Oberweis milk?

N&G 5_26_07

Are you familiar with Oberweis? (I am not sure if its a local thing)

 

Their website says that their milk is hormone free, but not technically "organic." I was going to give DD organic milk to protect her from the hormones, but would this be ok too? What are your thoughts on this?

Here's the link if you are interested

Echowysp

To be honest, most milk you can buy at the store are hormone-free nowadays.  I wouldn't go to out of my way to get something special if hormones are your only concern.

emiliemadison

I love Oberweis chocolate milk, yum! We buy that as a treat once in a while. Oh, and their egg nog is to die for around the holidays. But for day-to-day, we buy generic.  If it says it's hormone free, and that's what you want, then use it. But even the store brand milk (at Target, anyway) is hormone free and says so on the container.

N&G 5_26_07

Ok - I guess my real confusion here is what is the difference between hormone free and organic? I was reading the posts the other day and it made me want to buy organic as opposed to regular milk for DD.

I am kinda a beginner here - neither my family nor DHs family ever focused on natural/organic foods, so I am trying to educate myself.

 

emiliemadison

I know, it's all a bit confusing

Hormone free means that the cows were not given artificial hormones or antibiotics. Organic refers to the cow's diet and sometimes, but not always, the "more friendly" treatment of the cows. 

So Hormone free milk may have pesticide residue from the cow's diet (we're talking TRACE, and probably less than what would be in your own breast milk unless you ate 100% organic yourself) and organic most likely doesnt have that.

If you want to try an organic brand of milk, Stonyfield Farms is a good one that truly is "organic".

CelticWife

Hormone-free milk simply means the animals were not fed/given hormones to up their milk production.

Organic milk typically means that the cows were given organic feed (no pesticides) and are hormone free.

If you want to learn more about food, there is a great documentary called Food Inc (it's on Netflix if you have it). There are also some great books by Michael Pollen on the subject (The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules).

Essentially, many things can be labeled organic while still not truely being an organic product. (A certain percentage of the product must be made with organic ingredients, but not all the ingredients are necessarily organic.)

I try to buy food for DS with the fewest ingredients possible, and ones that I can pronounce. For applesauce, it should have water, apples, and maybe sugar in it. No more. Things like that. And if you find it in the organic section, it is an organic product.

Lastly, in your original question, we love Oberweis milk. We don't get to buy it all that frequently, but it tastes really good. There is also an organic line that we really like, called Wild Harvest. We found it in the baby food aisle and it was a comparable price to Gerber. So then we found all their other products- apple juice, stocks, pasta, veggies, mac and cheese, even oreos- and they taste really good! And most of them are the same price as the non-organic products.

N&G 5_26_07

Thank you everyone - this is very helpful!

I will look into those products and resources. I appreciate it!

lovemytwoboys

emiliemadison:

But even the store brand milk (at Target, anyway) is hormone free and says so on the container.

Yep. We buy store brand milk that says hormone free. Although I do admit that I have been researching whether we should make the switch to Organic. 

As for your original question, I LOVE Oberweis milk. I'm just referring to the taste, so if you are just wanting it because it is hormone free, there are lots of other options. I love that their milk comes in glass bottles. I think it makes it taste so much better. Oh, and as pp mentioned, their chocolate milk is to die for too

ElizC

IMO milk in a glass in bottle taste so much better. We use to get oberwies milk, but the store by us closed:(. I was able to find a local dairy that is hormone and anitbotic free and in a glass bottle, like oberwies. On big downfall to organic milk is that is ultrapatazirized. You just have to decide what is important to you when is comes to milk.

kelbrian

ElizC:

IMO milk in a glass in bottle taste so much better. We use to get oberwies milk, but the store by us closed:(. I was able to find a local dairy that is hormone and anitbotic free and in a glass bottle, like oberwies. On big downfall to organic milk is that is ultrapatazirized. You just have to decide what is important to you when is comes to milk.

Organic Valley is not ultra pasteurized. Well, the kind that comes in the cardboard containers is, but a lot of the milk in the jugs is not. You just have to check the labels.

But yeah, most organic milk is ultra pasteurized, which is not something I like. Oberweis is a great brand. We drink a local milk that is not certified organic but is free of hormones/antibiotics and is from pasture raised cows.

You can check out this website to see if you can find any local farms that supply milk if you don't want to get Oberweis.

https://www.localharvest.org