How Is Dairy Free Milk Made?
This is a guest post by Catherine
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When you start a dairy free diet, the first thing you’re likely to think is what are the alternatives? Milk seems to be in a lot of foods and recipes, and just cutting out all milk from your diet doesn’t seem like fun. Luckily, there are a number of great alternatives to dairy milk – soy, almond and even hemp can now be used as a dairy substitute. We all know where dairy milk comes from, but how are these alternatives made?
Basically, the main problem of the people who are intolerant to regular milk is the lack of the digestive enzyme (lactase) which breaks down the sugar milk (lactose). People haven’t yet worked out how to remove lactose from dairy milk, but they have cleverly added the digestive enzyme (lactase) to the milk to make lactose fee milk.As a result, this digestive enzyme (lactase) comes with lactose free milk broken into 2 simple sugars: galactose and glucose which makes the digestion process comfortable for you. That’s the reason why lactose free milk is sweeter. This is not bad. You can still enjoy your favorite milkshakes with no need to add too much sugar!
If you want to stay away from dairy milk entirely, there are 5 common dairy free alternatives that you can get in most supermakerts:
Soy milk is made of soybeans. It has the same amount of protein and calcium as regular milk. However, soy is a food allergen, so make sure you don’t have a soy allergy before buying!
Coconut milk is sweet and smooth. Moreover, it will add to your preferred milkshakes a nice coconut flavor. It is made of coconut flakes, but is not so rich in nutrients as regular milk. It is naturally calorific, so look out for unsweetened, low-calorie types.
Almond milk is prepared of raw almonds and is a low-calorie drink. Many people prefer this dairy free milk due to its smoothness and mild flavor. Obviously, watch out for allergies with this one!
Rice milk has a slightly grainy texture due to the rice pulp of which it is made. It is the most suitable alternative for allergic people, but it is rich in calories and low in protein.
Hemp milk is not really a like-for-like substitute for regular milk because it a grainy structure from being produced from hemp seeds. However, it does contains a lot of nutrients such as magnesium, ascorbic acid, beta-carotene, calcium, fiber and essential fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6.
Due to their natural provenience, all these types of dairy free milk can be easily prepared at home. But if you don’t have much spare time, you can buy them. Just try to follow the next suggestions:
- Take your dairy free milk from the shop refrigerator. The milk which has a shorter validity term has more natural ingredients.
- Look at the composition: your milk shouldn’t contain ingredients which you cannot even pronounce.
- Choose unsweetened brands. Usually, dairy free milk contains a lot of artificial flavors.