Milk used to be simple

[cheryl]

Milk used to be simple - Harvard Gazette​

or the longest time, your milk choices were whole, 2%, 1%, and fat-free (or skim). Today, refrigerator shelves at grocery stores are crowded with plant-based milks made from nuts, beans, or grains, and include favorites like almond, soy, coconut, cashew, oat, and rice. Yet the fertile ground of the plant-milk business continues to sprout new options, such as pistachio, pea, and even potato milk. It seems if you can grow it, you can make milk out of it.

So, are these new alternatives better nutritionally than the other plant milks — or just more of the same?

A few facts about plant-based milks

Plant-based milks are all made the same way: nuts, beans, or grains are ground into pulp, strained, and combined with water. You end up with only a small percentage of the actual plant — less than 10 percent for most brands. Nutrients like vitamin D, calcium, potassium, and protein are added in varying amounts. “Still, many alternative milks have similar amounts of these nutrients compared with cow’s milk,” says Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.