How Fat is Fat?

It’s no wonder that in my home we grow and preserve our own produce while helping supply as many others as possible. I’ve been a label reader for years and the more time I spend reading even the simplest product label the more dedicated I become to the philosophy of food independence.

I picked up three gallons of organic 1% milk at the store today, not a difficult task but for some reason I read the nutritional information which is always a mistake; it follows that I automatically move to the 2% and then homogenized labels. So let’s start there. Homogenized milk is often referred to by consumers as “whole” milk which is a misnomer. Whole milk would contain the full fat content and cream as it came from the cow, yet to the average consumer the product on the shelf is as whole as milk gets. Most consumers have no need to understand that milk, like cream, comes out of the same cow and even out of the same teat, and then is separated with a centrifuge.

What stopped me on the food label was total fat content. 1% milk contains 2.5g of fat per serving, and this is good. Humans need milk fats to properly metabolize some essential amino acids and fat-soluble vitamins. So why did that stop me; because I started wondering what it was 1% of. Is it 1% of what homogenized milk contains? No. Homogenized milk contains 8g of fat, and as poor as my math suddenly seemed to be that would have caused 1% to contain .08g per serving. Is my milk 1% the fat content of the whole, raw, warm, milk that comes out of the cow? That would require the cow to produce 4000g (8.8lbs) of fat/cream per gallon of milk. I can’t be certain but I think any dairy would be totally ecstatic with that because that’s about the weight of a gallon of milk.

After some consideration I came to realize that 1% is a reference similar to an ingredient list; fat content is 1% of total weight per serving. Marketing is nothing if not confusing. Homogenized milk is 3.2% and it seems only reasonable that we should be able to expect consistent presentation of information. Wouldn’t it seem appropriate to have milks labeled the same on the face of the container displaying 1% low fat, 2% reduced fat, 3.2% full fat, rather than calling it whole milk?

The mixed standards of consumer information, education and marketing have long allowed for information and claims that can become confusing to the uninformed or unconcerned consumer. They have been presented with a collection of information that can be useful to a consumer educated in nutrition yet, provides little easily accessible information to consumers without technical expertise. We expect consumers to choose appropriate amounts of calories while encouraging the misinterpretation of dietary information due to package claims. Consumers are often left with only the most available information at hand for guidance, the popular diet book of the moment. Clear, direct and honest information should be the first priority of our food system and regulators. It seems reasonable that front label information should conform to the same standards as the nutritional facts labeling.

My obsession with labels and ingredient lists has been a strong part of our family’s transition to home canning and the purchasing of local products. We now know what is contained in our food; we have control and the option to choose any extraneous materials that are added to them. It has become one of the most comforting parts of our lifestyle, the freedom to choose.