Which Type of Milk Is Best?

Question: Is there a difference in milk: skim, 2%, and whole? Our daughters are not overweight and one is 17 and one is 11. Is there some reason we should not all be drinking skim? Should the 17-year-old be drinking 2% and the 11-year-old be drinking whole to get everything they need to grow strong and healthy, or is this rating just a bunch of hype to get us to buy two or three types of milk?

Answer: The difference in those labels on milk are due to different amounts of fat in the milk. Whole milk is milk that has nothing removed. All milk has protein and carbohydrate, and in whole milk about 4 % of its total content is composed of fat. 2% milk has two percent fat; that means it has about half the fat of whole milk. Similarly, 1% milk has half as much fat as the 2%, and skim milk has all of the fat removed (The term skim comes from the way that the fat is removed. When milk is not homogenized the cream, which is the fatty part, rises to the top. A utensil is then used to "skim" the cream off the top of the milk).