Skim Milk: Nutritional Benefits & Health Advantages

Skimmed milk is preferred by people who want to cut calories, fat and cholesterol from their diets. Nutritionally, when compared with whole milk, it definitely is a healthier alternative.

Fat

• A primary reason people switch to drinking skimmed milk is because it has no fat whatsoever. By comparison, whole milk has 8 gms of fat per cup.

Calories

• While a cup of whole milk has 150 calories, skimmed milk only has 80; this gives you more leniency in how much you can use for cereals or drinking.

Cholesterol

• People watching their cholesterol either avoid whole milk (it has 35 mg per 1-cup serving) or stick with skimmed (which only has 5 mg).

Calcium

• When it comes to calcium content, skimmed milk offers the same amount per cup as whole milk does: 30% of the recommended daily allowance.

Sodium

• Milk isn't considered a high-sodium food, but adults who are monitoring their intake (a healthy adult can have from 1,500 mg to 2,400 mg daily) should consider that skim milk has 120 mg, just like whole milk.

Vitamin D

• Both whole milk and skim milk will give you 25% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D.