Milk Alternative 101

This has been giving me trouble for a few weeks now. Let me explain why. For years I have been drinking ½ & ½ in my coffee and drinking the occasional glass of cow milk or having it in my cereal. Recently I started seeing a naturalistic doctor and she told me I need to cut out most dairy because of the estrogen they pump into cows to get them to keep giving milk as well of a lot of other nasty stuff. My response "HA! That means no cheese... um, no. Not going to happen.” I have a bit of a fondness for cheese. She just smiled and shook her head in the, I know best, but I can't make you, kind of way and told me to at least drop liquid dairy products because they are the real trouble and just stick with natural cheeses. Okay, I can do that.

Directly after that appointment I made a trip to Freddie's AKA Fred Myers. It's like a nice, more grocery orientated Target for people not in the Pacific North West and they have a decent organic section. It was for wholly that reason and not because it's located one parking lot over from my doctors office. Really.

I looked around and choose some organic vanilla soy milk. Good protein levels and its soy so duh, no cow hormones to worry about. Low on sugars. No additives and I can read all the ingredients without having to sound them out first. Check, check, and check. The next day I made my coffee and I liked it. It was not as thick as with my ½ & ½ and I did have to use more but that's fine. That means more protein.

About a month goes by and I have some tests she requested done. Mammogram and ultrasound and I go back into the office for an appointment to talk about all the results as well as a well woman check. After much talk about other things I bring up that I am liking my soy milk. “Oh” at that point her head popped up from behind my cloth covered knees, “You should be drinking almond milk. I'm sorry we talked about so many things last time. I thought I covered that.” and back down goes the head. “I guess you could have, maybe I missed it because of my worrying about giving up my cheese fetish?” Chuckling from behind my cloth covered knees. “You'll want to avoid soy milk because soy has estrogen in it.” I was confused by this so I decided to wait until she was done so I didn't feel as awkward about the conversation. “So... umm, why would people pump estrogen into soy like cows? Does it make them simpler to milk?" I was only ½ kidding about this. She (again) laughed at me but at least this time it was not while she had the modern version of a popes pear in use so I felt a bit better about it. “No, soy naturally produces estrogen and it's very helpful for older women to drink but you'll want to wait a while before you start drinking it every day.”

So again, I made my way over to Freddie's and got some organic almond milk. About half as much protean as the soy but besides that the containers look about the same. When I got home I looked up a more detailed listing while trying it out with some coffee. If you're interested it's got the same kind of consistency and flavor as the soy... a bit more nutty (it's a nut milk, go figure) and I like it. 

 As you will see below, I decided to approach the Soy and Almond like an ex-boyfriend. No, not with a drink in the face! With a pros and cons list... and maybe some chocolates nearby.

 

SOY & ALMOND – Pro: Each are Vegan and Gluten free.  Not a big deal to me but it is nice to know and maybe helpful to others.

SOY & ALMOND - Pro: Heart Healthy Has been proven to help lower cholesterol & promote cardiovascular health.

Soy Pro & Con: Contains a High Level of Phytoestrogen (that mimics estrogen in humans)  This means it's good for postmenopausal women but not so great for younger women because estrogen increase breast cancer risk.

SOY – Pro: Believed to Help Prevent Male Prostate Cancer

SOY - Con (pro?): May Lower Male Sperm Count. This one could be good or bad depending on the way you look at it. ;)

ALMOND – Pro: High in Natural Antioxidants

ALMOND – Pro: High in Vitamins and Minerals more so than Soy milk.

ALMOND & SOY – Con: Each are considered 'not safe' for infants to drink.

ALMOND & SOY – Con: Each can have severe allergic reactions.

So it depends on how you look at it and your personal health needs. Me, I'm going to stick with the almond and most like still get the soy for the hubby as he liked it. I'm not the kind of health nut that I say avoid everything that's bad for you because eating nothing but Elven Lembas Bread would get really old, really fast. 

Hope this helps you and yours a bit. We will get back to the cleaning and beauty product recipes next time.