your milk and meat aren't as healthy for you as they used to be

[donsu]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0202-06.htm

Mineral Levels in Meat and Milk Plummet Over 60 Years
· Study blames the decline on intensive farming
· Food industry contests comparative methods


-snip-

The research looked at government tables published in 1940, and again in 2002, in the nutritional bible, The Composition of Foods, to establish levels of important minerals in dairy products and meat before the second world war and today.

The research, which is contested by the food and farming industry, found a marked decline in nutritional value during the period. The analysis is published in this month's Food magazine by the consumer watchdog the Food Commission.

The levels of iron recorded in the average rump steak have dropped by 55%, while magnesium fell by 7%. Looking at 15 different meat items, the analysis found that the iron content had fallen on average by 47%. The iron content of milk had dropped by more than 60%, and by more than 50% for cream and eight different cheeses. Milk appears to have lost 2% of its calcium, and 21% of its magnesium too.

Most cheeses showed a fall in magnesium and calcium levels. According to the analysis, cheddar provides 9% less calcium today, 38% less magnesium and 47% less iron, while parmesan shows the steepest drop in nutrients, with magnesium levels down by 70% and iron all gone compared with its content in the years up to 1940.

-snip-
-----------------------------

about 5 yrs. ago I started to notice that milk no longer tasted good or tasted like milk. it tasted like it had light machine oil in it. so I changed to organic milk only to discover that when first opened it tasted OK but later got the oil taste.

then I read the article that told us that a lot of our milk was reconstituted (dried or curds) and put together with milk from different herds, states, countries, animals other then cows.

now I just use milk for baking, etc.

and now this article on us eating 'empty' food.

[LostinVA]

1. That's why I grit my teeth and buy organic meat and dairy

It cost more, but the "normal" stuff is just so very horrible... and, organic meat and dairy actually have some REAL tatse... like they did when we were kids.

[nodehopper]

16. my boyfriend taught me the best word the other day

"retronym"--it's a word or phrase created because an existing term that was once used alone needs to be distinguished from a term referring to a new development. So "organic food" is a retronym for what used to be just "food" whereas "food" now includes crap like genetically modified products and antibiotics and chemicals and god knows what else.

[SoCalDem]

19. Frankenfood...

I got pilloried the other day by some , but I HATE the "additives" that are in EVERYTHING these days..and they got there because somewhere along the line, some money changed hands..I have a gut feeling that a lot of the stuff is in our food because some paid-for scientists determined that they are not "harmful", and instead of paying to dispose of these byproducts, they just get added to processed foods (just about everything these days) instead of companies having to pay to dispose of the junk..

Our bodies are processing the company's waste :grr)

[LostinVA]

25. Good word -- and very much the truth in this case

[slide to the left]

2. Horizon Milk

Horizon Organic whole milk is the best tasting stuff on the planet. It also lasts for about a month. Its well worth the extra 2 bucks.

[LostinVA]

4. You're right -- it's what I buy.

[Shakespeare]

5. You might want to think twice about buying Horizon brand.

Look for smaller locally produced organics, if available:

April 13, 2005 | The happy cow on the label of Horizon organic milk flies across the carton like some grocery-store superhero. The ubiquitous red milk carton in your local supermarket is like a stop sign for consumers: go no further, your quest for healthy milk ends here. The back of the carton assures us that Horizon milk is produced on certified organic farms, where "clean-living" cows "make milk the natural way, with access to plenty of fresh air, clean water and exercise." Horizon cows are not hopped up on antibiotics, continues the cheery copy. "Happy, healthy cows produce better milk for you and your family."

Just now, though, at one of Horizon's dairy farms in central Idaho, the cows don't look too happy. Perched amid a stark landscape of sagebrush and expansive brown fields, long silver barns that hold 4,000 cows are linked like barracks in some covert operation. I drive down a narrow, cracked road toward the dairy's main office and pass open-air sheds about 20 feet away, where cows laze in crowded pens atop the brown hardpan of the Idaho desert. Just outside the milking barn, more cows are jammed into an outdoor corral. Amid clumps of dirt and snow, they are lined up, their bodies touching.

In recent weeks, as revelations of Horizon's farming practices have come to light, a collection of consumer groups and organic dairy farmers have erupted in protest. Horizon and similar dairies are capitalizing on the boom in organic foods, they say, but diluting the true meaning of the term. Contrary to genuine organic practices, which entail raising cows on open pastures, where the animals feed on grass, experts say that a substantial percentage of cows at farms like Horizon's are confined to pens, fed a diet of proteins and grains, and produce milk that, while free of hormones, is not as healthy as it could be.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/04/13/milk/print.html

[leftchick]

10. I was just going to post that

Horizon sucks!

[NashVegas]

44. Organic Valley Is Where It's At for Me

The Harris Teeter I shop at dropped OV whole milk for a while. I wrote an email complaining about it, and so did others, I guess. They brought it back within a month.

The thing that sucks about organic becoming popular is the corporate organic pushing the real thing off the shelves. Active consumers have GOT to write to their supermarkets when this happens and lay out that we will seek other retail outlets, even if it means more of a drive, when this stuff happens.

[slide to the left]

51. Horizon

I didn't know all of that. The only reason I buy it is bc there is nothing else to buy. Also, I am allergic to milk and for some reason I don't react to Horizon... strange huh?

[NashVegas]

55. Not Really Strange

I asked my mom some years ago if she'd ever heard of anyone being allergic to dairy when she was young. Answer: never.

Horizon was bought by Dean foods something like 4-5 years ago and all they've been about ever since is expansion.

[Katherine Brengle]

23. ew... why even drink imbibe the lactose of another animal? n/t

[Bridget Burke]

36. My ancestors have been doing that for many centuries.

As of 1600, some Irish were even drinking fresh blood from their cattle. Only a little was removed at a time!

Now, they just have blood sausage with their breakfast.

[Maru Kitteh]

47. My ancestors held slaves for many centuries (some of them anyway)

Doesn't justify slavery, or make it wise, humane or in any way admirable. That's the way it's always been is a stupid, stupid excuse for cruelty.

[Bridget Burke]

52. So keep drinking that soy!

I'm not going to stop you.

[newyawker99]

39. Hi slide to the left!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[htuttle]

3. Well, the first time I had an organic, free-range chicken

...which cost something like $10-12 for the whole bird, I realized that what I'd been eating and THOUGHT was chicken all those years bore little resemblance to the delicious taste and consistency of a free-range chicken. Maybe it wasn't chicken I'd been eating all those years after all.

Could be some sort of reptile (which would explain why most reptiles seem to taste like chicken to so many people...). :shrug:

I'm reminded of the dinner scene in Eraserhead, when the little chickens start moving on the plate, and the girl's father explains, "It's New! It's Man-Made!"

[cantstandbush]

6. I'll vouch for that. There is really a huge diff in organic free-range

chickens and the other stuff they passes for chicken.

[alfredo]

11. You are eating a dinosaur.

Dinosaurs taste like chicken, except for the ones that taste like duck.

[htuttle]

15. There's so much petroleum in factory foods (and factory chickens)...

...that's probably what gives them that 'dinosaur' taste.

[alfredo]

32. I was wondering why they call them 40 weight fryers.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

37. I grew up on a ranch... in the 70's there was a difference between

our meat and "store bought". It's only gotten worse. :mad:

[Rigby Reardon]

7. Read "Dead Doctors don't Lie"

[MadHound]

8. This isn't just a problem with meat and dairy products

All of the "normal" food available in your modern grocery store is more and more lacking in both mineral and nutritional content. This is due to an ever growing increase in processing of that food. Even your produce is sprayed with dyes, washed and processed in such ways that they are leeched of their nutritional and mineral content, along with their taste.

To get back to good, nutritional food, buy from local farmers and suppliers, and buy organics. You will be pleasantly supplied at the taste, and will find that such food is better and more satisfying for you.

[kineneb]

28. or vegetables

Something no one has brought up so far is soil depletion. If one continues to farm the same piece of land for many years, the minerals will be extracted by the plants. That is why all the home garden books emphsise adding back nutrients (beyond those found in fertilizer) to the garden. If cattle are getting less iron in their feed, their meat will, of course, be lower in iron. Ditto the other minerals.

(I knew that what I learned managing a Farmers Market would be useful sometime.)

[Lorien]

34. Soil depletion and desertification is also being caused by heavy chemical

and fertilizer use by those growing GM crops. Weekly doses of Roundup and petro fertilizers kill beneficial organisms in already depleted soil. Eventually the soil becomes barren, useless desert-and more forests and pristine meadows are destroyed to create new GM fields. Already over 40% of the world's land mass is devoted to crops and grazing pasture. These practices can't continue for much longer if we intend to continue inhabiting the planet.

[Little Star]

9. Great Minds....

Just minutes ago I ordered online $320 worth of organic beef from
http://www.davismountainsorganicbeef.com/
We have a Whole Foods 5 mins up the street and I normally buy my meats there but it is so expensive! I spent the super-bowl time researching organic beef online. I can get double as much online even though the shipping was $55. I am now researching organic pork and chicken. Added to the want of no additives, grass fed animals and 100% organic I also want vacuum sealed meat. It lasts much longer in the freezer when it is vacuum sealed.

[MountainLaurel]

27. Thank you Little Star

My husband and I were looking into this a few weeks ago. Our problem at the moment is that we have little freezer space and won't until we can move (we're in a 1BR place now). But it's good to have some names for when we finally do get around to it.

[Little Star]

41. I just ordered Chicken from this site

http://www.naturespremier.com/index.htm and thought I'd share. I am still researching for the best price on pork. I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about todays commercial meat production. The government is letting these corporate meat factories kill us. There is barely any health value and certainly no taste value left in non organic meats today. I am probably one of the least health conscious people you could ever come across but what I've learned has made me pay attention to this issue. Plus organic meat and produce taste soooooo much better. Good luck to you.:hi:

[catchnrelease]

33. Been researching also...

Trying to find a good and reasonable outfit to order grassfed meat. Like you Little Star, I've been buying mine from Wild Oats or Trader Joes, but it IS costly. At the farmers market I go to (in Long Beach CA), Lindner Bison has a booth and he said he will make small order packages for me and bring it down. There are just the 2 of us at home and small freezer capacity, so buying even a quarter would be too much. I did find a couple of potential suppliers of pasture fed beef in CA, so will be checking them out, as well as your link, thanks!

As far as milk, we're lucky in that we have Organic Pastures dairy in CA, and they keep their cows on pasture all year. (They only supply raw milk products and I know that topic has already been beat to death here.) But I love their system for the process....they don't even bring the cows into a barn for milking. The owner invented a mobile milking parlor which is driven out to the pasture, cows walk in, are milked and walk back into the pasture. Their standards for cleanliness and bacteria counts are supposed to be higher than those for commercial dairies. It is definitely costlier than "regular" milk, but worth it to me. And they are just starting to take some of their products to the farmers markets and sell direct to customers at lower price than in the stores. http://www.organicpastures.com/#

[Little Star]

42. Organic pastures looks like a great place to buy milk!

We get ours delivered to our door by an old fashioned family dairy. They are actually friends and their farm is right down the road. It's called Bangma's Dairy and they are organic. They have this old dilapidated delivery truck that you can hear a com-min a mile down the road. That milk in a glass jug just can't be beat. Yep, got us a milk box right on the front stoop here in the country!

[donsu]

54. oh, oh, I grew up with a milkbox on the front porch

and the bread man came around in his truck.

when I was a toddler they would kid my parents and ask what our milkman looked like because I was blonde/blue eyed and they were both dark hair and eyes.

milkman jokes and cartoons were common then.

[PetraPooh]

12. A few years ago I noticed I was having phlegm problems. . .

since I haven't seen a doctor since 1991, I had to figure out what the problem was on my own. Turned out to be milk. When I removed milk and cheese (but yogurt seems to be okay), I don't wake up in the middle of the night full of so much mucus hanging in my airways that I literally couldn't breathe and had to hang over the bed and a trash can to get it clear enough to breathe. Then a trip to the bathroom to literally vomit up globs of mucus for a half hour before I could sleep again. Now I rarely have phlegm unless I actually catch a cold. Those milk adds drive me crazy now, milk doesn't do a body good!

But since this didn't used to be a problem in my younger days, your article here makes it make some sense why I do now.

[RebelOne]

13. Fortunately, I am a vegetarian, so don't eat meat.

I usually only drink soy milk. Occasionally, I'll drink some skim milk.

[MadHound]

14. Don't be so confident that your veggies are good for you

With the amount of processing that is performed on produce, your fruits and veggies are losing nutritional value and minerals also. Even the national organic brands process out a lot of nutrition and mineral value in the foods that they sell.

Your best bet for high quality food, vegetarian and otherwise, is to buy from local, organic farmers and producers.

[Katherine Brengle]

22. buy organic, agreed

The only safe way to eat these days is not only vegan, but also organic and local...

And if the government has their way, this might be a thing of the past as well. (I seem to remember reading a news item a month or so ago saying that there were attempts being made to change the definition of "organic" to include articifial ingredients and preservatives.)

When did life get so complicated?

[kineneb]

29. and depends on the soil in which the food is grown

see my post above...

[Southsideirish]

17. Me, too - no animal products except occasional egg white only omelet.

[kineneb]

30. sorry, uck

My eggs come from Henrietta, who is at this moment in her cage in the dining room. Later, she will be out "mowing" our yard. I happily eat her eggs.

[The Stranger]

18. Overpopulation, factory farming, poultry and cattle disease, ecological

destruction, global warming, ocean fish stock depletion, fossil fuel emission, environmental obliteration, and War, War War!

Strange days indeed.

[Katherine Brengle]

24. bah on all of those... n/t

[Maru Kitteh]

46. We didn't start the fire . . . .

There's still too many people with their fingers firmly implanted in their ears though. If we wish to relieve hunger in the world we've got to wrest our very lives away from these corporations that are addicting and poisoning us and move to a plant based diet.

[dogday]

20. The level of growth hormones in beef and foul have

played a substantial role in the increasing number of young girls who are developing much earlier than 2 decades ago. I think this is an absolute shame that girls in the 4th grade are already going through puberty....

[flvegan]

31. I agree, and I also think it's upped the ole level of random violence,

especially in young males. I'd like to see a study comparing the testosterone levels in 16 year old boys today to the same in, say, 1950.

[Beaverhausen]

35. That's interesting. I hadn't heard about that

This whole issue should be getting far more press.

People don't seem to want to know what effect all these hormones and frankenfoods have on our biology.

[dogday]

56. I don't want to gross everyone out

but there is other stuff in your milk. Remember is comes from a cow and there are traces of pus and blood in milk. Sorry to gross you out, the facts are gross sometimes....

[quinnox]

21. Yea I bought some milk the other day and felt kinda sick after

drinking it. Normally I don't drink milk but on the spur of the moment I thought it would be good to have milk and cookies but the milk made me feel bad.

[Maru Kitteh]

49. You're probably lactose intolerant now then - it's better if you are

really. Let's imagine this scenario:

You stop by the store (my store) to pick up some milk but you can't seem to find it on the shelves. I come by and you ask me if I've got any milk today. What if I told you "We're out of cows milk today but I do have some pigs milk over here." Eeeewwww right? Well how about some dog milk then? Chimpanzee milk? How about some human milk? You are a human after all, why not pay a wet nurse to provide your breakfast beverage?

If you normally do not drink milk you may have lost the enzymes in your gut to break the milk sugars down. Don't worry, most of the world loses these enzymes as soon as they are weaned from their mothers breast.

[egadsbrain]

26. Dairy cows must be impregnated...

again and again their whole lives to be able to produce milk. Their calves are taken away from them of course to satisfy the veal industry for one. UGH!

(Eraserhead! I love that movie!)

[AspenRose]

38. Listening to Providence.

Just TODAY I was debating what to feed my son, who turned one year old yesterday.

He had his one year checkup at the Pedi and they said he was ready for 'dairy.' (I've nursed him and introduced organic solid foods around 6 mos.)

So I was debating today....organic milk or soymilk (with no GMOs)?

I think I'm going to start with the soy yogurt, soy cheese and soy milk (without GMOs).

Yeppers.

(And that is MOST disappointing to hear about Horizon!)

[catchnrelease]

45. See comment #20 above

Of course do what you feel is best for your son, but look into the effects of soy on children first so that you can have as much info as possible. I've also read studies that show harmful effects on children in the long run. Soy is full of powerful phyto (plant) estrogens that do affect the human body.

There are other organic milks out there...Trader Joes, Organic Valley, Straus Dairy, Natural by Nature, etc. Or at least brands that don't come from cows given the growth hormones.

[AspenRose]

48. I will google and see what happens.

How sad, that it's all come to this. *sigh*

I long for the days when food was just food.

[Maru Kitteh]

50. There is no need to feed your son the milk of another mammal

Soy, almond and rice milks are all tasty and nutritional alternatives without the possibility of pus from mastitis, prion disease, cholesterol, saturated fat, Crohn's disease, etc...........

[Bridget Burke]

53. Please DO check into organic milk.

Some grownups can go without dairy products--heredity is one factor.

But the needs of babies & young children are quite different. For example, skim milk is NOT a good idea; early development uses for "fat" than adults need.

[Deja Q]

40. So who couldn't figure this out, as with global warming, 30 years ago?

And why the frig did nobody in the "pro-life" sect bother to put in some fuckin' REGULATIONS to ensure other people later on would get to live too?

Dunno what the population was in 1970 when it was hip to rant about global issues at the time...

3 billion people in 1982... it was at this point when it was hip to think oil would never be a problem :wtf:

Nearly 7 billion in 2000. By now, the tiny remnants put into place to curb oil use from the start had been written off (e.g. the federal 55mph speed limit).

Without oil, we'd all be fuckin' lucky to live as a 1 billion population (circa 1850).

Never mind farm lands being sold because that's more PROFITABLE than something we can PROPERLY live off of, such as healthy food. x( Jesus Crimeney, how the hell do people still think money is such a great thing? Wake the fuck up! x( You can't eat money, nor can it be buried with you. God didn't make it. God's idiotic Creation had and then made cute sayings like "In God We Trust". (maybe we ought to trust in things God won't touch anymore because God has abandoned us?)

And now, even with oil to feed all the hungry mouths, it makes not as much difference if the things you shove into your mouth lack nutrients.

Even if the United States went *POOF* and magically disappeared off the face of the map tomorrow, what's left for the remainder of the world would quickly be consumed too.

In short: WE ARE BEYOND RECRIMINATIONS NOW.

ENJOY LIFE, DAMN IT. There is NOTHING LEFT to fight for. It's well beyond too late.

And, no, I am not a pessimist. Read the articles everyone posts and figure it out.

Now if you know of a local planet that humans can survive and prosper on, let me know.

[GoneOffShore]

43. Buy Fresh, Buy Local

I started off buying organic and local produce as a political stance. I didn't like factory farms, I wanted to be sure that the chickens were raised and slaughtered humanely. And I wanted to support local farmers.
Mostly I remember taking Sunday drives with my dad through the farmland around Wilmington Delaware in the 1950's and 60's and seeing it gradually disappear. So, coming back to Philadelphia and the surrounding area in the 80's I was appalled to see the way that the cities and suburbs had encroached onto the rural landscape. I really felt powerless to stop the sprawl.
When we were approached by the CSA movement (Community Supported Agriculture) several years ago, I felt that there was finally a way to make a difference. So, we've been supporters ever since. As the former director of Greenmarket in NYC said, "If you like to look at farmland, you have to eat the landscape." She's right.

And so, we've been eating organic for at least 10 years. We pay a higher price, we get better nutrition. A couple of caveats here: We don't have children. We are both wage earners. And we're meat eaters.
We've found that we're healthier, lower cholesterol, blood pressure, keep the weight steady, because we're eating organic. And the food tastes better. We've discovered a guy that sells grass fed beef - Dr. Elkins Beefburgers. The ground beef makes the best burgers I've ever had, just seasoned with salt and pepper and seared on both sides. Delicious! The only beef that I've had that tasted better was French Charolais - also grass fed, no antibiotics, pastured.

Remember: Eating red meat isn't bad for you. Eating fuzzy, gray green meat is bad for you!