Milk from Our Local Dairy

I was excited to visit the local dairy where we buy our milk. My 2nd grader took a field trip there, and my 3 year old and I tagged along. We learned a ton of information about the milk industry! I wanted to share it, because it's so important to clear facts that have been skewed by certain sources.
First off, the milk we buy from the dairy is non-homogenized...it hasn't been ultra-pasteurized to stop the cream and milk from separating...we have to shake the jug to get it to mix together. This is actually GOOD for you. It keeps the CLA in tact--this is a super anti-oxidant...and (this surprised me most) it is actually a DIETARY SUPPLEMENT! It helps you lose weight! They sell it as supplements in natural food stores! Our society is so hooked on not having fat, but the fat in milk, if it isn't destroyed by over-pasteurizing...is GREAT For you and helps you keep your figure! Some people who are lactose intolerant can actually drink this milk! Also, since CLA is in the milk fat, why have we stopped our kids from drinking it at such a young age? If you think about it, non-homogenized whole milk (which is only 3.5% milk fat) has the most CLA in it, the most antioxidants AND it won't make our kids FAT!
Another thing that was interesting, is that the dairy sells it's milk in white jugs that do not let the light through. This is similar to vitamin bottles...the sunlight breaks down the milk's nutrients. Many large industry dairies sell their milk in almost clear jugs...wonder how much nutrition we are actually consuming?
Something I learned from a friend is what happens when a cow gets mastitis or a "breast" infection...the large industry dairies (according to my friend) keep milking the cow and using the milk knowing that the pus and gross stuff will be killed during the pasteurizing process! EEEWW! This dairy treats the cow but dumps the milk until the infection is healed...duh!

Proof is in the pudding...we were in a hurry this week and bought a jug of walmart milk since we were there, and after drinking the dairy milk...the walmart milk was YUCK! It tasted thin and had an unnatural flavor.

Oh, and don't assume that because milk says "organic" it hasn't been through some ultra processing...try and find a small local dairy so you can get fresh milk that hasn't been homogenized.

I have probably not done justice to the science of this, but I wanted to pass it along, especially to my mommy friends!