Lowfat, Nonfat or Two percent

Choosing the type of milk is a little confusing sometimes. People with certain health conditions may require less fat intake, figure conscious women prefer low to non fat at all. My fair share of this milk-fat-conciousness-thingy all started when I was getting a little cynically-weight-concious a few years back. I said cynically because I was 20lbs underweight 1 year prior.
Due to the late night munches after a hectic day at work, I gained my ideal weight back in no time. So when I noticed that i was gaining weight constantly I became really conscious and even my coffee suffered most of the time. I used to go to the coffee shop to have a cup of coffee that tasted like instant coffee straight from its sachet. I remember getting decaf-nonfat-cappuccino that didn’t taste like coffee some times, or maybe I should say my altered-coffee didn’t taste like coffee at all. Well that is based on my taste buds as a coffee-loving person. So to make my long coffee-milk story short, I decided to forget this non-sense-good-coffee-deprivation of mine and went back to my normal coffee. Sometimes I would order for a cup coffee with non-fat milk but with whipped cream on top.. that was really crazy but at least that made me a happy coffee-drinking person.



After a few more years of whole-milk and sometimes whipped cream on my coffee, not to mention the succulent and fattening food, I ballooned to 10 to 15 lbs overweight. That was when I get really paranoid about my weight but still too lazy to exercise. So I decided to go back to drinking nonfat milk and my so-called altered coffee. I don’t mind drinking a glass of non fat milk everyday but coffee with non fat milk is a different story.

One time at Starbucks, I requested for low-fat milk on my coffee but to my disappointment they don’t serve low-fat and the girl at the counter suggested the two percent. That was the first time I got introduced to 2%. I’m not a milk nor milk-fat expert but I figured out that the fat content of 2% is less than that of whole-milk. It doesn’t taste as good as whole-milk but not as bad as non-fat so I thought it’s not bad after all. I sometimes get that confused look from other coffee patrons at Starbucks when I request for a 2% milk on my coffee. So I concluded that it’s not only me who is not well aware of the fat contents of milk or milk types. So I looked up this subject on the net and I found some useful information. I want to share this with everyone.

Happy milk and coffee drinking everyone

The information below was taken from Wikipedia and may not be updated by the author of this post once it has been published. Please visit the link provided for additional information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_content_of_milk

The terminology for different types of milk, and the regulations regarding labelling, varies by country and region.

Canada
In Canada “whole” milk refers to creamline (unhomogenized) milk. “Homogenized” milk refers to milk which is 3.25% butterfat (or milk fat). There are also skimmed, 1%, and 2% milk fat milks. Generally all store-bought milk in Canada has been homogenized.[citation needed] Yet, the term is also used as a name to describe butterfat/milk fat content for a specific variety of milk. Modern commercial dairy processing techniques involve first removing all of the butterfat, and then adding back the appropriate amount depending on which product is being produced on that particular line.

In the U.S. and Canada, a blended mixture of half cream and half milk is often sold in small quantities and is called half-and-half. Half-and-half is used for creaming coffee and similar uses. In Canada, low-fat cream is available, which has half the fat content of half-and-half.

United States
Butterfat content – U.S. terminology
80% Butter
40% Manufacturers cream
36% Heavy whipping cream
30 – 36% Whipping cream or Light whipping cream
25% Medium cream
18 – 30% Light, coffee, or table cream
10.5 – 18% Half and half
3.25% Whole milk
about 2% 2% or Reduced fat [8]
1.5 – 1.8% Semi-skimmed
about 1% 1% or Low fat [8]
0.0 – 0.5% Skimmed milk [8]

In the USA, skimmed milk is also known as “fat free” milk, due to USDA regulations stating that any food with less than ½ gram of fat per serving can be labelled “fat free”.[8]

United Kingdom
Three main varieties of milk by fat content are sold in the UK, skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole milk. These make up 17%, 58% and 25% of the market respectively.[3][9] Until 1 January 2008, milk with butterfat content outside the ranges defined by the European Commission could not legally be sold as milk[citation needed]. This included 1% milk, meaning The One, a 1% variety launched by Robert Wiseman Dairies, could not be labelled as milk. Lobbying by Britain has allowed these other percentages to be sold as milk.[10] Since the change in regulation, Sainsbury’s has launched a 1% variety with an orange milk bottle top.[11]

Butterfat content – UK Terminology
5.5% Channel Island milk or breakfast milk [12]
3.5% Whole milk or full fat milk [12]
1.5 – 1.8% Semi-skimmed [13]
1% The One or 1%
Less than 0.3% Skimmed [13]
Labels: cappuccino, coffee, lowfat, milk, milk fat, nonfat, skimmed milk, starbucks, two percent milk, whole milk