Milk: Full-Fat vs. Low-Fat

Low-Fat VS Full-Fat Milk: Milk is one of the most nutritious beverages on the planet, which explains why it’s a breakfast favourite, an anytime snack, and a popular beverage for people of all ages.

“Milk is a high-quality protein, due to presence of all essential amino acids. These amino acids are required for tissue building and repair, playing an important role in immune function, taking part in various biochemical reactions and are vital for metabolism. Protein from dairy helps reduce muscle breakdown post exercise, due to its rich amino acid profile."

The significant difference between the types of milk available is their fat content. Whole milk contains more fat and calories than low-fat/skim milk.

Skim milk or whole? Non-fat yoghurt or full-fat? For decades, public health officials have treated these decisions as no-brainers. Cut the dairy fat they’ve maintained, and you’ll avoid calories without missing out on good stuff like calcium and protein.

A win-win situation?.

But they might have been wrong, experts now say.

Recent studies suggest that skim might not always be the healthiest option when it comes to milk!

Low-Fat VS Full-Fat Milk:

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Why is whole milk sometimes considered unhealthy?

For years, nutrition guidelines have been instructing people to avoid whole milk, mainly due to its saturated fat content.

Mainstream nutrition recommendations advise limiting saturated fat due to its supposed connection to heart disease. Some studies have shown that saturated fat raises cholesterol levels, and researchers know that high cholesterol levels are associated with an increased risk of heart disease.

On the contrary, there is no solid evidence that saturated fat increases the risk of heart disease. Saturated fat does increase LDL, but it’s not the most damaging type of LDL. It also raises HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Drinking whole milk may actually help you lose weight.

Many people avoid drinking whole milk because they assume the extra fat and calories will cause them to gain weight. Interestingly, the opposite is probably true. Many studies have shown that consuming high-fat dairy products, such as whole milk may actually help prevent weight gain.

One extensive study noted that women who consumed the highest amounts of high-fat dairy products were the least likely to become overweight over time.

Another study of 1,782 men found that those who had a high intake of high-fat dairy products had a 48% lower risk for developing abdominal obesity compared with men who had a medium intake. In the same study, the men who had a low intake of high-fat dairy products had a 53% higher risk for abdominal obesity.

This is significant because abdominal obesity, in which fat accumulates around the waistline, maybe the worst kind of weight gain.

In Conclusion

People who drink whole milk tend to weigh less.

Whole milk may lower your risk for chronic disease.

Several studies have shown that drinking whole milk is associated with health benefits.

Multiple studies have shown that drinking whole milk is associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the name given to a group of risk factors, including insulin resistance, abdominal obesity, low HDL (good) cholesterol levels and high triglyceride levels. When these risk factors are present together, your risk for diabetes and heart disease is high.

A study of more than 1,800 people found that adults with the highest intake of high-fat dairy products had a 59% lower risk for metabolic syndrome than adults with the lowest intake.

In Conclusion

Drinking whole milk may actually have some health benefits, including lowering the risk of metabolic syndrome.

Low-Fat VS Full-Fat Milk:

Low-Fat VS Full-Fat Milk: The Whole Story

When you’re at the grocery store buying your low-fat milk and yoghurt, have you ever wondered why you’re buying the low-fat versions?

In the 1970s, the government issued a recommendation, based on scientific evidence at the time, telling people to reduce the amount of saturated fat in their diets, as it was believed to lead to obesity and heart disease. At this point, the food industry started pushing the low-fat concept HARD, making us think the reason we were gaining weight was from the saturated fat in things like cow’s milk.

In reality, this prompted an increase in food products that had satiating, vitamin-absorbing fat removed and replaced with synthetic, factory-made ingredients. Then, they added sugar so that it still tasted delicious.

Whether you are feeding yourself, family or friends, it’s important to keep it as natural as possible. You really want to be able to know how every food product got to be in your kitchen, what’s in it, how it was manufactured and when it comes to skim milk and whole milk, there’s a difference.

Low-Fat VS Full-Fat Milk:

How is Milk Manufactured?

To keep it all really simple, you start with raw milk. It’s separated into two things: cream and skim milk. For whole milk, some of the creams are added back into the low-fat milk until it’s just over 3% milk fat. All milk then get pasteurized (heated to destroy harmful bacteria) and homogenized (breaks down fat molecules in milk to avoid separation).

The whole milk is ready to be bottled, but not the low-fat milk. At this point, it’s a nasty, blueish colour with a watery texture that doesn’t resemble milk at all.

Adding Additives to Low-Fat Milk.

The first thing they do with low-fat milk to make it more like actual milk is to fortify it, which means adding vitamins, mainly A and D since those vitamins are stored in the fat of milk (fat-soluble). Since all the fat has been stripped, the natural vitamins are gone and need to be added back in. So in goes synthetic vitamin A and D.

Since the low-fat milk is also really watery in texture, they need to thicken it up. So they do this by adding non-fat milk solids (dry milk powder). This also makes up for the protein and calcium that are lost in the process of separating out the milk fat.

And What are these Non-Fat Milk Solids?

These non-fat milk solids are the dried powder left after all the water is removed from skim, liquid milk. The reason it’s used in the production of low-fat milk is that it gives low-fat dairy products a richer feel without adding any fat. Since, at this point, skim milk is basically murky water, they add it, so it more closely resembles the texture of whole milk.

However, the production of milk solids is questionable. Many critics and health professionals believe that the way milk solids are created causes fat to oxidize, increasing levels of LDL (aka: bad) cholesterol.

Powdered milk contains oxidized cholesterol, which scientists believe is much worse for your arteries than ordinary cholesterol.

While not enough studies have been done on this to prove it 100%, I think the point is made. Why do we have to mess around with our food in factories?

So Whole Milk is Healthier?

Not only is whole milk processed less, but fat is also required for nutrient absorption, so you’ll better absorb all the vitamins and minerals naturally occurring in the milk. Also, since fat is rich and satisfying to eat, you’ll feel full and satiated for a lot longer and less likely to eat additional calories from other high fat or sugar foods. This is why products like low-fat yoghurts and skim milk contain flavourings (chocolate skim milk) because the plain taste of them just isn’t good.

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But, Beware the Processing!

With all of that said, full-fat dairy can be very highly processed too, and all dairy products can contain high amounts of added steroids and hormones. So please be aware of where your dairy is coming from, look for organic labels, buy from local farmers who explain their process to you, or try something totally different altogether like raw sheep or goat milk, or plant-based options like coconut, almond or cashew milk.

At the same time, none of this means you should gorge yourself on full-fat dairy. We shouldn’t swing the pendulum too far in the other direction. And, put butter in everything and eat as much dairy as you want to.

But if you’re deciding between skim milk and whole milk, the existing research argues you may be better off going for the full-fat stuff.

The Bottom Line.

At FITrebel, we not saying you should start consuming large amounts of high fat dairy products. But when you do consume them, choose a milk, yogurt, cream cheese or sour cream that’s a full fat, natural version. It’s also about getting the least processed product possible.