Mix it up!

              Both almond-milk and soymilk are becoming increasingly popular and more widely available. So, what’s all the buzz about? I thought the best place to start would be with a comparison table of the main nutrients from the nutrient label would be helpful.

	Skim Milk	Original Soymilk	Vanilla Soymilk	Original Almond Milk	Vanilla Almond Milk	Dark Chocolate Almond Milk
Calories	90	90	100	60	90	120
Total Fat	0	3.5g	3.5g	2.5g	2.5g	3g
Sodium	130mg	120mg	95mg	150mg	150mg	195mg
Carbohydrate	13g	8g	11g	8g	16g	23g
Protein	8g	6g	6g	1g	1g	1g
Calcium	30%	45%	45%	45%	45%	45%
Vitamin D	25%	30%	30%	25%	25%	25%

                Seeing everything right next to each other can really help to highlight spots of significant differences. First things first, the Calories generally speaking are lower in plant-based milks as compared to their cow’s milk counter parts. Secondly, as we look at fat content it is seen that all of these products do contain fat. The difference to note is that, upon closer inspection of the labels, these plant-based milks are higher proportions of unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are better for our bodies.

                SCIENCE SIDEBAR: Fats or fatty acids are chains of carbons that have hydrogen atoms bonded to them.  In saturated fats every single spot that can have a hydrogen atom has one. In an unsaturated fat a double bond is formed between two carbons and therefore two hydrogen atoms are unbound causing the fatty acid to become bent. Here is a picture to help (sorry for the elementary drawing, but I am a visual person so I hope this help you too)!

So what this means for our diets is this… Saturated fats can pile up more closely together and therefore can lead to heart problems. The bends in unsaturated fats prevent them from stacking so closely together and are better for our cardiovascular system as they clog up our arteries less.

                After fat comes the carbohydrate content. Just as the chocolate cow’s milk had higher carbohydrates the flavored milks will have higher carbohydrates. Protein is a place where significant difference can be noted. Soymilk still serves as a fairly good source of protein with 6g/ serving, but almond milk provides only 1 gram of protein/serving. This is a very important thing to note. If you are considering replacing cows milk with almond milk you are going to be having significantly less protein depending on how much milk you drink. This low protein content however, can be advantageous in some situations (for example renal patients needing low protein/low phosphorus diets). Finally the two most well known nutrients in milk…Calcium and Vitamin D. Both soymilk and almond milk contain 15% more calcium than cow’s milk! Soymilk contains 5% more vitamin D than cow’s milk and almond milk contains the same amount of vitamin D as cow’s milk. Here are all the labels for you to further compare- If you click on the images you can see them in a larger size.

Original Almond Milk

Dark Chocolate Almond Milk

Vanilla Almond Milk

Vanilla Soymilk

Original Soymilk

            
           Aside from comparing the nutrition facts of these products I can't help but go into a little bit of research based evidence for the different reasons someone may or may not want to drink soymilk. I am currently taking a supplements class and soy was a big topic of conversation in the cancer lecture. From hearing lectures about this topic and seeing the research first hand I believe that drinking soy milk will not put you at an increased risk for developing cancer unless you have a strong history of hormonal cancers in your family. Research has shown that the consumption of soy early in life can even decrease the risk of developing breast cancer. Another plus of  soymilk is that it can also help to lower cholesterol. 

So go out, experiment with new varieties of milk! Maybe you will like the taste or just enjoy changing it up for a bit. I love to use vanilla soy milk when making smoothies it provides a little extra flavor as well as an extra boost of calcium and vitamin D!