Is Trim Milk OK?

This week a patient of mine told me her work colleagues said “Why are you changing to trim lattes? … don’t you know they put sugar in trim milk”

Where do these blatant myths come from?

There has been much said, written, posted and filmed about sugar. Products labelled ‘lite’ or ‘light’ may have extra sugar added when the fat content is reduced. That Sugar Film was brilliant in raising our overall awareness of sugar that is contained in processed foods. But milk???

Facts about milk in NZ

There are many varieties of milk available, with different fat contents. As an example, the website a well -known milk brand says ‘we never add water to Anchor™ milk. The only difference is the proportion of the cream we skim off.’ 

So they remove cream to produce lower fat varieties. That means there will be higher quantities of some other nutrients such as calcium and lactose. Lactose is a sugar in milk and it is supposed to be there (I avoid the word ‘natural’ as what is that supposed to mean when you see it used on the labels of so many processed foods). Milk is milk… lactose is not added after the animal makes milk. Labels on milk do not list added sucrose or any other form of sugar of which there are many.

Whatever your age including milk in your day is good nutrition.  Lower fat milk can be beneficial if you are trying to control weight. Do you enjoy a large latte every day? If so changing to lower fat milk will help reduce your energy intake with this simple change.