Fwd: Grass-Fed Dairy, Benefits of

[Guest guest]

Here's an interesting article

Super Healthy

Milk

By Jo

In my on-going research into the health benefits of grassfed products, I

have been particularly impressed by the differences between the milk of

grassfed and grainfed cows. Approximately 85 to 95 percent of the cows in

American dairies are raised in confinement and fed a grain-based diet.

New research shows that a cow raised on her natural diet of pasture has

five times more of a cancer-fighting fat called “conjugated linoleic

acid” or CLA than milk from confinement dairies. CLA research is still in

its infancy, but a host of new studies suggest that CLA may be the most

potent cancer fighter in our diet. The human population studies are

especially intriguing. Recently, French researchers compared CLA levels

in the breast tissues of 360 women. The women with the most CLA in their

tissues (and thus the most CLA in their diets) had a 74 percent lower

risk of breast cancer than the women with the least CLA. If an American

woman were to switch from grainfed to grassfed dairy products, she would

have levels of CLA similar to this lowest risk group. Unlike other cancer

prevention strategies, switching to grassfed dairy products requires no

self-denial and no change in eating or cooking habits. In my opinion, the

fact that our American milk supply is so deficient in CLA is a national

tragedy.

With all the excitement being generated by CLA, however, other benefits

of grassfed dairy products can be overlooked. Milk from grassfed cows

also has an ideal ratio of essential fatty acids or EFAs. Bear with me

for a moment, because although this science is rather complicated, it is

very important for human health. There are two types of fat that are

essential for your health and cannot be made in your body---omega-6 fatty

acids and omega-3 fatty acids. A growing body of research suggests that a

diet with roughly equal amounts of these two fats is ideal. Such a diet

is linked with a lower risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune

disorders, allergies, diabetes, obesity, dementia, and various other

mental

disorders.[1]

Whether a cow is on an all-grass diet or a typical grain-based dairy diet

greatly influences the fatty acid balance of her milk. The reason is

simple: grass has far more omega-3s and fewer omega-6s than grain. If you

take away some of the grass and replace it with grain, you greatly alter

the EFA ratio of the milk.

Take a few moments to study the chart below showing the omega-3 and

omega-6 content of milk from cows fed varying amounts of

pasture.[2]

The green bars represent omega-3 fatty acids and the yellow bars

represent omega-6 fatty acids. As you can see, when a cow gets all her

nutrients from pasture (represented by the two bars on the far left) her

milk has an equal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, the ratio that

is believed to be ideal for human health. Take away one third of the

pasture and replace it with grain or other supplements (represented by

the two bars in the middle) and the omega-3 fatty acid content of the

milk goes down while the omega-6 fatty acid content goes up. Continue

with this process and replace two-thirds of the pasture with a

grain-based diet (illustrated by the two bars on the far right) and the

milk will have a top-heavy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. The

milk that you buy in the supermarket has this unbalanced ratio of EFAs

because it comes from cows given liberal amounts of grain.

Unfortunately, buying organic milk will not alter this picture because

most of the large organic dairies also use a grain-based dairy ration.

Milk from a cow fed large amounts of organically certified grain will

have the same fatty acid imbalance as milk from a cow fed a similar

amount of ordinary grain. For an ideal ratio of EFAs, cows need to be

raised on fresh pasture.

Milk from grass-based dairies offers you yet more nutritional benefits.

(I'm beginning to sound like a TV infomercial: “But wait! Don’t buy yet!

There’s more!”) In addition to giving you five times more CLA and an

ideal balance of EFAs, grassfed milk is also higher in beta-carotene,

vitamin A, and vitamin E. This vitamin bonus comes, in part, from the

fact that fresh pasture has more of these nutrients than grain or hay.

(When grass is dried and turned into hay, it loses a significant amount

of its vitamin content.) But there’s another factor involved as well. A

cow produces considerably less milk on a grass diet than she will on a

grain-based diet. (Which, of course, is why the vast majority of our

dairy cows are supplemented with grain.) A cow that yields only modest

amounts of milk may be a problem for the producer, but she’s a blessing

for the consumer. Why? Because, as a general rule, the less milk a cow

produces, the more concentrated the vitamin content of that

milk.[3]

A cow has a set amount of vitamins to transfer to her milk, and if she’s

bred, fed, and injected to be a Super Producer, her milk contains

relatively fewer vitamins per glass. In other words, her milk is a

watered down version of the real thing. A purely grassfed cow will yield

a lower volume of milk, but every glassful of that milk will be enriched

with extra vitamins.

When you add up all the nutritional benefits of the milk from grassfed

cows

you can understand why I

am such an advocate of grass-based dairying. In addition to lecturing and

writing about grassfed products, I have also taken steps to ensure that

my family and friends have access to the real thing. Most of the cheese

my family eats is either imported from Ireland or New Zealand (countries

where most dairy cows are still raised on pasture) or produced by

American grass-based dairies.

Oh, I forgot to mention the most important thing. Grassfed dairy products

taste delicious and the butter and cheese have a deeper yellow color than

ordinary products. (The yellow comes from the added amount of beta

carotene.) Slice some homestead cheese from a grass-based dairy or place

a cube of grass-fed butter on the table and everyone will notice the

difference.

Jo is a New York Times bestselling author. To learn more

about the health benefits of grassfed products and to purchase her books,

Why Grassfed Is Best! or The Omega Diet, go to eatwild.com

or call 206-463-4156 during West Coast business hours.

[1]

For more information about

essential fatty acid balance, visit the following site:

http://www.flax.com/newlibrary/ESSENT.html

which contains summaries of a large number of published studies about

omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Or refer to The Omega Diet, a

book I co-authored with internationally acclaimed fatty acid expert, Dr.

Artemis Simopoulos. The Omega Diet has 24 pages of pertinent

scientific references.

[2]

The data comes from:

Dhiman, T. R., G. R. Anand, et al. (1999). “Conjugated linoleic acid

content of milk from cows fed different diets.” J Dairy Sci

82(10): 2146-56.

[3]

Jensen, S. K., A. K.

Johannsen, et al. (1999). “Quantitative secretion and maximal secretion

capacity of retinol, beta-carotene and alpha-tocopherol into cows' milk.”

J Dairy Res 66(4): 511-22.

[Guest guest]

Wow! Great article! Thanks for posting it; it's so concise, but

chock-full of convincing information.

I haven't posted much because I'm in the last stages of a very

difficult pregnancy, and we're moving in a couple of weeks to boot,

but I wanted to let you all know how helpful your posts are. Thanks

for sharing your experiences.

a Perkins