What Kind of Milk Do You Buy? (Whole, 2%, 1%, Skim)

All of it. ;-) I buy a gallon of whole milk, 2 gallons of 2%, a half gallon of 1% and a half gallon of skim every week. The baby is still young enough that he drinks whole. THe other 3 kids drink 2%. Husband drinks 1%, and I drink skim.

I still remember in my childhood when my mother transitioned us from whole milk to skim milk. After everyone would stop complaining about the "new" milk (usually after a few months) she would buy the next step down and the complaining would start all over again. I think it took her about 6 months to get us switch over the skim and about a year for us to all be used to it.

Once the children are old enough I will only by skim.

Whole or 2% if it's from the cow. Whole when it's from the goat farm (raw milk- have one who is allergic to cow) I don't believe that fat makes you fat, and with the history of lactose intolerance in my family, I'm not taking the risk. (the fat in milk helps those with mild intolerance break down the sugars/lactose)

We still buy 1% from my Weight Watchers days. 1% was the same number of points as skim so it was more of a 'why not?'

Although none of us drink it. It is more for cereal.

My youngest is allergic to milk so it is rice milk for her and cooking.

we are full-fat milk drinkers here. i have a hard time believing that an infant is supposed to get 55 percent of their calories from fat, but children aren't supposed to have any. fat doesn't make you fat--sugars do. i buy our milk from a local farmer, it's unpasteurized and has a thick layer of deliciously heavy cream on the top. when it isn't available, i buy coconut milk for my kids to drink or with our smoothies. they have eczema and it breaks out into horrible blistering welts whenever they have any pasteurized milk products, so we go the raw route.

skim milk really isn't any good--it's a dead food. here's one of millions of articles you can find that support this info http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/why-skim-milk-will...

i think skim is disgusting, and that the fat in milk is natural and should be there to help digest the milk properly and access all the nutrients.
that being said, my dh is transitioning to skim so i buy him organic.
i started raw organic full-fat a while back, and the kids adore it so i still buy it for them, and when i drink milk (if i'm doing a raw food fast) i drink it too, and love to cook with it.
i'm flirting with becoming a vegan-ish flexitarian, so am trying different sorts of plant-based milk. my husband said just yesterday 'i have never seen so many different kinds of 'milk' in my life!' in addition to his skim and the boys' raw i have dark chocolate almond, hemp, coconut and flax milks. oh, half and half as well. cuz i'll never give that up for my coffee.
:) khairete
S.

Whole Milk. I especially love icy Braums Whole Milk. It used to be 2% before the littles came along.

I grew up poor and we sometimes had only the powdered milk the government gives away for our cereal. It's watery and white and thin. That's what anything below 2% reminds me of.....cheap powdered milk. No way am I drinking or making my kids drink white water.

My husband wants the skim/1%. He thinks it's the healthiest. Personally, I think it tastes like water and I can't cook well with it. Recipes just don't respond well. The lowest % I've ever been able to get my typical children to drink is 2%.

My middle daughter is big on texture due to Sensory Processing Disorder and her Autism, and she's also lactose intolerant so I have to get her lactose-free milk. She can tell when I go off-brand so I have to buy Lactaid and it HAS TO BE whole milk. I like the Lactaid a lot because it's hormone-free. So I just cook with that, and if we run out of the regular milk my other two will use the Lactaid. They're not thrilled with it because they think it tastes different... it's sweeter. I seem to be developing adult onset lactose intolerance so I use it occasionally as well. We also buy Silk soy milk in the vanilla, very vanilla, and chocolate. We use the vanilla flavors in cereal. I love Silk because it's organic.

I can't seem to get my middle daughter to drink rice milk or almond milk, though. She hates plain soy milk.

Since you don't care for milk you can't understand the difference in taste. Skim milk is like drinking 16 oz. of water with a 1/4 cup of milk in it. It is nasty. No wonder no one drank it or used it.

I would pick something else to limit fat with. Milk is a good source of healthy nutrition for your family. You need to let them have milk they will drink.

We do whole milk in our house. IMO, that's what milk is supposed to taste like. It's not THAT big of a difference: Skim has 0% fat, 1% has 1% fat, 2% has 2% fat and whole has 4% fat. When you look at it that way, how much is it actually increasing your fat intake anyway?

Whole only. The others taste like cloudy water - ick.

Whole milk. Raw when I can get it.

The real problem is that grocery store milk is homogenized. Our bodies can't process it properly because the fats don't separate properly. Raw, whole milk is properly processed by our bodies.

My 17 yr old daughter is the milk drinker and I buy 2%.

She likes it in cereal and she also will drink it at meals and with a snack. I never liked milk and hubby is not a big milk drinker so we don't know where this trait came from, LOL

Whole milk. Cannot stand anything less. YUCK!!

I have a friend that drinks Skim Milk and when I see it? I think "white water". When she sees my whole milk? She thinks "cream".

I was raised on 2%. I always thought it tasted "funky"...then I had whole milk and was like YYYYYEEEAAAAHHHH!!! THIS is what MILK is!! sweet!!

I have noticed that in using milk that is NOT whole in recipes, they taste different...thinner...but that's me.

Congrats on doing the healthy thing!!!

We do 1% - my husband won't do skim but our daughter is 4, and I still think that little bit of fat in the 1% is still okay. But I am thinking that now that DH is working away from home and not here to be drinking the milk anyway (not that he was that big of a milk drinker to begin with), maybe we could make the switch to skim. He grew up drinking whole milk and will complain that drinking skim milk is like drinking water - when he was home and did any grocery shopping, he would try to come home with 2% instead of the 1% and seemed to be hoping that I wouldn't notice.

Kids drink 2% or Whole, I drink skim or chocolate soy

Whole right now because we have a 1 year old. I prefer 2% or 1%. Skim milk has a strange watery look to it that I find gross. Almost kind of a grayish tint. Ick.

I drink skim milk now. I switched from 2% to skim when my son was about 8 months old, and it has made a huge difference in my waistline!

My husband is lactose intolerant, so we get him lactose free milk. He would really prefer whole milk, but he should be drinking fat free. He compromises and I get him reduced fat (2%).

My son is allergic to any and all dairy, so he drinks original soy milk. So, everyone in the house gets their own milk!

When we are low on milk I buy 1 gallon for myself, 3 cartons for my husband and 4 cartons for my son. The cashier must think I am crazy with all the variety!

Whole only. The kids and I are all small--so we appreciate the extra calories!

We drink whole milk here, but go through only about a half gallon a week unless we do a lot of cooking that requires it. If I can find it at a reasonable price, I like to get cream for my coffee. I use less, it tastes better, and is better for me.
Do you realize that the less fat in milk the more sugar it contains? Therefore, skim milk isn't really going to help anyone lose weight.

All organic -2% for my boys and FF skim for me. I rarely use it, but I like to make fruit smoothies with it occasionally. My boys go through it quickly.

skim - after my daughter passed the age of 2, i went to 2%, then 1, and we've been down to skim for years now (she is almost 10)

Skim. All the calcium without the fat. I do pick-up half and half, though, for some cooking since skim is too watery to use sometimes.

non fat.
Took me awhile to get there, but now when I drink even 1% it seems to thick and fatty to me.

Most usually we do 1% but occasionally my husband will grab 2% if he's getting some on the way home from work.
Everyone in my house hates skim - tastes like chalk water.
I can't stand milk myself except in cereal or to cook with, but my husband and 13 yr old son drink it like there's no tomorrow.
I sometimes cook with canned goats milk.
Seriously, we go through 3 gallons of milk a week, sometimes more.
The only milk I actually like drinking is cultured buttermilk, and the rest of the family thinks I'm nuts, but I like the tang to it - it's yogurt like.
They like the buttermilk when I use it in biscuits, pancakes and salad dressing.

Skim and Unsweetened Almond Milk.

fat free. i cant taste the difference in whole, 2, 1 or fat free. i think it's just the thought of it to most that they won't like it. you can see a difference and feel a difference but i don't think most can taste a difference...especially if it's not by itself. i wonder if you gave it to him without his knowing if he would notice. go buy some fat free and pour it into his 1% jug and see if he notices.

Almond. My son was sensitive to too much cow's milk when we first transitioned him at a year and I never switched back. My husband also doesn't like the flavor of organic milk (he thinks it tastes too grassy) and I wouldn't buy non-organic.

we have gotten down to skim (we did whole when we first got married, not because of kids, because that's what my husband was "used to" rme) and have moved on to almond. i drink it and love it, so does my son...my husband, not so much.

good luck to both of us ;)

We all drink organic skim except for my 16month old who gets organic 2%. I absolutely love milk and grew up on 2% but who needs the added fat. My mom eventually switched us all to skim as we got older and now if I even try the 2% it seems so heavy.

Skim or 1%. I can't stand drinking 2% or whole milk. It tastes like sludge to me. Ick!

Soy for me, skim for them. the boys will use soy on cereal but won't drink it. hubby won't touch soy at all. i use soy for baking/cooking.

Honestly, a lot of soy milk (vanilla). We go back and forth, but my kids love the soy milk, has as much calcium and, I would assume, no hormones.
If I buy the regular milk, I am not picky. We gravitate from 2% to skim pretty easy. I work really hard (and it is work as we all know) to keep my kids from getting too picky or too set in their ways about food.

I don't like skim. My DH uses fat free creamer for his coffee. I use regular half and half (but I really like full cream if I'm being indulgent). Typically we drink 2% here otherwise. We did very little whole milk as I'd get a half gal. and DD wouldn't drink it. She's not a big fan of milk even now, and only drinks it flavored. My DH and I have decided that reduced fat cheese is usually OK but we like the 2% milk for most things. I don't drink his creamer. Blech.

I don't drink it, so I buy whole milk for my skinny mini little 4 yr old. I will use it in a bowl of cereal, as will my husband. But the only one who actually drinks a glass of it is our son, so it's whole milk for him.

I can't handle skim milk. I prefer 1% if I did drink it.

We get Lactose Free milk in our house. My son can't have any other type milk or he gets real sick. We were using whole milk type but he just turned two so we were told to switch to 2% now. He doesn't seem to even notice, although he had tummy issues the past two days and I wonder... continue on and see I suppose!

My daughter and I are not big milk drinkers, so I buy Simply Smart fat free but tastes like 2% (yes that's how it's labeled). But that's not practical for most families because it averages about $3.50 for a half gallon and I know people that go through 6 gallons of milk in a week. whereas in my house the half gallon lasts forever. Which is another reason I buy the Simply Smart, because it lasts forever.

If up to me, 1%. My son goes through at least a gallon a week. My husband insists that he still drinks whole milk (at 4 years old). DH drinks enough milk to turn his coffee creamy brown (about 2 tablespoons per day) but won't do anything but whole milk. Whole milk to me is like drinking sludge. I am also borderline lactose intolerant, so whole milk tears me up.

I try to get a gallon of 1% every couple of weeks for me to drink/cereal and I cook with it. My son doesn't notice unless he sees the cap when I pour it. As long as I keep a red cap, he will be none the wiser :)

2% for my husband. Organic skim for me & my son.

Well, in my house I am not the milk drinker, but if I am going to its only Skim. My hubby and daughter only prefer Skim as well.

But I do home childcare and the standard has always been to serve Whole milk to kiddos once they go off formula or M. milk at a year old, until they are 2, then onto the skim, or for me, just keep them on the whole until they protest it (which was never).

But as of October 2011, the government stepped in. Many of you may NOT be aware of this. But for any kind of daycare or schools who participate in a USDA Food Program (which I do), they MANDATED that only Low-Fat milk can be served to children over age 2. This means skim or 1% only. CHildren under age 2 can still be offered Whole or 2% milk, but they say medically it is not needed.???

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/care/regs-policy/policymemo/2...

Even my Food Program Area Rep thinks its a dumb rule. There are all sorts of reg's on what a parent needs to have a daycare provider serve (or the parent provide, which is likely what would happen as other milks are costly) milk alternatives like soy, almont, goat, coconut, etc.

The government interference makes me nuts, but I need that few hundred a month I get from the program (or charge parents the difference, and no one wants to pay that). Its one of the many reasons I keep looking into other lines of work, but alas, this is all I am trained at. No one in tis economy is going to hire me to do anything else! UGH

So to actually answer your question..I always have a gallon of whole milk and a gallon of Skim on the door in my refrig. The local gas station has "$2 milk Wednesdays" so hubby stops on his way to refill us, which is perfect, as I shop Sundays and by Wednesday I am out. I occasionally get a gallon of CHocolate too, which is skim or 1% (I forget), but I cut it with regular skim anyways. I use it in my protein drinks as its one way to get ME to drink milk!

We've got whole and 1% in the fridge presently.

The fat that people in your family are drinking milk IS healthy. The amount of fat in any of the milks is low and not a giant concern. We drink 2%. It does have less fat and still has a milk taste. When you go to 1% it starts to taste a it watery and when you go to skim it's really like water! So we stick with 2% for taste and a bit less milk.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

I alternate from whole, 2%, and soy each week...all organic.

skim... I grew up drinking it, so i've always like it. I do like whole chocolate milk but i never buy it.

We drink 2%, and use half/half for coffee. We very rarely drink milk by itself, but we like 2% because it produces the best microfoam for our lattes, making it easier to do latte art.

1 % for us. ( me, hubs, 4 yr old and 5 yr old.) Now that my son is turning a year, we're starting him on whole milk of course no low fat for a baby.

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2011/04/15/mini-pledge-w...