Almond milk is a great alternative to soy milk

My body doesn’t tolerate soy very well, so I never considered soy milk as an alternative to cow’s milk. I recently discovered almond milk and was shocked to find it tastes fantastic. It’s delicious by itself, poured over cereal, mixed with chocolate syrup, or as the creamer in coffee. It really doesn’t taste very different from cow’s milk – it’s just a little bit sweeter, leaning toward an amaretto flavor. You can buy it in vanilla or chocolate flavors, but I prefer plain (you can always add flavor yourself). Also, you can make it at home just by grinding almonds and water in a blender, being careful to avoid any bitter almonds.

As a substitute for cow or soy milk, almond milk has a lot of benefits. Soy is becoming more and more controversial (impressions of its health benefits have been exaggerated through savvy marketing, and some claim it can even be detrimental). You already know the problems with cow’s milk. But almond milk is free of cholesterol and trans fats, and contains important vitamins and minerals.

Just a little note here about milk substitutes in general: while almonds and soy have a lot of nutrients, the milk versions of them may or may not deliver much of those benefits. Don’t get the impression you should be drinking lots and lots of either product. What you should be doing is substituting them for the more harmful stuff that’s in cow’s milk. And do make sure you get your calcium from somewhere.

Almond milk actually has a long history dating back to the Middle Ages – who knew?

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