Milk Alternatives

 

One thing there are a lot of now? Alternatives to dairy milk. But the nutrition really varies based on what they are made from. First let’s look at what dairy milk has to offer-

Per 8 oz, 2% dairy milk has:

• Protein: 8 g
• Fat: 5 g
• Carbs: 12 g (11 g sugar)

Taste wise, the classic is creamy and relatively neutral tasting. Great on cereal. Great with cookies.

Let’s check out how the alternatives stack up

Soy

• Protein: 7 g
• Fat: 3.5 g
• Carbs: 1 g (0 g sugar)

Truth be told, I love soy milk. I drank it even before the food allergies made their appearance because I can’t have a ton of lactose and soy milk has a good amount of protein. I do get the kind that’s sweetened- the unsweetened kind tastes a little bit like beans and it’s hard to drink a cup of beans. But with sugar added, it’s still got less carbs than true dairy milk and I think it tastes creamy and delicious. It’s readily available, not too expensive, and has been a dairy milk substitute for a long time. I would 100% recommend, as long as you aren’t allergic to soy!

Pea Protein Milk

• Protein: 8 
• Fat: 4.5 g
• Carbs: <1 g (0 sugar)

This took me a while to find (perhaps because it’s bad marketing to have “PEA PROTEIN” in giant letters on the side of the container?). I saw it mentioned in a dairy free cookbook and really thought it just hadn’t come to my grocery store until I realized that “Ripple” was actually a pea protein milk. I could only find the unsweetened vanilla kind at the store, and it has a tint of chalk (I’m guess it’s the protein?) aftertaste that is a little hard to get over drinking it straight from the bottle. I think the sweetened kind would be much more palatable as sugar covers all kinds of ills, I just couldn’t find it. It’s definitely not my favorite dairy milk alternative, but it’s the only alternative that doesn’t have any top 9 allergens AND actually has protein.  

Ok, now for some that have no where near the amount of protein of a glass of cow’s milk-

Oat Milk

• Protein: 3 g
• Fat: 1-9 g
• Carbs: 15 g (7 g sugar)

My wife loves her oat milk, and it does taste creamier than many of the milk alternatives. Especially if you get the “full fat” kinds that have extra oil blended in. It also has one of the more neutral flavors (though it does feel weird putting it in oatmeal… like some weird kind of how many ways can you eat oats at the same time experiment). Nutritionally, it’s not as good as soy or pea protein, but it has 100% less bean taste, if that’s something you’re into.

Almond Milk

• Protein: 1 g
• Fat: 2.5 g
• Sugar: 0 g

I was surprised at the lack of protein and fat in almond milk. After all, almonds have a good amount of protein- 1 cup of almonds have 30 g of protein (1 cup of peas only has 8 grams of protein, 1 cup of soy beans has 23 grams). But I think what it comes down to is the store bought almond milk is almost all water. Probably if you are making it home and you really blend up some almonds you can get more protein in it, but off the shelf you really might as well just put water on your cereal. My main problem with almond milk, though, is the after taste. I don’t mind the taste of actual almonds, but I do not enjoy almond extract and almond milk has a hint of that astringent bite that I just can’t get behind. Other people online claim that it’s nutty and creamy- but it mostly just tastes watery to me.

Coconut Milk

• Protein: 0 g
• Fat: 4 g
• Carbs: 1 g (0 g sugar)

So, the coconut drink selection is a little confusing. This coconut milk is not the liquid in the center of a green coconut (that's coconut water). And, I’m also not talking about the canned coconut milk that you cook and bake with- that stuff is delicious but would taste like sipping heavy whipping cream. No, this is a carton in the refrigerated section that is processed similar to the canned kind (grating up the coconut meat and then straining it), but with more water and more preservatives. I really like coconut milk, but it’s definitely got a specific taste- great for curries and coconut ice cream, but maybe not as good straight from the carton. Even though the drinkable coconut milk has less flavor than the canned kind, it still tastes like a tropical drink. And sometimes you feel like a (coco)nut, and sometimes you don’t.

 

There are  even more options out there- cashew, hemp, rice… but they haven’t made it to my grocery store. Ultimately, though, all dairy milk alternatives are way more expensive than the stuff from a cow. Thanks a lot dairy subsidies!