Are vegetable drinks healthier than cow’s milk?

Although the fever has already passed through vegetable drinks, the truth is that the controversy continues and still many people doubt whether to take milk or pass to this alternative.

The slow decline of the cow’s milk It has revealed a lot of lucrative opportunities: to create milk substitutes from practically anything: coconut, oats, almond, rice, soy … there are milk options for people who do not tolerate dairy or gluten, but set aside Dairy has become a whim for many.

Milk is a food with a high calcium content, an essential nutrient. It is an abundant and effective calcium source that is also very easy to process. But not only this … is rich in potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and proteins. All this with a low calorie contribution while promoting the growth of intestinal bacterial flora and prevents the development of pathogenic germs. In addition, among its innumerable benefits, milk neutralizes stomach acidity, favors the formation of new tissues, prevents osteoporosis and has the uricical effect, that is, it reduces the concentration of uric acid.

There are several types of milk: skimmed, half -navigated and whole. The dietitian-nutritionist Ana Colomer tells that the main difference between whole, half-naming and skimmed milk is the amount of fat and the amount of nutrients. «The whole milk has a greater amount of fat and fat -soluble vitamins. And the amount of fat and vitamins is reduced depending on whether half -naming or skimmed ».

However, due to lactose intolerance or flavor has been displaced by other types of drinks, such as vegetable drinks, which also have endless nutrients.

Types of vegetable drinks

Is it better to drink cow’s milk or vegetable drinks? Paula Fernández Giménez, dietitian-nutritionist and director of Nutrium, Nutrition and Dietary Center, clarifies that “it is important to know that vegetable drinks are not a substitute food for conventional milk but is an alternative, and precisely because of that, They can call milk but drinks ».

In general, we can find three different groups based on their main ingredient:

– Legume vegetable drink: The best known in this group is soy drink (protein rich).

– Wet vegetable drink: hazelnuts, nuts, almonds … They are rich in healthy fats.

– Cereal: rice, oatmeal … contain carbohydrates mainly.

Paula Fernández Giménez indicates that, contemplating its nutritional composition, we can conclude that the most complete is soybean drink, since it provides quality proteins, hydrates and fats, that is, it is more varied and rich in nutrients with respect to the others.

«However, it is recommended that even this soy drink is fortified, at least if we want to use it as a substitute for cow’s milk. A vegetable drink enriched in calciumVitamin D will be more complete from the nutritional point of view and will then be similar to traditional milk, ”says the expert.

Returning to the question of whether vegetable drinks are healthier than milk, dietitian-nutritionist comments that “we should not compare one food with another since they barely share nutritional characteristics, except that they have a high percentage of water.” Therefore, neither are essential in a healthy diet.

As for Vegetable drinkswe can find healthy options and also finding nothing recommended, mainly because of the added ingredients, especially sugar in large quantities.

To know the quality of this type of drinks it is essential to read in its packaging the List of ingredients and check that it is composed of water and the main ingredient (such as oatmeal, soybeans, almond …). In addition, it is important to choose options that contain a significant percentage of this ingredient, since we can find in the market, from 2% to 15% of oats or almond, for example.

And in the case of containing more ingredients, which are those to enrich how Vitamin D or calcium And not sugar, fructose or other sweetening additives, which turn this food into a low quality and unhealthy product.

What a vegetable drink choosing

Taking into account the recommendation to opt for the product that has the most percentage of the main ingredient and that we look for alternatives without added sugar, you can choose any of them, the one we like best. While it is soybeans that can be more complete, these types of products are not foods with a large concentration of nutrients.

If what we want is to include in our diet those foods that contain these drinks, such as nuts or oatmeal, the ideal is to do it directly, that is, a handful of almonds will be much more interesting dietically than a drink of almonds.

If, on the contrary, you want to incorporate these products into your diet because you do not consume dairy, if you suffer from lactose intolerance or milk protein, or because they are more interesting, the enriched soybean drink will be your best choice or in any case, That vegetable drink that does not contain sugar and has a high percentage of main ingredient, be soybeans or any other food.