There's a health food craze in the US that stemmed out of rampant body shaming. Which might be largely because of American portion sizes. And they think that nutritional fat makes you fat. It doesn't. Excessive calories make you fat. And even that has caveats, but it's the best rule of thumb.

When did we start splitting milk? I know part of it is to make cream and high fat stuff while repurposing the skimmed off grass water. ::Googles:: WWII as a means of selling the byproduct of butter. Okay. Then in the 50s physicians started calling it health food despite the fact that the fat is used in your body during the digestion of many fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K, and thus skim milk is pretty close to the opposite of health food.

And the money thing is kind of rampant. It's a big reason why things with larger price tags, like Rolex watches, are thought to more impressive by Americans than equivalent or better watches. Rolexes do have a very high quality, but then the mark up on top makes it strictly something I do not respect, and others do not share that opinion with me. Same for a lot of things.

In Australia and New Zealand: we have skim milk, and call 2% milk "Hi-Lo" - sometimes I see it branded "lite milk". Then there's regular milk. It has 4% fat, but you need to read the fine print on the side of the bottle to learn that. I've heard it called "full cream milk", but usually in a cafe setting when ordering coffee.

My brother in the USA had something called half-and-half in his fridge. I think that one was 8%? You guys would know better than I. We don't have whatever it is.

Low/no fat milk, which is not healthier but is marketed as being so, is quintessentially American