Almond milk, soy milk, rice milk and coconut milk may all offer lactose-free alternatives to cow's milk, but new research suggests which is the most nutritious option:
And many adults are lactose-intolerant, meaning they lack enough of a digestive tract enzyme critical to processing lactose-laden foods such as cow's milk. This is more common among blacks, Asians and Native Americans.
To compare the nutritional pros and cons, the researchers reviewed several dozen studies, collected nutritional data from a U.S. Department of Agriculture database and analyzed the nutritional labeling of commercially available unsweetened plant-based"milk" products.The team concluded that while coconut milk is low in calories and gets good marks for taste, it offers consumers zero protein and comes loaded with saturated fats.
Rice milk ranked comparably with cow's milk in terms of caloric content, but contained more sugar and did not provide an equivalent range of fat, carbohydrates and protein. That thought was seconded by Lona Sandon, program director of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.