Want to add a few things.

>"whole milk" is only 3.25% milkfat

It is only in Canada and US whole milk is 3.25%. In UK, and I believe EU as well it is 3.5%.

>whole milk is a miniscule increase in the total amount of milkfat consumed.

This causes my brain to explode for a bit. A 2% to 3.25% is 62.5% increase in total amount of milk fat. Which is not really minuscule increase. At the same time I totally understand what you meant.

It’s an increase of 1.25% of milkfat across the entire product. It’s one half a teaspoon more milkfat in an 8 oz glass of milk.

As a point of comparison with another milky product - the flavored latte - flavor shots are 1/2 an oz (2.5 tsp) each, and two are added to an 8oz latte.

Where are they getting 25%+ milk fat? Do people really not understand how milk is produced? Half and half is ~12%, light cream is ~20%, and whipping cream is only ~35% fat, and each of those products has reduced fat milk as a byproduct (they need to get that extra fat from somewhere). The highest fat milk I've had was raw milk, which was between 4-5% milk fat.

My aunt and I had a running joke growing up about this. Basically, she would call my whole milk "meal in a cup", so I would call her skim milk "meal in a gallon". However, the actual calorie difference is fairly modest with whole milk being less than double skim milk in calories (but IMO at least twice as satiating).

I'm really frustrated by how information about fat in general and milk specifically has been presented. I'm tired of explaining how whole milk isn't all that different from lower fat dairy milk, but it tastes way better (personal opinion). Same goes for other dairy products, like cheese and yogurt. It seems people usually overload on carbohydrates, so increasing fat consumption should help to offset that, so I think whole milk products are generally a better choice for most people. I think most people would be better off drinking ~60% less milk and going with whole milk instead of skim milk.

I wish food had some kind of satiety/calorie index or something so people can make better decisions about which products to choose.

Not only that - compare the sugar profiles of whole, 2% and skim - you may be a bit surprised (roughly equal if not the same). Also if your kids are drinking those single serve boxes... I’ve seen the sugar on those as high as 18-20g. Way higher than milk out of the carton... approaching “juice” levels. Which reminds me, those relatives with skim in their fridge? They didn’t also happen to also fall for the “heart healthy” fresh-squeezed OJ? Mine did.

Very helpful—it is bizarre that people have no idea what whole fat milk is, and that it’s less than double 2% milk.

I wonder if the milk industry prefers people to gravitate towards reduced-fat milk because it leads to more milk consumption/revenue. If we all drank full-fat milk, we’d get full faster and therefore buy less.

Well in Japan and Korea, ( Possibly in Taiwan and China as well ) there is a trend to use and consume higher fat content milk as it is marketed as higher quality and more expensive. With Milk from 3.6% going up to 3.9%.

> to gravitate towards reduced-fat milk because it leads to more milk consumption/revenue.

I dont believe that is the case in consumption volume increase, but the Fat they reduced could be used in other products which increase their revenue.