Any nutritional benefit to "skimmed" milk?

[pampered_mom]

I've been having serious issues with drinking our raw milk. I must have a very sensitive sense of taste because I'm just about the only person who notices the flavor. While I would like to "embrace" the flavor as was suggested in another thread I haven't been able to do so w/in the last year. It's at the point where I don't drink milk anymore...and I really miss it. I'm also concerned about calcium intake since I personally don't think I get enough w/out milk in my diet.

Anyway...I made cottage cheese with 1/2 gallon of the milk this week which because of the process ends up being made with "skimmed" milk. I figured I wouldn't likely be able to eat it, but hoped that since it was going in another dishes those flavors would be strong enough to cover up the objectionable flavor. To my surprise I rather enjoyed it and the strong flavors that are normally in the milk, butter, and cream weren't there. Which leads me to believe that the flavors reside in the butterfat.

So I'm wondering, is there any benefit to switching to the "skimmed" milk. I know I'll be missing the fat soluable benefits (Vit. D and K), but figure I can get them from CLO, eggs, etc. My farmer sells "skimmed" milk so it'd be raw and would be minus the dry milk solids that they add to the commercial stuff. Would there be any benefit to drinking it - like for calcium? It really is an issue of either drinking the "skimmed" milk or none at all. I'm going to try again this winter when the cows are no longer on green pastures to see if we can drink it then (which I know isn't seasonal and pales in comparison to the milk from cows on green grass).

*sigh* I miss the milk from the cows when they were fed some grain...

[Norasmomma]

I just had my thread about my milk and it tasted "cowy" for lack of a better word, and well mine was the low fat version from our local dairy. I drank reg. whole fresh milk as a kid and was always grossed out be the heavy cream at the top. So I tried the low-fat, which is still really thick and creamy.

Honestly when I tried the milk it was too warm, today it was really cold from the fridge and DD and I tasted it and loved it. DD guzzled a glass, and so did I.

I just tasted some reg. og milk, and now that tastes weird. I think the flavor to me was just richer, and when it was a little warm(not ice cold, but store cold) it tasted a little funky. Today it was fine, I also think that maybe the flavor has just grown on me.

I'd think it's better than reg. milk, but IDK.

[boadhagh]

we get whole raw milk and skim most of it

dp and i use the skimmed milk for day to day stuff and we turn the cream into butter and ice cream (buttermilk gets used for baking and when we make cheese we also make whey cheese to utilize the leftover whey)

the important thing for me is to use the entire milk product w/o overusing one part or another -- i don't find it healthy or ethical to over-use or under-use just one part of the whole

so i would and do skim the milk yourself and add in the cream elsewhere in your diet

[pampered_mom]

I had actually considered buying the whole milk and adding the extra cream to ds' milk since he can drink it no matter how cow like it tastes.

Norasmomma - ours actually comes right from the farm. It goes from the bulk tank into our containers where we keep it well iced until it goes home and gets into the fridge. Unfortunately, no matter how cold it's kept and no matter how cold it is when I drink it it's still the same flavor.

There's actually another theory out there that I've read that part of the issue in flavors occurs when the milk is cooled too quickly. It's frustrating really.

[pampered_mom]

The above information is actually not what I'm looking for. I'm looking for some "nutritional information", but don't think that using the USDA's website to look up "skim milk" is going to be the same thing. Skimming the cream off of raw milk has got to be different than commercial skim milk processing isn't it? Any ideas on where I can look this type of information up?

While I certainly appreciate boadhagh's ethics/thoughts on the matter I find it extremely difficult to consume the cream/butterfat in just about any quantity, unless it's very small and the other contents are strong enough to overpower what I consider the off flavor.

I've been drinking raw milk for the last two years so it's not like I'm new to this.

[Gale Force]

I know in the old days with the "milk diet," they did use skim milk at times with good benefit, so it's not as if it's worthless.

[boadhagh]

From what I understand about conventional dairy farming, milk from lots and lots of farms (who are all milking different cows which are producing milk with various fat contents) goes to a central location. I'm not sure at what point pasteurization takes place, but ALL of the milk is skimmed. Some stays skimmed for skimmed milk; the rest gets specific amounts of the cream added back in to produce either 1%, 2%, or 4% ("Whole") milk. Then the milks are homogenized. And, yes, for some reason that I can't understand, commercial skimmed milk is generally homogenized.

So, the nutritional value of commercial skimmed vs. whole milk is roughly analogous to the nutritional value of raw skimmed vs. whole milk. The raw milk, of course, has more nutritional value than the commercial milk, but looking at the differences between commercial skimmed and commercial whole milk will give you some idea of the difference between the raw skimmed and raw whole. Ounce for ounce the skimmed milk will have more protein and calcium and less fat. I'm not sure about other components of the milk.

[LessTraveledBy]

Take this for what you think it is worth, as I am sure past., homog. milk was used, but some studies show a link between using skimmed milk products and difficulties getting pregnant.