Full cream, low fat or fat free milk?

The low-fat approach to eating may have made a difference for the occasional individual, but globally it hasn't helped us control our weight or become healthier. Here’s the evidence to back that statement:

In the 1960s, fats and oils supplied Americans with about 45% of calories; about 13% of adults were obese and less than 1% had type 2 diabetes. Today, Americans are consuming less fat of which they are getting about 33% of calories from fats and oils; yet 34% percent of adults are obese and 11% have diabetes.

In other words low-fat, reduced fat, or fat-free processed foods are not necessarily “healthy” – in contrast, many of them are often higher in salt and sugar than their full-fat counterparts, to compensate for the flavour and texture that’s lost when food manufacturers slash fat. This would explain the exponential increase in obesity and diabetes.

The other problem with a generic lower-fat diet is that most people stop eating fats that are good for the heart along with those that are bad for it. 

Full cream milk contains around 4% fat . 

Low fat milk has half the amount of fat (2%). 

Fat free milk has less than 1% fat.

It is important to note that fat removal strips the milk of all its fat-soluble vitamins, and therefore fat free milk must be fortified with vitamins A and D to make up for the loss of nutrition.

The biggest disadvantage of full cream milk is its high content of saturated fat. One cup of whole milk contains 5 grams of saturated fat which is a quarter of your daily intake limit – and you know that high dietary intake of saturated fat can increase your chances for a heart attack. Saturated fat in whole milk can also deter your uptake of calcium from milk, but it has been shown to lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes as opposed to fat free milk.

According to Dr Mol,  if we weighed up all the pros and cons, it would seem that low fat 2% milk satisfies most of these variables and is a good compromise. 

 

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