Can anyone please explain why there are higher carbs in low fat milk that full cream milk.
I thought I was doing the right thing having low fat milk, not having a lot but always low fat, does this mean that I should switch to full cream milk?
Thanks
Anne

Hi Anne

You will find that in most "low fat" products the carbs are higher than "regular" products. It is the carbs we are concerned with lowering here NOT the fat. Its a hard concept to "swallow" {pardon the pun} but its at the core of low carbing.

Yes, switch to cream and ditch the low fat "rules" they dont apply here. Good luck

Akiwican

As for WHY the low fat milk has more carbs than whole milk, consider that you are starting off with whole milk and then doing a series of separations on it. When you remove the fat, what is left behind has a higher concentration of just about everything else - including carbs.

Imagine a large fish tank with 1000 gallons of water in it and 600 fatfish and 400 carbfish. If you take out 100 gallons you expect to get 60 fatfish and 40 cardfish. But instead, you skim off the fatfish by using a one gallon bucket and snagging a fatfish each time. You do this until you have removed 500 fatfish. The tank now has 500 gallons with 100 fatfish and 400 cardfish. If you now take out 100 gallons you expect to get 20 fatfish and 80 carbfish.

Another way of making something "low-fat" is to dilute it with something else - usually some kind of starch filler.

Imagine our tank again - 1000 gallons with 600 fatfish and 400 carbfish. But this time we add 1000 gallons containing 1000 carbfish. We end up with a tank having 2000 gallons with 600 fatfish and 1600 carbfish. Now take out our 100 gallon serving and we expect to get 30 fatfish and 80 carbfish.

Here in North America the most butterfat you can get in milk is around 3.25%, which works out to 12 grams of carbs a cup--more than half of your daily carb allotment on Atkins induction. That's why most people cook with heavy cream, which is about half that.

Susan

Carbs in one cup of:

Whole milk: 12 (9 g fat, 9 g protein)
Nonfat milk: 12 (trace fat, 9 g protein )

Half and Half (cream and milk): 11
Light cream: 10 (coffee cream or table cream) (49 g fat, 7 g protein)
Light whipping cream (unwhipped): 9 (75 g fat, 6 g protein)
Heavy whipping cream (unwhipped): 7 (90 g fat, 5 g protein)

I tried substituting cream for milk in a recipe, and only afterwards looked at the carbs. I was surprised at how little difference it makes! (We didn't buy the heavy whipping cream, but the light.)

Next time I make the recipe, I think I'll try using half cream and half water to cut the carbs more. After all, I used to use milk which isn't nearly as thick as cream. I think it might work.

Mind you, if you use a cup of milk in recipe which serves four, it comes to 3 carbs per person, which I think is OK, depending on what else you eat.