Another Ridiculously Misleading Mainstream Media Headline
Apparently all those supposed geniuses in human history from times prior to pasteurization just…lucked out.
The Daily Mail Online published what many commenters have called a misleading article yesterday entitled, “Women who drink organic milk in pregnancy could be harming their baby’s IQ“. Here’s the very first line:
“Pregnant women who drink organic milk risk harming their child’s brain development.”
What a powerful, sweeping blanket statement with horrible implications for pregnant women who drink organic milk. However, let’s look a bit more closely at what we’re being told here.
The actual study cited in the Daily Mail article (authored by “Daily Mail Reporter”) does not mention anything about organic versus non-organic milk. Read an archived copy of it for yourself.
Perhaps the idea was borrowed from The Telegraph, which ran a similar story (albeit with a headline more geared toward milk sales than trashing organics) based on the same iodine study. The Telegraph story briefly mentioned another study from last year that claimed organic milk had less iodine than “the regular variety”.
What that particular study actually concluded was:
“There was no difference in the iodine concentration of either conventional or organic milk by area of purchase. However, a difference was seen in iodine concentration of organic milk by region of origin.”
So in certain regions of the U.K. at the time the study was conducted, some organic milk was found to have slightly less iodine than conventional milk. How does that automatically equal dumb babies being born everywhere?
What About Milk Containing Genetically Engineered Growth Hormones?
Neither article mentions anything about how much of the conventional milk sold in grocery stores is treated with rbST, biotech giant Monsanto’s genetically engineered E. coli bacteria version of bovine somatotrophin, a growth hormone produced by cows. Perhaps this is because rbST’s use is banned in all 27 countries in the European Union, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand; however, there are no restrictions on rbST in imported dairy products that still show up on U.K. grocery store shelves.
Here in the United States, we are consistently told “no difference has been observed between milk from rbST-treated cows and milk from untreated cows“. However, even the packaging for Monsanto’s rbST Posilac lists numerous potential side effects, including visibly abnormal milk, reduced fertility and hoof problems. A 2003 meta-analysis published in the Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research showed rbST-treated cows had a 55 percent increase in lameness, a 40 percent decrease in fertility and clinical mastitis (teat inflammation) cases increased by 25 percent.
Claims that rbST becomes biologically inactive in the human digestive tract because it is specific to cows have also been shown to be inaccurate at best. In addition, cows with mastitis are typically treated with antibiotics that wind up in the milk, and studies on potential antibiotic resistance in humans who consume milk from mastitis-plagued cows shot up with synthetic growth hormones have not been conducted.
It seems chemicals and additives in our food do not simply disappear by magic when ingested.
Although imperfect, organic foods are one of the only options some people have for fighting this, and as we’ve reported before, organic food is consistently under attack in the mainstream media and by corporate interests.
Organic Versus Non-Organic Milk Isn’t Even the Point Really
How about all the information out there which suggests any milk that isn’t raw from grass-fed cows is pretty much terrible due to disgusting industrial farming practices and the pasteurization process (required because of disgusting industrial farming practices) which kills all the good bacteria in the milk?
Mike Adams of Natural News has reported on the fact that, because of pasteurization, disgusting industrial farming practices are allowed to continue, business as usual:
“Thanks to pasteurization, conventional (non-organic, non-raw) dairy operators have no need to thoroughly wash their milking machines, no need to sterilize any milk containers, no need to wash their hands, and no need to maintain a clean milking environment whatsoever. It’s just total filth.”
Dr. Mercola also makes a great point on this score:
“Drinking raw milk produced by grass-fed cows from clean, well-run farms, on the other hand, is actually far LESS dangerous than drinking pasteurized milk. In fact, not only does raw milk contain good bacteria that are essential for a healthy digestive system, raw milk also offers protection against disease-causing bacteria. CDC data3 shows there are about 412 confirmed cases of people getting ill from pasteurized milk each year, while only about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk. And research by Dr. Ted Beals4, MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, shows that you are about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk!”
The media likes to take the number of illnesses linked with raw milk and report on that alone, without putting it into the larger context that over three times as many people get sick drinking conventional, pasteurized milk.
And what about information suggesting that Western countries have shown a dramatic increase in food allergies in recent decades, including severe milk protein allergies? Reports of children actually dying from drinking regular milk and going into anaphylactic shock are a lot more common these days.
In addition, neither the Daily Mail nor the Telegraph mentioned anything about the fact that iodine acts synergistically with selenium and magnesium, and imbalances between these minerals have been shown to cause serious health problems including chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (CAT), a horrible condition where the body attacks its own thyroid gland that results in a bevy of horrible symptoms including hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism.
None of those important clarifications are brought up, and the mainstream media continues to regurgitate scaremongering blanket statement headlines that dupe an ignorant populace who believe whatever they read without thinking twice.
