Wellness Culture Has Made Whole Milk Cool Again

Remember the Got Milk? ads of the 1990s and 2000s? While a young, milk-mustachio’d Kate Moss peering over her bare shoulder was risque for the time, milk’s sex appeal has escalated since then. See: Winona Ryder spilling milk down her chest in a plunging black gown for a 2022 Marc Jacobs campaign. See also: Showtime’s steamy 2023 miniseries, Fellow Travelers, where Matt Bomer seductively orders Jonathan Bailey to “shut up and drink your milk.” And of course, no one is going to forget the image of Nicole Kidman on all fours lapping it from a saucer in Halina Reijn’s 2024 erotic thriller, Babygirl.

Milk is hot and having a moment. But first, we had to reject it.

Throughout the 2010s, dairy was demonized as inflammatory, unsustainable, and unethical. To be a responsible, informed, and health-conscious person meant avoiding it at all costs (as well as avoiding gluten, allergens, and even sugar). Alt-milks, like almond, coconut, and especially oat, were suddenly everywhere, and you didn’t have to be lactose intolerant or vegan to enjoy them. Dairy was suddenly out, and clean, optimized living was in.

But as with all extreme trends, backlash eventually follows. A growing number of consumers have been expressing concern over the emulsifiers, oils, and additives that make alternative milks creamy and shelf-stable, and environmental arguments have been complicated by the extreme amounts of water needed to produce almond milk.

“Everyone was doing these alternative milks for so long, we started to ask, why are we doing it?” says Gabi Chappel, chef and Next Level Chef season 3 winner. “I think having something rich, fulfilling, and beautiful…something you can incorporate throughout your day, isn’t excessive at all.” Perhaps these are the reasons recent data shows that US organic milk sales are on the rise, with a 6% year-to-date increase as of June 2024, driven primarily by whole milk. Even cheese and butter consumption hit record highs in 2023.

And perhaps most interestingly: people want their protein. While protein bars, supplements, and powders can seem synthetic or full of artificial sugars and preservatives, milk has reemerged as a more “natural” body-boosting staple, not just for the stereotypical gym bro, but for the pilates princess as well. One popular TikTok trend, “see you in three months in a tiny bikini” shows users flaunting fridges full of assorted cheeses, containers of Greek yogurt, and milk—usually the lactose-friendly and protein-packed Fairlife, with its slightly hourglass-shaped bottle, or old-school gallons of whole milk—to the remix of “Yummy” by Ayesha Erotica.

But for every wellness influencer touting the nutritional benefits of whole milk, there are creators leaning into milk’s decadent appeal. In one video, a TikTok creator known exclusively for milk mukbangs named Peggy Xu dips a spoon into a bottle of Straus milk, pushing on the cream top until it spurts. While some would think this is niche content, the video has nearly 300k likes.