Lowfat dairy? page

[bobbitt81]

It's what every dairy case around here is full of.

(I did find some raw cheese. WIN!)

I know there's a good case against low fat dairy, but I can't remember what it is. Can somebody remind me?

[chia]

I believe they add thickening agents to improve texture which increase carb/sugar content...PLUS, in the case of no fat at least, without fat, one cannot absorb calcium...although dairy is fairly useless for that anyways......unless raw.....look at the label of skim milk compared to whole...wow, the sugar and carb readings are vastly different....

[bobbitt81]

I'll check that out. Raw milk is pretty much impossible to find here. Access to high quality food in general is difficult to get around here, but I'd like to incorporate more cultured dairy, it's just ALL low fat around here.

[chia]

can you get some coconut milk?.. it's fabulous!! otherwise, regular dairy isn't necessary, just something we're used to due to upbringing.. I gotta say, cheese on pizza is pretty damn yummie.... ;-) (i enjoy coconut ice-cream as well..but just a little...as a treat....)

[bobbitt81]

Yeah. I use coconut milk pretty frequently. It's delicious stuff.

And yeah, dairy isn't necessary, but dammit, it's delicious.

[Lewis]

I know there's a good case against low fat dairy, but I can't remember what it is. Can somebody remind me?

Besides what's already been said—that the best bit's been skimmed off and that what's left is higher in sugar (i.e., lactose = milk-sugar)—there's this:

To give it what food technologists call "mouth feel", to make sure it does't come across as so horribly thin in the mouth, they add dried skimmed milk powder to it. Now that's probably spray-dried at high temperature. That high temperature's going to denature the proteins to some extent which is potentially problematic. It will also oxidize cholesterol, and while cholesterol in foods is not a problem oxidized cholesterol is.

There'll be papers online trying to quantify how much damage spray-drying does to the food, but you know why bother with food like that anyway ...

[fufonzo]

Beyond what others have said, most of the minerals and vitamins you get from milk are fat soluble. By taking the fat out, your body's not able to bind to these nutrients. (Edit: just noticed it's already been mentioned)

I know the feeling though. I've been wanting my grocery store to get greek yogurt for some time. They now have a ton, but they're all 0% fat. Yuck. I find it hard getting any yogurt with more than 3% fat...

[Wolfmommy]

Low fat dairy? EEEWWWW!!
I don't have the author handy, but if you can get your hands on [U]The Milk Book[U], they have a lot of good info in there.
Do you have access to goat milk products? Not as processed.

[Lewis]

Not the Untold Story of Milk perhaps?

That's by Ron Schmid (with a forward by Sally Fallon). I haven't read it, although I have his other book on order.

Amazon.com: The Untold Story of Milk, Revised and Updated: The History, Politics and Science of Nature's Perfect Food: Raw Milk from Pasture-Fed Cows (9780979209529): Ron Schmid: Books

[chia]

yes, Goat's milk, although in stores, pasteurized, is NOT homongenized...at least there's that. Remember, homogenization high speed mixes the fat into the milk causing tiny globules...these little globues PING are arteries.... little cuts and scrapes...NOT a good thing! also, Goat's milk is closes to human breast milk...although really, we should all give up the milk once weaned... but, if we make wiser choices in moderation...we're healthy..lean..fit... a little store bought dairy on occasion isn't always the end of the world...