The Current - Is 6% milk good for you?

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

Sealtest’s six per cent milk has hit the dairy aisles in Ontario grocery stores. With nearly twice the fat found in whole milk, it’s a staple in South Asian recipes. US President Donald Trump has promised to reintroduce whole milk in the United States’ school lunch programs, but Health Canada advises lower-fat options for ages above 2-years-old. We speak with Anika Dhalla, a South Asian registered dietician, about the dairy aisle’s new addition and the trend towards whole milk

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This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Its bright yellow bag makes it hard to miss in the dairy aisle. If you're in Ontario, you may have seen this new edition. 6% milk from the Canadian company seal test. Fuller fat milk has long been a staple of South Asian cuisine, but now it's causing a bit of a stir on social media. Delicious.

It tastes just like half and half meets whole milk. Really smooth mouth feel, very buttery. Onika Dala is a registered dietitian in Hamilton, Ontario. She joins me to talk about this 6% sensation. Good morning, Onica. Good morning. You've tried 6% milk. I'll be completely transparent with you.

I didn't even know 6% milk was a thing until I did my homework preparing for this interview. What's it taste like? So it is a little bit more creamy. I would say it's kind of in between the, like whole milk like 3% and a 15% like the like heavy cream. It is it it's not really meant to be drank like that though. It's more or less to be used for other things like making yogurt or you know making ricotta cheese or baneer. Okay and what do you make of seal test releasing their own product now. I mean, I understand it's been more of a bit of a niche product and

clearly that are trying to make it available to more Canadians. What do you think of that? I think it's a great marketing kind of way of going about things. Six percent milk, it's not new to the market. There are Indian companies called Amnol in particular that do produce 6% milk, and our South Asian community actually uses it quite a lot for. those purposes, like, you know, making ricotta cheese or baneer and yogurt and other products. So it's been around. I think that it's actually pretty smart because our sort of Canadian diaspora's changing. Our demographic is changing. We've got a lot of South Asians that are coming and moving into the country. And I honestly, I love the fact that it's starting in Ontario and

hopefully it goes into other provinces for accessibility purposes. So then we're not just, like, then people can actually have their cultural foods. Give me the background on that. Why are high fat milk so significant in South Asian cuisine? So the 6% milk in particular, it's actually very similar to buffalo milk, which you get in India. Not just in India. I'll say India just because I'm Indian, but I mean all the South Asian countries. It's very similar in terms of how it sort of operates with like culturing, with, you know, making

a baneer, which is very similar to ricotta cheese, making lussey, making buttermilk. These are really big parts of the Indian sort of diet as well as, you know, a part of the like generalized vegetarian diet that most, that many, many Indian people actually follow. And it's part of a broader trend towards fuller fat milks that we're seeing. Let's listen to a bit more of the hype from social media about the, about whole milk, which comes in at just over 3%. Whole milk is the superior milk when making coffee.

It's going to be the sweetest. It's going to steam the best with all the fats that are naturally in it. Since drinking whole milk and not like other milk, my skin actually likes me again. Everything tastes better with whole milk and my stomach's fine. I'm reacting like pretty much the exact same way I react with oat or almond milk. So you're welcome. Skin's fine.

Your gut's fine. What do you, you're a dietitian. What do you make of this trend? Honestly, I think these are sort of individualized, uh, experiences. I think that a lot of time in social media, especially, we're going to see people sort of say, This is the magic cure, and it's cured me, but it hasn't actually helped multiple people. It's just helping one person. When it comes to the full fat milks, I think it is a very individualized approach.

It depends on what your family, what you are kind of going through. If you have any chronic conditions, if you have, you know, young children in the house, yeah, fuller fat milk is a great option. But is it healthier than other milks? The 6% milk or whole milk? Again, I think it just depends on the person. The 6% milk in particular, it's not really meant for drinking. I just want to ask you, what happened to plant-based milks? Like, for a while, they were the big thing and everybody wanted them.

And that seems to be fading away a little. What's, is that part of, I know that Robert F. Kennedy, who's a big advocate for full fat milk says the war on whole milk is over. So is there just a trend in our milk appetites now? A lot of that, again, people will buy plant-based milks depending on their preference. And also if they are lactose intolerant, those plant-based milks are a great option. You know, looking for something that has protein in it, like soy milk is a great option for children that may not be able to have like an actual milk because of an allergy. Now, when we talk about RFK and the war on milk, I think that his approach really evidence-based place, to put it lightly. I don't think there's a lot of evidence. I don't think there's a lot of evidence there. Science definitely doesn't say, like, have whole, like full or fat milk to drink.

again, because we are a population that is aging, we have a higher risk of chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, like type 2 diabetes. These are things that are directly impacted by having a higher saturated fat diet. So, like negatively. So if we're going to be having, you know, the fuller fat milk and being like, yeah, we are drinking 6% milk for our, like regular glass of milk that we have a day, we're probably going to see a higher incidence of these chronic conditions even more so than what we already see just because of that saturated fat content. So everything in moderation. Please and thank you. Got it.

Anna, thanks for talking with, we appreciate this. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. Anika Dala is a registered dietitian in Hamilton, Ontario. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. At all time zones, or you can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway.

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