Full Fat Dairy for Low Carb Diet Only?

gooz71

On low carb diets or keto diets, it seems acceptable (and healthy) to eat full fat dairy (among other full fat foods). If a person is not eating low carb, is eating full fat dairy not a good idea health wise then?

kizanne2

This of course depends on lots of things. Full fat has more calories but there is at least one study that shows people can lose more weight consuming full fat dairy. It has to do with satiety and absorption of certain nutrients.

But of course if you are lactose sensitive you might find dairy causes stomach disruption.

While I think what you eat does matter, remember you just have to budget the calories if you want full fat dairy.

charmmeth

I don't eat low carb and do eat full fat dairy (butter, yoghurt and cheese). I track what I eat and know that 1g of fat is a more than double the calories of 1g of carbs/protein. If you are stressed by tracking though, which I know you have said you are, you might not want to do this. I don't think you can generalise about whether eating full fat dairy is "a good idea healthwise" as that depends on the person. I happen to love cheese, butter and yoghurt and don't want to eliminate them from my diet. If I was lactose intolerant obviously I could not eat them. Also I have found that for me, trying to eat low carb is a bad idea healthwise (or at least mood-wise), but for others it works really well. You need to figure out what works for you!

gooz71

@kizanne2 @charmmeth I’ve always been taught growing up that full fat is high in saturated fat so therefore bad for your heart/cholesterol. So I was wondering if because you are getting rid of carbs then the full fat is ok. Like the mix of carbs and full fat are bad for you, but no carbs and full fat is ok. If that makes sense what I’m trying to say 🥴

Nony_Mouse

gooz71 wrote: »

@kizanne2 @charmmeth I’ve always been taught growing up that full fat is high in saturated fat so therefore bad for your heart/cholesterol. So I was wondering if because you are getting rid of carbs then the full fat is ok. Like the mix of carbs and full fat are bad for you, but no carbs and full fat is ok. If that makes sense what I’m trying to say 🥴

Nope, that's not how it works. Low carb diets are generally higher in fat, therefore there's more 'room' for full fat dairy, that's all. It's purely about calories.

lemurcat2

Depends on how much dairy one eats and whether it fits in the calories. I use butter from time to time (if there is a non full fat butter I'm not aware of it) but olive oil much more often (same basic cals). I only eat full fat cheese, but I am pretty sparing in the amount of cheese I use unless I have extra cals and am eating a specific amount of good cheese as a dessert. For cottage cheese, I like 1% the best so never use full fat, and for yogurt 0% greek yogurt is as tasty and filling for me as a higher fat, higher cal option, so I don't get full fat. (I did recently start making yogurt and whole milk was recommended as working better, so as a beginner I am using whole milk and thus making full fat yogurt. The fun of making it makes that worth it to me, and it's tasty.)

yirara

Fat means flavour. I don't often drink milk, but when I do it's full fat because that's the tasty one. I just make sure it fits into my calories. Plus fats are good for you, for brain function, essential fatty acids, digestion, etc.

janejellyroll

You don't have to eat low carbohydrate to make fat "okay." When some people go low carbohydrate, they like to use the fat in dairy to replace some of the calories. But other people find they can eat moderate or higher carbohydrate, include fat from dairy, and still meet their calorie goals. It's all going to depend on what you like to "spend" your calories on. Everyone needs fat in their diet.

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

I eat small portions. but I eat real butter on my homemade bread roll, and use heavy cream and full-fat sour cream and various cheeses in my cooking. It's all about satiety for me. I can't eat a whole lot (in terms of volume) anymore, so what I eat needs to be Good Food, and fat is a way to tell my body I am eating good food. I am a bit of a special case since I don't eat very many fruits or vegetables. I might use less fat if I could eat those.

lemurcat2

yirara wrote: »

Fat means flavour. I don't often drink milk, but when I do it's full fat because that's the tasty one. I just make sure it fits into my calories. Plus fats are good for you, for brain function, essential fatty acids, digestion, etc.

But of course this is not a universal. I don't drink milk, period, but I don't find full fat tastier than the other options (I don't like milk as a drink whatever kind it is). I do eat yogurt and cottage cheese, and I affirmatively do not find full fat tastier.

Fats are good for you (although various other sources of fat are likely healthier than dairy fat), but few of us probably have trouble getting sufficient fat. I would prefer to save my cals for foods like nuts and seeds, avocados, fatty fish and cooking chicken skin on, using real coconut milk in some recipes, cheese, and cooking in olive oil or using it in dressings, among other things. I totally get that for some full fat makes a big difference in how much they enjoy milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese, and they even find fat makes those items more filling (something that is not true for me), but it's hardly universal.

Dogmom1978

I don’t eat low carb, but realized early on that I wasn’t getting enough fat or protein into my diet because of my love of carbs.

I readjusted what I was eating and I happen to enjoy having cottage cheese for lunch each day. I switched from 1% to 4% (i think that’s what it is, it was the highest fat one I could find) to help better balance my meals. Plus, the higher fat helps me feel full longer so my lunch is more satisfying than it used to be.

Also, there are plenty of people on keto with high cholesterol and other issues that can potentially be made worse by eating high fat, but they do it anyway because they enjoy keto (spoiler alert: I think keto is a bad idea long term and there are some studies to back that up, but I acknowledge that theee are just as many studies that say it’s fine long term and maybe it is if you make appropriate food choices).

Weight loss and health don’t go hand in hand necessarily. I could eat a cupcake diet and as long as I ate in a deficit, I would lose weight. I would feel awful and lack energy, but it could be done. I won’t do that because I am trying to lose weight and be healthy.

If it fits into my calorie goals, I go ahead and eat it if I want. Losing weight has dropped my blood pressure, my pulse rate, taken me from being pre diabetic to healthy blood sugars, and many other health benefits, so I’m not going to worry about eating whole fat vs low fat as long as my macros aren’t too out of the realm of where they should be. 😊

AnnPT77

yirara wrote: »

Fat means flavour. I don't often drink milk, but when I do it's full fat because that's the tasty one. I just make sure it fits into my calories. Plus fats are good for you, for brain function, essential fatty acids, digestion, etc.

Nah, not universally. I lummesome lowfat cottage cheese, nonfat yogurt, skim milk (all frothed up) in my coffee. Sure, we need fats (and I do risk undereating them, but I pay attention). I'd rather get my fats from tasty avocados, nuts, nut butters, seeds, cheese (yup, that's full-fat dairy), and that sort of thing.

Tastes are individual, not universal. I think full-fat milk has a mouth-feel that's . . . weird. Don't like it, don't want it.

charmmeth

gooz71 wrote: »

@kizanne2 @charmmeth I’ve always been taught growing up that full fat is high in saturated fat so therefore bad for your heart/cholesterol. So I was wondering if because you are getting rid of carbs then the full fat is ok. Like the mix of carbs and full fat are bad for you, but no carbs and full fat is ok. If that makes sense what I’m trying to say 🥴

I can't relate to this at all. As I said above, I eat full fat (cheese and butter mostly, but also yoghurt, the odd dollop of creme fraiche and sometimes cream). I try to keep my fat calories down to <35%, though some days they go up to >40%, and I aim to eat around 45% of carbs in my daily intake, though sometimes it's a bit less. My carb intake is mostly from whole foods such as good German organic bread, brown rice, good quality pasta, potatoes, etc, so mainly high fibre carbs. I eat lots of vergetables and ould eat more fruit had I not become allergic to a lot of things like apples, which used to be a staple for me.

All my food is logged and I watch my calories for weight. I eat back exercise calories. As you will gather, these days I do also keep an eye on my macros, not just daily but weekly: when they average out I feel healthier and more energised than I do it I allow my fat to sit around or above 45%, but I don't worry if I have a day or two in a week when my macro goals are off.

This is what works for me, at this stage in my life. Last time I lost I didn't look at macros at all. I was losing earlier this year when my fat was up and my carbs were down, but I didn't feel good. You need to work out what works for you and for your body.

janejellyroll

AnnPT77 wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

Fat means flavour. I don't often drink milk, but when I do it's full fat because that's the tasty one. I just make sure it fits into my calories. Plus fats are good for you, for brain function, essential fatty acids, digestion, etc.

Nah, not universally. I lummesome lowfat cottage cheese, nonfat yogurt, skim milk (all frothed up) in my coffee. Sure, we need fats (and I do risk undereating them, but I pay attention). I'd rather get my fats from tasty avocados, nuts, nut butters, seeds, cheese (yup, that's full-fat dairy), and that sort of thing.

Tastes are individual, not universal. I think full-fat milk has a mouth-feel that's . . . weird. Don't like it, don't want it.

I grew up drinking skim milk and I always found full fat milk to be a very unpleasant drinking experience (back when I drank it). It just tasted wrong . . . probably like how people who grew up drinking fattier milk often don't enjoy skim milk.

I'm okay with richer plant milks, especially in coffee, but if I'm going to to be drinking milk by itself, I still prefer lower fat.