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Know Your Milk Drinking Options
“Got milk?” asks the popular advertising campaign. And now, pretty much everyone can enjoy some form of milk, including vegans and the lactose intolerant. Whether you want to seek alternatives to cow’s milk for reasons of ethics, health, or taste, you have plenty of choices.
Here’s a guide to help you get to know your milk-drinking options.
Be aware that, while cow’s milk is still a staple in supermarkets, the types of cow’s milk vary. Some milk is designated rBST- or rBGH-free. This means the cows which produced the milk were not injected with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) or recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), which was developed to help cows produce more milk. The Food and Drug Administration and World Health Organization have both stated that milk from rBGH-treated cows is safe for human consumption, but many people would rather not take their chances. If milk is labeled organic, that means that not only have cows not had rBGH or other synthetic hormones applied, their feed has been free of chemical pesticides.
Most of the milk sold legally in the United States has been pasteurized and homogenized. (Pasteurization heats the milk at high temperatures to kill bacteria; homogenization combines the contents of multiple milkings to ensure even flavor and cream distribution.) But, there is a growing movement towards the consumption of raw milk, which has not been pasteurized or homogenized. Raw milk cannot be transported between states and can only be bought, with restrictions, in 26 of 50 states at present. Web sites such as RealMilk.com can point you to nearby sources as well as provide information about raw milk. (If you’re going to drink raw milk, by the way, limit its consumption to people who can risk encountering some bacteria — not the elderly, infirm, or the very young.)
But what if you can’t drink milk? Lactose intolerance leaves its sufferers gassy and nauseous after drinking milk. (Some people with lactose intolerance can handle a bit of milk or cheese; others have to avoid all dairy products.) Fortunately, there are milk products with reduced lactose on the market, such as those from Lactaid and Dairy-Ease.
Know, too, that if cow’s milk still makes you uncomfortable, or you’ve decided to skip all animal by-products, your options are rapidly expanding. Soy milk has been available for years, and is now being joined by almond milk, rice milk, hemp milk, and even coconut milk. Note that these plant-derived milks don’t necessarily have the same calcium or vitamin D content as cow’s milk, so if you’re worried about your intake of either calcium or vitamin D, check the label of your preferred milk and give some thought about other food sources.
One final new entrant to the milk market is milk that has been supplemented with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a fatty acid found in fish oils. DHA has become a popular supplement of prenatal vitamins and infant formulas in the belief that it can enhance a baby’s cognitive and visual development. Be aware, though, that depending on the source, supplemental DHA can make the milk taste fishy!
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