Posted on 10/08/2015 3:18:52 AM PDT by RockyTCB
If you look up "whole milk" in the government's official Dietary Guidelines, it states pretty definitively that people should only drink skim or 1% milk. "If you currently drink whole milk," it says, "gradually switch to lower fat versions."
This is the same advice the government has been issuing for many years. And it's wrong
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
I stopped worrying about this when I read that farmers used feed their pigs skim milk to fatten them up.
I notice that the government started advocating skim and low-fat right at the same time people started becoming fatter... coincidence? ...
I grew up thinking real butter was terrible, that garbage in the bowl that was so much cheaper was what I should eat. Skim milk sucked, but it’s healthy, right? And every chance to eat low fat was better, right?
Then we did the research, or I should say, my wife did, does, and continues all this research. We now eat real butter, put heavy whipping cream in our coffee (which is excellent), save the bacon fat, etc. My kids are going to be twice as healthy as I was, and I was still pretty healthy.
I remember the first time someone told me the food pyramid was upside down, and I scoffed. Now I understand that that is true. Besides, who wants to eat 10-12 servings of grains EVERY FREAKING DAY? Ugh.
Farmers feeding cows grain to fatten them up corrected my thinking on the 10-12 servings of grain as well.
...and check to make sure one of them wasn't peeing on your leg.
I'm the same way. We have arrived at a point in time where the truth is indeed controversial. Every tidbit of life has to be divided into liberal or conservative by the media and pols. If Ted Cruz said he wanted to rid the world of hemorrhoids, every Democrat and liberal media spinner would demand there be free hemorrhoids for everyone.
Dunking graham crackers in whole milk has been my late night snack for almost 70 years.
“When I was a kid during WW-2 I would shake up the milk as soon as the milkman delivered it so my mother couldn’t skim it for the cream. “
LOL. Thusly foiling her devious plot.
There is reasonable evidence that the low-fat/high carb diet the government has been pushing since the early 80’s is behind the obesity epidemic in the US. We need carbs, but not to the extent recommended by the dietary “experts.”
The food pyramid and Moochelle’s plate approach are also bogus.
A low-carb/high-protein diet, coupled with regular aerobic exercise, is an effective way to shed unwanted pounds.
Skim milk tastes better.
The above might be true, but the low fat, low cholesterol advice has been around much longer. The below is from the Wiki entry on Ancel Keys, whose faulty work was the basis for much of the low fat, low cholesterol diet advice that followed.
As a result (of Ancel Keys work), in 1956 representatives of the American Heart Association appeared on television to inform people that a diet which included large amounts of butter, lard, eggs, and beef would lead to coronary heart disease. This resulted in the American government recommending that people adopt a low-fat diet in order to prevent heart disease.
The low fat advice started in the late '50s, early '60s. My family started using Fleischman's corn oil margarine in the late '50s or early '60s because a doctor told my father to stop eating butter and some other natural fats.
Keys was on the cover of Time Magazine in January of 1961. Just making the point that this dietary advice has been around significantly longer than some things I've read recently indicate. It was around even before the government got involved. Then the food companies made it part of their advertising and the rest is history.
2 percent milk? Might as well drink water.
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Agree 100%. Skim milk? At one time it was deemed unfit for human consumption and fed to hogs. I buy and drink half & half occasionally, only occasionally because it costs $4.00 per half gallon.
I also buy chocolate whole milk, not easy to find because most are pushing 1% chocolate milk, which should be called chocolate flavored water, Kroger’s usually has the whole milk version.
White chalk is all it is.
FWIW, I’m not a big milk drinker, never have been a fan even as a kid, my mother used to have to force me to drink milk, and I can’t remember the last time I drank a whole glass of milk as an adult, heck I even use yogurt instead of milk on my cereal and I love cheese, but excepting for a few recipes that really need and specify whole milk or half & half or heavy cream, when use or drink milk, I can’t really tell all that much difference between whole milk and 2%. 1% or skim however is another matter.
"People who consumed more milk fat had lower incidence of heart disease."
One has to be careful when evaluating any medical or scientific “research”, especially when published in the MSM. Often these research papers are published and taken as being “absolute fact” but then you rarely hear about the peer reviews or other researchers not being able to replicate the results of the original researchers or those who find flaws in the research.
Remember that correlation does not necessarily equal causation.
For instance, “of the people studied who consumed more milk fat and had a lower incidence of heart disease”- how large was the sample population?; how long were they tracked?; what other factors might have been at play – genetic predispositions toward or against incidences of heart disease?; what other foods did the group eat or not eat?; and perhaps more importantly, what was their level of physical activity? – all compared against to what control groups?
I do however think the advice toward going low fat or non-fat is and has been wrong all along. Fats, including animal fats are absolutely essential to a healthy and well balance diet. But as with all things, moderation and balance and other lifestyle choices are the key.
The trend toward going to extreme low or non-fat diets has resulted in people (and food manufacturers) replacing healthy animal and dairy fats with unhealthy fats and with carbs and mostly empty sugars and with disastrous results. IMO - a very low fat diet does not satiate the appetite and causes people to instead fill up on empty calories and thus consume more calories.
OTHO, some diets like Atkins or some “Paleo” diets that put a very strong emphasis on foods heavy on animal fats but with little in the way of carbs (and yes, carbs, especially whole grains and fibrous ones, cruciferous vegetables, are also essential for good health too, especially if you want to poop on a regular basis), physical activity levels are also very important and often overlooked.
At the end of the day, calories, no matter from what types of foods they come from will make you fat if you don’t move enough. We have IMO become way too sedentary.
FWIW – at one time in the not so distant past, for many poor people, meat was a luxury. Many poor people subsisted on a diet high in grains, potatoes, beans, rice, etc. and with very little or sparingly used or poor quality meats, sometimes the most fatty and less desirable meats or organ meats, the cast offs. But they didn’t get fat because they were constantly engaged in rigorous physical activity.
I agree.
Growing up, I drank whole milk - LOTS of it.
After I reached 30, I changed to skim as whole milk began tasting like a thick syrup. I find skim milk tastes much more refreshing.
I also drink about 60-70 oz of water each day, too.
2% milk has half the fat of whole milk.
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Just looked at a gallon of whole milk and it contains “total fat 12% - saturated fat 25% of all fat”.
I drink whole milk, occasionally I buy Half & Half but at $4 per half gal. it’s a bit expensive.
I think water is the cure for many ills.
My friend who is a Doctor has been telling me this for years.
Standard resources, including technical chemistry ones, list whole milk as less than 4% total fat. The percent of total calories in milk that come from the fat is higher.
“Moochelle” and “bogus” in the same sentence...brilliant! The NSA eavesdroppers will be interested in that!
:)
That’s tame compared to some of my stuff.
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