Women have the miraculous ability to grow a baby inside them. Proteins are the fundamental building blocks for the baby’s body, so it is essential that expectant mothers get plenty of protein while pregnant.
In the last two blogs, we’ve covered how many animal protein sources are produced at organic farms and factory farms. We’ve considered some of the benefits of organically raised animals and some of the problems with factory farm raised animals.
Another protein we need to consider is Milk. Milk can be made into many different dairy products, but it all starts with the milk from cows (of course other animals produce milk that is used for human consumption). I never considered dairy as a good source of protein until I was pregnant, at which point my dairy consumption increased exponentially. However, I had learned from previous research that not all dairy products are created equally.
I first experience organic milk when I was a nanny. I was the nanny of two little boys and their mother bought them organic milk. I asked her why and she said she didn’t want her boys getting synthetic hormones. I had this conversation stored in the “back” of my mind ever since and when I started researching milk production and processing it all come together for me.
So what’s the difference between milk that is organic and milk that is not? Organic milk comes from cows that are allowed to graze on forage rich pastures. These cows are not given any synthetic hormones to increase milk production nor are they given antibiotics. Truly organic milk comes from small family run dairy farms where the cows are treated according to how God created them. On factory farms the dairy cow is a means to an end. Their goal is not to raise healthy cows that produce the most nutrient dense milk, but to raise, or rather engineer, cows to produce as much milk as possible. These cows are given synthetic hormones to increase and maintain milk production, which in turn creates a high rate of mastitis which results in white blood cells (to fight the infection) and pus in the milk. In addition to the increase infection caused by the synthetic hormones, these cows also experience crowded and unsanitary living conditions both of which necessitate the regular use of antibiotics. Consequently, there is a big nutritional difference between organic milk and non-organic milk.
What’s next? More about milk and protein rich foods!