Comparing "Milk" Products

My last post had a smoothie recipe that let you choose different milk products. Many people avoid cow's milk for several reasons: allergy, lactose-intolerance, vegetarianism, hormone-and antibiotic avoidance, saturated fat restrictions, and the belief that it's not that healthy for you. Cow's milk has a big dairy lobby behind it and the USDA is there to help sell it, so a little skepticism is not unreasonable. Countries with high dairy consumption do not have good osteoporosis stats and the recent claims that it helps you lose weight have been brought into question by later studies.

Regardless, if you don't use cow's milk products, please take a good calcium/mineral supplement, like Bone-Up from Jarrow. And if you do drink milk, make sure you get magnesium, because cow's milk does not provide balanced minerals - it has too little magnesium for its high level of calcium.

Many CR Society members avoid soy - there are studies that say it's associated with dementia, especially in men. Modest amounts of soy, say a few cups of milk a week, nonetheless, should not be an issue.

Let's look at the nutritional data for 5 kinds of "milk" - lowfat cow's, soy, rice, coconut, and oat. Oat milk is not nearly as available, but can be purchased at some grocery stores. I don't have data for nut milks, which are also available at some stores. These look more like soy or oat milk than rice milk in nutritional composition.

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Soy milk has the best B vitamins and minerals, except for calcium. Soy and oat milk more closely resemble cow's milk in protein and carbohydrate content. Rice milk does not measure up to cow, soy and oat milk nutritionally. Coconut milk is even less nutritious and has a high fat content.

It's all a matter of personal preferences. Most cow's milk drinkers will find that their taste buds adjust to alternative milk products after a few weeks. I do not recommend rice milk unless you are allergic to all the other products, which is quite possible, since many people are allergic to cow's milk, gluten and nut products (oat milk has gluten).