photo credit: zeer.com
Yes, you read that right. Next week’s mini-pledge is to avoid all low-fat, lite/light, and nonfat food products. And if my prediction is correct there are quite a few of you who need some explanation on why low-fat products are not considered to be “real food” or – yes, I am going to say it – ”healthy.” When I first learned that the whole low-fat campaign was pretty much a hoax I was absolutely shocked as well. For years I was right there on that bandwagon bingeing on everything from low-fat Snackwells cookies to fat-free flavored yogurt to low-fat ice cream. And as it turns out, according to Michael Pollan, “We’ve gotten fat on low-fat products.”
So here is next week’s pledge that officially starts on Monday:
Mini-Pledge Week 6: April 18 – April 24 – Do not eat any food products that are labeled as “low-fat,” “lite,” “light,” “reduced fat,” or “nonfat.”
Here’s a direct quote from Pollan’s book Food Rules that explains it all:
The forty-year-old campaign to create low-fat and nonfat versions of traditional foods has been a failure: We’ve gotten fat on low-fat products. Why? Because removing the fat from foods doesn’t necessarily make them nonfattening. Carbohydrates can also make you fat, and many low- and nonfat foods boost the sugars to make up for the loss of flavor … You’re better off eating the real thing in moderation than bingeing on “lite” food products packed with sugars and salt.
Another New York Times bestselling author, Mark Bittman, agrees in his book Food Matters. He says, “The low-fat craze caused millions, maybe tens of millions, of Americans actually to gain weight, because they were reaching for ‘low-fat’ but high-calorie carbs.” And right on cue directly from Pollan’s In Defense of Food:
At this point you’re probably saying to yourself, Hold on just a minute. Are you really saying the whole low-fat deal was bogus? But my supermarket is still packed with low-fat this and no-cholesterol that! My doctor is still on me about my cholesterol and telling me to switch to low-fat everything. I was flabbergasted at the news too, because no one in charge – not in government, not in the public health community – has dared to come out and announce: Um, you know everything we’ve been telling you for the last thirty years about the links between dietary fat and heart disease? And fat and cancer? And fat and fat? Well, this just in: It now appears that none of it was true. We sincerely regret the error.
So let’s put the low-fat craze behind us and move forward by embracing the right portions of real food and real food only. No more faked low-fat products where according to Pollan, “fats in things like sour cream and yogurt [are] replaced with hydrogenated oils” and “the cream in ‘whipped cream’ and ‘coffee creamer’ [are] replaced with corn starch.” And just to be clear this pledge applies to all reduced fat products including milk. When the fat is removed from dairy products like milk some of the beneficial nutrients are lost with the fat as well. We just recently switched to whole milk ourselves, and I was honestly a little scared. I drank skim milk up until last year after all! But along with reducing our overall consumption of milk it has actually been a surprisingly smooth transition for us. And after learning the shocking truth behind what we’ve been told for so many years…I’ve never looked at another low-fat product the same again.
To take the pledge: Please leave a comment below with the number of adults and kids in your household that will participate, and also share if you will do it for one day or for the entire week. Put it in writing and make it official!
This is the easiest one yet! We already do this and have for over 10 years (since I moved out of my parents’ house and started buying my own food). It never made sense to me to eat “alternative” food.
2 adults 3 kids. We will do it for atleast week. Anxious to see if the consumption goes down because whole milk is more filling. Skim milk is our only low fat product so this shouldn’t be too hard I hope.
I’m in! Been wanting to do one of these since started following your blog. This one seems like it might be a good way to get our feet wet as we already buy some full-fat dairy, but I’ll need to switch to whole milk.
2 adults and we’ll do it for the week.
Ok, I’m confused. In the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Laura describes the process her mother went through of skimming the cream off the top of the milk and using it to make butter. I have always thought that “skim” milk, made that way, was the natural way to drink milk. In order for the the fat to be in the milk, the milk needs to be homogenized, right? Isn’t that processing it beyond its natural state? If you drink the milk that’s been skimmed and eat the butter made from the cream, isn’t that better than drinking homogenized milk? Also, is it possible to buy milk that has simply had the cream skimmed off or does all the skim milk on the market contain the powdered milk solids you mentioned?
Kathleen,
The difference is that they still consumed the fat, and they didn’t remove all of it, just the easy part. And no, homogenized is not natural at all. In fact, under high pressure, the fat is broken into tiny bits and forced to mix in with the milk (feel free to Google for a better explanation). Real foodists suggest RAW, NON-HOMOGENIZED milk. Now, I don’t feel the benefits of raw outweigh the risks. However, there is no risk to not homogenizing the milk, which is good, because from all I’ve read, that seems to be the more important of the two. You just have to get used to bits of milk fat floating around. We get our milk in glass bottles, and the fat is on top. Sometimes we scoop the fat “plug” out of the top of the bottle and use it for something, but often we just push it down into the milk and give the bottle a quick shake. The kids get really excited if they get the large chunk. It used to gross me out, but a) I’ve gotten used to it, and b) all the reading I’ve done on traditional foods (try Nourishing Traditions) has convinced me that it is a good thing. We’ve been drinking whole milk for over a year (we also used to use canola oil, and now use animal fats, olive oil, or coconut oil, and I am a 20 year vegetarian, so I don’t say that lightly), and no one here has gained any weight during that time, in fact, up until then I HAD been steadily gaining and that stopped. I am becoming more and more convinced that all this low-fat and processed fat is causing us to crave the wrong fats, and causing our bodies to crave unhealthy things in search of the missing minerals normally found in natural fats. When we eat “real” fats, the cravings disappear. Thanks for the post, Lisa!
We buy whole non-homogenized milk that has the cream at the top. We have to shake it up before we drink it. The way big manufacturers make “skim” milk is not exactly the same as what you are describing.
Hi, what is the brand name of whole milk that you get from Earth Fare? I’m hoping the one in Auburn, AL will carry it. Thanks
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What are your thoughts on almond milk?
I think it’s fine if it’s unsweetened and has no more than 5 or 6 ingredients….
There are 2 adults here and we are in. I do eat the Yoplait fat free yogurt and we drink fat free milk. I will change those products for the week and maybe for good!
With regards to cholesterol and low fat products, Dr. Ray Strand’s book Healthy for Life is a must read! What’s bad about Greek yogurt? I’ve been drinking unsweetened coconut milk but my family still drinks 2 percent organic. I knew about low fat not being good but never equated that to milk for some reason. Will have to think about that!
This one is great! We have recently done this in our family, we buy whole organic milk for our young son and decided to only buy whole milk for the whole family! No more low-fat anything in our home for this week and all the weeks to follow! Thanks for the great post!
2 adults and 2 kids here. After reading david guilespie “sweet poison” i have tried to reduce our sugar and I have dropped most of our low fat dairy products however the milk has been the one thing I haven’t changed. We drink reduced fat A2 but I shall try the full fat version.
4 kiddos and two adults. Thanks for posting! We’ve been doing a lot of the whole milk stuff for the baby, but it’s nice to know us adults can have the “good stuff” too!
I have read some of the same books and never realized how fat the low fat/non-fat foods can be. I feel totally deceived! My family can easily conquor this week as the even our milk is full of fat…just the way we like it! When I first came across your blog I though this was going to be terribly hard, but we are already really good about reading labels and only eating selective small ingredient pre-made foods. Still working on refining, but we have made HUGE strides. Thanks for helping me stay confident and know I am doing the right thing for my family despite all the push back!
3 adults, 2 kids= 1 wk (and more)
2 adults. I’ve been looking forward to this pledge! it’s so nice to just enjoy the full flavor of foods and not worry about fat content anymore. we’ve been drinking 2% but officially started local non-homogenized whole milk today
We are lucky to have a local farmer we are able to buy milk from. I was surprised how delicious it is and will have a hard time getting my family to go back to the store brand stuff. 2 adults 3 kids. We drink about a gallon of milk a day. Yeah I need to get a better job just to supply milk. Thinking about getting our own dairy cow. (we already raise beef cattle).
What are your thoughts about fat free half and half? I love to put it in my coffee. Do you think I would be better off just using a little bit of full cream?
Yes, full cream would definitely be a better choice.
Great! Thanks for the input!
Yea for week 6!! We bought whole milk the other day so we are getting started. I’m going to check the fridge to see if there is anything else in there then we are set to go!! 2 adults, 3 children, for life!!
The movie Forks over Knives will change your outlook on milk and meat in general. Vegan is the way. Good luck!
Just this evening I was buying butter–when I reached for the “light butter” version thinking I was doing a good thing, I was shocked at the ingredients list–
LIGHT BUTTER: Butter (Cream, Salt), Water*, Buttermilk*, Contains Less Than 2% of Food Starch-Modified*, Tapioca Maltodextrin*, Salt, Distilled Monoglycerides*, Lactic Acid*, Potassium Sorbate* and Sodium Benzoate* (Preservatives), PGPR* (emulsifier), Natural Flavor*, Xanthan Gum*, Vitamin A Palmitate*, Beta Carotene* (color). (*Ingredients not found in regular butter.)
The “regular” butter list of ingredients: Sweet Cream, Salt.
I sure know which I’d rather eat. I just always assumed that the fat was sucked out magically but everything was the same. I was wrong!
I grew up drinking “raw Milk” we would buy it at the stable right out of the cow! When she got it home, my mother would bring it to a boil and quickly turn it off – as it cooled the fat would rise to the top and clump – she would skim it off and we would eat it as a topping for our bread or use it in soups such as carrot, pea or zucchini – it is delicious! In Spanish it is called nata- and the milk we drank warm – it is cold in Mexico City at night! It is still done that way to this day – when I visit my family they are still buying their milk from the dairy ranches near the city! In Europe it is also available – I believe the Welsh use the same process and call it clotted cream – and use it about the same. The beautiful thing about whole raw milk is that it makes great cheeses, and even when it sours because of its high fat content it still can be used. Look up Clabber, Creme Fraiche, yogurt cheese etc. etc. etc. Now that I live in a major city in the US it virtually impossible to find good milk – with all the subsidies you would think it would be easier!