Milk: Cow vs. Soy vs. Almond

kimimila86

I think it will vary from person to person as to what's best. My doctor advised that I stick with cow's milk because I have hypothyroidism. Though the medicine helps, for me, foods that affect the thyroid can trigger symptoms. Unfortunately, soy and almonds can both limit the thyroid's function, so I have to stay away from products that use them (more unfortunate for almonds as I love almonds).

This. I'm also hypothyroid, diagnosed about 2 years ago. I grew up severely lactose intolerant, so my parents remedied the situation by giving me soy products instead... Who knows if that messed with my thyroid function. I just try to avoid milk in any form, if I can. Just my two cents.

TDfromCA

Exactly! And for a healthy treat, the Dark Chocolate Almond milk is yummy. But it must be the Dark Chocolate - the other is not as good.

stacygayle

Exactly! And for a healthy treat, the Dark Chocolate Almond milk is yummy. But it must be the Dark Chocolate - the other is not as good.

My son loves that stuff. I actually like it too. He loves to put the dark chocolate almond milk in his cheerios in the morning.

susannamarie

The almond milk has more calcium than regular. I have heard some bad things about non organic milk about the processes it goes through and the cows having antibiotics in them and whatnot. A friend of mine is considerig switching to pure raw cow's milk that you can only get from a farm.

Unless you want to do the raw thing I'd do almond.

Milk from dairy cows must be withheld after they are treated with antibiotics. On my mother's farm, if a cow is treated with antibiotics:

-she is given a red leg-band to remind us not to ship her milk.
-she is milked into a separate bucket which has no connection to the rest of the milk.
-her milk doesn't go in until she has had her milk tested for residue.

If we screwed up and shipped milk that contained antibiotics, they'd test the truck at the plant and dump the whole truck. They then would check the samples that they took at each farm to see who'd shipped the contaminated milk, and bill the offending farmer the cost of the dumped milk. This is all standard operating procedure.

You might have a point on hormones, and in general I prefer raw milk and that's all I drink at the farm. But they're actually really careful about antibiotics.

susannamarie

Cow's milk should be taken out of our diet completely, our bodies were not ever meant to have it! I can't remember everything by detail but here's a good article that I follow that helped me when I had the same question http://www.kimberlysnyder.net/blog/2011/12/06/common-diet-advice-thats-actually-bad-for-you/. You should check out the rest of her blog (Kimberly Snyder). Her book is good too.

I guarantee you that people have been drinking milk a lot longer than they've been drinking Glowing Green Smoothies.

Yes, some people are intolerant. Clearly they shouldn't drink milk. Of course you shouldn't eat milk if it makes you gaseous, bloated, or gives you heartburn. Others of us possess the evolutionary change which allowed us to digest milk as adults.

A hell of a lot of the other things she lists as 'myths' simply aren't generally true. Yes, you shouldn't force yourself to eat a hearty breakfast if you feel crappy while doing so. On the other hand, I'm *wrecked* without a decent breakfast and end up shoveling food from the vending machines into my mouth by 10am if I haven't had breakfast. According to her I should just have my Glowing Green Smoothie and suck it up.

Sorry for the sidetrack, but really, you shouldn't automatically believe everything you read. Go off how it makes YOU feel and whether YOU lose weight on it.

OP: I like cow's milk. I haven't found it slowing down my weightloss.

graelwyn

I drink filtered cow's milk in my hot drinks as I have yet to find a milk, bar soya, that works in my coffee and chicory drinks.
I don't feel happy about the idea of drinking another species' milk, nor the hormones, but since I eat cottage cheese and greek yoghurt and milk chocolate, it would seem a bit pointless to change milks.

I used to have soy milk when I was vegan. I tried normal almond milk and it certainly doesn't work in my coffee.

CoderGal

Cow:

have 'complete' proteins (google it). These contain an adequate proportion of all eight of the essential amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans or other animals. Some incomplete protein sources may contain all essential amino acids, but a complete protein contains them in correct proportions for supporting biological functions in the human body. - wikipedia. If you're somewhere like Canada, cow's eat grass, not hormones or antibiotics etc that some people seem to think is added to all milk. In Canada, and many other places, it's illegal.

Almond:

This is what I drink mostly. I find it tastes the best, and has very little sugar (I'm more concerned about health then calories...though they tend to add salt). I've tried unsweetened almond dream, natural something or others...and almond breeze. They all taste different. The worse part is it doesn't have the protein that cows milk does (it has nearly none). There's various additives that are different then what's in cows milk and some peoples stomach can't tolerate such as carrageenans (processed from seaweed), added salt, then there's tapioca that seems to be added to many of them or calcium carbonate I guess to give it a consistency similar to milk. Making your own is probably the healthiest. I'm not sure about the nutrients involved but I know that there are several that usually aren't listed on the box.

Soy:

Tastes nasty according to many people, and you probably get enough in your diet, it's in everything these days. Try to find a regular loaf of bread in a grocery store that doesn't contain it. It's in things such as breads, crackers, cakes, rolls, or pastries containing peanuts, peanut oil, soy flour Processed and "natural" cereals which contain soy ingredients, pasta, Soy beans, soybean sprouts, sauces, Fruit drink mixes, fruit toppings, coffee substitutes instant coffee, hot cocoa mixes, malt beverages, pork link sausage, deli/luncheon meats, commercially prepared meats (used as a meat extender), cheese substitutes, tofu, bean curd, natto, miso, textured vegetable protein, canned soups, commercial entrees, and combination foods, baked goods, such as cakes or cookies which contain soy flour, commercial ice creams and other frozen desserts, Hard candies, nut candies, fudge, and caramels, protein powders, margarine and butter substitutes salad dressings, mayonnaise, sauces, or gravies, Commercial vegetarian products and meat substitutes Heinz® Worcestershire sauce, Lea & Perrins® sauce, fermented soybean pastes (miso and natto), soy sauce, tamari sauce, granola, or breakfast bars, Imitation bacon bits, Roasted soybeans or "soy nuts"...
http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/allergy/soy.html - Children's Hospital at Standford

There are many nutrients in soy that are wonderful, but it's added to so many of our foods these days, one hardly needs it added to their diet: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/consumer-centre/food-safety-tips/labelling-food-packaging-and-storage/soy/eng/1332437930120/1332437995901 It's to the point that it's a big deal to not have soy in your food, so they put a big bold label on the front.

Since my friend and doctor figured out that her life long health problems may have been due to soy, I figured I'll post. Here are some of the links I've found, I recommend reading all of them.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uIn2L90wA8&amp;feature=player_embedded <-worth watching

reads:
http://www.aquarianonline.com/Wellness/soy.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10763906?dopt=Abstract
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/18/soy-can-damage-your-health.aspx

There are also many books out there talking about the negative affects of soy...can't remember the popular one...I think it's called "The truth about soy" or something.

Also, it's not all soy that causes cognitive and hormonal imbalances (which you'll get if you read the links and video).

Coconut:

Coconut also tastes awesome, but it's high in fat. But keep in mind these are suppose to be the healthy medium chain fatty acids.

Rice:

tastes exactly like liquid rice, and doesn't have the nutritional benefit as the others according to most of the articles I've read.

FitnessDivaK

Wow! I had no idea there was so much controversy surrounding dairy products...luckily I've been limiting my intake anyway :-)

I did purchase some almond milk today and used it in my protein shake. It was good...I really didn't taste a difference from either of the other 2 milk choices, and since I can't find any evidence of nutritional deficiencies, I'll stick with almond for a while :-)

Thanks Everybody!!!

FitnessDivaK

Cow:

have 'complete' proteins (google it). These contain an adequate proportion of all eight of the essential amino acids necessary for the dietary needs of humans or other animals. Some incomplete protein sources may contain all essential amino acids, but a complete protein contains them in correct proportions for supporting biological functions in the human body. - wikipedia. If you're somewhere like Canada, cow's eat grass, not hormones or antibiotics etc that some people seem to think is added to all milk. In Canada, and many other places, it's illegal.

Almond:

This is what I drink mostly. I find it tastes the best, and has very little sugar (I'm more concerned about health then calories). I've tried unsweetened almond dream, natural something or others...and almond breeze. They all taste different. The worse part is it doesn't have the protein that cows milk does (it has nearly none). There's various additives that are different then what's in cows milk and some peoples stomach can't tolerate such as carrageenans (processed from seaweed), added salt, then there's tapioca that seems to be added to many of them or calcium carbonate I guess to give it a consistency similar to milk. Making your own is probably the healthiest. I'm not sure about the nutrients involved but I know that there are several that usually aren't listed on the box.

Soy:

Tastes nasty according to many people, and you probably get enough in your diet, it's in everything these days. Try to find a regular loaf of bread in a grocery store that doesn't contain it. It's in things such as breads, crackers, cakes, rolls, or pastries containing peanuts, peanut oil, soy flour Processed and "natural" cereals which contain soy ingredients, pasta, Soy beans, soybean sprouts, sauces, Fruit drink mixes, fruit toppings, coffee substitutes instant coffee, hot cocoa mixes, malt beverages, pork link sausage, deli/luncheon meats, commercially prepared meats (used as a meat extender), cheese substitutes, tofu, bean curd, natto, miso, textured vegetable protein, canned soups, commercial entrees, and combination foods, baked goods, such as cakes or cookies which contain soy flour, commercial ice creams and other frozen desserts, Hard candies, nut candies, fudge, and caramels, protein powders, margarine and butter substitutes salad dressings, mayonnaise, sauces, or gravies, Commercial vegetarian products and meat substitutes Heinz® Worcestershire sauce, Lea & Perrins® sauce, fermented soybean pastes (miso and natto), soy sauce, tamari sauce, granola, or breakfast bars, Imitation bacon bits, Roasted soybeans or "soy nuts"...
http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/allergy/soy.html - Children's Hospital at Standford

There are many nutrients in soy that are wonderful, but it's added to so many of our foods these days, one hardly needs it added to their diet: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/food/consumer-centre/food-safety-tips/labelling-food-packaging-and-storage/soy/eng/1332437930120/1332437995901 It's to the point that it's a big deal to not have soy in your food, so they put a big bold label on the front.

Since my friend and doctor figured out that her life long health problems may have been due to soy, I figured I'll post. Here are some of the links I've found, I recommend reading all of them.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uIn2L90wA8&amp;feature=player_embedded <-worth watching

reads:
http://www.aquarianonline.com/Wellness/soy.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10763906?dopt=Abstract
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/18/soy-can-damage-your-health.aspx

There are also many books out there talking about the negative affects of soy...can't remember the popular one...I think it's called "The truth about soy" or something.

Also, it's not all soy that causes cognitive and hormonal imbalances (which you'll get if you read the links and video).

Coconut:

Coconut also tastes awesome, but it's high in fat. But keep in mind these are suppose to be the healthy medium chain fatty acids.

Rice:

tastes exactly like liquid rice, and doesn't have the nutritional benefit as the others according to most of the articles I've read.

Thanks for this! I'll definitely read up :-)

CoderGal

Wow! I had no idea there was so much controversy surrounding dairy products...luckily I've been limiting my intake anyway :-)

I did purchase some almond milk today and used it in my protein shake. It was good...I really didn't taste a difference from either of the other 2 milk choices, and since I can't find any evidence of nutritional deficiencies, I'll stick with almond for a while :-)

Thanks Everybody!!!

Don't limit yourself to much. It's important, especially as a women, to get calcium in your diet. I try to drink a glass a day and still don't reach the recommended calcium intake with that.

Summary: soy I would say has a lot of nutrition in it, but I'd stay away from it for reasons I've mentioned above
Milk: has complete proteins, which you need in your diet, which the others do not have
Almond: tastes good, tends to have weird additives to make it last/be more like milk, usually contains salt for some reason, but that's what I tend to drink lol.

tigerdactyl

Almond is the bee's knees. Tastes great and you can get a 30 cal per serving carton if you go unsweetened.

LorinaLynn

I tried some Silk Light Chocolate Soy because it was on sale and the grocery store didn't have any Lowfat Chocolate cow milk.

Meh. Tastes like flavored water... like you added Nestle Quik to water. I'll finish the half gallon, but won't buy it again.

bcattoes

Cow's milk has more sugar but the calcium content is natural, rather than added. With soy and almond milk, most of the calcium is added so you are basically just taking a calcium supplement with your drink (which you could do with any drink).

Soy has a little more calories than almond milk, and usually more protein as most almond milk contain more water than soy milk.

Neither soy or almond milk contain lactose, so either is a good alternative for those with lactose intolerance.

There are mixed results on studies showing health benefits from soy. The most promising benefit seems to be with reducing menopausal symptoms in women.

It's pretty much an accepted fact that almonds are good for you, but you won't get a lot of those benefits from almond milk because of the low concentration of almonds.

bcattoes

Don't limit yourself to much. It's important, especially as a women, to get calcium in your diet. I try to drink a glass a day and still don't reach the recommended calcium intake with that.

Women don't need to drink milk to get enough calcium. I track calcium to make sure I get enough. I rarely drink milk (don't like taste) and I'm rarely calcium deficient. I drink soy milk everyday, almond milk sometimes, the rest I get from food. Most dark greens (collards, kale, mustard, etc.) are a good source of calcium.

hsnider29

I literally hate cow's milk. I haven't liked the stuff even when I was a baby. I like Almond milk for recipes and cooking. I don't like the taste of drinking it straight but it makes a darn good hot cocoa. I drink coconut milk in smoothies, milk shakes, etc because I do like the taste. I'm allergic to Soy so I don't know what soy milk tastes like.

Completely OT but I love your pug profile pic! We have a pug too.