I've stopped drinking Cow's Milk about a year ago when I started having problems with my skin and I recommend it to anyone who gets the flu/a cold a lot, has digestive discomfort, skin problems or any other health issues. Try cutting the milk out and see if it improves your symptoms! Milk isn't easy on our bodies even for people who are not lactose-intolerant and therefore produce the enzyme lactase which is required to break down the milk.
As I am not completely intolerant I'd still eat some cheese once in a while and especially don't bother if it's mixed with a dish, bread or cake at a restaurant or a friends house. I just don't drink any of those lattes anymore, skinny or not I drink my coffee black or with some non-dairy milk which here in the uk forget about it, as I don't know a single cafe in my area who offers that type of thing. Please don't go down the Soy milk route. Soy milk is MUCH worse for you, so please don't.
Strangely since my change, I don't even feel like eating yoghurt or cottage cheese anymore! Something I used to eat every day! I just don't like the way it makes me feel anymore. I get somehow thirsty and my skin sometimes starts to feel dehydrated. Cream and Butter are fine but I often prefer to substitute butter with
extra virgin coconut oil anyways. I once tried goats milk as it should be easier on our bodies but I started to be bloated too. Some argue that if you are drinking milk fresh and raw from a farm without it being pasteurised then its fine for the body as the important digestive helper enzymes get damaged with pasteurisation, leaving us with an unnatural food that our bodies have to do so much work on to get through. More about raw milk
here.
For anyone who loves their milk and doesn't want to be without it, have it then! But please buy organic. Organic cows eat more closer to their natures food and therefore produce a healthier milk with more vitamins and Omega3's. They also are less exposed to chemicals around them and in them, chemicals which end up in your breakfast milk.
If I couldn't convince you and you need some more infos, best ask
Dr Mercola he always has a good answer to any sort of health questions (he also does excellent videos on
you tube ) ;-)
Dr. Mercola Interviews Mark McAfee about Raw Milk:
http://www.mercola.com/article/milk/no-milk.htm
'Milk' Winners
Oat Milk
For store bought Milk Substitutes I recommend Oat Milk. I buy the organic one from
Oatly at Holland&Barrets or WholeFoods.
Oat Milk has more carbs than Almond Milk but hey, also more Protein! Plus these carbs are healthy so they will only be beneficial for you no matter what diet you are following or not!
Just one 250ml glass of Oatly oat drink provides a third (1g) of the daily requirement of beta-glucan (soluble fibre) to help lower cholesterol.
| Typical values | | per 100g |
| Energy | | 150kj |
| Energy | | 35kcal |
| Protein | | 1g |
| Carbohydrate | | 6.5g |
| of which sugars | | 4g |
| Fat | | 0.7g |
| of which saturates | | 0.1g |
| of which cholesterol | | 0mg |
| Fibre | | 0.8g |
| Sodium | |
0.04g
|
Nut and Seed Milks
My choice of most healthy homemade milk substitute would be Nut and Seed Milks, I love Almond or Hemp. It's so easy to make if you have a blender just blend the nuts or seeds with filtered water on high speed, sieve the left-over nut bits out for example with a
nut bag - Voila, delicious. Nut Milks are high in protein and lots of important nutrients.
Home made nut and seed milk is nice, especially if you add some banana and vanilla or cinnamon, but sometimes there is no time, or you feel like something a little more fuller tasting and easier to heat and then go to the shop.
 |
| Make Nut Milks at home |
Don't get me wrong, I like store bought Almond milk as well,
BUT unfortunately that is not the best as it has so many unhealthy ingredients!!
Synthetic Vitamins in Store-Bought “Almond Milk”
Here are just some of the harmful ingredients you will find listed on your store-bought “almond milk” carton:
Vitamin A Palmitate – This is a synthetic version of vitamin A that is associated with birth defects and bone fractures while providing zero health benefits. Other side effects of this isolated chemical form of vitamin A include tumor enhancement, joint disorders, osteoporosis, extreme dryness of eyes, mouth and skin, enlargement of liver and spleen, and immune suppression. As an added note, vitamin A toxicity, known as hyper-vitaminosis, always results from consuming too much synthetic “purified” vitamin A and never from naturally occurring vitamin A found from natural food sources. Still haven’t thrown out your store-bought “almond milk?”
Vitamin D2 – This synthetic chemical needs to be avoided at all costs as toxicity occurs easily with ingested synthetic D2. This occurs especially in children. In fact, a single dose of synthetic vitamin D of 50mg or greater is toxic for adults. The immediate effect of toxicity is abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting. In time, as toxicity builds, the result is a buildup of irreversible deposits of calcium crystals in the soft tissues of the body that damage the heart, lung and kidneys.*
Calcium Carbonate – This is a non organic, non-living mineral source of calcium and, most of the time, it is just plain chalk! That’s right- you are consuming chalk – the same stuff you use to write on a blackboard. Good luck with that!
Tocopherol Acetate – This is a synthetic man-made version of vitamin E. Studies have repeatedly shown that the human body prefers natural Vitamin E because it retains it at healthful levels while working to quickly excrete synthetic vitamin E.
Synthetic Vitamins Are Not Nutrients!
- Our digestive system does not recognize synthetic man-made vitamins as food.
- When you ingest a synthetic supplement, such as the ones found in “almond milk”, your body reacts as if you have swallowed some foreign toxic chemical. This means that your immune system must combat the enemy invasion. If you keep stressing your immune system in this way it will eventually become too weak to protect you from illness or disease.
- Lastly, since the very beginning of the boom in the supplement industry which included “fortified” and “enriched foods”, the scientific community has known, researched, and shown with every study that synthetic supplements weaken our health. In fact, these chemicals found in your “almond milk,” bread, and cereal boxes are not absorbed nor utilized by your body – instead they act as a burden to your health, even causing withdrawal symptoms when you eliminate them from your diet. Nothing replaces whole food, naturally occurring nutrients that your body naturally recognizes, absorbs, and utilizes as nourishment.
The One and only Store Bought Almond Milk
The one and only Store bought Almond milk I found here in the UK (I couldn't find any good one in the US) is the EcoMil. But it's pricey. For the cost of 3-4£ per liter it's not really worth it. Make sure you buy unsweetened.
Ingredients
Water, Almond* (7%), Tapioca Starch*, Natural Almond Flavouring*. (*Organically grown)
Be aware to buy unsweetened Milk Subsitutes and check the labels about the additives mentioned above and other sweeteners such as brown rice sirup, evaporated canu juice, agave ... you don't want any of those high GI sugars in your 'milk'
