Soy Milk by mc559
Milk, that is…
My mother never raised her kids on milk. I guess she missed the American war-time craze of having milk with every meal, even with dinner. (We always used to snicker at that…milk and steak just don’t mix for us). O the joys of immigration. So many things that we just don’t understand in this country.
Milk had three purposes in my mother’s kitchen: cereal, cookies, and the occasional “smashed potato” as my grandmother used to say. Unlike some households that would go through a gallon of milk a day, it would last about three days among six hungry people. In the early days, I remember only seeing the gallon with the red cap. Whole milk. Why bother buying anything else?
Then after my mother had her last kid, all of a sudden the kitchen became health-conscious. Red caps went to blue caps (2%) to yellow caps (1%) to rice milk to almond milk to soy milk. We all took it in stride, but us kids always looked out for the colored caps.
Until I had the worst stomachache of my life. Or heartburn. All I remember was a huge pain before school one morning (and yes, she still made me go). We didn’t connect the dots until after I started realizing that cow milk wasn’t agreeing with me anymore. I wasn’t lactose-intolerant, but cream- or milk-based foods were giving me trouble. I couldn’t stand the taste of fat-free water, I mean milk, so I tried out the soy milk.
And boy, did my eyes open REALLY wide. Original soy milk was ok, but vanilla and chocolate flavored soy milk tasted like ice cream smoothies. AND I could pour it over my favorite cereal? I was sold.
But is soy really that much better for you, or is it just a matter of choice? Let’s see..
According to LIVESTRONG, soy milk and cow milk have only a few differences. Soy-paraders claim that since the milk comes from a nut, it should have a lot more protein. Actually, cow milk has 7 grams of protein while soy has 8 grams. Big whoop.
What about fat? We’re all fat-crazed nowadays….they both have the same amount: 5 grams.
What soy milk does have is omega-3′s, that magical nutrient that we don’t have enough of. But what does cow milk have that can’t compare? Calcium.
So it is really your choice. I switched because it works for me. I get my calcium, though. Yogurt and cheese does the job just fine.
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