
Which milk alternative should we be drinking? - ajoy
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200207-which-milk-alternative-should-we-be-drinking
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thrower123
Fortunately, if you're not lactose-intolerant, you can just drink real milk,
which is highly nutritious and considerably less processed than any
alternative.

Best if you drink whole milk, because 2 grams more fat in a glass isn't going
to hurt you, and actually makes it taste good.

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PZ81JUXJE7uJ
Milk is so heavily processed you wouldn't recognize it if you were drinking it
right off the cow's utter.

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thrower123
In fact, I think I would. Sure, the butterfat floats on top when you've
squeezed it from the teat into a pail, but it's not like it's some bizarre
engineered substitute.

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thorwasdfasdf
It's been well known for some time that dairy has a lot of problems,
everything from Puss, to being linked to prostate cancer in men, and it's even
been linked to type 1 diabetes, and numerous other health concerns. And, it's
not like you can just drink the fat-free variety and be okay. It's the actual
dairy proteins that are problematic, not that the fat doesn't have problems
either.

Oat milk tastes great and it's good for you, for the most part. The problem
with oat milk is, they add a bunch of oil to it. they say it's just 2%, but I
think thats by volume or mass. if they go by it's actual proportion (by
calories), its nearly 25%!

Almond milk is great for you, but it doesn't taste as good as real almonds, so
why drink it?

Soymilk is the one I really like but they add a bunch of stuff to it like
calcium carbonate, which really didn't need in the first place. you can find
soymilk with nothing added to it, but you really got a go to one of those
specialty shops.

Personally, I like to make homemade quinoa milk, it's pretty good and you can
adjust how much thickness you want based on the ratio of water. it's easy to
make.

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Supermancho
> Almond milk is great for you, but it doesn't taste as good as real almonds,
> so why drink it?

Because there are some foods that only make sense with a milk substance added
(eg cereal). Almond milk, alone, isn't very ... tasty. Usually there are
variants (sweetened, vanilla, chocolate) because it's not great. Almonds are
also terrible for the environment, vis a vis water conservation, given what it
takes to grow them.

I currently prefer Flaxseed milk.

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rezgi
> Almonds are also terrible for the environment, vis a vis water conservation,
> given what it takes to grow them.

From the article:

> Even almond milk, a notorious water-hogger, takes less water to produce than
> dairy – needing on average 371 litres of water per litre of milk produced,
> compared to dairy milk’s 628 litres. Rice milk follows shortly behind,
> needing 270 litres of water per litre of milk. Soy and oat, on the other
> hand, need just 28 and 48 respectively.

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grwthckrmstr
Unpopular opinion: If you can digest milk in your adulthood, then drink a
glass of whole fat milk everyday. The nutrition and fat in it is wonderful for
you.

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PZ81JUXJE7uJ
That's A. not true as many studies have shown and B. very bad for the
environment and for the cow and the calf that were required (to be killed) to
get that glass of milk.

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grwthckrmstr
Human existence is bad for the environment. Not every comment has to take a
turn into a social or political issue though right?

Milk is nice. If you can drink and enjoy it, enjoy it. Sounds simple.

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emptysongglass
You're really not thinking this through. There's an entire supply chain of
suffering behind that milk. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider
looking at any footage from the inside of a dairy farm. It's not pretty.

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MockObject
In an ecosystem, all supply chains are built on suffering. Ecosystems do not
evolve to decrease suffering.

~~~
emptysongglass
But we can make individual choices to decrease overall suffering. You have
that power.

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ralf07
How about diy Rice milk. The recipe below is by Scott Jurek:

Rice Milk 1 cup cooked brown or white rice 4 cups water ⅛ teaspoon sea salt 1
tablespoon sunflower oil (optional)

Combine the rice, water, and salt in a blender. If you want a creamier milk,
add the oil. Blend on high for 1 to 2 minutes, until smooth. Pour into a
container, cover, and refrigerate. Rice milk will keep for 4 to 5 days.

Makes 5 cups

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dublinben
Plain water. Adults don't need to drink milk.

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ebg13
"don't need to" is a weird metric. You "don't need to" very many things.

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thorwasdfasdf
Perhaps what he meant is: you don't need to drink milk to get the following
nutrients: Protein, Calcium and Vitamin D. These are often endlessly touted as
the reasons why people need Milk (in milk ads and marketing), to the point of
where people are now repeating it in health blogs. Even health professionals
are repeating it as well (for a long time now).

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gdubs
Milk was one of the last animal products besides eggs in my diet — mainly in
ice cream, and lattes. Not a fan of almond milk with espresso drinks. Too
rancid or bitter to my taste. Oat milk did the trick with the coffees. It
froths well, and can make nice latte art.

Oatly now makes ice cream, which I love. They make a plain oat flavor one
that’s really delicate and nice.

Bringing it back to the subject of the article, organic can really make a
difference with tree crops - less pesticides wreaking havoc with pollinators,
etc. If you really don’t want to give up dairy, pasture raised can be a part
of regenerative agriculture, if done at a sustainable scale.

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growlist
'should'? It'll be a cold day in hell before I take any advice whatsoever from
the BBC.

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jordan801
We should be drinking water. If you have to drink a milk, then do a variety in
moderation.

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beatgammit
Well yeah, everything should be in moderation. Figure out what macros your
body needs, and get as much variety in filling those out as is reasonable.

I drink mostly water, but I probably have ~1 cup of milk on average each day
(e.g. no milk one day, 2-3 cups another day, etc). I go for whole milk because
the higher fat content means I'm having less sugar per calorie, and it makes
me feel more full than other kinds of milk. If you like milk, consider
increasing the fat content and decreasing the total amount you drink so you're
more satisfied when you do have milk.

If you're having multiple coffees everyday with tons of sugar, switching from
dairy to non-dairy creamer isn't the right optimization...

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miscPerson
A shot of half-and-half in your coffee is only around 45 calories. You’ll burn
that off if you take a fifteen minute walk while having your coffee.

Optimizing the dairy while loading in the sugar is completely wrong from a
health perspective.

