Health News/Trending Parenting

What’s Being Added to Your Organic Milk Will Make You Gag a Little – Or a LOT

If you’ve always suspected that organic foods were just a scam to get your money, there’s a little more evidence you just might be right.

new report from the Washington Post says that popular organic milk brand Horizon, beloved by many a bottle-chugging toddler, may not be living up to its label. Because, you know, brewing up giant vats of algae in their factory to add to their milk isn’t exactly what nature intended.

Did you just throw up in your mouth a little bit? Yeah, me too.

Here’s the deal: Horizon advertises that its milk comes chock full of DHA-Omega 3 to support brain health. It’s the same stuff that probably gave your prenatal vitamins a vaguely seafoody smell and taste, because it’s found in fish and shellfish. Which is where I assumed Horizon was getting it from, and not the aforementioned giant vat of algae.

It’s called Schizochytrium, which sounds like something that bad guys would be trying to blow up the planet with in an Avengers movie.

I don’t know much (or anything, really) about food production, but I do know that something that costs more because it’s organic should probably actually be organic.

Factory algae milk may not be dangerous, but selling it as organic seems more than a little deceptive to me. And apparently, Horizon isn’t the only guilty party—Costco’s Kirkland brand does the same thing.

Now, I am by no means a crunchy mom who insists on everything organic all the time—I’d even go so far as to say I actively avoid certain organic products because they seem like a rip off.

My kid eats Kraft macaroni and cheese, for example, because I reject the notion that one package of noodles and neon orange cheese powder can be that much healthier than another (so screw you, Annie, and your little bunnies, too).

But my pediatrician recommends organic whole milk for babies older than 1, so I buy it.

This WaPo report will definitely have me switching brands, however, and reading beyond that organic label next time I hit up the grocery store.