I’d been a raw milk drinker for years. Yet I hadn’t expected to respond so negatively to the glass of Horizon organic milk my friend poured for me. After all, that’s what I’d drunk for years before making the switch to raw milk from grass-fed cows.
“Yuck. This tastes burnt!” I said.
That’s when I saw it. The milk had been ultra-high temperature pasteurized. In fact, more than 80% of the organic milk sold in the U.S. is UHT pasteurized. It’s why I don’t drink organic milk.
What is UHT Milk?
The official U.S. government definition of an ultra-pasteurized dairy product stipulates “such product shall have been thermally processed at or above 280° F for at least 2 seconds, either before or after packaging, so as to produce a product which has an extended shelf life.”
Get this. According to Wikipedia, UHT milk has a shelf life of 6 to 9 months (until opened). When the world’s foremost UHT milk processor, Parmalat, first introduced UHT milk to the U.S. market back in 1993, they hit a snag. Americans distrust milk that hasn’t been refrigerated. We like our milk cold, and UHT milk doesn’t need to be refrigerated.
So, milk producers got creative. They could extend the shelf life of their product and not advertise that they were doing it. They’d sell the milk in normal packaging, in the refrigerator aisle, and none of us would be the wiser.
Now, almost all of the organic milk and the majority of conventional milk available in U.S. supermarkets is UHT processed.
What’s wrong with UHT processing?
The introduction to a 2005 study published in the Journal of Dairy Science highlighted the current problems with UHT processing from an industry point of view:
Often, heat treatment causes milkfat globule membrane proteins and whey proteins to unfold such that buried sulfhydryl (-SH-) groups, normally masked in the native protein, are exposed to the outer surfaces (Hoffmann and van Mill, 1997). In turn, these processes produce extreme cooked flavors, often attributed to changes in the sulfhydryl and disulfide content of the protein fraction (Swaisgood et al., 1987). Conventional pasteurization methods have long been in place and with the advent of UHT technology, the sterilization of fluid milk was achieved using higher temperature treatments for shorter periods. However, shelf-stable milk has met with limited acceptability by the consumer, especially in the United States, due in part to a high cooked flavor. Several attempts to improve the quality of UHT-treated milk products proved successful to varying degrees. Previously, Swaisgood and coworkers used immobilized sulfhydryl oxidase to reduce the thiol content of UHT-heated skim milk and described an improved flavor after enzymatic oxidation to form protein disulfide bonds (Swaisgood et al., 1987). Other studies have showed that altering UHT processing parameters, such as indirect vs. direct steam injection systems, cooling rates, and long-term storage conditions have a significant impact on sensory attributes (Browning et al., 2001). Most recently, epicatechin, a flavonoid compound, was added to UHT milk prior to heating, and the results revealed partial inhibition of thermally generated cooked aroma (Colahan-Sederstrom and Peterson, 2005).
So for decades, UHT processors have known that UHT processed milks results in a “high cooked flavor,” and they’ve done all kinds of experimenting to get rid of the nasty taste and smell (even resorting to adding flavonoid compounds to the milk to try to negate the off-flavor).
Okay, so it tastes funny compared to raw milk. And maybe it smells funny too. But what makes UHT processing any worse than regular old pasteurization?
According to Lee Dexter, microbiologist and owner of White Egret Farm goat dairy in Austin, Texas, ultra-pasteurization is an extremely harmful process to inflict on the fragile components of milk. Dexter explains that milk proteins are complex, three-dimensional molecules, like tinker toys. They are broken down and digested when special enzymes fit into the parts that stick out. Rapid heat treatments like pasteurization, and especially ultra-pasteurization, actually flatten the molecules so the enzymes cannot do their work. If such proteins pass into the bloodstream (a frequent occurrence in those suffering from “leaky gut,” a condition that can be brought on by drinking processed commercial milk), the body perceives them as foreign proteins and mounts an immune response. That means a chronically overstressed immune system and much less energy available for growth and repair. (source)
Now, that’s scary. No wonder more and more people are starting to think of themselves as intolerant to casein (the protein found in milk). Not only do pasteurization and UHT processing kill off the enzymes present in milk needed to digest the casein, the casein itself is altered to the point of being indigestible!
Now consider this: you cannot make yogurt or kefir out of UHT milk, it is simply too dead to hold a culture. If a product will not support microscopic life, it is not likely to support human life. (source)
So now you know why I don’t buy organic milk at the store — even when I run out of raw milk. If you want more help deciding how to prioritize your milk purchases, check out this post on Healthy Milk: What To Buy.
Liked what you read? You may find these posts interesting:
Are you casein intolerant? You should read this! RT @FoodRenegade: What’s wrong with UHT milk: http://su.pr/ARJBZT
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I started buying raw milk about a year ago so I could make cheese. DH mentioned last night that ever since he started drinking raw milk he hasn’t had any IBS issues. Wow! I’m starting to become a believer.
.-= Wendy (The Local Cook)´s last blog post …5 Reasons Why My Blog Rocks =-.
Wendy,
That really doesn’t surprise me. I’ve heard similar things from just about everyone who’s started drinking raw milk. Obviously, some people really ARE lactose or casein intolerant — particularly if they’re from non-dairy herding ancestry. But the rest of us can probably do dairy just fine, so long as it’s in its natural state.
Ultra-pasteurized milk – a deader than dead product http://www.foodrenegade.com/just-say-no-to-uht-milk/#more-1639
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Deader than dead! I like that.
What’s wrong with organic milk? Something you may not know, but should consider: http://su.pr/ARJBZT (RT @FoodRenegade)
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Reading @foodrenegade Just Say No To UHT Milk http://tinyurl.com/yzy5jhc
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Details about why ultra-pasteurization is bad news: http://bit.ly/ceQPkZ
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I searched high and low for a milk that we could drink since we are allergic to corn. You might think the two things are unrelated, but even organic milk uses GMO corn as a vitamin carrier for the added vitamin D. Once I realized that the nonfortified milk is ultra-pasteurized, I gave up. I, too, believe that UHT milk is dead. In fact, I don’t believe it qualifies as edible food any more. Until I can find a source for raw milk, I will continue to do the only thing that works for us and that is substitute Daisy full fat sour cream plus water for milk in recipes and just drink water. After all, it is corn-free, full fat, and readily available. (I would like to use whole milk yogurt but there is nothing but nonfat and lowfat in my stores. I guess that’s another whole can of worms, isn’t it? I sometimes wonder if we will starve having to rely on what little actual food is sold in the grocery store until the farmer’s market starts up again.)
.-= kc´s last blog post …GMOs in Pasture Raised Meat =-.
Kc — Have you ever considered watering down cream and using that as a drink (that’s something I once heard Sally Fallon Morrell recommend)? Or any of these healthy homemade milk substitutes?
Reading @foodrenegade Just Say No To UHT Milk http://tinyurl.com/yzy5jhc
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I raise Kinder dairy goats simply because I wanted a source of fresh raw milk for my family to drink. I make raw milk yogurt and ice cream, and hope to make lots of cheese this year. It’s a sad day around here when I have to dry my girls off and go back to “store” milk. Hopefully this year I’ll be able to milk one of the girls through so I don’t have to drink the other junk. Even though what we drink isn’t UHT, it’s still nasty stuff. The problem here in Illinois is that you can’t legally sell raw milk. What a crock of crud, but it’s true.
Even when we “have” to drink the pasteurized stuff, we still have a few options. There’s a local dairy that gently pasteurizes their milk and doesn’t homogenize it. We can pick it up at either the Farmer’s Market or a couple local health-food stores. I also know of a couple of brands of pasteurized, homogenized milk that comes from grass-fed cows and ISN’T UHT processed (if you’re really desperate). Also, have you contacted your local Weston A Price chapter leader? It’s possible that there’s a nearby herdshare arrangement where you can get raw milk by buying a share of a cow. Anyhow, you’re lucky to have goats!
what’s wrong with milk? it doesn’t even need to be refrigerated- that’s what. http://su.pr/ARJBZT #fb
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
In ways you have to be a renegade today. Look what happened to the Great American Indians. The guys with the guns win. This is not always so. Industrialized food has been their gun for along time ad we were forced fed these industrialized foods for many years without knowing all the facts. Now we have internet and this real good foods movement is rolling along. All the emotionally intelligent have come out of the closet or just now able to step up to the plates. Now is time to start hitting home runs.
We have a good read for you to demonstrate how we feel about these subjects you write about. we are milkmen and we like David Gumpert’s new book;
“THE RAW MILK REVOLUTION – Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights.”
Read this and follow through with some of his suggestions or just make plans. There are a whole “lotta” good things to learn from this book. We did and we thank Mr. Gumpert for writing this book.
The Milkman is Back!
Milkmen USA
Thanks. Remember, cream floats on top, the rest go to the middle and bottom. And no problem with that as long as the good stuff stays on top.
Ed — Yay. I’ve already read and reviewed the Raw Milk Revolution for my readers. You can find the link here:
http://www.foodrenegade.com/the-raw-milk-revolution/
Not only does this stuff taste like crap, it is often adulterated with thickeners because it is so damaged that the mouthfeel is wrong.
I have heard that it is because of the UHT that expiration dates on organic milk are so much farther out than regular milk.
My question though is where do I find a raw milk supplier? Thanks!
.-= Jennifer´s last blog post …I ordered my seeds! =-.
Jennifer — The best place to start looking for milk is by contacting your local Weston A Price chapter leader. They’ll know. Otherwise, you can check out the very limited listings at http://www.realmilk.com and ask around at your local farmer’s markets.
Hope that helps!
~Kristen
Another reason to pass on Horizon Organics is that they are owned by Dean Foods, which recently acquired Silk soy milk and pulled a dubious bait and switch on its consumers and retailers:
http://greens-n-grains.com/?p=85
I was looking for milk for my daughter when we were visiting my parents in the States over Christmas (they only have skim conventional in the house…bleh!) and was shocked that I could only find UHT stuff! Here in Cananda I’ve never seen UHT organic milk. I went to the fancy grocery store and really poked around and managed to find some full-fat, cream-top milk that was not UHT. We didn’t even come close to drinking all of it in the couple days we were there, but my dad commented after we left that he drank the rest of it and it was the best milk he had tasted in a long, long time. They still don’t believe me that it’s good for you, too.
I’ve been making yogurt for the last 3 years using UHT milk. It works fine. Indeed, it’s incredibly convenient to not have to pasteurize the milk yourself… I like it better than commercial yogurt. I agree with much of the Weston Price philosophy in principle, but their article about UHT (which finds its way into articles such as yours) is just plain wrong, and maybe even intentionally misleading.
I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not you think UHT is good or not. But, without a doubt, you can make fine yogurt with it. Thousands (millions?) of people do. I use Yogourmet yogurt starter or just propogate the culture from previous batches.
I started buying Organic Valley recently but was confused why organic milks expiration date was always over a month so I googled and found out about UHT and then I found this gloomy article.
THANK YOU for your comment because I was about to toss mine out and never drink it again because of the whole “If a product will not support microscopic life, it is not likely to support human life” statement.
I agree with u that others need to decide whats good or bad for them but when u have a valid point no need to scare people with false information in the process and that’s what this article did. I’m thankful for your comment so that this article didn’t turn me into a chicken little like I’m sure it did for many others.
Wow, I didn’t realise all the milk you guys get in America is UHT. In europe, refridgerated milk is ‘fresh’, and UHT is on non-refrifgerated shelves.
BTW, I agree UHT tastes bad, but it’s not true you can’t use it for yoghurt, i works fine, if anything a little richer than fresh milk.
Please note who attacks UHT milk…those who compete with this technology. There is nothing wrong with UHT milk products even those products that use radiation preservation I am not in the milk industry and have no vested interest on either side. Those who state UHT is bad and suggest its not good for our health are liars. When these farmers who attack such products go into this area themselves they will sing a different tune. UHT is find, I have been drinking it for years and in some cases its better for those who have issues with other milk products. There are many papers stating its a solid and logical way to distribute milk.
YES to the above comment. The quote from the farmer in this blog post is BS, proteins are digested by proteases that don’t depend on the molecular shape – there are far too many types of protein for this to even be possible. And “leaky gut” is a disease with autoimmune and bacterial causes that has absolutely nothing to do with drinking milk. UHT milk does not pose a health risk, and by the very fact that it is UHT and has less microbial contamination, it’s probably SAFER.
Just be upfront about it: you don’t like UHT milk because it tastes different. …and maybe because it seems “unnatural” for it to not need refrigeration. Both of these are preferences. There is nothing wrong with UHT milk, just like there’s nothing wrong with asparagus no matter how much I dislike it.
Also, raw milk may taste awesome, but the refrigeration costs and waste involved in having every city-dweller in america drinking raw milk would be enormous (not to mention the environmental impact). So until the day when they breed cows to be pets, maybe some people (read: most of the US population) will just have to settle for milk that’s been decontaminated. And come to think of it, you’d probably find a reason to hate on the milk from pet cows too.
Max -
Sorry to disagree with you, but you’re way off-target on this one – and your arguments just don’t hold water.
1. Yes, UHT milk is more difficult to digest for many people than fresh raw milk or even vat-temp pasteurized milk. As an added insult since it is free from beneficial bacteria and does not support their growth, it cannot be properly cultured. It’s beneficial bacteria that line our gut that help the human body to develop appropriate immune responses, to manufacturer vitamins and to digest macronutrients. UHT milk doesn’t support this process, and people drinking UHT milk in lieu of fresh milk will be operating at a loss.
2.Taste is a personal preference. You may like the thin texture and the cooked flavor of UHT milk, and great for you if you do. But from a culinary perspective, it’s relatively worthless. Sure, you can put it on your cereal, but there’s little else you can do with it. You can’t even make cheese from it, not because the cheese tastes bad, but because it won’t clabber and won’t foster the growth of the beneficial bacteria necessary to do so.
3. With raw milk, transportation costs are fewer – and even refrigeration costs. UHT milk, despite the fact that it has been so denatured that it can sit on the shelf at room temperature for months, is STILL transported in refrigerated trucks. It’s STILL sold from refrigerated cases. And when people crack open a carton, they still need to refrigerate it. Not to mention it’s still processed through a cooling tank at the farm, and in cooling trucks to the dairy before it’s heat-treated and bottled (or, rather, put into waxed cardboard cartons that may be recyclable in some areas but are not reused).
That’s a heck of a lot more wasteful than the milk that comes from my dairy which goes into a cooling tank, into reusable glass jars, into a cooler, into my hands and into my fridge for a week. Way more efficient.
.-= Jenny @ Nourished Kitchen´s last blog post …A Recipe- Coconut Flour Cake with Coconut Frosting =-.
@ Max Welsh
It drives me nuts when people post arguments with no sources backing up their statements. Not that you have to write an annotated bibliography, but come on — you just make several claims with no supporting statements:
You can’t just say someone is wrong — you have to say why.
The quote from the farmer in this blog post is BS, proteins are digested by proteases that don’t depend on the molecular shape – there are far too many types of protein for this to even be possible.
Please explain.
And “leaky gut” is a disease with autoimmune and bacterial causes that has absolutely nothing to do with drinking milk.
Please elaborate. What are you basing this statement on?
UHT milk does not pose a health risk, and by the very fact that it is UHT and has less microbial contamination, it’s probably SAFER.
Proof, please, showing how UHT milk is safer.
Also, raw milk may taste awesome, but the refrigeration costs and waste involved in having every city-dweller in america drinking raw milk would be enormous (not to mention the environmental impact).
Huh??? We’ve been refrigerating our milk for decades. I doubt you are going to convince Americans to stop using refrigeration so this argument is just plain silly.
She makes a good point that nobody would buy the stuff if it was sitting out on the shelf.
So until the day when they breed cows to be pets, maybe some people (read: most of the US population) will just have to settle for milk that’s been decontaminated. And come to think of it, you’d probably find a reason to hate on the milk from pet cows too.
Um, OK this is based on what exactly? People will have to settle for UHT milk because… why? Please back up your claims.
.-= Ann Marie @ CHEESESLAVE´s last blog post …Giveaway- Enter to Win a Le Creuset Stockpot 55 value =-.
Kristin, thank you for bringing to light the realities of UHT milk. In Spain, particularly the larger cities, most of the population drinks UHT milk sold warm in boxes. I did not realize until this year that UHT milk can very well be sold warm in the States, however, the public would probably freak out to realize their milk is shelf stable for 6 – 9 months! Common sense people… common sense should let us know that ingesting something that doesn’t spoil for months…. which appears to be food, can’t be good for our bodies. It’s no wonder that most Spaniards claim to be lactose intolerant and claim to have problems digesting milk. Hmm… in the times of raw milk (my mother’s generation), the problems of digesting milk weren’t there. There were no problems! Sigh…. before the times of adulterated food, we didn’t have to think scientifically when it came to food. We just used a little bit of common sense.
Thanks Kristin!! Loved this!
.-= Diana@Spain in Iowa´s last blog post …Giveaway Winners and Things to Come =-.
Obviously, the people that are saying there is nothing with UHT have an agenda! Just like we who support raw milk will go to sites of people who are saying raw milk is bad and try to convince them otherwise. Except we know the facts!!! No one can thrive on overly cooked and processed milk.
“Just like we who support raw milk will go to sites of people who are saying raw milk is bad and try to convince them otherwise. Except we know the facts!!!”
Sooo, you know the facts but no one else does? How do you not see the flaw in that type of thinking?
Why isn’t UHT milk on the regular shelves in the US? Because no one in the US would buy milk that wasn’t refrigerated! That’s why! They have to keep it in the coolers and make the masses think that it’s still like the milk their great grandparents drank – but it’s nothing like the grass-fed, raw milk of the olden days, is it? No, it is not. It’s a junk food like everything else sold by the big food industry.
haha I pity uneducated people. I’m sorry but there is something terribly wrong with milk that doesn’t have to be refrigerated. I prefer my food just the way God intended it. UHT and other processed products will be the death of America because of uneducated people relying on a corrupt government and food industry to tell them what to eat. My prayers go out to you!
Saying that yoghurt or kefir cannot be made from UHT milk is simply incorrect! Unfortunately raw milk is unavailable here legally (on this Spanish island where I live) – so I have to make my yoghurt and kefir from UHT milk – which I’ve been doing weekly for the past year..
I was living in Spain a few years back. After being healthy my entire life, a few years back my family and I began to get flu-like symptoms and a low-grade fever, a situation that lasted for months. We spent a great deal of time eliminating possible causes, thought in terms of an allergy or food toxin or some transmitted disease, but discovered that a UHT low-fat milk we were using in tea was the cause when my young daughter drank a glass instead of the whole milk we were using for drinking. She immediately became extremely ill with vomiting and ran a 41Cº fever for three days, a fever we had to keep down with compresses day and night. Since, we had more than a few experiences of the same type, and were heating the milk to just below boiling for three minutes to save ourselves the agony of more illness, even though it was my understanding that we were denaturing both proteins and vitamins(although UHT had probably done that denaturing already). It is a great pity Americans are being subjected to the same profit-motivated regulations as in Europe, where UHT is king, where the EU apparently is about to permit feeding animal protein to cattle, chickens, pigs, etc. once again, even after the mad cow disaster extended by government subsidies to the industry in the past. So soon it will be mad cow, mad pig, mad goat, mad turkey…. Ignorance in the political class and a subservient press is the cause. Doing things right and honestly and investigative reporting are things of the past in the US and have never existed from what I can judge in Europe. There, excess milk production is poured into the ground, not converted into dried milk and cheese for the poor as in the US, and there I am told but haven’t verified, milk returned from stores can be reprocessed and repackaged to be resold! If you compare labels the nutritional data indicates that the natural vitamin value of milk is destroyed by the UHT process, and in products specifically for children a short list of vitamins is added…but I suspect that a long list of other necessary vitamins and nutritional compounds found in fresh milk simply do not get into the diet of many people. Medicine has to be free when illness is government policy.
I like the taste of UHT milk. I wish I could buy Parmalat here so I could keep it on the shelf at work until I need to open it. That way I would have less of a problem with the milk I buy going bad before I drink it. I am sure that raw milk in general is healthier but what I really want most is to have the CHOICE…
I recently purchased milk at Target under the Market Pantry brand (their own brand, I believe). It had about 12 days until expiration on it at time of purchase. When the date on the milk arrived, we continued to drink it, as there was no smell or consistency issues. 3 days out of date we stopped drinking it but left it in the fridge. Another week passed and it still did not smell nor did it curdle. I then took it out of the fridge and set it on the counter. That was 3 days ago. Still, no smell or no curdling.
I contacted Target and they claimed to be surprised by all this. I was also advised not to drink it, something which I most assuredly had no intention of doing. Still, they gave me no answers.
I has become clear to me that the milk which I drank was UHT, even though I could not detect any difference in taste between this and other locally purchased milk, milk which typically does not survive it’s expiration date. I’m angry because I was not informed of this on the container. I would never have purchased it had I known .
Let this be a warning to those of you who buy milk at Target or who buy milk under the Market Pantry brand name. You may very well be getting UHT milk without knowing it.
You people are crazy. How can you possibly think that the bacteria found naturally in cow milk is completely safe for human consumption? All milk contains growth hormones. So a mother that breastfeeds her child is giving them growth hormones found in her body. Does it make sense to drink the growth hormones found in a cow? I didn’t think so. Not to mention all the other bacteria that we were never meant to handle.
This is why we have modern practices such as pasteurization and UHT. Heating milk to 260 is a pretty safe way to kill off bacteria. True it doesn’t contain the enzymes that allow us to properly digest raw cow milk, but that is the only harm it is causing. If you consider that a harm.
That’s so true. I love in Nepal where raw milk is very freely available, in fact, in most places the only milk for sale. But there are a lot of problems causes by this. When I get a box of UHT, I feel like I am getting a treat.
Interesting article. I moved to Spain four years ago from Texas and didn’t drink milk for quite awhile because I could only find the UHT milk on the shelf. I found that “some” stores carry fresh milk but it’s super expensive and not readily available. UHT milk in Spain does not taste bad nor does it smell bad. I’ve used it in my cereal for years now without incident. It seems to last forever, which is strange to me, but it is nice not to have to buy milk every few days. However, I no longer drink milk by itself, not because it tastes bad; I think it’s all in my head. Every once in awhile I will buy fresh milk if I need to drink it. So, I doubt it’s unsafe considering most Spaniards live much much longer than Americans.
Whatever, tastes fine to me and I don’t need to buy new milk every week. So what if it “alters” some of the nutrient content. It’s not like you look to milk to get all of your nutrients in one day anyway. If you ARE then you should think about switching since too much calcium is bad for you. My father used to drink a lot of milk daily till he got a kidney stone.
Anyway, I think all of you are making a much bigger deal than it should be
I live in the Philippines until UHT milk from New Zealand there was almost no milk avalable. I have been useing a 2% UHT milk for more than 3 years and do not find any difference from the 2% milk we drank in the U.S.
I just read on the Daisy brand website that their products are pasteurized and homogenized, actually I found out most sour cream brands are homogenized!! I thought this was not possible! This really irritates me because I stay away from conventional milk products not only because they come from factories but because they are homogenized and I thought cream and butter were not! Can anyone explain why they have to do this??
Not to be mean, just stating some things to think about:
The type of milk you drink is a preference. Freedom of choice.
Just because something is different does not make it bad.
If you use raw milk to cook what do you think happens to it when you bake it at 300 degrees? The same as Pasteurization.
Milk (even raw milk) is an insignificant source of enzymes and vitamins in your diet. Milk is significant for protein and calcium.
Pasteurization is not a conspiracy, it came about in the 1800′s to eliminate sickness caused by milk. Statistics prove that this has worked.
If everyone went back to raw milk all of these diseases would return.
One last item to look into. You would be amazed at how many people did the raw milk thing for awhile including buying a share of a cow, and after a couple of months quit because of getting sick. Including 2 of my friends.
If you like raw milk than drink it and enjoy, but there is no need to beat up on the other people that use other products.
Thanks
Good that you spoke up, Alan! You’re right — these nutritional choices are a personal decision. Instead of arguing, we should be educating — and allowing others to make their choices based on the facts. That’s one good thing about this site — people are being educated. It’s good as long as we aren’t offensive to others and that we are getting the truth. One particular choice may be good for someone; but often that same choice is not the best for another. Thanks for speaking up, and especially for being pleasant when presenting your opinion.
UHT milk tastes great and lasts in our frig for days. It lasts much longer than the milk from the market frig. This is good for us as there is no waste. We are always able to use the amount in the carton in a timely manner. This milk is also good for making yogurt. One does not necessarily need to heat before adding the culture only after in the sun until is warms well then can be kept at room temp until thickened. I would use whole organic milk for children and infants though because they can use the extra calories and vitamins. I would not use raw unless the milk is from my own animals.
We have a cow and after milking we boil the milk before drinking it, therefore paterizing it, this is the only way I would really drink it.
I agree with Alsn if people want to drink raw milk and it works for them, fine we should just stick to what suits us and let others enjoy what suits them.
It is not true that you cannot make yogurt or kefir from UHT milk. I have done so many times. It will culture just fine. Even Organic Lactose Free milk works great to make yogurt.
Not saying it is GOOD milk, or GOOD yogurt, but it does work. Try it yourself.
I have Crohn’s. I can drink raw milk without digestive problems. I cannot drink commercial pasteurized and homogenized milk. It gave me belly aches, and I ended up calcium deficient in spite of drinking quite a bit of milk and eating plenty of fresh veggies. Raw is definitely healthier than pasteurized, if it is not subjected to mishandling and exposed to factory farm superbugs.
Hello I do love this blog and have today just received my first kefirgrains. The lady who sold them to me said to use only UHT milk but couldn’t explain why, I believe it’s microphobia as many people in Holland have it, everything must be sterilised to death especially if babies are involved. Can you see any other reason she might have suggested this? She also said to rinse the kefir and sterilise everything before making each batch but I thought rinsing them was not so good? Maybe you can shed some light on the situation. Thanks! Cat
I’ve noticed, from my first tast of UHT milk, that I had intolerance symptoms, but I just thought that it was my body with a bad reaction to “milk”, I had not related “UHT” and “intolerance” until a couple of years back; nevertheless, what amazes me is that all of them disappear when using lactose-free UHT milk (there’s no other choice for this product in my country of living). I know that I’m not “lactose intolerant” as yoghurt and cheese are not giving me any problem at any time, so, after reading your blog (I just thought “I knew it!”) I’m not really sure about:
- What are those “lactose-free” UHT milk products?
- which is the relation between the degradation of casseine and lactose freeing process applied to milk?
- Will the regular pasteurized or boiled milk have the same problems that ultra pasteurized milk has?
Seriously, you people have food paranoia.
The only down side of UHT milk is that it tastes horrible to most people.
So heating milk to high temperatures alters the structure making it harder to digest leading to digestion problems? It’s true that heating any food alters it’s molecular structure, that’s essentially what cooking is, that’s why the food changes colour and tastes different when it’s cooked. But the theory heated milk is hard to digest is just someone’s guess. The only evidence for this given in the article is about people with leaky guy disease. Who has leaky gut disease? Not me, and not you, so why worry?
What about the raw milk you put in your tea and coffee? You are adding milk to a boiling drink which is around 100 degrees C. So basically that milk’s molecular structure is going to change as well.
And yoghurt? When you make yoghurt from milk what’s happening? The molecular structure is changing. Is yoghurt therefore harder to digest than milk?
At the end of the day, UHT milk is clearly “safer” than raw milk because it’s been so thoroughly pasterised and is therefore less likely to have any potentially harmful bacteria in it. Naturally occurring bacteria isn’t the only stuff that can be in milk, other stuff could get in during the production. Either way, the risk is still extremely low and nothing to worry about.
In conclusion the choice between UHT and raw milk for us normal people is about taste, cost and convenience.
A few simple points:
–I agree that raw milk has beneficial properties that pasteurized milk does not have. That doesn’t mean pasteurized milk is bad for you. It means pasteurized milk is not as good for you.
–Do heat your milk before making yogurt? Almost everyone heats it and then cools it before adding the cultures. If you do this, you have exposed your milk to far more heat than UHT pasterization does. UHT pasteurization holds the milk at very high temperatures for about a second and then rapidly chills it. Standard pasteurization heats it to a lower temperature (about the same as most people heat their milk to before making yogurt) for a few seconds. But when you heat milk on your stovetop and then let it cool, it is spending far more time at high temperature than in pasteurization.
–Pasteurization does prevent milk from being used for certain cheeses. It does not prevent milk from being used for yogurt or kefir. I have doe it many, many times
–The bacteria in kefir and yogurt eat the sugars in the milk, not the proteins or enzymes. In fact, kefir grains can be used to culture fruit juice as well as milk.
David, Thanks for the point about the temperatures at which yogurt is made. I was wondering why this hadn’t been mentioned.
I’m loving that I can buy UHT milk. I’m travelling for business, and I want my coffee in the morning and it costs like $15 for a decent cup in the morning from a business hotel.
So I can make my own, but I need cream. UHT is the answer. It packs in my suitcase, and it will stay good for my entire trip.
As for health, I read “The China Study”. Arguing about which milk is healthier is like arguing which type of nuclear reactor to build in your town. I haven’t found a substitute for cream in the coffee, or for really good cheese, but in general, milk isn’t really in my diet very much any more.
Neil
I think the China study hit upon some truths, but it is also true that people that do not eat the right animal products (see the work of Weston A Price) do not have the dental health of those that eat these animal products.
You can make both yogurt and kefir from UHT milk. I do it all the time. Dollar Tree has quarts of UHT whole milk for $1, and both my homemade Greek yogurt culture and my kefir grains grow well and produce safe, edible products. Raw milk is undeniably better – if you’re drinking /raw milk/. If you plan to ferment it or culture it in any way, it doesn’t matter what kind of milk you use, it’s the culturing process that will produce the beneficial parts.
You mention not being able to make Yoghurt from UHT Milk. With The UHT milk available in the UK, it is entirely possible, indeed recommended by yoghurt machine manufacturers.
I for one do not like the taste of UHT milk and, having consumed untreated milk in the past, would prefer that if it were an option. However, UHT, with its faults, also has its benefits. Todays homogenised, pasturised, filtered milks are already far too industrial. The UHT Procdess has little more effect on the goodness of the milk.
Only an idiot would bash UHT milk. For those cultures that have grown up with it, it is a tasty part of a healthy diet. I regretfully grew up drinking regular milk and contracted Crohn’s Disease a decade ago. I avoid non-UHT milk whenever possible to avoid the harmful bacteria that may well have contributed to my chronic gut disease.
An additional question I have. Some organic milk companies “enhance” or add Omega 3, DHA, to their milk. This is done by adding the same type of vitamin fish oil pills you buy in the drug store. Except they don’t use fish oil they use vegetable based Omega 3. Question is, Are the additives they are putting in the milk organic?
Not a big deal but I think people who drink it should be assured the vegetable oil being added to their milk is organic.
Just to reiterate what others have said above, you CAN make yoghurt from UHT milk (or at least, the brands that I buy in the UK), I make it on a daily basis and see our daily yoghurt as a foundation for gut health! It can’t be completely dead if it undergoes this process can it? I would not drink UHT milk, but then I don’t drink any milk unless it has been turned into butter, cheese or yoghurt as I find it much easier to digest these products. Yoghurt made from UHT milk is delicious!!!
Have really enjoyed some of these articles. We will not always agree on what is good for us, each person has an individual and personal health journey, but many thanks for firing the debate!
Namaste
Helen
Would you agree that fresh fruit and vegetables are better for you than heated and canned vegetables?
The heating kills all of the enzymes and destroys much of it’s nutritional value.
Don’t you think the same thing happens with milk?
BTW all sorts of things that are awful for us “taste delicious”. If taste were the only criteria I would have a 5 pound canister of MSG in my kitchen – but I know better.
Did you ever consider that drinking milk itself is kinda gross? I mean, you are drinking the bodily fluids of an animal that poops all over itself and its friends. Would you drink your friend’s breast milk? Probably not. Yet you will drink it a cow? Just a thought!
I drink milk of all kinds, so I’m not trying to antagonize. It just seems a bit silly that you all are so passionate about preserving the nature of milk, yet it is quite UNnatural that humans consume the bodily fluids meant for baby cows.
Sorry man you don’t know what you’re talking about. I do prefer raw milk to pasteurized however, I make kefir from UHT organic milk all the time. In fact it cultures quicker than raw milk since there is no competing bacteria. The yeasts and bacteria in kefir only feed off of the lactose in the milk. My kefir grains are also growing very well in the UHT milk. On the other hand, if you want to make yogurt, the first step is to heat milk until it is relatively sterile (essentially pasteurizing) and then let it cool until you reach the proper temperature for the cultures to grow. If you don’t heat the milk, the starter will not be able to culture the milk and you will not be able to make yogurt.
I worked on a cruise ship with several Italians, and they love their morning cappuccino. After we took on a supply of UHT milk they found that it did not froth as nicely and mostly didn’t really froth at all. Boy did we hear a lot of colourful language during those weeks.
Obviously UHT milk doesn’t always have a problem frothing. I think it was just that particular brand from Thailand or Malaysia.
Thank you for this information. My toddlers grandparents insist on giving him UHT milk whilst he is at their house despite my pleas against him having this milk. As a child it would make me feel very sick and give me a headache if I drank. Since finding out that they use it too I have asked them not to give it to my son however they ignore my request and have continued to do so. Your site had provided me with information that I needed which I can print off and share with them to prove that this variety of milk really is quite unhealthy.