If you’ve ever cruised the shopping isles and gone past the long life milk section, you may have become completely bewildered by the vast amount of choices you have there.
There’s normal cow milk, lite milk, soymilk, oat milk, rice milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, quinoa milk, and the list goes on.
But what are the differences?
Lets start with normal cows milk, the full fat versions are high in protein, calcium and many other vitamins and minerals, although some people do find it hard to tolerate on their tummy.
The lite or skim versions have had the healthy fats stripped out of them; the full nutritional value is not there in comparison to the full fat kind.
Interestingly, a 12 year population based study, carried out by the Dairy Research Institute, comparing the long term ingestion of full fat dairy with low fat dairy discovered: ““A high intake of dairy fat was associated with a lower risk of central obesity and a low dairy fat intake was associated with a higher risk of central obesity.”
Interesting!
With 75% of the world’s population being lactose intolerant, dairy free choices are important too.
Soy is actually quite wonderful for the body as it contains fibre, phytoestrogens, plant proteins and many minerals, but the organic version is the standout. Non-organic soy is genetically modified to withstand heavy spraying with pesticides.
Rice milk contains some protein and other vitamins and minerals, and is particularly useful in people who have allergies or food intolerances.
Almond and hazelnut milk are thicker in consistency, and contain higher amounts of proteins, vitamins and minerals and healthy fats, than rice milk. Being great for hair, skin and brain function.
Oat milk is a slow burning fuel, but does contain a small amount of gluten. It is milder in flavor than the nut milks, and contains fibre, vitamin E and folic acid.
And quinoa is a high protein, gluten free super grain; the milk is super healthy too. It’s a nutty flavored milk, and extremely high in protein and a multitude and vitamins and minerals.
Photo: The wide choice of milks.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Honor Tremain – Nutritionist and health writer
Honor is a qualified naturopathic Nutritionist and health writer. She is very passionate about nutrition and health, and has been working in the field for almost 20 years.
Honor is the head nutrition writer for the multi-national Fitness First magazine, which won best app for an iPhone & tablet device in 2011 for the ‘Magazine excellence awards’.
Honor also has her own ‘Ask Honor’ column and weekly health article in the APN newspapers for The Fraser Coast Chronicle and Observer in QLD.
She designs weight loss meals and menu’s for Sydney based food manufacturer Core Food Concepts.
Honor has lectured and supervised the Nutritional medicine students at one of Sydney’s largest Natural therapies college’s- Nature Care College.
You can follow her and many of her articles on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/HonorTremain
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