This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
A glass of milk for strong bones. Milk with cookies or morning cereal. Everyone loves milk, right? Not quite. Animal-derived milk does have its downside. These include allergies and lactose intolerance, possibly even the risk of certain cancers and diabetes.
The good news is that those who want or need to stay away from cow's milk can do so with a number of non-dairy milk alternatives. These vary in their levels of nutrition, color, flavor and texture.
1. Soy Milk
A popular alternative to dairy milk, soy milk is a bean extract of soybeans and commonly sold in sweetened, unsweetened and flavored varieties, including chocolate and vanilla.
Pros: In many ways, soy milk is nutritionally equivalent to cow's milk. It's often fortified with calcium, vitamins A and D and riboflavin and it usually includes 8 to 10 grams of protein per serving. Soy milk can also contain isoflavones, which have been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease.
Cons: Even a little soy milk can cause severe allergic reactions to those with a soy allergy. In addition, a review published in 2014 in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine revealed that soy might negatively impact fertility in men.
2. Almond Milk
Made from ground almonds, water and (in most cases) sweetener, almond milk is sweet with a creamy texture similar to dairy milk.
Pros: Almond milk contains lots of vitamin E—about 50 percent of the daily value in one cup. Weight watchers will like the fact that almond milk has 1/3 of the calories of 2 percent cow's milk.
Cons: Almond milk has far less protein than dairy milk or soy milk. It also doesn't have the vitamins, minerals and fatty acids found in dairy milk, so it's important to look for fortified almond milk.
3. Rice Milk
Made from boiled rice, brown rice syrup and brown rice starch, rice milk is a popular alternative for cow's milk.
Pros: Rice milk is the most hypoallergenic of the milk alternatives. It's free of soy, gluten and nuts, important for those who are allergic or can't tolerate these ingredients.
Cons: If you're watching your weight, rice milk is high in carbohydrates. And it's low in protein and calcium compared to dairy milk. This milk is also thin and watery, so it's not a good cow's milk substitute for cooking or baking.
4. Coconut Milk
A close alternative to cow's milk, coconut milk most resembles the texture of whole dairy milk. It's somewhat high in fat (about 5 grams of saturated fat per cup).
Pros: Its nutty flavor makes coconut milk suitable for many types of baked foods. It's soy- and gluten-free, so those with multiple food allergies can tolerate this substitute. Coconut milk has far more potassium per cup than dairy milk (630 mg per cup, vs. 150 mg).
Cons: Coconut milk lacks the nutritional value of dairy milk. One cup of coconut milk contains 80 calories, 1 g of protein and 100 mg of calcium—compared to 100 calories, 8 g of protein and 300 mg of calcium for 1 percent dairy milk.
5. Flax Milk
A little thin and sweet, most flax milk is produced by organic, ethically responsible companies that use non-GMO flax.
Pros: High in fiber, flax milk is rich in alpha linoleic acids, which has been used to prevent and treat diseases of the heart and blood vessels. It is used to prevent heart attacks, lower high blood pressure, lower cholesterol and reverse hardening of the blood vessels. When fortified, this non-dairy alternative has as much calcium as regular milk, so it's good for those who need healthy, adequate levels of calcium.
Cons: Flax milk is low in protein. Flavored varieties tend to be heavily sweetened, so read the label for sugar content.
6. Hemp Milk
No, you won't get high on hemp milk. Made from hulled hemp seeds, water and (in most cases) sweeteners, hemp milk is a good alternative for those allergic to soy, nuts and gluten.
Pros: Hemp milk provides more iron than cow's milk. It's also very high in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to promote heart and brain health.
Cons: Unless fortified, hemp milk is relatively low in calcium. It's rather expensive and can have a beany-nutty flavor that may not suit some taste buds. Many store bought varieties have sugar added, so read the label.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
georgeclerk / E+ / Getty Images
By Jennifer Molidor
One million species are at risk of extinction from human activity, warns a recent study by scientists with the United Nations. We need to cut greenhouse gas pollution across all sectors to avoid catastrophic climate change — and we need to do it fast, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This research should serve as a rallying cry for polluting industries to make major changes now. Yet the agriculture industry continues to lag behind.
Botswana, home to one third of Africa's elephants, announced Wednesday that it was lifting its ban on the hunting of the large mammals.
"The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism wishes to inform the public that following extensive consultations with all stakeholders, the Government of Botswana has taken a decision to lift the hunting suspension," the government announced in a press release shared on social media.
Company Safety Data Sheets on New Chemicals Frequently Lack the Worker Protections EPA Claims They Include
By Richard Denison
Readers of this blog know how concerned EDF is over the Trump EPA's approval of many dozens of new chemicals based on its mere "expectation" that workers across supply chains will always employ personal protective equipment (PPE) just because it is recommended in the manufacturer's non-binding safety data sheet (SDS).
By Grant Smith
From 2009 to 2012, Gregory Jaczko was chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which approves nuclear power plant designs and sets safety standards for plants. But he now says that nuclear power is too dangerous and expensive — and not part of the answer to the climate crisis.
Trending
‘It’s Raining Plastic’: Researchers Find Microscopic Fibers in Colorado Rain Samples
By Brett Walton
When Greg Wetherbee sat in front of the microscope recently, he was looking for fragments of metals or coal, particles that might indicate the source of airborne nitrogen pollution in Rocky Mountain National Park. What caught his eye, though, were the plastics.
In a big victory for animals, Prada has announced that it's ending its use of fur! It joins Coach, Jean Paul Gaultier, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, Michael Kors, Donna Karan and many others PETA has pushed toward a ban.
This is a victory more than a decade in the making. PETA and our international affiliates have crashed Prada's catwalks with anti-fur signs, held eye-catching demonstrations all around the world, and sent the company loads of information about the fur industry. In 2018, actor and animal rights advocate Pamela Anderson sent a letter on PETA's behalf urging Miuccia Prada to commit to leaving fur out of all future collections, and the iconic designer has finally listened.
Trending
If people in three European countries want to fight the climate crisis, they need to chill out more.
That's the conclusion of a new study from think tank Autonomy, which found that Germany, the UK and Sweden all needed to drastically reduce their workweeks to fight climate change.
"The rapid pace of labour-saving technology brings into focus the possibility of a shorter working week for all, if deployed properly," Autonomy Director Will Stronge said, The Guardian reported. "However, while automation shows that less work is technically possible, the urgent pressures on the environment and on our available carbon budget show that reducing the working week is in fact necessary."
The report found that if the economies of Germany, Sweden and the UK maintain their current levels of carbon intensity and productivity, they would need to switch to a six, 12 and nine hour work week respectively if they wanted keep the rise in global temperatures to the below two degrees Celsius promised by the Paris agreement, The Independent reported.
The study based its conclusions on data from the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on greenhouse gas emissions per industry in all three countries.
The report comes as the group Momentum called on the UK's Labour Party to endorse a four-day work week.
"We welcome this attempt by Autonomy to grapple with the very real changes society will need to make in order to live within the limits of the planet," Emma Williams of the Four Day Week campaign said in a statement reported by The Independent. "In addition to improved well-being, enhanced gender equality and increased productivity, addressing climate change is another compelling reason we should all be working less."
Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being.
"This new paper from Autonomy is a thought experiment that should give policymakers, activists and campaigners more ballast to make the case that a Green New Deal is absolutely necessary," Common Wealth think tank Director Mat Lawrence told The Independent. "The link between working time and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions has been proved by a number of studies. Using OECD data and relating it to our carbon budget, Autonomy have taken the step to show what that link means in terms of our working weeks."
Stronge also linked his report to calls for a Green New Deal.
"Becoming a green, sustainable society will require a number of strategies – a shorter working week being just one of them," he said, according to The Guardian. "This paper and the other nascent research in the field should give us plenty of food for thought when we consider how urgent a Green New Deal is and what it should look like."
- Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change ›
- How working less could solve all our problems. Really. | ›
- Needed: A shorter work week – People's World ›
Amazon shareholders voted down an employee-backed resolution calling for more aggressive action on climate change at their annual meeting Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times reported.