How healthy and sustainable is vegetable milk?

More and more people are replacing cow's milk because of the animals, lactose, cholesterol, the environmental burden or another reason.

But is vegetable milk so much more sustainable and healthier? And what is the best choice?

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Actually, it is funny that I write this article, because I have milk. Well ahead then, in the form of hot chocolate milk or a pancake, I still like it, but with a glass of cold milk you really do not make me happy. A test almond milk then ensured that I also stayed away from vegetable varieties for a long time.

But last but not least, I gave rice milk a - fairly successful - chance, very vegan Netherlands goes on oat milk and I discovered that even the sweetened soy yoghurt contains less sugar than low-fat yogurt. That made me think. How healthy is vegetable milk? And how much more sustainable is it than cow's milk?

Full substitute for milk?

Because apparently there are people who think that vegetable milk can also be a substitute for mother's milk for your baby, I'll say it anyway. No no no! Breast milk contains many more and other nutrients and is only replaceable with specific baby foods. Cow's milk is also not a substitute for breast milk.

Whether or not vegetable milk can be a suitable substitute for cow's milk depends on which nutrients you want or do not want to get. In general, human bodies are happier with proteins, calcium and vitamin B12 than with fats and sugars.

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Health

All kinds of milk have its advantages and disadvantages for our health. Cow's milk contains protein, calcium and vitamin B12, but also a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. Vegetable milk contains no lactose and no cholesterol. It differs per type whether the milk contains proteins or more carbohydrates. In the following equation, I assume unsweetened and, if possible, enriched variant

Durability

Sustainability is unfortunately a bit more complicated than reading nutritional tables. To compare different kinds of milk, I went looking for Life Cycle Assesments (LCAs).

In this, environmental experts consider the entire production process of a product and usually aspects such as land use, water use and / or CO2 emissions are discussed. The numbers vary widely in different studies due to differences in study locations and calculation methods, but the trend is clear.

I found my inspiration @ expertisebodemenondergrond.nl and zaailingen.com