Have you ever wondered what the difference was between all those different milks in the grocery store cooler?
I have, and I can’t possibly be alone. In fact, I know I’m not alone. A friend of mine gave me a quizzical look when I started talking about unhomogenized milk. Not everyone knows that grocery store milks are pasteurized, let alone pasteurized to different levels. And what about fortification – do we get a say in that too?
My friends, meandering the ins and outs of milk is VERY confusing. Part of the mission of Crumbs is to educate ourselves on what food actually is and what the labels mean, so that’s precisely the point of today’s post. This is actually just part of the iceberg. It’s more than the tip, but certainly not everything I want to share on grocery store milks. There’s SO much I want to share and give due diligence to research for you guys just in terms of milk… hormones, pesticides, organic vs. conventional, homogenization, lactose, casein, powdered milk… and the more I research the more I want to write! So we’ll take baby steps with dairy and cover these topics (and SO much more!) one at a time.
There are two broad categories of milk: Raw and Pasteurized.
Raw milk is what you get when you milk a cow. Nothing is added, removed or heated. All of these totally awesome and amazing nutrients and enzymes found in raw milk are still fully in tact:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin E
- pantothenic acid
That’s quite a list, don’t you think? The only way to really get the full benefits of these nutrients, and the enzymes that help us assimilate them all, is buy consuming raw milk.
Pasteurized milk is everything else. If it’s not raw, it’s pasteurized. According to the Real California Milk website, “Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to destroy disease-causing microorganisms and to increase shelf life.” It’s also the same process that kills most of the awesome nutrients and enzymes in the milk. In fact, most of the original vitamins have been reduced so low, that they’re virtually negligible on a nutritional label.
Curious why pasteurization evolved in the first place? Read THIS post.
Milk can be pasteurized to three different levels: Ultra-High Temp (UHT), High-Temperature Short-Time (HTST) and Low-Temp.
UHT milk is heated to a temperature higher than 275°F for more than two seconds. This is the milk you find in aseptic (cardboard) containers. Non-refrigerated, shelf-stable milk is definitely UHT. Refrigerated milk may or may not be UHT. The refrigerated coolers have both cardboard and aseptic containers, so make sure you read the labels first.
HTST milk is heated to 162°F for at least 15 seconds. This is the most common method of pasteurization used in the dairy industry.
Low-Temp milk is heated to 145°F for at least 30 minutes. This isn’t a commercial standard. In fact, this type of pasteurization is most often done at home or in small dairies. It’s possible to do a HTST-type of pasteurization at home too, but this method is a bit safer and reduces the chances of burning the milk in the process. Update 10/13: This information is accurate for whole, 2% and skim milk. Cream, half and half, and egg nog must be pasteurized at 155°F, buttermilk and yogurt are pasteurized at 180°F. (source)
Because all grocery store milks are pasteurized, they are fortified to compensate for the loss of nutrients.
That huge list of awesome vitamins and minerals up there? Most of those nutrients are non-existent in the pasteurized milk found in grocery stores. The loss of calcium and phosphorus is about 5%. Thiamin and Vitamin B12 go down by 10% and 20% of Vitamin C is lost. The high heat used in the process kills healthy bacteria and enzymes and damages the remaining nutrients so that our bodies do not benefit from them. Dairy manufacturers know this, as do food scientists, so milk sold in grocery stores is fortified with synthetic nutrients that our bodies treat as foreign chemicals.
The FDA regulates some of the fortification process, but not all. For example, federal law mandates that manufacturers add vitamin A and vitamin D. Some manufacturers go beyond this requirement and add some of the other nutrients lost during the process. Regardless of what vitamins are added though, they’re all fake.
From a nutritional standpoint, raw milk is best. If you don’t have access to raw milk, aren’t quite ready to make that leap yet or don’t have room in the grocery budget for raw milk, the next best option would be low-temp milk, followed by HTST.
Personally, I would never recommend drinking UHT milk. It looks like milk, tastes like milk, but does NOT do your body good. There very little original nutrients left, if any, and it’s pumped with a variety of fake ones that put your body into a whirlwind while trying to digest them. Quite honestly, if I were given the choice between UHT milk or no milk, I’d choose no milk.
If you’re looking for better options, look up how to make milk alternatives at home. You can find the SIX different milk alternative tutorials on the dairy series homepage HERE.
But the milk we’re talking about is conventional milk, right? Where does organic fit into the mix? Isn’t that pasteurized? And if so, is it really any better? That post is next!