Atkins and Dairy
 

This morning on CNN Headline News w/ Robin Mead (yes all you men start drooling now, as you think about Robin....like my DH who LOVES HER!).
ANYWAY....
She was talking about the increasing prices of Milk...and then referenced how with the Atkins Diet, dairy products are in even more demand.

I was thinking, on Atkins really just cheeses are ok...well creams too like heavy cream and half and half.
But not milk.
I was left feeling that they were saying that Atkins is about drinking milk....

It's not....but that's how dear Robin made it sound.

Dairy prices are definitely up. I just came from a super walmart and the milk was up 50 cents from last week. ugggghhh! I have 3 kids who LLOOOOOVVVEEE milk.

I noticed heavy cream prices are up, cheese also. Basically the stores are thinking that if people are going to buy this stuff anyway, it might as well be more expensive, because we aren't going to shop elsewhere.

I live in Wisconsin, so I am somwehat of an expert in this area. LOL Dairy prices in general are up and will go higher. This is because a while back prices got very low. This forced many dairy farmers out of the business. Consequently, now there are not enough dairy farmers to meet the demand. So, up go the prices. It really has nothing to do with low carb diets or price gauging.

I buy a ton of milk my kids go thru almost a gallon a day. I should invest in a cow. milk here in south florida is a little over $3 bucks

Another reason for the price raise in many things is the high cost of gas.....gotta pay to get it!!

Milk [the liquid drink] is allowed in later stages of Atkins, though not on induction. That said, Milk is basically composed of Skim Milk [Curds and Whey] and Cream. The Curds are used [along with some of the Cream] to make Cheese. The Cream is used to make Butter as well as Whipping Cream and Heavy Cream. The Whey can be used to make Ricotta Cheese or to extract Whey Protein. Pretty much the only thing left over after they've extracted all these Low-Carb foods from the Milk is the Water and Sugar [Lactose.]

In addition, Carb Countdown has a Low-Carb Milk, which is made from Skim Milk, Water, Cream (?,) and some other ingredients. I believe Milk Proteins, etc...but am not 100% sure.

Yep! What JL5-(what are those numbers again?) said!

Milk is a commodity--it is priced like any other commodity. There are ups and downs in the prices, and this is what we see in the store. (Oh, by the way, my hubby is a mechanic at a dairy, LOL.)

Basically, there's a break-even point with milk at around $11 per hundred weight. When the price goes below that (which it does frequently) all the dairies lose money. If it stays too long, they (as mentioned before) sometimes end up going out of business. The last milk price I heard was $15 per hundred weight, which means a huge increase in prices in the store. When the milk's like this, the dairy farmers can basically afford anything they want--this is when they buy new equipment, get major repairs done, buy themselves brand new diesel trucks, etc., etc.

$10 per hundred weight equals butter $1.50 a pound. $15 per hundred weight equals butter $3.00 a pound, and many of the other milk product prices see the same kind of increase. One thing I have been happy for is that while butter is sky high, I'm just now seeing an increase in cheese prices. I'm sure it'll go higher eventually, and I guess if it keeps going, hubby can start carting home milk for cheese-making.

I only wish the boss was generous enough to give hubby a raise while he's so darned flush! :D

As Karen pointed out, the cost of fuel (Natural Gas, Crude and Electricity) is part of the equation as well. The cost of utilities to produce, the cost of petroleum for the plastic containers and the cost of transportation all factor in as well as the economies of scale not being there if production has been reduced by farmers leaving the business.

Dana

My father in law is a farmer in Nebraska. The milk prices are a demand thing. There is a shortage because of last year, plus the ban on cows from Canada. We just have to grin and bear it and just be grateful that ours cars run on gas and not milk. I have three kids also and go thru alot of milk but we have to have it and it is better than other things they can be drinking.

Good point about the gas and not milk!

Dana