Thursday, November 04, 2021

Today's Twitter Star!

The star of twitter today is the Texas family that drinks 12 gallons of milk a week

TBF, they have several kids -- nine, I think. But even so, that's a lot of milk. Apparently each kid is drinking a glass or two per meal? I mean, yikes. 

If you watch the episode, you'll see they buy five boxes of cereal a week as well. That could be where a lot of the milk is going.

My kid drank and still drinks water most of the time. We put milk in our tea and coffee, and occasionally I made pudding when he was little. He sometimes had cereal too, and we'd use some milk then. Even so, we had a hard time getting through a half-gallon per week.

But people's diets differ! Maybe it's perfectly normal for a kid to go through half-gallon of milk a day in some families?

The point of the article is that inflation is making food more expensive. That remains true no matter how much milk this family goes through.

I am dubious that they were buying milk for two dollars a gallon six months ago. Milk here in Arkansas has cost between three and four dollars a gallon since I can remember. Eight dollars a gallon if you buy organic.

Anyway, does 12 gallons of milk for a family of eleven strike you as normal or over the top? 


ETA: LOL


10 comments:

nicoleandmaggie said...

DC2 hates milk (but loves calcium-rich vegetables). DC1 is the opposite and is responsible for most of our milk drinking. We use between half a gallon and a full gallon. Growing up I drank a lot of milk because I was tiny as a little kid and at the time pediatricians thought drinking milk was extremely important, so I had several glasses a day (basically whenever I was thirsty) and our family of four easily went through a gallon a week.

We pay just under $6/gallon for organic milk here. Non-organic is about $3.50/gallon.

Nanani said...

Full disclosure - I had to look up how to convert gallons to litres; my approximations may be off since my mental image of a gallon isn't going to be quite right

I go through about a gallon every 2-3 weeks as a single adult. I like drinking milk but I don't necessarily drink a whole glass every day. I put it in my coffee every morning, and sometimes will use it for cooking (alfredo sauce or dough or something).

I drank a lot of milk as a kid, partly because it was considered healthy for kids and partly because I grew up in a dairy farming area where milk was heavily subsidized. We'd get milk at school for much cheaper than the grocery store, for example.

Scaling that up to 9 kids and two adults who presumably also use milk, it does seem like a lot but not ridiculously over the top.

Bardiac said...

I grew up drinking milk with all meals, and only really started drinking water as an adult. (For a while, in college, say, I drank Coke, pop, soft drink, soda, or whatever you want to call sugary carbonated beverages with meals.) I think growing up drinking milk with meals (my parents drank coffee) made me not really think of drinking water with meals as a thing?

delagar said...

We got a pint of milk with our school meals when I was a kid, and when I packed my lunch (which I usually did) we bought a pint for I think a dime? You could get plain milk or chocolate. (A pint is eight ounces which is .47 liters according to google.) But at home we drank water with our meals.

delagar said...

Whoops, no, it was a half pint.

What sort of archaic measuring system IS this?

delagar said...

Bardiac, I think I accidentally deleted your comment :(

If you post it again, I'll try to get it right this time!

Anonymous said...

12 gallons for a family of 11 is not out of line. Larger kids and women who need calcium are supposed to drink a quart a day; smaller kids less.

delagar said...


A quart is a lot! I don't think I could put that much away.

If I'm not mistaken, though, can't we get calcium from other sources?

Jenny F. Scientist said...

In fact, of course milk is not the only source of calcium! I am deathly allergic to all dairy products, so I actually just take calcium supplements. When my kids were little they mostly got calcium from yogurt.

(Nobody in my house drinks a quart a day of milk of any persuasion, LOL, what an idea.) My oldest child is almost as tall as me (and is 12) so I think they're getting plenty of whatever they need.

Anonymous said...

We're a family of 3 and I think go through about 1.5 gallons a week. The 5 year old primarily drinks milk, plus my husband eats more cereal now that he's wfh.

We sometimes go faster due to kid milk spills or milk-intensive recipes. (Homemade ricotta is amazing, so much so that I'm not sure I'll go back to store bought.)