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 Sometimes, the word “organic” earns its health halo: A new study finds that organic cow’s milk really is healthier than conventional milk. 
 
 
 
 Organic milk contains more heart-healthy fatty acids than regular milk, says study author Charles Benbrook, a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. The WSU researchers tested nearly 400 samples of organic and conventional milk over 18 months. 
 
 “There’s really no debate around the world -- when you feed dairy cows more grass, you improve the fatty acid profile of milk. You also increase the protein level,” Benbrook says. On the other hand, cows fed a corn-based diet produce milk that’s higher in omega-6 fatty acids. 
 
 The reason organic milk is healthier comes down to its ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which is lower than in regular milk. A diet containing too many omega-6 fatty acids and not enough omega-3s has been linked to heart disease, as well as cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. That’s because your gut converts omega-6s to arachidonic acid, which can cause inflammation. But the anti-inflammatory powers of omega-3s help to counterbalance that reaction, which is why keeping that ratio low is so important. (An omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 2.3 to 1 is best for heart health, research suggests.) 
 
 “It’s true that both omega 6s and omega 3s are essential – we have to have some of them,” Benbrook says. “But it’s when they get out of balance, the adverse health effects appear to kick in.” 
 
 
 
 If organic milk is out of your budget, conventional milk is still OK – but choose whole milk, rather than skim or 2 percent. "The heart-healthy fatty acids in milk are part of milk's overall fat content,” Benbrook says. “This benefit will be reduced about 50 percent when people choose 2 percent fat milk, and by about two-thirds when purchasing skim or low-fat dairy products.” 
 
 Even if you don’t consume dairy, Benbrook says the larger message here is to try to cut back on foods that are very high in soybean or corn oil, both of which have high omega-6 to omega-3 ratios – things like fried foods, or chips. 
 
 “We’re saying, switch to whole fat dairy products – preferably organic, but conventional is OK if you’ can’t afford it – and do it in conjunction with cutting back on foods that are very high in omega 6s,” Benbrook says. 

 Under government requirements for organic labeling, dairy cows must spend a certain amount of the time in the pasture, eating grassy plants high in omega-3s; conventional milk comes from cows that are mostly fed corn, which is high in omega-6s. Nonorganic cows that graze in pastures also produce milk with greater amounts of omega-3s. 
 
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 The research was largely funded by Organic Valley, a farm cooperative that sells organic dairy products. But experts not connected with the study said the findings were credible — though they noted that the role of milk in a healthy diet and the influence of fatty acids in preventing or causing cardiovascular disease are far from settled. 
 
 “I think this is a very good piece of work,” said Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a nutritional neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health. 
 
 The researchers looked at 384 samples of organic and conventional whole milk taken over 18 months around the country. Although the total amount of fat was almost the same, the organic milk contained 62 percent more omega-3 fatty acids and 25 percent fewer omega-6s. 
 
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 The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in the organic milk was 2.28, much lower than the 5.77 ratio in conventional milk. (The figures do not apply to nonfat milk, which strips away the fatty acids.) 
 
 Nutrition experts broadly agree that omega-3 acids offer numerous health benefits. That was the impetus for the United States Department of Agriculture to urge people to eat more seafood when it revised its dietary guidelines in 2010. 
 
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 But experts disagree sharply whether omega-6 consumption should be reduced. 
 
 In ancient times, people ate roughly equal amounts of the two fatty acids. Today most Americans now eat more than 10 times as much omega-6, which is prevalent in certain vegetable oils and thus also fried foods, as omega-3. 
 
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 While omega-6 is essential, some health studies suggest that such a wide disparity is associated with many ills, Dr. Benbrook said. A shift to drinking organic whole milk — and raising consumption from the currently recommended three servings a day to 4.5 — would take a big step to lowering the ratio, he said, although adjustments would have to be made elsewhere in the diet to offset the added calories of the milk fat. 
 
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 Donald R. Davis, another of the study’s authors, said the longstanding assumption that the saturated fats in whole milk raise the risk of cardiovascular disease has been questioned in recent years. 
 
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 Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, did not question the underlying data in the study. But he said the conclusions and recommendations were based on the “false assumption” that omega-6 fatty acids are harmful. 
 
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 Dr. Willett said omega-6s were actually associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and he called the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s “irrelevant.” People should try to eat more of both, he said. 
 
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 And he noted that milk was not essential to a healthy diet; adults in many countries drink little or none. “We don’t know all the long-term consequences, so I think the best strategy given current knowledge is to keep intake low to moderate (as in the Mediterranean diet) if it is consumed at all,” Dr. Willet wrote in an email. 
 
 But Dr. Hibbeln of the National Institutes of Health, who has conducted research on the effects of fatty acids on heart disease, said animal studies showed that high levels of omega-6s interfered with omega-3s. 
 
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 At the same time, though, he cautioned that the mix of omega-3s in milk is different from that in fatty fish. The simple ratio, he said, “is not as meaningful as we would like it to be.” 
 
 Still, he endorsed the organic milk recommendation. “You’re heading in the right direction,” he said. 
 
 Organic Valley uses independent milk-processing companies around the country, allowing the researchers to compare samples of organic milk with conventional milk from the same region. 
 
 The company provided $45,000 for an independent laboratory to measure the fatty acids, and it is a corporate sponsor of Dr. Benbrook’s program at Washington State. The university spent $90,000 to analyze the data and prepare the paper for publication. 
 
 George Siemon, chief executive of Organic Valley, said he was hoping to gain a better idea of how organic foods differ from conventionally produced ones. 
 
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 “Organics have lacked a science base,” Mr. Siemon said. “I just wanted to know.”
– The jury is still out on the health benefits of organic food, but organic milk appears to have some genuine advantages over conventional milk, according to new research. Almost 400 samples of both kinds of milk found that the organic stuff, from cows grazed in grassy pastures, was richer in heart-healthy fatty acids than milk from corn-fed cows, reports NBC. "All milk is healthy and good for people," the lead researcher says, but organic milk has a better balance of omega-3 fatty acids versus omega-6, which has been linked to heart disease when it is too high in the balance. "There’s really no debate around the world—when you feed dairy cows more grass, you improve the fatty acid profile of milk. You also increase the protein level," says the lead researcher, who suggests people who can't afford organic milk stick to full-fat milk. The study was largely funded by an organic dairy cooperative but experts say the data appears credible, the New York Times notes. Some nutritionists, however, disagree with the way omega-6 acids were viewed as harmful, and questioned whether any milk at all is necessary in an adult diet.