Are plant based beverages a good ‘Milk” alternative?
Plant-based beverages like almond, rice, soy and coconut milks seem to be taking over more and more of the “dairy” case in supermarkets these days and is growing in popularity. A finding that surprised me this year was learning that there have been several case reports of severe malnutrition among infants and toddlers who have been fed these beverages as part of a regular diet. One of these infants, a 2.5-month-old, who was fed almond, nut, and soy beverages for 1.5 months actually died. A further surprise is the low nutrient levels in Rice milk, especially in the Original Unenriched version, which is made from rice.
The abstract for these case studies can be seen bellow as well as a table comparing the nutritional value of the different ‘milk alternatives’ available to cows milk.
Table showing the nutritional content of a 100g serving of cows milk and plant based beverages:
| Cows Milk | Almond Milk | Rice Milk | Soy Milk | Coconut milk | |
| Kcal | 60 | 17 | 49 | 43 | 230 |
| Fat (g) | 3.3 | 1 | 1 | 1.5 | 24 |
| Saturated fat (g) | 1.9 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 21 |
| Pollyunsaturated (g) | 0.2 | – | – | 0.9 | 0.3 |
| Monounsaturated (g) | 0.8 | – | – | 0.4 | 1 |
| Cholesterol (mg) | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Sodium (mg) | 40 | 75 | 35 | 47 | 15 |
| Potassium (mg) | 143 | – | – | 122 | 263 |
| Protein (g) | 3 | 0.4 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Carbohydrates (g) | 5 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
| sugar (g) | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3.3 |
| Vit A (IU) | 102 | 208 | 0 | 185 | 0 |
| Calcium (mg) | 113 | 83.3 | 8.2 | 123 | 16 |
| Vit D (IU) | 40 | 41.7 | – | 43 | – |
| Magnesium (mg) | 10 | 6.7 | – | 15 | 37 |
Plant based beverages are often seen as milk ‘alternatives’ and commonly used by the republic to replace dairy in there diet ether for medical reasons or because of negative perceptions of dairy. What is important to remember is that a glass of milk contains a vast variety of nutrients that contribute largely to our daily requirements. Replacing milk means losing out on some of these nutrients. When comparing milk to plant based beverages important things that stood out were the calorie values of almond milk and coconut milk. Almond milk is significantly lower in energy then cows milk and has very little nutritional content. Coconut milk is vastly higher in energy mainly attributed to its high saturated fat content and is reasonably low in protein and carbohydrates.
Rice milk surprisingly is predominantly ‘just carbs’ with little other nutritional content. Soymilk is the closest to cows milk in nutritional value but currently there is a negative stigma attached to soy products making people reluctant to use it.
So what’s the conclusion? Besides soymilk, other plant-based beverages described as ‘milks’ are not suitable replacements for cow’s milk in terms of the nutritional value. This is clearly indicated in the case studies below.
Fourreau D, Peretti N, Hengy B, Gillet Y, Courtil-Teyssedre S, Hess L,et al. [Pediatric nutrition: severe deficiency complications by using vegetable beverages, four cases report]. Presse Med. 2013;42(2):e37-43. [French]. Abstract available from:
