Spinning off a bit from the off-topic milk posts in the oolong thread, I thought this was interesting -- some background on the changing face of milk in tea in the UK during the 1980s, from
Liquid Pleasures: A Social History of Drinks in Modern Britain by John Burnett:
John Burnett wrote:Since almost half of all milk went into tea and coffee, its overall consumption depended critically on these, and from its post-war peak in 1960 tea consumption was falling steadily and not nearly compensated by some increase in coffee-drinking. In 1970 tea accounted for 61 per cent by volume of all beverages and coffee for 16.5 per cent (total 77.5 per cent), while in 1993 tea had fallen to 42.3 per cent and coffee had risen to 21.4 per cent (total 63.7 per cent); milk drunk as a beverage, including flavoured milk drinks, represented only 3.3 per cent of all drinks by volume in 1970 and 2.3 per cent in 1993.
These influences were already restricting milk consumption before nutritionists began to point to the fat content of whole milk as a contributory cause of coronary and other diseases. In 1983 the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education (NACNE) recommended a reduction of fats in the diet by a quarter and of saturated fats (of which whole milk fats are 60 per cent saturated) by half as a long-term goal: at the time, milk supplied 13 per cent of total fat in the average British diet and 17 per cent of saturated fat.
Public attitudes towards milk reached their low point in the late 1980s and subsequently revived somewhat, thanks mainly to the range of different milks that became available. Although a survey in 1988 found that 70 per cent of people greatly overestimated the amount of fat in milk and were very confused about 'saturates' and 'polyunsaturates', the message of the nutritionists was sufficiently understood to have induced a dramatic change in the type of milk consumed in Britain since 1984 when the Milk Marketing Board first made pasteurized semi-skimmed and skimmed milks nationally available. In that year skimmed milk accounted for 5 per cent of household purchases of milk and semi-skimmed for 4.2 per cent: by 1993 semi-skimmed had risen to 41 per cent and skimmed to 12.3 per cent, giving low-fat milks the larger share of the market for the first time.
What was considered two centuries ago as an inferior, almost waste product used by the poor has now become most heavily consumed by the wealthiest socio-economic groups, while consumption of whole milk is highest amongst lowest earners and pensioners. These last two groups are now the largest consumers of all liquid milk, so reversing the historic pattern in which consumption rose with income. The proportion of fat in the household diet provided by milk fell from 13 per cent in 1981 to 10.7 per cent in 1993.
In the past, a person might have had strong tea with whole milk and sugar, and a light biscuit like a Rich Tea, while now the more popular choice is weak tea with semi-skimmed milk and no sugar, but chocolate-covered biscuits.