Organic Milk and Apples

We have been buying only organic milk since he started drinking it. I can testify that there is a HUGE difference. I had deveoped a sinus problem with postnasal drip when I was in college and still had some breakouts. While I was in college (I'm a Dr) learning about food and health, this issue with hormones and our food came up and I researched it pretty intensly. I started purchasing organic milk and amazingly my skin not only cleared, but glowed and the postnasal drip and stuffiness stopped completely (this was after having it for 4 years straight and trying all kinds of sinus/allergy meds). The reason kids are developing so quickly these days are because of all the hormones in our food (girls in particular developing at age 8 or sooner). Milk is something that our kids drink alot of so I feel it is important to go organic (sans hormones and antibiotics) in it. If you eat alot of red meat, that is something to also consider, most are packed full of hormones and Ab also. Trader Joe's does have the least expensive milk and meat also. The apples do have pesticides on them and so that is a concern, but they can be washed away, just make sure you are cleaning your fruit well. The fruit to be more concerned about is anything with a soft skin. The pesticides can leach into the fruit. Hard skinned fruits are protected. Hope this helps with convincing your husband.

3 moms found this helpful

Organic food not only tastes better but it actually is much better for the environment.

Meijer has a great organic selection including apples and if you look for sales can get organic apples for $1.29/lb. They have a great line of Meijer organics that are pretty reasonable cost wise as well.

Good luck.

DEB

2 moms found this helpful

Hi,

I have had my son on organic milk since he has been drinking milk and it is expensive. Times are rough and it is hard to spend almost $6 on a gallon of milk. I recently saw that Oberweise milk does not contain hormones. Then I wondered about Trader Joe's, I asked and their milk does not contain hormones either. Sweet! I have made the switch and feel good about it and love the price. It is better than regular milk and will do during these financially tight times.

-N.

2 moms found this helpful

Hi T. -

Check out this organic article from Consumer Reports. Also google "organic consumer report" and you can find more evidence to share with your husband. Important to note that not all fruits and veggies need to be organic.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/health-fitness/exercis...

We buy as much organics as we can from Costco. The milk and eggs are really reasonable. Good luck! M.

2 moms found this helpful

My husband doesn't believe in all the health or organic hype either...but I certainly do. I too have a hard time buying organic milk at the price it sells for. I have noticed that Costco Kirkland milk at $1.99/gal (fat free) is produced without artifical growth hormone (rBST). So I will settle for this and once in a while organic. However, with the apples I try to stick with organic and once in a while non.

Hope this helps ya out some!
C.

2 moms found this helpful

Buy locally-grown apples, like from Michigan. Fruit isn't as laden with preservatives if it has less distance/time to travel.

Trader Joe's sells reasonably priced organic dairy products. My daughter doesn't eat dairy, so it's not as much of a problem for us.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi- I would be 100% organic if financially it was possible! We pick and choose, can't do milk, because of the amount we consume! I won't buy strawberries, apples or broccoli unless they are organic. (my list would be longer if my kids ate more fruits & vegies) You can find the frozen a little less expensive. Start slowly and do what you can. I also agree with the other poster about cleaners. We can't control what goes on at school, or grandmas, so I give them the best I can at home.

1 mom found this helpful

If you are near a Trader Joes, that is probably your best bet hands down. Apples are 69 cents a piece no matter the type, and a half gallon of milk is $3.69, a full is $5.00 and some odd change. Also, all of there non-organic dairy does not contain rBST. I have had to cut back in these time too. A gallon of there regular milk I beleive is a little over three dollars.

1 mom found this helpful

I sympathize. We used to buy only organic milk but it's hard to spend $6/gallon when we go through about 1/2 gallon or more a day. Plus, my kids won't drink ultra-pasteurized milk (Horizon, etc.) So now I've been buying either the Costco brand or Deans, which are both hormone-free, if not organic.

For apples, if you keep your eyes open (watch the ads and compare, etc.) you can find them in bags pretty inexpensively - Target has the organic apples on sale sometimes, I know. If you're near a Meijers (I wish) I hear they have good prices on organics.

ETA - this article might help when you're prioritizing what to buy organic: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirt...

1 mom found this helpful

we get organic milk... it costs $6/gallon, but then in the city even the non-organic milk costs close to $4. So for us, it's worth it.

1 mom found this helpful

I also wish I could buy all organic, but I pick and choose - definitely the most highly contaminated fruits and veggies - apples are at the top of that list. I don't buy organic milk, but if you keep an eye you can get good deals. I got some organic spaghetti sauce for $1.99 a jar - the same price you'd pay for regular sauce - so I stocked up. If you get to know organics and what are good prices, you can find stuff on sale. I get organic lettuce at Jewel for a good price.

1 mom found this helpful

I do a mixture of buying organic and not. I try to always buy the dirty dozen organic, but I'm not religious about it, and will go with the cheaper stuff from time to time.

Trader Joes is great for buying cheaper stuff, though the quality isn't always the best.

Since buying more organic for my daughter, I've been changing the way my husband and I eat a little bit. We buy organic, free-range chicken, and he butchers it himself (it saves us LOADS). I then use the carcass to make home-made, no sodium stocks. We've been eating more roasts, more homemade pasta (I made beef and cheese raviolis the other day, enough for 6 meals, with organic beef, and it cost me about 7 dollars and an hour of my time!)

I also just started buying organic milk, as I am just now introducing it to my daughter.

We have no idea how harmful the pesticides are, but we do know that no pesticides is healthier, so I say, it's worth it.

1 mom found this helpful

YES, YES, YES GO ORGANIC. It does cost more, but isn't your families health is worth it!?!?!?!? Organic is THE ONLY way to go. Don't just do it for milk and apples, buy organic for EVERYTHING.

1 mom found this helpful

We spend the extra on organic milk because I have read that the hormones in milk can cause kids to develop early and other problems. I figure the price of the organic milk is LESS than any doctor bill we might have later!

I clean my fruits with that special fruit cleaner and get organic when I can. It's worth it!

1 mom found this helpful

I've switched to organic milk and to organic fruits and vegetables that are part of the "dirty dozen" list...it's a list of produce with the greatest amounts of pesticides. When you think about how much milk children drink, I think it's worth it to spend the extra money on organic.

1 mom found this helpful

A wellness instructor I just heard at a conference suggested using almond milk instead of cow's milk entirely!! He said that there is something in the pasteurization process that makes it difficult for our bodies to absorb the calcium in cow's milk so it's better to drink water and get your calcium from other sources and if you must drink something milk-like, he recommended almond milk! Take it for what it's worth...I did buy some at the health food store and thought it was decent. I did see that almond milk (even the sweetened kind) has less sugar and fat and just about as much good stuff as regular organic milk!

1 mom found this helpful

I think both milk and apples are high on the NASTY list for contaminants. Spend wisely. Organic on these things and go conventional on other things like bananas/oranges etc.
if you google the "dirty dozen" of non organic produce, you'll discover which has the most pesticides etc .
good luck and I always feel healthy food should be number one. I'd rather cancel cable to save money than give my kids contaminated food because it's cheaper. it's all about priorities.

1 mom found this helpful

T.,

I first want to correct an inaccuracy in another post. Apples are very high on the list of produce with the most hormones and as far as organic produce goes they are easy to find and not as expensive, so I would highly reccomend getting organic apples. Peaches are also very high if you eat a lot of peaches. Here is a link to the list: http://www.foodnews.org/ Also, I am from Michigan and I like to support local farmers, but the pesticides on the fruit from Michigan sold in Illinois are just as high as those on the fruit from Michigan sold in California. If you don't want to buy organic, you can pick up some Veggie Wash and it will help get some of the chemicals off of the fruit.

I try not to go too crazy on buying organic although I think if there was a Whole Foods closer to me I would. During the winter it is harder to find organics at the local grocery stores (like Caputo's) so I do try to take a monthly trip to Whole Foods to get some more variety than just apples, pears, broccoli and carrots. They are more expensive, but I have a small family so the extra isn't much and I definitely think if I am going to splurge it is going to be on healthy food for my family. Plus really, splurging on organic produce still leaves food pretty low in my overall budget. I also think that the organic produce tastes better. I think because it cannot last as long it is fresher. You do have to eat it more quickly once you get it home as well.

I buy organic milk for my daughter as well. My husband has a dairy allergy so we don't go through a lot of milk, we use soy milk a lot, but my daughter likes to drink milk and I think it is good for her so I buy Organic milk. I had read quite a bit about this and from the research I did, this is quite important for girls. If you want more information or links, let me know.

Finally, we have recently started buying meat from a local farmer. Again, when I was researching for on the milk I found that most of the same hormones and antibiotics in milk are also found in beef. The farmer we buy from is not certified organic (so it is a little bit cheaper than organic) but the meat is all hormone and antibiotic free. We buy grain fed beef, pork and chicken from them. They travel in for farmer's markets, so we don't have to drive out to the farm to get the meat. Again, especially with the beef, it tastes much better to us than what we used to get at the supermarket. Here is a link to the farm we buy from, but when I was researching, there are quite a few to choose from in Illinois. http://www.arnoldsfarm.com/

We still buy produce at Jewel on a weekly basis and in the winter it is hard to find a lot in the organic section, but they almost always have apples, pears, baby carrots, and broccoli and honestly, those are staples in my daughters diet, so she eats mostly organic produce, but sometimes she will want some of my non-organic kiwi, or potatoes, and I don't stress out about it too much.

Good luck with your decision,
D.

1 mom found this helpful

If you do your research, you will find many articles telling you it is necessary to buy organic. However, you will also find many articles telling you organic milk is completely unnecessary, and if you wash your fruit properly, organic apples are a waste of money as well. I used to buy organic meat, milk, and veggies, and then realized we would run out of food after a week!

In these economic times, spend your money on extra groceries, wash your fruit well, and find other ways to keep your family healthy. I care deeply about my son's health and I have done lots of research on the subject, but I have found nothing that has convinced me organic is necessary.

If this is something you feel very strongly about, maybe start out small. Buy organic apples (are not much more expensive than regular), and keep the regular milk. The next month, buy organic milk but regular apples that you wash well.

Another thought - I have asked many of my pediatrician friends, and not one of them has recommended organic foods over non-organic. Additionally, take a poll of 100 super healthy 80-year-olds in the world, I'd bet they did not have organic milk growing up.

Good luck, and happy eating!

1 mom found this helpful

almost all of dean's milk is now made w/o growth horomomes... it's marked with a small yellow "seal" if it is and i've not seen any w/o it since they went public with it. if you're going w/ the organic milk to avoid the horomones, this might be a good solution for $3/gallon rather than about $7 for the organic... then you can justify the apples w/ the savings :)

1 mom found this helpful

I know there are lots of people that believe in this, but imo it's not needed. I may be wrong, but I don't see it as a big deal honestly.

1 mom found this helpful

I'm also contemplating the same thing. I have been doing some reading about all the chemicals and toxins we're putting into our bodies on a daily basis and I think I'm going to slowly switch over to organic stuff. I'm just starting out slowly by buying one new organic thing at the store each week or month. I started with organic lettuce and will probably switch to the organic milk in the next couple weeks.

1 mom found this helpful

If you live in/near the city, there is a fruit market called Stanleys at the corner of Chicago and Elston that carries a ton of organic produce for the same prices that I pay at Jewel. They dont have everything, but it is a great start.

We asked our peditrition if we should be buying anything organic and he said it's not something he recommends and didn't purchase for his own kids. Just a thought.

If you do a search online for Top 10 produce items to buy organic you can find a bunch of studies that tell you which ones contain the most pesticides and those you should buy organic -- I don't believe apples are near the top of the list. Also, I have a friend who is a food researcher (Ph.D.) for the dairy council and she said that buying organic milk in the US is a waste -- that they have done studies and because the actual feed given to the cows is the same type in the US the nutritional content is the same (Europe they feed them a different type of grain or feed) and that they have done studies and the antibiotics/pesticides are not passed on to the milk product in appreciable amounts. She told me to buy organic milk for my 18 month old if it "would make me feel better" but that it was not necessary. Hope that helps!

Hi T.,

I started to buy organic milk ever since my 3 year stopped formula. It feels so good. We found a farm where we can buy raw milk and we just boil it. It is only $4/gallon. It does make a difference to me. Also I switched to organic natural products as well. All the chemicals from the cleaners and the formaldehyde (Quaternium 15/Q15) from the baby shampoo made me go totally organic. Not to mention all the chemicals from the cleaners or the dishwasher detergent. I found a great store that has some good prices and I decided to give it a try. Whole Foods or Trader Joe is a little expensive for me.

I think it would make a difference in your lives and you might not see it now. But later on in life you will be thankful for that.

A good compromise is to buy rBST / hormone free milk that is conventional (not organic). Nearly all major brands and store brands of milk are rBST / hormone free now (i.e. Deans, Lucerne, etc.)

I can't spend the extra money on buying all organic, so I try to come as close as I can. For example, I buy a brand of milk that is hormone-free (Costco or Deans). I buy most of my produce at Valli, and it's not organic, so I use a product caleed "Veggie Wash" to remove the pesticides. I bought it at Target for about $4, and the bottle is lasting a very long time. Hope that helps... Good health to you and your family!