Yes, I like milk, more specifically cow’s milk. I do enjoy goat’s milk from time to time but I drink cow’s milk on a regular basis. There are people out there that feel humans are not designed to drink another animal’s milk, because it is created to nourish a specific baby animal. Nonetheless, I enjoy it and have never noticed any negative effects.

Okay, now I made my declaration – but what type of milk do I buy? I prefer whole milk. Why whole milk? I believe the world’s healthiest foods are whole foods — foods that have not been processed. The nutrients in whole foods have a natural synergy with one another — that is, they work best in and are most beneficial to the body when they are taken together. Therefore, when you pull some or all of the fat out of milk, you throw its nutritional profile out of whack. Basically, you discard some of the health benefits when you discard the fat.

I used to buy local organic raw milk in glass jars. This made the most sense to me; cows were fed a healthy diet, so there was no antibiotics, no rBST hormones, no heat that would kill the nutritional content in the milk, no BPA from the plastic leaching into the milk. Unfortunately, Mathew stopped drinking it because there was too much cream in the milk. I tried skimming it off, but that was not good enough for him. I do not push Mathew to drink milk because I think he gets his protein, calcium and fat from other foods. Nonetheless, I know milk compliments a healthy diet. Therefore, when I needed to find another milk, three factors were important to me: local, no rBST hormones, and glass containers. Antibiotics are not an issue with milk, because it is tested and the farmers cannot sell milk from cows whose milk contains antibiotics.  I would love it if organic played a role in my decision, but to buy a local organic milk, I would have to eliminate one of my other three needs. Maybe you’ll have better luck in your area. Luckily, I do have a local distributor – Byrne Dairy. They sell their milk in a reusable glass bottle and do not give their cows rBST and get their milk from local dairies.

When shopping we have many choices. These are my choices, what are yours?