Heart healthy advantage of organic milk

Researchers from Newcastle University say milk collected following cooler, wetter weather may be bad for your health.

The paper appears in the Journal of Dairy Science.

Researcher Gillian Butler says higher saturated fats and lower beneficial fatty acids were discovered in milk produced during these poor British summer and harsh winters.

Among the conventional brands, scientists found healthy omega-3 and polyunsaturated fatty acids were lower when saturated fat products derived from palm oil was fed to the cows.

Vitamins, minerals, protein, antioxidants and some mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids in milk have benefits to our body, but saturated fatty acids are considered unhealthy.

Researchers suggested changing to organic milk because it is consistently contains more healthy fatty acids, despite the weather conditions.

Butler thinks the organic advantage boils down to a lower reliance on grazing on nitrogen laced fertilizer meant to suppressed clover on conventional farms.

Since weather affects the cows’ behavior, the cows may graze less and produce less milk.

In order to avoid the shortage of milk product, farmers may need to supplement with concentrated feeds.

Organic products rely on foraging red and white clover, which help to alter the fatty acid composition of milk.

"We should consume less saturated fats and switch to organic milk and dairy products for a healthy way to get desirable fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants.", Butler suggested. "By choosing organic milk you can cut saturated fats by 30-50 percent and still get the same intake of beneficial fatty acids, as the omega-3 levels are higher but omega-6 is not, which helps to improve the crucial ratio between the two."

If the weather conditions continued, dairy management would have to adapt to maintain long term milk quality, researchers suggested.

The researchers, who are part of the University's Nafferton Ecological Farming Group and its Human Nutrition Centre, looked at the quality of milk in supermarkets across North East England at varying times of year over a two-year period.

Stephen Lau and editing by Aimee Keenan-Greene

source: foodconsumer

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