Soy or rice milk
Robyn,
I switched from skim cow’s milk to soy milk last year after reading The China Study. I dilute it 100% w/ water so that the consistency isn’t so creamy. Now that I’ve read your info on Soy products I’m not sure what to do. It seems like the soy milk has more protein and calcium. I only drink about a cup a day. What do you think is best?
We originally switched from cow’s milk to soy when my son and I were diagnosed lactose intolerant. Then with all the hoopla surrounding soy I switched to rice milk but, to be honest, it just doesn’t taste very good. Eventually I switched to almond milk and that’s all we use now.
I make almond milk myself with my blendtech blender. It works perfect!
I originally bought my blendtech blender because I was so impressed with the demo at costco. I wanted it to make my whey protein fruit smooties for weight lifting. But the blendtech website had a link that led me hear. I am so thankful.
Thanks Robyn for such a great website!
I would definitely get away from soy milk. You have other good options, including Rice Dream and (best of all, especially if you’re in the group buy and have a shipment of almonds coming!) raw almond milk made with almonds soaked overnight!
Tip: Freeze little baggies of soaked (sprouted) almonds in just the right amounts to make yourself a batch of almond milk. One part almonds, three to four parts water. A pinch of vanilla bean if you want.
Robyn
i make my own almond milk. the almond milk you buy tastes awful compared to homemade!
When you freeze or dehydrate sproated almonds, how does that affect the nutritional content?
In general, about frozen foods: they lose 10% of their nutritional content, and more if you leave them in the freezer for an extended period of time.
I personally choose not to worry about this. Preserving food is better than throwing it away, and this is the best way to preserve (also dehydrating is a good way).
Unless you have a power outage and all your greens and fruit in the big freezer thaw, like just happened to me this morning.
Another sprouting question!
Why do we soak beans before cooking? Is it to speed up cooking? Create less digestive upset? Or is it because we are sprouting them before cooking?
If you’re cooking, then soaking beans isn’t to sprout; it’s to neutralize oligosaccharides and make digestion easier. You can read a short section about that at the end of Ch. 6 of 12 Steps.
Of course, you can soak and sprout beans (such as mung beans) for use raw.
If you add a splash of lemon juice and a pinch of Real Salt or OCHS, almond milk tastes much more like dairy milk. I know it sounds weird, really I do!
No to soy! I would encourage you to make your own home made almond mylk. It tastes WAY better than the store bought stuff. I finally made some a month ago and now I’m hooked. I have my 2 year old helping me out. I soak about 2 1/2 cups overnight in the fridge. In the morning I strain it and put it in my Blendtec and fill it up with filtered water as much as I can. Then I strain it through my nut bag. Pour it back in and add 1 tbls raw honey and a tiny dash of salt. You can add vanilla or more honey if you like. I keep mine more on the plain side. It is great with raw cereals, granola, making fruit smoothies etc. I have to admit I am neurotic with it and peel the skin off every one of those almonds to make it pure white. I then make almond butter cookies with the pulp that is left over and they are awesome. (You don’t have to peel them…but it looks better and it is easier for the kids to digest and I like whiter cookies).
You can also do this with hazelnuts and add some coconut to it….pumpkin seeds are awesome too.
And the lazy mom’s way to do this is just with the almonds and water (a little vanilla bean is optional) until very smooth in the BlendTec. The end.
(I stir it before using it but leave all the fiber in it. I don’t peel the almonds or even strain the milk.)
I often do it Robyns way……very often!
could we have the recipe for those almond cookies?
Tonya emailed me this:
Almond Butter Cookies (18 cookies or so)
These will keep in the fridge for a week.
2 cups almond flour (pulp from almond mylk) You can dehydrate it for an hour or just use it as is.
1/2 cup organic almond butter (or organic peanut butter…both are great)
2 Tablespoons agave nectar
1/2 cup Raw Honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp Himalayan Crystal Salt
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl really well. Then take small amounts and roll them into little balls and flatten them out into desired shape. Put them on to a teflex sheet or parchment paper and put into dehydrator until dry. It will probably take 24 hours to get them crisp at 106 degrees.
I like to put a little bit of a chocolate top on them.
Chocolate top
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup of cacao powder
Mix it up briskly with a fork or whisk. It will take about 3-5 minutes to get this mixed up but it will taste just like the real thing! You will need to adjust it to your taste. I am just guestimating on the chocolate mix. Pour it on the top in the center of each cookie 2 hours before drying time ends.
Yummo! This cookie recipe is altered from Sarma Melngailis Raw Food Real World Recipe Book. I deleted stevia, bumped up the agave and altered extra steps that don’t matter. I also added a chocolate top to it. (Just in case anyone is interested in the nitty gritty….don’t want to step on anyones toes and want to give credit where credit is due!)
I went to a medical conference in March where the leading soy researcher spoke. He debunked all the myths about soy so I have been feeding it to my family since then. If you start your kids on soy they have a 47% less risk of breast cancer. That is huge!! There has been so much controversy about soy milk containing estrogen which also isn’t true, according to the speaker. The molecule from soy is similar to that of estrogen without then negative effects of the estrogen. Why is it that soy milk produces these toxic substances but rice and almond milke don’t??? I just don’t understand. After reading your website, I am afraid again. I just don’t know who to believe. All I know is that I don’t want my family to have dairy products. Which leads me to another question…if you don’t give your family milk for probably the same reasons I don’t after reading the China Study, why do you encourage kefir and yogurt? What am I missing?? Please help as I am so confused. I just want to do what is the best for my family!!
I called my pediatrician; she endorses cow’s milk because she said rice milk doesn’t have the calcium or protein that cow’s milk does. She also stated that there was a sweetener in the rice milk that affects the insulin levels. However, the box of Rice Dream shows that there is added calcium and no sweetener that I can discern.
Yes, I need some confidence here in dealing with my pediatrician. Could you elaborate on the nutritional value of the almond milk?
Thanks!