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Thread: Fat free half & half?

  1. #1

    Fat free half & half?

    Half & half is half milk and half cream. Cream without butter fat is no longer cream. This morning at the market, I saw a container of fat free half & half, complete with a picture of a cow on the front. Seems to me, the world has become pretty twisted when folks call something that necessarily contains cream, fat free.
    Last edited by Perry Hilbert Jr; 11-29-2017 at 9:57 AM.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perry Hilbert Jr View Post
    Half & half is half milk and half cream. Cream without butter fat is no longer cream. This morning at the market, I saw a container of fat free half & half, complete with a picture of a cow on the front. Seems to me, the world has become pretty twisted when folks call something that necessarily contains cream, fat free.
    You've prompted my Lovely Bride to compare fat-free and fat Half and Half. Now she's going to quit buying it. Yea!

    From one link:
    The ingredient list on a typical brand of fat-free half and half contains
    - fat-free milk,
    - corn syrup,
    - carrageenan,
    - cream,
    - artificial color,
    - disodium phosphate,
    - guar gum
    - and vitamin A palmitate.
    It has half the calories (20) as regular half-and-half and about twice the sodium (20-30 mg), plus sugar (1-2 grams).

    "It typically replaces the milk fat with corn syrup and thickeners"
    http://time.com/3814015/fat-free-half-and-half/

    My quick search didn't find anyone with credentials who said the fat-free half&half is better for you than normal half&half.

    JKJ

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    We cut the fat content of half & half by diluting with some 1% milk. I think my wife does about 50/50 half & half and 1% milk.
    George

    Making sawdust regularly, occasionally a project is completed.

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    Yeah, I have the same questions???????
    Then again I also have issues with coconut, almond, soy, etc ,"milk". Milk comes from a cow! The rest is some type of juice or liquid.
    I think I'm in danger of becoming an curmudgeon.
    "The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)

  5. #5
    Yep, never saw an udder on a soybean

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    So glad this came up, because every time I go to the store I question how Half and Half can be fat free. By the way, 2% milk is an atrocity. I actually like to pour a bit of half and half into my milk to thicken it up. I am fit as a fiddle if anyone wants to start talking about my health. At my last physical the doctor asked me for advice.

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    People used to eat margarine because it was supposed to be better for you than real butter. That myth has long since been debunked by dietary experts. The real health risk is partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is what margarine contains and butter does not. I wonder artificial half and half will be the same way. It isn't legal to call margarine "butter" and it shouldn't be legal to call imitation milk and cream "half and half".

  8. #8
    So the fat free half and half gets you sugar (corn syrup), artificial color, etc.. lol. Just have the real deal from the udder. It kills me when you see corn syrup in virtually everything. The US is drunk on sweetener. Its no wonder disease is rampant and we have a pharma ad on TV every 10 minutes. Stick with stuff thats as close to its natural form as possible. If it has no natural form, dont eat it. Thats my motto.

    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    You've prompted my Lovely Bride to compare fat-free and fat Half and Half. Now she's going to quit buying it. Yea!

    From one link:
    The ingredient list on a typical brand of fat-free half and half contains
    - fat-free milk,
    - corn syrup,
    - carrageenan,
    - cream,
    - artificial color,
    - disodium phosphate,
    - guar gum
    - and vitamin A palmitate.
    It has half the calories (20) as regular half-and-half and about twice the sodium (20-30 mg), plus sugar (1-2 grams).

    "It typically replaces the milk fat with corn syrup and thickeners"
    http://time.com/3814015/fat-free-half-and-half/

    My quick search didn't find anyone with credentials who said the fat-free half&half is better for you than normal half&half.

    JKJ
    Last edited by Mark Bolton; 11-29-2017 at 4:01 PM.

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    So people will take money out of a "vegan leather" handbag and buy fat free half and half.

    You'd think "real half and half" would be half cream and half milk. Not true. If you read the labels on various brands the fat content varies a lot. Some are probably closer to 1/4 cream and 3/4 milk.

    You really must read labels to see what your buying.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perry Hilbert Jr View Post
    Half & half is half milk and half cream. Cream without butter fat is no longer cream. This morning at the market, I saw a container of fat free half & half, complete with a picture of a cow on the front. Seems to me, the world has become pretty twisted when folks call something that necessarily contains cream, fat free.
    Funny thing is that a few weeks ago, my older daughter (who works in a supermarket) was asked to bring home some half-n-half as Professor Dr SWMBO uses it in her iced latté that I make her in the morning. (I use steamed whole milk in my own hot latté) Darling Daughter doesn't read labels...ever...and came home with a carton that was labeled "Fat Free Half and Half". Like you, my reaction was, um..."say what??? Impossible!" And honestly, at this point, I question how much many folks actually benefit from so-called "fat free" dairy products, too, unless they are consuming a ton of them. In moderation, the "real deal" likely is still a good choice. (caveat...if a member of the medical profession insists, than follow their directions for obvious reasons, but ask "why?" to be sure)
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    My solution to this came many years ago... Drink coffee black.

    My coffee used to be prepared with cream and sugar. After one too many times of getting served curdled cream it was dropped for coffee with only sugar added. After a while dropping the sugar from my coffee wasn't all that difficult.

    Now the only time sugar is used if someone offers me a cup of coffee and doesn't tell me it will be instant. To me instant coffee isn't coffee. Since dropping my coffee consumption to one cup a day, it had better be a good cup of coffee or it is just a waste of time.

    Cup of Coffee.jpg

    jtk

    PS-it has been so long since my last cup of instant coffee it is barely a memory.
    Last edited by Jim Koepke; 11-29-2017 at 4:33 PM.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    (caveat...if a member of the medical profession insists, than follow their directions for obvious reasons, but ask "why?" to be sure)
    You are far more trusting of medical professionals than I am. I learned long ago that the variation in education and quality of work of physicians is as at least as big as the variation in education and quality of work of cabinet makers. My wife is not paralyzed from the waist down and my grown up daughter was born because we sought the opinion of someone besides the premier neurosurgeon in the town where we lived.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Joiner View Post
    So people will take money out of a "vegan leather" handbag and buy fat free half and half.

    You'd think "real half and half" would be half cream and half milk. Not true. If you read the labels on various brands the fat content varies a lot. Some are probably closer to 1/4 cream and 3/4 milk.

    You really must read labels to see what your buying.

    Couldnt agree more. I can clearly remember as a kid eating BUCKETS of margirine. Im sure my mom thought it was less fat and of course it was less expensive. Since I grew my own legs, real butter all the way. I have long dreamed of the day when heavily processed foods would come to an end. (vast majority are processed, but when you see an ingredient list 3 miles long and you have no clue what half of it is,.. I pass)

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    Dairy and pseudo dairy product lies drive me nuts. We are retired dairy farmers, well, wife and daughter ran that while I did other things like earn money. (No-one pays dairy farmers a living.) What the hell is wrong with just milk be it from cow, goat, yak or whatever? Use the natural product in moderation like everything else. And as for soy milk, do the believers realise that much of the world's soybeans grow where there used to be Amazon rainforest? Everyone do yourselves a favour and work out how much more fat there is in a cup of coffee made with whole milk vs skinny milk. The contribution to your diet is laughable. Cut one teaspoon of sugar a day and you get more benefit. Enough rant. Cheers!
    Every construction obeys the laws of physics. Whether we like or understand the result is of no interest to the universe.

  15. #15
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    Wayne

    I guess I need to amend my list to include goats ,and yak's, as being "real milk producers" along with cows.
    I've never had yak milk. Goat cheese, yes, but not yak milk.
    "The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)

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