Contents
Plant drinks: are they healthier than cow’s milk?
Nutrition
To find out which is the healthiest vegetable drink, check the label for added sugars and what percentage of almond, oatmeal, coconut, rice or soy it contains
They are easy to digest, the market offers a wide variety of flavors and are versatile in the kitchen, as they can be used in the preparation of desserts. But it is also important to know that the composition of vegetable drinks has nothing to do with that of cow’s milk, so they would not be equivalent on a nutritional level, according to Claudia Brassesco, a dietician-nutritionist at the Julia Farré Center. «If you want to obtain the nutrients from milk, you will find them in the milk itself, in its dairy derivatives and in other foods, but not in beverages from the plant world, with the exception of soy, which contains a similar amount of protein than milk ”, he says.
Although initially these products were designed and thought for people with allergy to animal protein or for those who had lactose intolerance, the truth is that there are already many who drink vegetable drinks instead of cow’s milk, either for the reasons mentioned, or because they find it more pleasant because it is better digested or because they follow a vegetarian or vegan food.
How to read the beverage label
But like any other “nutritionally labeled” food, the key to choosing the healthiest option is to study the ingredients and their composition. Some of the guidelines recommended by the expert from the Julia Farré Center, Claudia Brassesco and the dietitian-nutritionist from Alimmenta, Laura Bonet are:
Does it have added sugars? “If you find words like sugar,” X “syrup, fructose, sucrose, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc… They are synonymous with sugar, so I recommend that you don’t choose it,” explains Brassesco. The important thing, according to the expert, is to differentiate the added sugar (it is found in the ingredients) from the natural sugar of the food itself (for example, that of oats).
How much cereal, legume or nut does it contain? The higher the better. The first ingredient will be water and the second, in most cases, will be the ingredient with which the vegetable drink is made. “This is important, as some beverages have sugar as the second ingredient. Taking into account that in the list of ingredients these are ordered in descending order according to the amount in the product, we would be talking about a drink based on water and sugar “, says Bonet.
Claudia Brassesco shares this opinion, who advises looking for the one with the highest percentage of the vegetable ingredient.
Both experts highlight the importance of looking at the percentage of oats, rice, soybeans, coconut, almonds … that the drink contains, because the higher that percentage, the richer it will be in nutrients such as proteins or carbohydrates. For soy, oat or rice drinks we can find amounts of 14-15%, according to the Alimmenta expert, who warns of the fact that it is not difficult to find light versions with less than 4%. Although this will make them provide fewer calories, they will also be poorer in nutrients when diluted in water. In the case of the almond or coconut drink, the amounts usually range between 2 and 5,5%.
Is it enriched? If the vegetable drink is enriched with vitamins and minerals such as football vitamin D and the Vitamin B12 It will be a plus in your favor, according to the Center expert Julia Farré.
In this sense, Laura Bonet indicates that, at a minimum, you should have 120 mg of calcium per 100 ml of drink. “No vegetable drink on the market reaches that amount if it is not enriched,” he says.
For his part, Francisco Pita, from the Nutrition area of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), emphasizes the fact that if you choose to substitute milk for a vegetable drink, you lose protein value (except in the case of the soy drink), the fat profile may worsen (if it is coconut) and in the case of the rice drink (with more carbohydrates and sugars), it could lead to a loss of control by a patient with diabetes. For this reason, it is advisable to always consult with your doctor if cow’s milk is going to be substituted regularly for a vegetable drink.
But then, is it better than cow’s milk?
«The consumption of vegetable drinks in itself cannot be considered healthier than the consumption of cow’s milk without taking into account the rest of the dietIn other words, by consuming vegetable drinks we are not going to make our diet more or less healthy ”, highlights the Alimmenta expert. In his opinion, the consumption of these products is one more option if we want to vary or if we decide not to consume cow’s milk for any reason.
That is why the fundamental thing when evaluating this point, according to Laura Bonet, is to take into account other factors such as whether the person is consuming other types of dairy such as yogurts and only does not consume cow’s milk, if they do not consume any type of dairy or whether or not it incorporates other foods rich in calcium to your diet that allow you to cover your Daily necessities of this mineral.
For her part, Claudia Brassesco says that everything will depend on the context and the circumstances that are given to recommend one or another option. “If there is no allergy to milk protein, it suits you well, there is no pathology that recommends withdrawing its consumption and you like milk, drink it, there is no need to replace it,” he says. But if you have a disease that recommends avoiding it, or you have digestive discomfort, you can consume vegetable drinks taking into account the guidelines mentioned above to choose the best option.
The SEEN expert is more blunt, who assures that for the general population it is not healthier to opt for vegetable drinks instead of cow’s milk. “A good source of calcium is lost since that of cow’s milk is absorbed much better than that of vegetable and vitamin drinks,” he reveals.
Can we talk about milk when we refer to vegetable drinks?
The term “milk” It should be used to designate “normal breast secretion obtained from one or more milkings, without any type of addition or extraction”, according to EU Regulation 1038/2013. However, as Laura Bonet comments, although if this definition were taken into account, no drink from plant origin could be considered as “milk”, this principle, according to the legislation, is not applicable to the description of products “whose exact nature it is known due to traditional use and / or when the designations are clearly used to describe a characteristic quality of the product. ‘
Currently the RAE collects the names “almond milk” and “coconut milk”, as Claudia Brassesco recalls, but not the rest, so the use of the term in the case of soy, oats, rice … etc, it would not be correct.