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This week the OCU has published a press release with a striking headline: "Vegetable drinks: water... and little else." The note was loaded with a powerful subtitle: "Water accounts for up to 90% of its content."

The first thing I thought when reading it was: has anyone stopped to think that cow's milk also has about 90% water? I think it is veryinteresting to make disclosure on how to choose a good vegetable drink, but from a positive approach and without making statements that can lead the consumer to think that they are all "aguachirri".

It's no news that the nutritional composition of milk and most plant-based drinks is very different. In fact, for this reason and to avoid confusion, according to the Codex alimentarius we can only call "milk" what comes out of the udder of a mammal. Or rather, a mammal. The exception to this rule is almond milk, which is still allowed to be called "milk" for historical reasons.

Vegetable drinks are a resource that comes from old (see horchata) but that has been introduced in a generalized way in our consumption habits recently. A resource that fulfills different functions and that, well designed, can be interesting both for people who for different reasons do not take dairy, and for those who take dairy in their usual diet also decide to include this alternative.

Remember, in addition, that although dairy products are not a "white poison" but a food whose consumption is safe and healthy that many attack unjustifiably, it is not essential to take dairy products to meet nutritional requirements (not even calcium).

Are all plant-based drinks the same?

The "mother of lamb" in this matter is that, in the same way that the composition of a carton of whole milk is quite similar regardless of the brand (nuances of flavor and others apart), the composition of vegetable drinks is very different from each other. The biggest differences are given by the quantity and quality of the protagonists:

- Quantity: The amount of the raw material matters because, for example, drinking a glass of almond milk with 2% almonds would be the equivalent of eating 4 grams of almonds (one or two). Is it worth a product that contains this amount of nuts if the rest of the ingredients are sugars and additives. The truth is that I can think of better options.

- Quality: It is important to know the differences depending on the quality of the protein. The protein obtained from soy is a complete protein, with all the essential amino acids. Rice or oat protein is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid. Therefore, the protein quality of the soy drink would be higher than that of other vegetable drinks. In fact, if we want to replace the consumption of milk with a vegetable drink, the "nutritionally most similar" is soy.

Three keys to choosing a good vegetable drink

That said, let's get to the mess and what really matters: these are three keys that we must take into account in order to make a good decision in the supermarket when choosing a vegetable drink.

1. It must contain the highest possible percentage of raw material within the laws of physics. That is, it must be able to dissolve because if an oatmeal drink had 50% oats ... it would be a porridge! A reasonable range of raw material percentage for cereal-based plant-based drinks (oats, rice, spelt) would be 11-12% and even higher (14-15%) if they are based on pulses (soybeans, peas). Knowing that vegetable drinks from nuts will have a lower percentage of raw material so that a good suspension can be established, we will look for the one with the highest percentage within this type.

2. Avoid containing added sugars. Although the percentage is small, by taking about 250 ml or 300 ml in each glass, it is easy for us to reach 10-15 grams of sugar per serving. You have to put the magnifying glass on the labeling because, sometimes, instead of sugar, fructose is added, which is a cousin sister.

3. If you are looking to directly replace milk with a vegetable drink, remember that the quality of the protein of the soy drink is superior to that of vegetable drinks that come from other cereals and that it is interesting that they are enriched with nutrients present in cow's milk such as calcium or vitamin D.

  • Apothecary Garcia

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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