughts on those products?
Hi Jayne! I just watched a Mark McAfee (organic raw milk dairyman) video with Dr. Mercola last night. Over an hours worth of milk information! So, I will preface all of this with, I trust Dr. Mercola and what he said makes sense to me. And my personal history is that my father grew up on raw milk straight from the family cow and he and his siblings were all very healthy. My last disclaimer is that no one has all the answers on this yet, and we’re all trying to figure it out. Here are my thoughts: The pasteurization process kills all the good bacteria while killing the potentially bad, rendering a dead and in my opinion, pretty useless (and potentially harmful to some people) product. The proteins and enzymes are also destroyed. IF you can tolerate milk without any problems (and that’s for each person to figure out for themselves), raw milk is healthy (and statistically the least dangerous), but with it being illegal in most states, it’s difficult for most to find it. After raw, there is a difficult “spectrum” of good-better-best to wade through, because there are so many factors that come in to play (degree of pastuerization, homogenation, standardization, organic, grass-fed, etc). I think the next best thing would be low temp pastuerized (less than 150 degrees) and non-homogenized, but that’s only available at specialty health food stores. Hormone free, or Organic or grass-fed pasteurized milk is better than regular (hormone added) milk, but it’s still “dead” because it’s been pasteurized. I do not know the data enough to know how much better it is. I am probably going to stop buying organic milk for the most part, and buy more almond and coconut milk if they are not pastuerized (and I do not think they are). If I do buy milk, it will be the low temp kind I mentioned earlier, if I can even find it. I do not have a local dairy source, but that would be ideal. Now, for cheese and yogurt and butter, I believe raw is healthiest again, because it has not been pasteurized, but it’s difficult to find. Grass fed (not raw but grassfed) butter is easily available (Kerry Gold brand) and has lots of nutritional value. Any Organic butter is better than regular butter because regular butter can have a high concentration of hormones from the hormone fed cows. Raw milk cheese IS legal (it’s often called “aged”, but you have to look at the ingredients to see if pastuerized milk was used or not) and it’s pretty easy to find. Trader Joes has plenty of raw milk cheese. That’s what we eat, along with goat milk products. Even if you buy regular yogurt, it is better than regular pasteurized milk, because they have added good bacteria back in to the product! That gives it some nutritional goodness at least (for those who can tolerate it). My concern with yogurt is all the sugar added to most flavors. I always buy plain organic for yogurt, kefir, etc. I will also add here, that fermenting your own yogurt and kefir is healthiest, but I am not there yet!:) Greek yogurt, therefore, will at least have good bacteria added back in it, and it has more protein somehow, so I think plain Greek can be healthy (add your own organic fruit or other sweetener), if you can tolerate dairy. I love feta and goat cheese (goat products are supposedly healthier but I cannot remember why off the top of my head). I think dairy of any kind has some nutritional value like CLA and protein, enzymes, good bacteria. The pasteurization process is the problem, not the dairy itself (unless you have an allergy, etc.) So, for my family, I am going to try to stay away from pasteurized milk and cheese, and if I must buy pasteurized products, they will have good stuff added back into them, like yogurt. I am fortunate enough to live near SC, where I have access to raw milk if I want to drive down to get it, but I know most people don’t have that luxury, so I think it’s important to give readers options that are real-life applicable. One last thought, the Ultra High Temp (UHT) pasteurized milk (usually sold in the cartons) is completely and totally dead milk. It’s the worst product possible in Mark McAfee’s opinion, according to the video I watched. It’s done so that milk can stay on the shelf a lot longer. He even said it makes no difference whether its organic or not, if it’s UHT is dead and destroyed milk and he said stay away from it! I know that was a great big response, but there are so many variables, it’s difficult to answer a question about dairy quickly. Everyone needs to research and decide for themselves what’s best for their own family, but I highly recommend staying away from ultra high temp pasteurized and hormones if nothing else.
OH, one last thought (really) is that I do not worry about the fat content because we all need some fat in our diets, especially my kids for brain development. I watch portions with cheese, of course, but healthy fat (in moderation) doesn’t make you fat in my opinion. Unhealhty fats (trans fats and processed fake fats) and the inability to produce/regulate leptin makes us fat, according to the latest leptin discoveries around 1994, so it’s relatively new information. And what causes leptin not to work? Processed foods and processed grains and sugar. Oh, I could go on for days. I will stop now. Thanks so much for stopping by! I will go check out your blog! It looks beautiful! Keep up the good work on spreading the real food message! I know we (real food bloggers) all want everyone to be healthier and live a better life, and that desire unifies all of us, no matter what our specific dietary differences may be. Keep in touch! I saw you on IG this morning, so we can connect there too! See you soon!:)
Thanks for your reply! I do buy plain yogurt and add organic apple butter to it! 4g of sugar vs 16-29g not to mention where their sugar even comes from. I like fage Greek yogurt I’ll have to try the type you are talking about. I live quite a way from the closest whole foods but I do get over there once a month to read the ingredients of their products so I can compare, make my own judgement. I’m not always all trusting just because it’s in a health store. Your info was super helpful! brought a new awareness to light when shopping. Thanks a bunch, nice chatting 🙂
you are very wise to read the ingredients and not trust a food just because it’s in Whole Foods or Trader Joes or any other health food store! so glad that was helpful, sorry it was so long:) The main advantage of buying an organic Greek yogurt is that it will not have the GMO hormones in it that other Greek yogurts may have because they’re made with regular pasteurized milk. But at Trader Joes they have many yogurts that are not “organic”, but do have a hormone free label, which may be just as good. Again, reason to read the labels! Good luck in your search!