In our grandparent's day, milk was milk. Only one meaning, and only one description. Healthy, delicious, pure white cow's milk straight from the farm presented in a shiny glass milk bottle and bought to our front door by the trusted milk man.
These days milk is no longer just milk. It comes from a variety of different sources in a variety of whites presented in a variety of different containers.
There is soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, skim milk, full fat milk, homogenized, unhomogenised, pasterised, unpasterised, powdered milk, long life milk, coconut milk, oat milk, to name a few.
Soy milk
One of the most popular and common non-dairy milk is that of soy milk. Soy milk is made from a mixture of soybeans and water. These days sugar and other preservatives may be added. Soy milk is high in calcium and protein.
Soy milk is not nutritionally sound for infants and young children.
Cow's milk
Unhomogenised, full fat milk is the milk that has the least amount of processing and research shows that due to less processing, many of the nutrients such as calcium, are kept intact.
This type of milk may not be beneficial for those who are overweight, have high cholesterol or those with high blood pressure because of the high fat content, if drunk in high volumes.
Before the age of 2, our body produced the enzyme lactase which helps to break down the lactose in milk. As we age, lactase decreased leaving many of us lactose intolerant, therefore unable to tolerate cow's milk and being rendered lactose intolerant.
Oat milk
Oat milk has a distinct, nutty-tasting milk. It is high in fibre, folic acid and phytochemicals. Due to the low calcium content of oat milk, choose the one fortified with calcium.
The best way to choose a milk that best suits your health profile is to look at the ingredients and the nutrient panel. This will give an indication as to the amounts of saturated fat, sugar etc. A naturopath or nutritionist can give advice on the nutrient content and the milk that best fits your health status.
