# Can people tell the difference between skim and whole milk? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2011, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829 "2011-09-01T10:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/61 "2011-09-01T16:19:01Z")
One factor, I would imagine, would be whether one regularly drinks milk. To someone who doesn’t I would imagine that the differences aren’t necessarily that huge. When I was a kid I probably drank a half gallon of milk a day (whole) and even 2% (at school) was disgustingly thin. Now that I very rarely drink milk, I can see that the distinction might slip past me. Though I can’t imagine that I’d fail to note the difference between skim and whole, as that seems kind of like not being able to tell if your toast is buttered. But I’ve never blind tested myself so I certainly could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/62 "2011-09-01T16:31:30Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Ick ick ick. 😃 I haven’t mentioned yet, have I, that I _really hate_ milk. You know, I bet this is a highly relevant factor here. Perhaps revulsion kicks in before all other reactions, and you just don’t pick up on the mouth-feel/taste the way a connoisseur would 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/63 "2011-09-01T17:09:21Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Well, yes–this is precisely what was asked for in the OP. > > Do you think it is silly for anyone to ask for research on the topic? Well, the researchers who did research on the topic disagree! Take it up with them, I guess? Yet the reason for the research was not to prove that whole milk tasted different than skim; they felt no more need to prove that than, as in my example, to prove that lamb tastes different than beef. The reason was to experiment with methods to make skim taste more like whole, like in my wife’s preferred “Skim Plus” product, by adding nonfat milk solids (adding powdered or evaporated milk or partially evaporating the product). Most grew up with whole milk and prefer its taste/feel; a nonfat product that is more similar to that can demand some amount of a price premium. ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/64 "2011-09-01T17:40:25Z")
For what it’s worth, I can often tell what store the milk came from (well, what the brand is). Whole vs. skim is night and day. I drink a lot of milk. ---
**Author:** ![ClaytonThroop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@ClaytonThroop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClaytonThroop)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/65 "2011-09-01T18:39:31Z")
I’d be far more surprised if there were regular milk drinkers who _couldn’t_ tell the difference. Whole and skim milk may as well be entirely different drinks. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/66 "2011-09-01T18:54:26Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Ick ick ick. 😃 I haven’te mentioned yet, have I, that I _really hate_ milk. I think this is the key. I am the same way with beer. My husband has had me try many different kinds in an attempt to find one I like but to me the overwhelming taste of all of them is “beer” I’ve tried everything from cheap watery beer to guiness and while I acknowledge that they’re different I couldn’t label them or have any success in determining that I was tasting the same one because the first thing I taste is YECH! and everything else is fairly minor comparatively. Milk? I drink 1% now after years of weaning myself down from whole milk (3.5%). It’s still a nice treat if I get milk at a restaurant and they serve 2% but I can’t drink whole milk anymore. I also can’t under any circumstance drink skim. It’s just too much like not milk. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/67 "2011-09-02T15:00:26Z")
I don’t know if I could tell the difference between 1% and 2% milk. but I can DEFINITELY tell the difference between skim (nonfat) and whole. We were raised drinking skim milk, but my father liked whole milk. If I got a glass of his by mistake, I found it pretty nasty because it wasn’t what I was used to. Much thicker mouthfeel. Not that I “like” _any_ kind of milk, really, but I can tolerate the nonfat stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/68 "2011-09-02T15:27:58Z")
As a side anecdote: us human cows give (gave, in my case) full-fat milk. If you pump and save the milk, you find that just like cow’s milk, the cream would rise and it has to be shaken to mix it up. And the color difference was just like cow’s milk (faint blue-ish tinge to the watery part, yellowish creamy tinge to the cream). Moooooooo. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/69 "2011-09-02T15:27:59Z")
One thing that has been subjected to rigorous testing is that skim milk _weighs_ more than whole milk. [A liter of homogenized milk weighs 1.033 kg, while a liter of skim milk weighs 1.036 kg.](http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2002/AliciaNoelleJones.shtml) because fat is lighter than water. A difference of 3 grams per liter may not sound like much, but it’s roughly the equivalent of a teaspoon of fat in a two-liter jug. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/70 "2011-09-02T17:44:27Z")
Wait, hold on. Has anyone mentioned taste or mouthfeel yet? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/71 "2011-09-02T18:28:53Z")
It all comes down to taste and mouth feel. Milk that is still warm straight from the cow is something that I don’t think I could do now. Used to drink a fair bit of that when I was a kid. Well, until the brucellosis kicked in. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/72 "2011-09-02T19:43:33Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Yep. Taste, appearance, and mouth feel are all different. They may even smell different, I’ll have to do a test. The senses would be unanimous if whole and skim made different sounds. If you shook them in an identical carton, the skimmed milk would slosh more readily than whole, same as plain water would slosh more readily than a thin smoothie. However, it wouldn’t be as noticeable as the smell, taste, and mouth-feel that I’m glad someone finally mentioned. 😃 > [@Frylock](#): > > People have misapprehensions about this kind of thing all the time. If they haven’t actually had the two experiences abutted next to each other in fairly controlled conditions, they are likely to think they are discerning differences between the experiences when they are actually being affected by external cues. IOW, you think she is wrong, but for understandable reasons, not deliberate. That’s what ‘people have misapprehensions’ mean. One of the reasons people have responded quickly without a cite is that, to them, the difference is so very obvious - it’s not something you’d expect a huge number of surveys on, same as (like someone else said) you wouldn’t expect people to be able to tell the difference between lamb and beef. Though I’d argue that the difference is actually bigger, because these days milk is served in one way and one way only as opposed to frying/stewing/grilling/etc, so your tastebuds have more time to get fine-tuned to how this specific item tastes compared to this other one. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/73 "2011-09-02T21:10:34Z")
Exactly. Imagine someone being skeptical about people being able to detect the difference between looseleaf paper and corrugated cardboard–and then demanding studies to back up their assertions. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/74 "2011-09-03T13:42:11Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Exactly. Imagine someone being skeptical about people being able to detect the difference between looseleaf paper and corrugated cardboard–and then demanding studies to back up their assertions. A good analogy. Those taste tests must be just a drop or two on the tongue. Not drinking a glass of milk. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/75 "2011-09-03T14:29:49Z")
Another factor is storage in a store cooler. Whole milk, if stored near fluorescent lights, gets the dreaded “light-struck” flavor defect. Skim, stored similarly, does not get the defect as badly. A lot of milk brands in the '60s and '70s added extra non-fat dry milk to improve the mouth feel. I’m not familiar with Hood’s Smart sense, but Meadow Gold had Viva and Dean’s had Vim brand fat reduced milks. It was more viscous, hence closer to whole milk in mouthfeel. The drawback of this approach is that NFDM picks up every little odor around, and a lot of fortified skim can be produced before anyone realizes there’s a bad off-flavor. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/76 "2011-09-03T14:37:27Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Ick ick ick. 😃 I haven’te mentioned yet, have I, that I _really hate_ milk. > > Except when I am eating either a bowl of chili or certain brands of frozen microwaveable pizzas. (And in cereal I guess.) > > Other than that–I find milk to be extremely disgusting, as in, I have no idea how you people drink it. > > But in the interest of science I may still try it. If you guys are all discerning a difference I haven’t discerned than by golly I’m going to learn to discern it. Maybe. If it can be done via sipping. I don’t understand. So you’re expending all this time and psychological energy … on a product you don’t even CARE about? I was assuming you were some sort of Milk Gourmet that was willing to brave the insults of the Dope because you just HAD to know about minute differences between Milk Conniseurs. That this was more important than your hobbies and your relationships. But, you _really hate_ it? Then WHY do you _really care_ about it so much? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/77 "2011-09-03T14:48:12Z")
If you swirl a glass of whole milk,it clings to the glass in a way that skimmedilk doesn’t - and this is part if the reason people can tell the difference. The same thing happens in the mouth, creating not only a different mouthfeel, but also allowing you to taste the fat-soluble flavour components more. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/78 "2011-09-04T04:40:34Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > Not only can I taste the difference, I can SEE the difference. This. For sure. I’m surprised this is even a real question. I could see asking about 2vs whole or 1vs2 but skim milk looks so much different from whole I don’t see how someone could be confused let alone how much different it tastes. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/79 "2011-09-04T10:41:24Z")
I grew up with milk in a long-necked glass bottle. The cream would settle on top. Eventually we got regular whole milk in a carton. That was my favorite. I _loved_ it ice cold. And then abruptly my weight-conscious mother switched to skim milk. I didn’t even get a vote. It was awful! I guess after all of these years, I’ve gotten used to it. But with this thread, it has just now occured to me that I can, at the age of 68, return to whole milk any time that I want to. Why did it take me forty years of independence to remember this? I even have a long-necked glass bottle… Hmm. Wonder how Pet Milk with Karo syrup would taste. That’s what I used to have in my baby bottle. Yes, I can remember it. I was five years old and still drinking out of a bottle. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829/80 "2011-09-04T14:37:19Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I don’t understand. So you’re expending all this time and psychological energy … on a product you don’t even CARE about? > > I was assuming you were some sort of Milk Gourmet that was willing to brave the insults of the Dope because you just HAD to know about minute differences between Milk Conniseurs. That this was more important than your hobbies and your relationships. > > But, you _really hate_ it? Then WHY do you _really care_ about it so much? I am generally curious about things. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-people-tell-the-difference-between-skim-and-whole-milk/594829.md?page=5)