A European team lead by the Swiss scientist Lukas Rist has found that mothers consuming mostly organic milk and meat products have about 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk (Rist et al., 2007).  This Conjugated Linoleic Acid is responsible for most of the health benefits of CLAs in milk and meat.

The authors of this European study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in June 2007 report that the greater reliance of organic beef and dairy farmers on pasture and forage grasses increases the levels of CLAs in milk and beef, and in turn in the breast milk of women eating organic animal products.

Source: “Influence of organic diet on the amount of conjugated linoleic acids in breast milk”

Authors: Lukas Rist, Andre Mueller, Christiane Barthel, Bianca Snijders, Margje Jansen, A. Paula Simoes-Wust, Machteld Huber, Ischa Kummeling, Ursula von Mandach, Hans Steinhart, and Carel Thijs.

British Journal of Nutrition, 2007.