When you go to the grocery store and buy a gallon of milk, you probably don’t think about the decision too much. You probably have a brand you usually buy and a certain type of milk that’s your go-to. For example, maybe you prefer skim milk because it’s lower in calories. Maybe you prefer whole milk because that’s what doctors recommend for young children. Maybe you prefer something in between.

No matter what type of milk you buy, you may not really understand the label as much as you think you do. For example, do you know what 1% milk really means? One brave Twitter user shared that for a long time he believed that it meant that only 1% of the liquid was actually milk and that the rest was water.

For a while (as a kid) I thought 1% milk meant 1% of the content was milk and the rest was water. I figured “whole milk” had some natural water content that was removed to make half & half and cream.And I thought “skim milk” was the leftover water they extracted to make those.

— Brandon Paddock (@BrandonLive) June 20, 2021

Wrong. Very wrong. The percentage actually refers to the amount of fat content in the milk. That means that 1% milk contains 1% fat and 2% milk contains 2% fat. That makes sense and is easy enough to understand, but not all milk is labeled with percentages. What about skim milk? What about whole milk?

Skim milk isn’t completely fat free as you might assume; however, it is the lowest fat option. It contains less than 0.5% fat.

On the other end of the spectrum, whole milk is not 100% fat. It actually only contains 3.25% fat. If that percentage surprises you, you’re far from the only one.

I went through a lot of my life thinking (without ever really *thinking*) 1% milk = 1% fat2% milk = 2% fatWhole milk = 100% fat

— Ashley Mayer (@ashleymayer) June 20, 2021

For those who are curious, whole milk is 3.25% fat (I feel like a lot more people would choose this option if it were branded as such?!)

— Ashley Mayer (@ashleymayer) June 20, 2021

According to Healthline, the reason many people believe that whole milk is bad for you is because of nutrition recommendations that said just that. This was mainly due to the fact that whole milk contains more saturated fat than lower fat milks, and researchers believed that drinking satruated fat might cause heart disease. There isn’t any evidence to support this idea, and now, experts believe that whole milk might be good for you after all. The extra fat it contains might even help you lose weight and decrease your risk of metabolic syndrome.

The only benefit to skim milk over whole milk is that it contains fewer calories. This might be helpful on some diets, but for many people, whole milk is a healthy option after all.

Did you know what whole milk only contains 3.25% milk fat? What type of milk do you usually drink? Are you going to try drinking whole milk?