Almond, rice and soy milks

Every time I go to the grocery store, I
see all sorts of "milk" products on the organic aisle. Soy. Rice.
Almond. And they come in many flavors, including vanilla, chocolate and
even cappuccino. I've tried some of them, but they're generally a lot
higher than regular milk, so I don't buy them every time. And depending
on the recipe, they are not often as good to use when cooking.

Curious, I looked up the nutritional benefits of each:

• Soy

"Soy milk is nutritionally close to cow's milk. It naturally has about the same amount of protein (though not the same amino acid profile) as cow's milk. Natural soy milk contains little digestible calcium as it is bound to the bean's pulp,
which is insoluble in a human. To counter this, many manufacturers
enrich their products with calcium carbonate available to human
digestion. Unlike cow's milk it has little saturated fat and no
cholesterol, which is a benefit. Soy products contain sucrose as the
basic disaccharide, which breaks down into glucose and fructose. Since
soy doesn't contain galactose, a product of lactose breakdown, it can
safely replace breast milk in children with Galactosemia."

That's from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_milk#Health_benefits

More ... on its health benefits:

Soy milk is promoted as a healthy alternative to cow's milk for reasons including:

• Source of lecithin and vitamin E
• Lacks casein
• It is safe for people with lactose intolerance or milk allergy
• Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated
  fats are good for the heart. (It should be noted that whole milk has
  just as much monounsaturated fat as soy milk; and while it has less
  polyunsaturated, it contains the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA that
  soy milk lack.)
• Contains isoflavones, organic chemicals that may possibly be beneficial to health.

... But it's not all good. From the same site, here are the negatives to soy milk:

"However, the soy industry has also received similar criticism for reasons which include (but are not limited to) the following:

• A 2008 study found that men who consume an average of half a
  portion of soy products per day are more likely to have a lower
  concentration of sperm. ^[9]
• High levels of phytic acid, which binds to important nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron,^[10] and zinc, during digestion. However, as a comparison, cow's milk is known for significantly slowing down the absorption of iron^[11] and, additionally, calcium from other than dairy sources (like kale, sesame).

Although in general soy milk is not suitable for babies or infants^{[citation needed]}, there exist baby formulas based on soy protein, that are used primarily in the case of lactose intolerant children, those allergic to cow's milk, or parental preference for a vegetarian or vegan
diet. These formulas commonly contain extra carbohydrates, fat,
vitamins and minerals. However, care must be taken that children with
"Soy protein intolerance" are not fed soy milk."

•••

You can generally find soy in vanilla and chocolate, and produced by
various companies. It's become so popular, that you can now find it in
the store brand, in the same refrigerated section as cow's milk.

The other milks, though, are a little more obscure.

• Rice

"Compared with cow's milk, it contains more carbohydrates, but does not contain significant amounts of calcium or protein, and no cholesterol or lactose. Commercial brands of rice milk, however, are often fortified with vitamins and minerals, including calcium, vitamin B12, vitamin B3, and iron^[2].

While many people are allergic to dairy and soy, rice milk remains an alternative as a very low (to non) allergenic milk."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_milk

I won't paste it all here, but it's interesting to read how this
"milk" product is made. I used some last night as I was making a pan of
biscuits from scratch, and they actually came out fluffier. Since we
normally drink skim milk, there was not really a loss in the fat we
would have gotten from using regular milk instead, and I was otherwise
pleased with the result. I've also tried rice milk on cereal, and that
is good, too (especially with sugary or otherwise heavy breakfast
cereals; the lightness of the milk doesn't add to the cereal).

• Almond

According to associated content (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/898695/the_health_benefits_of_a...),
Almond milk is lactose free, it's antibiotic and growth hormone free,
nutritionally rich, low-cal and tastes good. We like it at home because
like rice milk, it's great too cook with but we also like it by itself.
Daughter particularly likes the vanilla flavored almond milk. I like to
mix vanilla almond milk, a banana, a squirt of chocolate sauce and a
double handful of ice to make a light "milk shake."

•••

Guess there are ups and downs to all these products (and cow's milk,
too), but they're worth trying if you're curious. I try to keep a few
boxes of soy milk in the house and sometimes rice and almond milk, but
I always keep a jug of the regular milk too, for hubby. :)