Chocolate syrup + milk, sugar in tea, sugar in coffee, or even in RI we have coffee syrup + milk. Hard to underestimate how much Americans love sugar.

Yes, I thought of lactose, but the CNN article says consumers are looking for "less-sugary" milk. Is that really what they mean by "sugary", that it has lactose? I would have thought that "sugary" means, well, tasting of sugar, as in sucrose, i.e. sweet.

For the record, this is the other comment I refer to:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21522662

But there seems to be some disagreement about its accuracy.

It's saying plant-based milks are a less-sugary alternative. That doesn't imply that cow milk has added sugar, just that it has more sugar naturally than e.g. oat or soy milk

I expect through the magic of labeling that it might show up as 'milk solids', or similar.