Milk - what's in a name?

JML755 · Jul 22, 2011

I use a fair amount of half & half. In my coffee, cereal and cooking, probably 1-2 qts per week. I also use REAL butter. Used to be a margarine and other fake stuff user due to all the "hype" that we were fed by health studies. But I finally got fed up trying to figure out what was good or bad for me and went back to the real thing. I've lost more weight, feel better than I ever have by exercising, eating in moderation, avoiding carbs.

Last week I grabbed an unopened carton of half-half to cook with. I noticed the label said "Fat Free". Huh? Wife had grabbed the wrong carton. I looked closer and compared it to a regular carton from the same creamery we had in the fridge. Labels were almost identical. But here were the ingredients:

Regular half-half: Grade A Milk, Cream (sounds about right)

Fat-Free half-half: Skim Milk, milk, corn syrup solids, artificial color, sodium citrate, dipotassium phosphate, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, vitamin A palmitate. (all those great chemicals I try and avoid by eating more natural foods)

My point is: How can they even call the "Fat Free" version Half & Half? Sounds like false advertising to me. (I know the beet and cane sugar growers are suing the corn syrup folks for trying to call their stuff sugar.) And to put it in a carton almost identical to the real stuff is very deceptive.

Anyway, we'll use it up but just another thing we have to look closer at when buying. (Along with avoiding the "low sodium" canned goods).

Anonymous-0 · Jul 22, 2011

Why dont you just use whole milk? It's only 3.25% fat, you get more for your money.

By the way I'm a dairy farmer, I drink raw milk ice cold the way it should be.

rockyridgefarm · Jul 22, 2011

Quite a bit, apparently. Drinkers of Soy Juice will notice that their packaging no longer says "Soy Milk". Dairy industry sued to get that fixed.

"Fat Free" doesn't mean "healthy". Just look on about every package of candy.

"Low Sodium", on the other hand is something to look for. We as Americans eat WAAAAAAYYYY too much sodium. Nothing wrong with a little salt for flavor, but the levels of sodium in many foods is enough to choke a horse. The food industry uses large amounts of both sodium and sweeteners in packaging food to overcome questionable quality ingrediants. I've hauled sweet corn into canners that was at full dent. It was almost ready for chopping for cattle feed.

"No problem, just add more high fructose corn syrup and salt and make it cream-style"

We can as much of our own food as we can and use minimal salt.

hanovertom · Jul 22, 2011

I accidently picked up some FAT FREE cheese by mistake for pizza. Stuff was nasty, and would not melt!

John (C-IL) · Jul 22, 2011

Ya, I came off the dairy farm drinking whole unpasturized milk, went to the big U and tried the "milk". They should rename that stuff "Dairy Drink" because it is NOT milk.

Nancy Howell · Jul 22, 2011

While butter still contains high levels of fat and cholesterol, its a "natural" product and your body can digest it.

Many "foods" aren"t really even foods - like non-dairy creamer. Your body can"t even digest them.

Try comparing the calorie level between whole milk and 2%.

We all need to start reading labels. Try using frozen veggies instead of canned. Even better, put in a garden and grow your own.

When I get to live at the farm full time, I will be putting in a large garden and growing as much of our own veggies as possible. I"ve already told James we will need to invest in a second, maybe a third freezer. The stuff we get at the grocery store is pathetic - just my opinion.

I don"t do a garden in Dallas because I have no intention of doing all the work and coming home to find someone has helped themselves to my garden.

I do buy some home-grown veggies from local growers around the farm when I can. They sure are good!

JML755 · Jul 22, 2011

T.K. in PA,
Whole milk is ok with a cookie or piece of cake, but I like the taste and creaminess of half-half (coffee cream around the holidays). Wife drinks 2% which to me is like water. BTW, I wouldn't call the fake half-half "nasty" like hanovertom's cheese but it sure didn't taste the same and left my stomach a little queasy.

As for the sodium, by eating as much fresh & natural stuff I probably don't get as much as most people. Haven't had a McDonald's or Burger King meal in decades. So the occasional can of soup (high in sodium) doesn't bother me.

It's all about moderation, I believe, and I agree with farmerboy that "fat free" doesn't mean healthy.

Coloken · Jul 22, 2011

Its about time that people started to yell about this. My friend swears that he once picked up a package of meat that said "no beef added".

Tech 7 · Jul 22, 2011

I have a hard time with cheese. The stuff they sell at the grocery stores is false labelled in my opinion. Of course I got spoiled in my early days as there was a local cheese factory that made/sold some of the best cheese one could find.They finally shut down in the mid '80s because the health people needed them to upgrade the facility....now we have to buy "cheese" made with who knows what by who knows.BTW when this plant shut down they were making cheese with unpasturized milk.

rustyfarmall · Jul 22, 2011

(quoted from post at 05:05:27 07/22/11) I use a fair amount of half & half. In my coffee, cereal and cooking, probably 1-2 qts per week. I also use REAL butter. Used to be a margarine and other fake stuff user due to all the "hype" that we were fed by health studies. But I finally got fed up trying to figure out what was good or bad for me and went back to the real thing. I've lost more weight, feel better than I ever have by exercising, eating in moderation, avoiding carbs.

Last week I grabbed an unopened carton of half-half to cook with. I noticed the label said "Fat Free". Huh? Wife had grabbed the wrong carton. I looked closer and compared it to a regular carton from the same creamery we had in the fridge. Labels were almost identical. But here were the ingredients:

Regular half-half: Grade A Milk, Cream (sounds about right)

Fat-Free half-half: Skim Milk, milk, corn syrup solids, artificial color, sodium citrate, dipotassium phosphate, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, vitamin A palmitate. (all those great chemicals I try and avoid by eating more natural foods)

My point is: How can they even call the "Fat Free" version Half & Half? Sounds like false advertising to me. (I know the beet and cane sugar growers are suing the corn syrup folks for trying to call their stuff sugar.) And to put it in a carton almost identical to the real stuff is very deceptive.

Anyway, we'll use it up but just another thing we have to look closer at when buying. (Along with avoiding the "low sodium" canned goods).

I opened a jar of low salt roasted peanuts and began eating. I though the taste was rather bland, so I read the label and found that the salt that had been left out was replaced with MSG (monosodium glutamate) which is an artificial flavor enhancer, and has already been proven to be just as bad, if not worse, as too much salt. We went back to buying the real deal, and consume in moderation.

INCase · Jul 22, 2011

"Dairy drink" that's funny.

I LOVE milk and will drink most kinds (yeah even skim as my cholesterol is too high).

Get raw milk every couple weeks. Love it (if we get the right cow as it goes from the milker to my bottle, he has no bulk tank) but #2 daughter won't touch it. I usually skim it down to probably 1%. gotta love the cream ooosing down the sides of the glass.

Grandmother lived her whole life drinking raw milk, butter, homemade bread ect. she was 101 and still lived on the farm until she had her appendix removed.

just another old geezer · Jul 22, 2011

Want real cheese??. Lynn dairy of Lynn wisconsin has a website. They sell and ship real cheese. Search google and they come up. I have a friend who orders for his whole office complex at christmas time. It started when he brought some real cheese to an office party 3 years ago. His last order was over 300 lbs. But I'm lucky, the milk trucker delivers mine to the fridge in the milkhouse for me.

gitrib · Jul 22, 2011

Most of the crazy labeling is the result of goverment regulation. We made a wonderful smoked meat stick in a local butcher plant that was state inspected we used goat meat and it was a excellent product sold at Farners Market, We used the Name Gorkey Sticks (goat jerkey)on the label had to list every thing used, They failed to approve the label. Why????????? There is a city in Russia named Gorkey so we were misleading the public. Finally got it straightened out. Discontinued production due to sampling of meat for antibiotic and wormer residue. We were buying live animal and knew nothing of there history. Could not take the risk. gitrib

Inno · Jul 22, 2011

(quoted from post at 11:35:46 07/22/11) Want real cheese??. Lynn dairy of Lynn wisconsin has a website. They sell and ship real cheese. Search google and they come up. I have a friend who orders for his whole office complex at christmas time. It started when he brought some real cheese to an office party 3 years ago. His last order was over 300 lbs. But I'm lucky, the milk trucker delivers mine to the fridge in the milkhouse for me.

Just checked out their website, the prices seem VERY fair for what you are getting. Although in Canada we get robbed at our grocery stores for things like cheese and chicken. Luckily we're on the border and go to the States for not only better prices but often better quality items.
I wish I could find a source for fresh milk. Things are regulated so tightly though that it would be hard to find a farmer that would sell it to you.

steve n carol · Jul 22, 2011

(quoted from post at 05:13:53 07/22/11) Why dont you just use whole milk? It's only 3.25% fat, you get more for your money.

By the way I'm a dairy farmer, I drink raw milk ice cold the way it should be.

[color=green:aa6b36ea98]
YOu drink RAW milk COLD...the way it should be???? Shouldn't it be warm...the way it should be? :roll:

Couldn't resist... COLD milk is good....[/color:aa6b36ea98]

ILLEFTY · Jul 22, 2011

Heck, Wal-Mart sells sugar free honey. You can just image what's all in it, But no honey

ILLEFTY · Jul 22, 2011

Heck, Wal-Mart sells sugar free honey. You can just image what's all in it, But no honey

Bruce from Can. · Jul 22, 2011

Hey, heres an idea for you Inno, why not just buy yourself a cow so you can have milk fresh squeezed any time you want. Or better yet some time when you are shopping over the boader, why not just stay there, and help pay down the 14 trillion debt. What a truely patrotic Kannuk you are.And yes , I am a dairy farmer.

Bill in IL · Jul 22, 2011

I don't know how they can get away calling whole milk whole. Just can't stand the taste of "whole milk" after growing up on raw milk. Now I don't have a source for raw milk so I don't drink hardly any milk anymore. Our friendly government has made it a crime to sell raw milk for consumption so you can't just go up to any old farmer and ask for a gallon of milk without him thinking he will be setup.

tlak · Jul 22, 2011

According to DR Oz.........
That's the thing to do is get back to the real foods because all the low-fats, healthy?, etc are full of junk.
We sorted out the creamers, dry and half and half and they all had corn sweetener in them except the whole half and half.

730 virgil · Jul 22, 2011

my late wife once boght some cheap "cheese"
the stuff had no taste was rubbery
no milk in it all by products

steve n carol · Jul 23, 2011

(quoted from post at 19:06:23 07/22/11) my late wife once boght some cheap "cheese"
the stuff had no taste was rubbery
no milk in it all by products

I hear ya, It's called "cheese food"....
Next thing ya know they'll be doing plastic surgery on the cows.

oldtanker · Jul 23, 2011

(quoted from post at 05:42:17 07/22/11) While butter still contains high levels of fat and cholesterol, its a "natural" product and your body can digest it.

Many "foods" aren"t really even foods - like non-dairy creamer. Your body can"t even digest them.

Try comparing the calorie level between whole milk and 2%.

We all need to start reading labels. Try using frozen veggies instead of canned. Even better, put in a garden and grow your own.

When I get to live at the farm full time, I will be putting in a large garden and growing as much of our own veggies as possible. I"ve already told James we will need to invest in a second, maybe a third freezer. The stuff we get at the grocery store is pathetic - just my opinion.

I don"t do a garden in Dallas because I have no intention of doing all the work and coming home to find someone has helped themselves to my garden.

I do buy some home-grown veggies from local growers around the farm when I can. They sure are good!

Good??? Only way I know to make veggies taste good is to feed em to my cows then eat the cow!!!!!

You guys really want to see something.......the big companies that make "cheese" can import a certain amount of milk......dry milk to make their products out of. They are fined if they import more than allowed. It's cheaper to pay the fine than to buy fresh milk from US diaries. The US Government makes sure that cheap food is available to the consumer by rules like that and allowing stuff to be made and sold as food or food products and paying people to put their land in CRP.

Rick

steve n carol · Jul 23, 2011

Food processing companies are also allowed to include "cellulose' into our ground beef and snack products. This amounts to sawdust. YES, thats correct...sawdust.

check it out yourselves....sl

Milk - what's in a name?

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Similar threads