Almond milk, coconut milk, walnut milk, peanut milk... There are more products on the market under the banner of "plant milk", which is favored by many consumers, and some people want to use it instead of milk. However, what is plant milk? What is the nutritional value?
Fan Zhihong, an associate professor at the School of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering, China Agricultural University, told that plant milk is a beverage made from plant seeds (such as soybeans, walnuts, peanuts) or fruits (such as coconuts) containing protein and fat. As for plant milk, you need to know the following things.
There is no cholesterol in plants. Reporters found that some plant milk known as "zero cholesterol", "low saturated fat", "low fat" and so on. Fan Zhihong pointed out that, in fact, these plant milk comes from plants, there must be no cholesterol, saturated fat content itself is low, these claims are just confusing.
Plant milk is not equal to high protein drinks. Because the color is similar to milk, many people think that plant milk can also supplement protein. However, the survey found that except soymilk, the protein content of other products is usually between 0.6% and 1.0%, far lower than that of milk (about 3.0%). Moreover, plant milk does not contain vitamin A and vitamin D, and its protein quality and B vitamin content are not as good as milk.
Most plant milk contains a lot of sugar. From food labels finding that most of the plant milk was added sugar or sweeteners, and sugar ranked very high. According to the data in the food label, drinking a bottle of (500 ml) of plant milk from a certain brand may bring about 40 grams of sugar. The World Health Organization and China's Dietary Guidelines recommend that the daily intake of added sugar should be less than 25 grams and no more than 50 grams.
Plant milk does not prevent obesity. The idea that milk is prone to fattening has led many people to place their hopes on plant milk. Milk has a higher fat content than plant milk products, but this does not mean that plant milk is more conducive to preventing obesity than milk. Epidemiological studies have shown that dairy foods are not easily fattening under the same calorie intake. In contrast, sugary drinks promote obesity. Therefore, in the prevention of obesity, sugar-containing plant milk is a disadvantage rather than an advantage in the face of pure milk. Others expect plant milk to supplement dietary fiber. In fact, to make a delicate drink, most of the dietary fiber will be removed. For people with healthy teeth, it is better to eat almonds, peanuts and other nuts directly.
Plant milk cannot replace milk. Because of the differences in protein, vitamin and calcium content between plant milk and milk, they can not replace milk. If you are not a vegetarian, you can drink milk while choosing low-sugar plant milk, which is more beneficial to ensure nutritional balance.
Fan Zhihong said that instead of being keen on propaganda and hype, plant milk should do a solid job in nutrition research and development, comprehensively improve the nutritional value of products, and produce more scientific data. In the international market, there are many vegetarian dairy products fortified with nutrients, which bring healthy choices for vegetarians who can not drink milk, but there are few such products in China. At the same time, plant dairy products almost rely on sweetness to attract customers. How this unhealthy feature can be corrected is worth further study and thinking.
