Occasionally, I get a sip of ice cold milk, and it tastes very good. I'm allergic (mildly) to liquid milk, so, of course, I feel better without it, but since I was a kid, other than that occasional sip to check if it's starting to go off but not smelling bad yet, I haven't had any reason as an adult to drink it. Yes, to yoghurt and cheese, and cooked in custards, etc., plus general baking/cooking. Some ice cream gives me the liquid milk reaction. When I make ice cream, it starts with a cooked custard.

I could never drink a tall glass of milk now but when I was little, up until I left home, there was always a tall glass of milk at my plate. It had to be room temp though, I remember.

I haven't drunk a glass of milk since I was about 8 (hated it then, hate it now) but want milk for my morning cappuccino, occasional breakfast cereal, and for cooking. Hubby has become a bit sensitive to with age, so we buy lactose-free milk and ice cream, and that seems to help. Cheese and yogurt don't seem to be an issue.

No milk since the age of three. Huge gag reflex. I do love cheese. I also like an occasional milk shake but it has to be spoonable extra thick. Once it gets melty I am done. Same with ice cream which I eat frequently and is a staple in our house. I do drink hot chocolate made with milk sometimes. I think my issues are probably more sensory than anything else. Texture plays a huge role in what I will eat. I can handle and love all sorts of different flavor. Also hot food must be hot and foods served cold, must be cold. Tepid food is a huge turnoff.

LOVE milk. It's the perfect beverage with food. Drank it at every meal until my second child was born. She ended up showing signs of a milk allergy--which came through my nursing her!!! Crazy! Since then I had to cut back. Now at 63 no Osteoporosis issues so am soooo glad I got my calcium when it was most important. It's amazing how every body can be do different, react to things soooo differently.

I lose weight the moment I quit drinking it, if that tell you how much I love it? But yes, skim bothers my stomach. Not whole, not 2%, only skim.

I only use milk for cooking so rarely have a bottle in the house. I do try to keep a few cans of evaporated milk in the pantry for cooking.

My husband drinks it with dinner, fat free....I don't drink it at all. I do like Greek yogurt. I hear it's a trend for dieters to give up dairy...

I love milk in all forms, would be sad if I ever develop an issue with it. But it can happen -- allergies and intolerances can change during a person's lifetime.

We keep milk in the fridge for cereal and egg creams, but we only use 2% so the effect on my guts is unnoticeable.

I only use milk for my Cheerio's, which I don't have every day, and for occasional cooking. I probably pour out half of the quart-size bottles I buy. But I have to have my Lactase tablet with milk. And ice cream and cottage cheese and cream cheese and sour cream.

I've never liked milk, except on cereal or in coffee, and am slightly lactose intolerant. I adore cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and the like, I just can't have too much at once.

SUGGESTION? If you don't drink milk due to the lactose issue, use Fairlife. It takes longer to go bad and lacks the enzyme. No point in taking tablets, or throwing out milk.

I love whole milk but I can't drink it anymore because it causes all kinds of digestive issues. tmi lol. Having said that, whole milk is much easier to digest than skim milk. I guess the fats make it more easily digestible.

I haven't had milk to drink in probably 40 years. Humans are the only animals that continue to drink milk after weaning.

We buy pasteurized 2% by the gallon. It's rare that any goes sour. Only DH drinks it by the glass -- with a cookie snack before bed. The rest goes in the cereal we have for breakfast half the week and in cooking. He also takes half & half in his coffee.

DS developed a milk intolerance as an adult, discovered with ice cream, but he has always had a tricky tummy; was a spit-up infant.

Milk started to upset my stomach when I was about 50 so haven't had it since. I have the same reaction with yogurt. I can have cottage cheese and most other cheese but tend to stick to low or lactose free cheeses such as Swiss cheese.

Apparently it isn't unusual to develop lactose intolerance when we get older and It appears that humans were initially lactose intolerance. There was a huge research study done on when and how and why humans developed lactose tolerance. The results were released earlier this year and there are a number of articles discussing it. This is just one of many

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2022/jul/famine-and-disease-drove-evolution-lactose-tolerance-europe

We drink a lot of milk, have cheese, eat yogurt regularly. Attempting to gain a little weight, I've been buying organic whole milk for myself, 2% for DH. We both will drink milk with dinner every night when we're home, and with these last Covid years, that's many nights a week. I have both cream and half and half in the house too.

I'm doing better with my weight, but surprise. I had a blood draw with an annual check in last week and my cholesterol has gone up for the first time ever. Doctor hasn't called me yet, but high fat dairy may need to be cut back ;) And I was patting myself on the back for all that lovely calcium I was taking in and not through means of tablets.

Bragu, to more specifically answer your question, No, I don't feel better if skipping milk. We went to a Christmas restaurant lunch yesterday where I had salad, soup, roll and a rare for me middle of the day Bloody Mary. I was about as efficient as a turtle on its back when we got home. I drank not one, but two glasses of milk trying to perk up again.

You will get the same amount of calcium regardless of the fat content of the milk so you can drink 2% with your DH. :)

I don't like regular milk but I do like shelf stable Parmalot. It has a nice "cooked" flavor like milk that's been frothed for cappucino. I rarely drink it but like an occasional bowl of cereal. Once opened, it lasts weeks in the fridge without going bad. If I buy even a quart of milk from the dairy case, I end up throwing out most of it.

I love milk, and cream, and butter, and cheese.

I’m 66; at about age 55-60 milk began causing me all sorts of ”intestinal distress” and cramping pain.

I can still eat cheeses, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, plain, unflavored yogurt, and butter to my heart’s content, but as for liquid milk, from high-fat to no-fat, it‘s a no go. Ice Cream is out, but I can eat cooked puddings.

I use soy milk on my cereal now.

I can use cow’s milk in cooked recipes, but soothing, delicious glasses of cold milk are only a memory.

I think the older we get the less we are able to tolerate many things, unfortunately.

I found that raw milk agrees with me better than grocery store milk. Unfortunately, obtaining it is much more involved in Michigan, even though I'm in a rural area, than it was when I lived in Chicago where it was easy to obtain. Go figure. These days, the only liquid milk I use is half & half in my coffee.

I also like goat milk, although some find it too tart. The dealer in Chicago who sold raw cows milk on occasion would have raw sheep milk. Now that is to die for. Very delicious.

The French know their cheeses, of course, but there are a lot of good varieties made in the USA that are more economical than the French imports.

As far as butter goes, the imported Irish, French and Danish brands along with the grass fed brands made in the USA are significantly better than the standard brands available in the grocery store, although they all cost more. I usually stick with Kerrygold now since it's easy to obtain where I'm at. I saw that Land O' Lakes has a "European style" butter which has a higher butter fat content. I haven't tried it so don't know how it compares to the imports or the grass fed brands.

For sour cream, I don't have much choice available to me so I just go with the Daisy brand. In Chicago, there was a Polish grocery store that had sour cream labeled in Polish. Don't remember the brand but it was made and packaged in the USA. Now that stuff was really good and I do miss it. It's butter fat content was very high - (don't remember) maybe twice that of standard sour cream. Sour cream heaven!

I don't have a problem with a little milk, like on cereal, but I seem to have issues when I overdo the dairy (alfredo and mac&cheese are the worst because I always eat too much) so I keep lactase around. We started buying A2 milk when we can find it. It's supposed to digest easier and I like the taste better than our usual organic milk. Glad to see it more available lately.

I wouldn't know - I stopped drinking milk when I was teenager, decades ago. About the only time I 'drink' it would be in a bowl of cold cereal - which is rare. We only buy organic whole milk too, which is a bit different than conventional or lowfat, I believe.

I do eat cheese and yoghurt often, and make milk puddings like tapioca and rice, again with no issues.

Ice cream is the thing that makes me feel ooky if I eat a lot of it.

FWIW, most of my extended family is from WI, where dairy is king 😃

I love a glass of good, cold milk but it does not agree with me.

I'm a lifelong milk drinker and cheese eater, though in recent years I've become a bit lactose intolerant. No pains or distress but rather mild flatulence is the result. I find taking Lactaid pills works pretty well - not 100% but enough to prevent most inconveniences.

I've never found substitutes or facsimiles of any food products to be satisfactory and milk substitutes is not an exception. I've tried various types - soy, almond, milk with Lactaid included, etc., and for me, ersatz is ersatz. Not the same, not good.

I rarely eat ice cream but when I do, it's regular, real ice cream. I eat less cold cereal than I used to - too bad, I like it - but I can still handle other limited forays into the world of dairy products that I enjoy.

Talking about milk, I buy organic milk. The one in my fridge is dated 1/23/2023. Yes, it costs more, but we never have it go bad and have to throw it out!

Being 'organic' is not what extends the shelf life, it's the fact that the milk is ultra-pasteurized. Like you, we don't use milk enough to buy the regular kind without having to throw a lot out.

“Ultra-pasteurized” means that the milk is heated to a minimum of 280°F for a minimum of 2 seconds. This temperature and time combination is much more lethal to bacteria, killing virtually all of concern. Ultra-pasteurized milk is also packaged under near sterile conditions, which makes recontamination of spoilage bacteria rare.

I find the long shelf-life milk is usually ultra pasteurized (higher temperature used) and has an off-taste, akin to having been boiled, compared to regular fresh milk. It's fine to cook with or for any other use where the flavor is masked but for drinking or cereal, it's a no-go for me.

In Europe, UHT processed milk in aseptic packages (that don't require refrigeration until opened) has been common for decades in many countries where fresh milk drinking isn't popular. Same thing for me, it tastes boiled. Which, in fact, is about how it's processed.

I love milk, but only 1%. I can't handle 2%, it's too fatty? rich for my taste. I also love cold cereal, porridge, etc so I go through a 4-litre bag every week. (1-gallon equivalent)

I don't drink it by the glass like I did as a kid, but I use some every day in my lattes. I buy Organic Valley whole milk. I also eat a little white cheddar with arugula every morning on my quesadilla.

Jasdip, your milk comes in bags? Canada really IS different :-) !

Jupidupi, our Eastern provinces have milk in a bag. 3 individual 1-litre bags that fit inside an outer bag. You pop the litre bag into a pitcher, snip the corner off, and pour. I'd never ever want to handle the plastic gallon jugs.

Jupidupi, and this really is our homogenized milk.

I’d never thought about the name until we had some friends from USA stay overnight with us. Their two boys, about 10 and 12 years old giggled uncontrollably all through breakfast. 🤷‍♀️

In NE iowa and in wisconsin, milk also is available in bags. Many small convenience stores around Luther college in Decorah still sell bagged milk. A NE Iowa dairy many years ago provided free milk pitchers for residents in a multi-county area in an effort to entice denizens to buy milk by the bag when the dairy transitioned away from bottles ...

Milk? For me it goes well with a few things -

Cereals, cookies, cake, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches....all with whole milk of course. Half & Half with coffee and hot oatmeal.

I like milk a lot, although i never think of having a glass of milk unless Im dunking a cookie i it. I have 2% every morning on my cereal. Im not bothered by any dairy products. Im very old.

I like the idea of milk in bags. The only time I've seen it was in my highschool cafeteria. They went into a big metal dispenser that everyone called "The Cow."

For awhile now, I've been watching a YouTube channel by a Canadian (Glen & Friends) who makes recipes from very old cookbooks, so I'm used to seeing that bagged milk in the pitcher now. It seems less wasteful than cartons and plastic jugs. He also explains differing measurements in Canada and how they've changed over time.

We lived in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the mid-1970s, and I remember going into the Safeway and seeing the milk in plastic bags. There always seemed to be a couple of the bags that had torn and spilled milk all over the shelves and other milk containers. Have they fixed this?

We always have a quart of 2% in the refrigerator but I never drink a drop. Husband uses it on cereal. If I drank milk it would have to be the whole milk I had as a child, rich in butterfat. But I like all other dairy forms like ice cream, yogurt, and especially cheeses of all kinds, preferably Trader Joe's.

fillmoe, I live in Alberta and can’t remember seeing milk in plastic bags here for a very long time (decades). I think Alberta stopped packaging it that way ages ago.

Alberta gives 10 cent and 25 cent refunds on dairy drink containers. I wonder if that is the same in the other provinces.

Elmer and anyone else having issues with milk-try A2 milk. Many people who think they have lactose issues actually have an issue digesting A1 protein in milk. Cows produce either A1 or A2 protein. Milk contains both The A2 company produces milk only from cows that have the A2 protein which is easier to digest. I have thought since my 20’s that I was somewhat lactose intolerant but lactaid pills didn’t work that great. I’ve discovered A2 has zero side effects for me. I even tried a 24oz glass one day. Its milk, nothing else different except the cows have the genetic disposition that produces A2 It comes in whole milk, 2%, chocolate, and half & half.

A2 Milk

Just getting milk on my hands is enough to make me gag.

Thanks, Lisa, I’ll give it a try. This is something i hadn’t heard of.

Like Annie, I also grew up on a farm and used to get sent to the cowshed at evening milking time to fetch milk for the family. I never could resist the smell of fresh warm milk straight from the cow, so I ended up drinking half the pot after a couple of steps, and then had to go back to the shed to top up the pot. That full-bodied milk spoiled me for life. It's unavailable now and the only substitute for coffee is heavy cream, but nothing compares to the real thing. Who wants to be weaned?

from that link above:

"a2 Milk® is not suitable for anyone medically diagnosed with lactose intolerance, galactosaemia or cows’ milk allergy"

That could be a typical product disclaimer of the type that have become so common now and are often so completely absurd as to be meaningless. Like a warning on a hair dryer to not use when sitting in a bathtub.

The reaction I experience from milk is slight and doesn't involve any pain, discomfort, or inconvenience at all. I'll give it a try when I have a chance.