Robin came across this interesting post on the difference between homogenized and pasteurized milk. It is from Old Almo Creamery in Almo, Idaho. Here is a little about the creamery taken directly from their web site. Enjoy the reading and the information.
Old Almo Creamery is a family owned and operated dairy located in Almo, Idaho, in the shadow of the City of Rocks National Reserve. It is a third generation farm that has always strived to produce quality products. Our mission is to continue this tradition of excellence by providing fresh, quality dairy products to our local communities at affordable prices. We strive to maintain excellent land stewardship practices and efficient use of resources to ensure that this legacy can be passed on to future generations.
What We Offer
Our milk is natural, local, fresh, and creamline making it more like the milk you remember drinking as a child, with the cream floating on the top. It is slowly pasteurized in a vat, cooled, and then packaged in half gallon glass bottles. In addition to bottled milk, we offer a variety of cheeses, cheese curd and ice cream. We use great care to ensure the quality of all our products.
And here, also taken from their web site, is a little about their milk. From what I understand, you can order their products directly from the web site or see them at the Burley Farmers Market.
Why Creamline Milk?
Cream line milk is, simply milk that is allowed to be milk. Like the milk found on most store shelves, cream line milk is pasteurized. We do not, however, homogenize our milk. Homogenization is a process which breaks up the fat particles in milk so that they stay in suspension. The process of homogenization uses very high pressure to break down the fat molecules into particles so small that they can be dissolved into the rest of the milk. They lose buoyancy and thus, the cream never rises to the top of homogenized milk. We believe that homogenization diminishes the flavor and decreases many of the health benefits of milk.
Studies have shown that when fat molecules are forcibly broken up by mechanical means, an enzyme called Xanthine Oxidase is released and allowed to penetrate the intestinal wall. Once it gets through the intestinal wall, Xanthine Oxidase gets into the bloodstream and is capable of creating scar damage to the heart and arteries, which may in turn cause the body to release cholesterol into the blood as a means of protecting the scarred areas with fatty tissue. This can lead to Arteriosclerosis. When un-homogenized milk is consumed, Xanthine Oxidase is normally excreted from the body without much absorption. Our milk is also free of controversial growth hormones including rBST, and is free of animal byproducts. Cows were meant to eat plants not animals, thus the food they eat here contains no animal byproducts.Milk is all natural — do you know where your milk comes from?