2

Is there any company that produces milk with the sugar removed or replaced? If not, is there any way to do this on your own?

I love skim milk and mostly buy Fair Life Skim Milk, which is filtered to improve nutritional value, but it still has way too much sugar.

14
  • 3
    Milk sugar is lactose. I think I've seen lactose-free milk - maybe that's what you need to search for
    – Chris H
    Dec 2, 2016 at 21:34
  • 1
    In the US, LACTAID is a very popular brand of lactose free dairy products.
    – Cindy
    Dec 2, 2016 at 21:38
  • 4
    @ChrisH Based on a couple of nutrition labels I've looked at, it seems that if there's a difference in sugar content between lactose-free and regular skim milk, it's only a gram or two per cup and it depends on the milk brand. I have one brand that says there's 16 g of sugar per cup in skim milk and another has only 11 g while Lactaid has 12 g of sugar per cup.
    – Catija
    Dec 2, 2016 at 21:43
  • 5
    I've personally never seen a "low-sugar milk product"... Milk is inherently sugar-based. It's designed to nourish young creatures and be easily digestible. Sugars are a great way to do this. I think your only option will be a milk substitute like unsweetened almond milk, which has no sugars at all.
    – Catija
    Dec 2, 2016 at 21:51
  • 11
    By the time you've removed the fat and the lactose, what's the point of the milk? You might as well just get whey protein and mix it with water. It would taste equally bad. Instead of milk you could look into fermented milk products - the fermentation should use up some of the sugar.
    – Chris H
    Dec 2, 2016 at 22:24

3 Answers 3

2

So, there's no method to get sugar out of milk, as far as I know. You can look for milk products where some of the sugar is used up (fermented, like Chris H mentioned), but this will significantly change taste and texture - sugar is a major part of what milk is, fats and sugars and proteins, and you're removing most of the actual substance.

You're likely to do better with an unsweetened nut milk or rice milk, especially if you make your own so you can tweak to taste. These may have more fats, depending on your choice of recipe, but will likely have sugar closer to your desired range

One thing you might try, if you're really determined, is to dilute your milk (maybe up to half) and add artificial sweeteners. You'll still get some of the flavor components from the added milk, and some sweetening to make up the difference in taste, but there will be less sugar because the actual amount of milk is less. Hopefully the added artificial sweetener might make it taste less watery, but maybe add just a half a pinch of salt if it still tastes too thin. in the end, ~6g sugar per cup, I guess?

Another possibility is to use unflavored whey powder to flavor the diluting water (again, probably no more than half of your "milk"), then adding artificial sweetener to taste. The whey should have some of the flavors from the proteins in milk, and at least from the powder I checked it doesn't have much of the sugar or fat you're objecting to. It might help the diluted milk taste less watery. ~7g sugar, because I think the whey powder has a gram and a half per serving.

Final possibility I thought of - you can maybe grab some creamer powder and use that to flavor your diluted milk (again, not more than half and sweeten to taste). Or even use it on its own, if the flavor works for you. The amount of sugar isn't stated, but it has to be under 1g because that's all the carbs there are per serving - though it does add a half gram of fat back in.

5
  • 1
    If he wasn't avoiding fat, after a bit of digging I found that heavy cream has only 0.1g sugars per cup. Light cream has 0.3g per cup. So the answer to less sugar is more fat. I also found a place advertising 'sugarless milk', but it was for milk chocolate w/ no sugar added.
    – Joe
    Dec 3, 2016 at 2:04
  • @Joe - Brilliant, that almost works :) Though when I hear sugar-less milk I think of my aunts who would always ask if I wanted (extra) sugar in my milk when they were asking if I wanted it hot or cold - it's common enough in some places.
    – Megha
    Dec 3, 2016 at 2:18
  • There seems to be a widespread idea that the lactose in fermented products is "used up", but it is not. If you compare the nutrition labels in yogurt and milk, there is basically no difference in sugars. The bacteria stop multiplying long before there is a noticeable loss of sugar.
    – rumtscho
    Jun 15, 2018 at 8:16
  • @joe that statement surprises me. Nothing in the production of heavy cream should remove sugars, and the USDA shows almost 3 g of total sugars per 100 ml of heavy whipping cream in the standard reference, with some branded products having a lot more. The nutrition label of the cream currently in my fridge is in the same range.
    – rumtscho
    Jun 15, 2018 at 8:36
  • @rumtscho : it didn't make sense to me, either. But I didn't save the reference that I found
    – Joe
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:49
1

Lactose free milk usually contains 11.5-12% sugars! The less sugary is Barambah Organic but I am talking about Australia. I look for the less sugary full fat and I skim it at home by heating it to boiling point and leaving it to cool down then getting off the fat solidified on top. I save the cream for cakes, pastry made at home!

2
  • 1
    Are they just adding lactase to break the lactose up into galactose and glucose, then calling it lactose free? Jun 16, 2018 at 0:08
  • 1
    @WayfaringStranger: yes. (it's lactose-free, not sugar-free nor low carb). Though I'd expect around 5 % w/w sugar in lactose free milk - the total sugar content should be basically unchanged. >10% to me sounds like close to condensed milk. Aug 27, 2020 at 23:53
0

It seems only industrial processes can separate the sugars out of milk so the best seems to be to reconstitute milk at home and use allulose to recover the sweetness. Allulose is a sugar very similar to glucose that humans don’t metabolize. Tastes great, apparently bakes great, almost zero calories.

So.. I make my own milk as follows. The salts are just what I have on hand.. a more careful approach would more closely mimic true ‘milk ash’ (see http://www.milkfacts.info/Nutrition%20Facts/Nutrient%20Content.htm).

1 gallon keto-milk:

  • 4000ml water
  • 4cups plain protein, 50-80% caesin, remainder whey. Personally use 50% for simplicity of ordering ingredients.
  • 1 cup heavy cream, preferably grass-fed for flavor profile. e.g. Naked protein or BulkSupplements.
  • 1/2 cup allulose
  • 16x 125mg/50mg/50mg magnesium/potassium/taurine caps, NOW brand. or equivalent, or custom salt blend.
  • 2 tsp table salt
  • 2 tsp buttermilk (optional. seems to improve flavor profile a little)

Add everything but cream, mix as little as possible to remove lumps using stick blender. (A tall narrow vessel helps to concentrate the lumps together for mixing). Then lightly mix in cream.

Voila. Keto milk that’s pretty close to original. Costs $10-$15 gallon depending on the protein used. Perhaps could be made at $8/gal with some finessing.

Tastes pretty darn good on its own, makes a great ice-coffee and goes great with Magic Spoon brand keto-cereal. I haven't tried baking with it yet.

I am not affiliated with any brands.. just reporting my personal experience.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.