01/06/2026
We tend to label foods as “healthy” or “unhealthy,” but the truth is often far more complicated.
Take oats. They’re widely marketed as a clean, heart-healthy staple. Yet analytical surveys of commercial oat products have shown that glyphosate is detectable in essentially all sampled conventional oat items, often measured in the hundreds to roughly 1,100 ng/g (ppb) range. Organic oats generally test lower, but the bigger point is this: even foods we trust and consume daily aren’t always as simple or as pure as the label suggests.
Now look at what many of those oats turn into—oat milk. While it’s promoted as a gentle, dairy-free alternative, most commercial oat milks are highly processed. Beyond the oats themselves, they often contain added oils, stabilizers, and emulsifiers like gums or carrageenan. For some people, these ingredients can irritate the gut lining, disrupt digestion, or worsen existing inflammation. What’s marketed as “easier on digestion” isn’t always easier for everyone.
I learned this the hard way.
For years, I was plagued with gut issues—colitis-like symptoms, chronic inflammation, and food sensitivities that kept expanding. Dairy was blamed early on, and I cut it out completely. I tried every alternative: oat milk, nut milks, “clean” substitutes. But instead of healing, my gut felt more reactive than ever.
What started as a very personal experiment—getting a cow for ourselves—ended up changing everything. Over time, as my gut healed, I found I could tolerate foods I hadn’t touched in years. Today, I can enjoy conventional cheeses, ice cream, and even pasteurized milk again. For me, the turning point was discovering that not all milk is the same, and that protein structure (like A2 versus A1) mattered more to my body than I ever realized.
This journey taught me something important:
“Healthy” isn’t universal.
Processing matters. Ingredients matter. Farming practices matter. And most of all, your body’s response matters.
Sometimes the foods we replace “problem foods” with can be just as challenging—if not more so. And sometimes healing doesn’t come from eliminating entire food groups forever, but from understanding quality, sourcing, and how deeply individual our biology really is.
What began as a solution for our own health became something much bigger—a new way of looking at food, wellness, and the stories we’re told about what’s “good” for us.
If you’re wanting to try raw dairy this new year in hopes of conquering ongoing gut issues and are curious about raw milk, we offer weekly drop-offs on Tuesdays at Squash Blossom Company. We also have occasional availability directly at the farm throughout the week.
