Milk is a strangely polarising topic. Which milk is healthiest, from the OG version from a cow and the plant-derived varieties have been the topic of starry advertising campaigns and takedown investigations. I experienced it firsthand a few years ago after posting on social media about my return to whole cow’s milk after a Goldilocks journey through the alternatives. The number of responses (and the uproar I faced for confessing that I favoured whole milk) was beyond anything I had experienced. And the recent rise of raw milk (AKA untreated milk that is lauded by some as a health cure-all and others as a bacteria-spiked death wish) left us wondering: which milk is healthiest?
The experts warn: The answer isn’t quite one-size-fits-all.
“In the past, places had ranked different types of milks based on calorie content or saturated fat, but today’s literature and research stress the importance of insulin and blood-sugar management over calories and fat,” says Dr Taz Bhatia, an integrative wellness physician and author of The Hormone Shift. “When it comes to rating different kinds of milks on their nutritional quality, it is actually tough because each has unique and distinctive properties.”
When your blood sugar is out of whack (also called hypoglycemia), you may experience cravings, lack of energy and fatigue, acne, poor sleep and brain fog.
The Food and Drug Administration urges label literacy when it comes to choosing which milk is healthiest for you, whether you’re drinking it straight, adding it to your morning coffee or mixing it into your breakfast. At the end of the day, though, one thing is certain: there’s a clear worst milk out there. Read on for some advice.
Cow’s milk
Pasteurised milk
Even within the world of traditional milk, there are a variety of options. First up: pasteurised milk, which is most likely the one you’re seeing at your local grocery store.
The process of pasteurisation can be distilled down to this: Once the milk is procured, it’s flash-heated for around 15 seconds to kill harmful microbes that could be deadly.
When it comes to milk, there are so many different options, from whole and 2% to non-fat and lactose-free. Across the varieties, the nutritional profile is comprehensive: calcium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, iodine and vitamins A, B and D. Cow’s milk contains three nutrients (calcium, potassium and vitamin D) that many of us are lacking, which makes it a great choice, but only for those who can stomach it. A lot of people now have some sort of issue digesting lactose, the natural sugar found in milk. “When we strip milk of its fat, we reduce the calories, but we also worsen its impact on our glucose levels,” says French biochemist Jessie Inchauspé.
If you don’t fall into the lactose-intolerant camp, Dr Bhatia urges you to go for cow’s milk in your diet. “If I had to pick one, this is it because of its protein content, but make sure you always choose organic,” she says. It’s a favourite of Inchauspé’s too.
Raw milk
Raw milk, also referred to as unpasteurised milk, has not been treated for bacteria or pathogens. There is a single, small study that found that consuming raw milk may help with asthma and allergies, though it should be noted that other rural exposures (dirt, hay, etcetera) in general have been studied more broadly to help as well.
