Milk, Whole, Skim, or Almond #32

For several years I drank 2% milk.  After having a heart attack I started drinking skim milk to reduce my cholesterol.  I prefer the taste of skim over 2% and whole milk.  I consider skim milk to be good for my heart health.  It is low in fat, cholesterol, and calories.  Recently I have read many articles about whole milk being better for you than skim milk.  Other articles claiming skim milk is not as healthy for you as you may think.

There are some facts supporting both positions that you should consider when deciding which is better for you.  Skim milk is the result of removing all the cream, or milk fat from whole milk.  The remaining is what skim milk is produced from after processing.  Now here is a matter to consider.  I have always thought that what is left after taking out the fat is skim milk.  Well that is not exactly correct.  Powdered milk containing protein and oxidized cholesterol is added back to the skimmed off remaining milk to produce skim milk.  The process "denatures the protein making it difficult for the body to utilize it."  Vitamins that were removed are added back, so those are negatives to me. Being the cholesterol is oxidized which is "bad" cholesterol you're consuming and some amount or value of the nutrients is lost or altered during the process.  As I understand it, even though the values may be listed on the side of the carton they are not 100% or usable by your system.  Meaning they have lost some amount of their health benefits to you.  One cup of whole milk contains more calories and 20% of your daily saturated fat allowance. Now the rest of this is based on my reading a lot of articles which were pro whole milk.  One is that whole cow's milk is a product of nature, and nature would not provide bad nourishment needed for growth by a human child.  I'm not making this up....well as you can see, the loop hole here is the human child's mother's milk is provided by nature for human growth, not cow's milk. There are several articles which I think have merit about the value of whole milk. One is whole is better for weight loss than skim milk. It is complicated but is based on fat in whole milk, through some natural process reduces body fat.  "Conjugated linoleic acid in whole milk can reduce body fat and increase muscle mass."  Ability to reduce body fat and no loss of vitamins and nutrients can be considered important reasons to drink whole milk.

For me, a heart patient concerned about eating healthy foods, I feel drinking milk is an ingredient in taking care of myself.  It helps me control my weight.  I like the taste, and it is a food I feel confident is helping me maintain a healthy low cholesterol level.   My preference is skim.  My personal final conclusion is whole milk would be better for my waist, in that it probably reduces body fat.  But I think whole milk is not as heart healthy, considering the cholesterol and amount of saturated fat.  The bad cholesterol found in skim milk can not be denied. However, there is such a small amount, it is like almost zero. I feel that the skim is healthier for my heart.  If I find later whole milk is healthier for me than skim, I have no problem in changing.  I will not stay with one or the other simply based on taste.   I have tried almond milk for the health benefits.  I liked the taste, especially the colder, the better it tasted.  It is almost identical to skim milk in calories.  Almond milk has zero cholesterol and it does not require refrigeration. As I said, it needs to be drunk when very cold.   I really thought the almond was good, and tasted more like a dairy treat. I think if you got it very cold and poured it over a small glass of crushed ice it would taste like a vanilla milk shake.  I may try that and I'll let you know. Also, the almond milk I found at our grocer, was a lot more expensive than skim milk.

In doing research on healthier foods, from various sources, I have found inconsistencies in calories, cholesterol, and fat values listed for most like products. They are  normally very close, but not the same, so if you see me post nutrition facts which differ from other sources for like products, that could be the reason.