More and more people are eating a dairy-free diet nowadays, which has resulted in an explosion of alternatives to conventional cow’s milk. Many of these alternatives are just different types of dairy milk, from raw milk, to milk from other animals, to milk free of lactose or specific proteins.
And, these milks can be very simple to understand, buy, and use. But what if they aren’t right for you? On the plus side: there is still a huge range of plant-based milks out there. On the downside: they are much, much different from cow’s milk, and it takes a little know-how to work them out.
There are some great reasons for going completely dairy-free. First of all, the number of people who have allergies or intolerances to dairy is pretty high. Lactose intolerance is a condition suffered by most of the people on this planet, but it isn’t the only problem with dairy.
Many people also have allergies to milk proteins casein and whey. And some people react to the fats in dairy too, meaning they suffer calcium and vitamin deficiencies when they eat dairy. If after eating dairy you suffer low energy, acne, bloating, reflux, cramping, and/or a low mood, you could be allergic to it.
Secondly, even though some vegetarians believe dairy to be ethical, mass-produced dairy is pretty cruel to animals. Because male calves don’t produce milk, almost all of them will be killed young. Even female calves, which will grow up to be dairy cows themselves, are weaned early.
Depending on the country, your cows could also live in sheds with no natural light, be injected with hormones, or have a sort of trapdoor called a “fistula” put in their side whilst they are still living.
Thirdly, in many countries the dairy industry is very unfair to farmers. Ever wonder how come milk is so cheap? I can guarantee you it’s not because supermarkets are cutting their profits. Dairy farmers are often paid very little for their hard work producing milk.
In some countries, like the UK, a dairy farmer needs to make money on selling manure, waste milk, veal calves, and old cows, to make a profit. The milk is just too cheap.
And finally, conventionally produced dairy can be a risk to our health. Milk goes off very easily, but it comes out of a cow’s udder, so it is hard to sterilize it. If you transport it raw you risk all sorts of bacteria multiplying in it.
But, if you pasteurize it on site, you can make the fats separate, which means it needs to be homogenized to make it drinkable. And, homogenization breaks down the fat globules, making it even more likely to cause an allergic reaction.
So if for any of those reasons, if not all four, you are choosing to, or having to, go moo-free, what choices do you have?
Your milk alternatives come in three forms: soy, grain, and nut/seed. Soy is the most traditional plant-based milk as far as Western diets are concerned, and it has been around since the time of the hippies. It is the only one based on a legume.
There are also a wide range of grain-based milks, which are also quite typical in the West, but a lot more recent. And finally we have nut and seed milks, which have traditionally been used all across the world, but have only recently reached Western supermarkets.
Even though soy is the traditional choice, there are some health downsides to it as well. Soy is a plant that has active hormones. This means that it has compounds in it which alter our hormonal balance.
The biggest one is phytoestrogens, a type of compound which acts like estrogen in the human body. This makes soy a great choice for women who suffer ovarian cysts, lactating mothers, and postmenopausal women, and a terrible choice for women with PMS, for children, or for men.
Grain-based milk alternatives are definitely among the best health-wise. They have very few of the lecithins and toxins we can find in unprocessed grains, are low in carbs, low in fats, and full of all sorts of trace minerals.
They can sometimes be a little bit watery for some uses, though, so if you need a thick base for a chowder or a hot chocolate, make sure to thicken them with a little rice flour first.
If you are avoiding grains and legumes, you are left with one option: nut and seed milks. These are made by crushing and pulping nuts and seeds and adding the juices to water until it is thick and tasty.
The major upside to these is that they are rich and full of nutrition. The major downsides are that they are expensive, higher in fats, and often very strong tasting.
For those among us who have no reason to avoid any of these milks, it is worth knowing the advantages and disadvantages of all of them, and what to use when.
Cow’s milk has some pretty amazing properties which make it great for whitening drinks, making smoothies, mixing ice creams, dipping cookies, making hot chocolates, etc.
On the other hand, every type of non-dairy milk has its own unique properties, and you need to pick the right one to get the best results.
Soy Milk
Soy milk is a great alternative to conventional milks, and has been around for ages. It is made using soy beans, which makes it the only commonly-available bean-based milk-alternative out there.
It tends to have a taste, texture, and color closer to real milk than any other milk alternative. It is also available really cheaply, and many supermarkets have their own off-brand versions.
The main downside to soy milk is its health effects. It contains both phytoestrogens and phytates. The phytoestrogens mimic estrogen in our bodies, basically making it a hormonal medication, a bit like the pill. This is good news for women with low estrogen, and bad news for everyone else.
Phytates are also bad news. They can stop our bodies from absorbing the minerals we eat, such as magnesium, copper, zinc, and even calcium.
Finally, most soy products consumed in the West are GMOs grown with masses of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. And, although genetically modified plants are perfectly safe to eat, the same can’t be said for fertilizers and pesticides, which remain on the soy beans and can pose health risks.
Soy Cream
Soy cream is another alternative made from soy beans. It is much thicker than soy milk and can be a great option for thickening stews, serving with desserts, and making rich and creamy dessert sauces and hot chocolates.
But, being unfermented soy, it also has the same problems with phytoestrogens, phytates, and GMO farming that soyamilk has. These problems are also magnified because soy cream has more soy beans per ml in it than soy milk does.
Oat Milk
Oat milk is one of the most common grain-based milk alternatives on the market. Oat milk has a distinctive, but mild taste, very much like porridge, or cereal water, unsurprisingly.
It also has amazing properties that make it possible to thicken and even froth it, making it a perfect addition to your morning coffee. You can even make it at home just by blending ¼ oats in ¾ water and straining.
However, because a lot of the oat grain gets into the milk, it is higher in calories, fat, and carbs than other milk alternatives. Because it is based on oats and has so much grain in it, it is also a risk for people who are sensitive to grains or gluten.
Rice Milk
Rice milk is another popular grain-based milk alternative. It is lower in fat than almost any other milk alternative, and not too high in calories either. It has a very smooth, sweet taste, making it a great option for desserts. It is also very unlikely to trigger an allergic reaction, and is in fact the least allergenic of all milk alternatives.
However, it is also high in carbs, which is where it gets its sweetness from, and can be quite watery due to its very low fat and protein content. It is also still a grain, and if your diet excludes grains it cannot be an option.
Mixed Grain Milk
Mixed grain milk is the last common grain-based milk alternative on the market. Even though milks such as wheat milk, corn milk, rye milk, and barley milk exist, they are rarely if ever available to buy. Usually you would go to a specialist store for them, or make them yourself.
A mixed grain milk is a milk made with any combination of blended and strained whole grains.
The advantages to this are that you can closely control the different nutrient levels of the milk based on which blend you choose to buy or make.
The downsides are that these blends can be very expensive, and that they often have allergy-causing ingredients that make them unsuitable for many people and many diets.
Quinoa Milk
Quinoa milk is a seed-based milk, not a grain-based milk, because quinoa is a seed and not a grain. Quinoa milk is amazingly healthy drink rich in a variety of vitamins and minerals, very low in fat, very low in sugars, and moderate in calories and proteins.
Despite this, it is fairly thick and smooth, rather than watery. You can also make it at home to save yourself time and money.
On the downside, quinoa milk has a very distinctive taste: the earthy flavor of quinoa. It can be a bit of a shock to someone who has never tried it before, but also a bit mild for people who really love the taste of quinoa.
You might want to look somewhere else if the taste of your milk has to be very specific.
Hemp Milk
Hemp milk is another seed-based milk, produced from the seeds of the hemp plant, a close cousin to marijuana. Fortunately, (unfortunately?) hemp milk is not going to get you high. But, it is a very good alternative to conventional milk, with a nutty taste and a thick and creamy texture that make it a perfect drinking milk or dessert milk.
It is low in calories, carbs, and fats, but the fats it does have are healthy omega oils. It is also a good option for people with soy or nut allergies.
However, its flavor can be very unusual and strong for some people, which restricts the recipes you can use it in, and may put you off drinking it. It is also often a bit expensive.
Flax Milk
Flax milk is yet another seed-based milk. It has a taste that is uncannily close to cow’s milk, and rivals soya in terms of how smooth and natural it is. This is probably because it contains natural omega 3 oils, just like conventional dairy, which give it that extra smoothness and flavor.
It is also very, very low in calories, and naturally high in all sorts of vitamins and minerals: calcium, vitamin A, B complex vitamins, vitamin D, etc.
The only downside to flax milk is its price and availability, as it can be expensive, hard to find, and very difficult to make it yourself.
Sunflower Milk
Sunflower milk is our final seed-based milk. It is made from sunflower seeds, and is not very high in calories, fat, or carbs. Its natural sugar content is a little higher than other seed-based milks. But it is full of calcium, providing almost 1/3 of our RDA, and also adds some other trace minerals to our diet.
However, it has a very strong taste of sunflower seeds. If you like this taste then it will be no problem at all, but if you are using it to whiten tea or coffee you may find it unpleasant. It can also be very hard to buy, so you may need to be prepared to make it yourself, blend ¼ seeds to ¾ water and straining.
Coconut Milk
Coconut milk can, confusingly, be another great option for people with nut allergies because it is technically not a nut. It is a traditional plant-based milk from Eastern cuisine, and forms the base of many delightful curries and desserts in Asia.
It is great for our health, providing a wide range of vitamins and minerals. You can also get it easily in tins or as a powder or block you can melt. Just go to your local health food or ethnic store and you can probably find some.
It does, however, have an incredibly strong taste of coconut. If you are one of those people who finds the coconut taste overwhelming or soapy, this milk may not be for you. Also, depending on whether you get thick or light coconut milk, it could have a typical milk number of calories (90-120 per serving) or an insane number of calories (550 per serving).
Coconut Cream
Coconut cream is also made by combining blended coconut meat and water, but it includes a lot more of the meat. This means it has more fiber, more fats and more protein than coconut milk. This also means it is heavier, and better for thickening sauces with and making desserts with.
It is rich in vitamins and minerals. It is also really easy to find if you have any ethnic stores, usually in a tin, as it is widely used in Asian, African, and Caribbean cuisine.
But it is still very high in fats and calories, up to 550 calories per serving, making it an exceptional milk alternative. It also has a very powerful coconut taste which means that, unless you really like coconut, you will probably only use it in curries and desserts.
Cashew Milk
Cashew milk is not actually a true nut milk either. Sorry. Cashews are a weird kind of seed that grows underneath a pear-shaped fruit in the tropics. It is probably the least nutty tasting of all nut milks, which shouldn’t be very surprising now you know it isn’t a nut.
It is low in calories, fats, and carbs, and full of trace minerals. It is very creamy and makes a great coffee whitener or drinking milk.
On the downside, even though it is not a “real” nut, many people are allergic to cashews, so it is not automatically a safe milk alternative. It can also be quite hard to find and expensive to buy.
Cashew Cream
Cashew cream is an amazing product for people who want a thick milk alternative for making desserts with. You can make it quickly and easily at home if you want to, or you can buy it at a health foods store.
Because of its mild taste it is very versatile, and because it is so malleable too, you can basically use it as a cream, milk, cheese, or even a yogurt if you need to.
The big downside is that if you thought cashew milk was hard to find, cashew cream could be a total nightmare. It might be easier and cheaper to make it yourself by soaking a cup of cashews in a cup of water overnight, then blending them.
Hazelnut Milk
Hazelnut milk is our first true nut milk! This milk is very easily available in large supermarkets and almost any health food store now. It has a smooth, nutty taste, and a moderate number of calories, although if you choose an option with no added sugar it will be much lower.
It is thought to be one of the most delicious non-dairy milks, and has a number of vitamins and minerals that occur naturally.
However, being a nut-based milk, it can trigger nut allergies, which could be a problem for you. It is also a little bland if you choose the unsweetened version, but too sugary if you buy a sweetened option.
Almond Milk
Almond milk is our last moo-free milk alternative. It is another true nut milk, and is one of the most popular ones on the market right now. It has a very mild, slightly nutty taste which many people enjoy. It is also one of the lowest in calories of all milk alternatives, whilst being quite high in vitamins and minerals.
Being a nut-based milk, it will naturally trigger nut allergies, so you will have to avoid it if you are allergic to nuts. It can also be a bit too watery, and does not lighten coffee very well, you need to add a lot to make it nice and pale.
Finally, when choosing your milk alternative, always look out for unsweetened, fortified varieties. The main advantages of conventional milks are that they are an amazing source of minerals, vitamin D, and are a sugar-free, low-calorie drink.
If you want the same health benefits, with none of the downsides, make sure your alternative milk is also full of minerals, vitamin D, and without added sugar. If you really need a smooth and mild taste, then go for grain-based milks, as they taste mild, smooth, and sweet without adding any sugar.
