Milk - dairy vs almond

[andyp64]

Hi All,
I've been doing some Internet research about milk and wonder if anyone could confirm or confound the following conclusions I have reached?

1. Dairy Milk contains carbs and lactose. The body metabolizes the lactose into sugars which can cause spikes in BG. The carbs are also "bad" for me.
2. Almond milk does not contain carbs or lactose so (assuming no sugar added to milk) should not cause spikes.

Is this a fair summary or have I misinterpreted what I've read?

My conclusion (if I'm correct) is that swapping the skimmed milk I currently use for almond milk will contribute in a good way towards regulating my BG. Any increase in fat intake is a reasonable exchange for lower BG.

I await being shot to pieces!

Best Wishes,
Andy

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

Unsweetened no added sugar almond milk has zero carbs - I use Alpro unsweetened long life - I get it from Tesco. I stopped using dairy milk three years ago. You are correct that the almond 'milk' is by far the best choice. There is another alternative to dairy milk I am using now called Sproud and it is made from pea protein. I like it even better - it has a tiny amount of carbs but it is better for the environment and no worse for me than almond milk. There are a few versions of Sproud - the blue and white striped one is the unsweetened version.

 

[Robin]

I worry about a couple of things with almond milk. Firstly, the amount of water in drought ridden California needed to produce almonds, and secondly, whether you’re getting all the calcium you expect. I know I’m Type 1, so don’t have the problem with carbs, but I never need any insulin for the slug of milk I add to my tea and coffee.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I worry about a couple of things with almond milk. Firstly, the amount of water in drought ridden California needed to produce almonds, and secondly, whether you’re getting all the calcium you expect. I know I’m Type 1, so don’t have the problem with carbs, but I never need any insulin for the slug of milk I add to my tea and coffee.

They add calcium and vitamins to the alpro almond milk and the Sproud so it has at least equal the nutritional value of dairy milk. I agree about the Californian almond agriculture - alpro is made from european almonds from the mediterranean and the peas for Sproud are from France.

 

[Chris Hobson]

I use almond milk in my nutty porridge recipe.
1 oatibix or 25g oats.
25g hazelnuts, walnuts or a mix of both.
A sprinkle of cinnamon.
250ml almond milk.
Zap it in a bullet blender and then microwave for 90 seconds. Stir in a tiny bit of honey. Zap for another minute.
You can use ordinary milk but it has more carbs and the resulting porridge is a bit too runny.

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I use almond milk in my nutty porridge recipe.
1 oatibix or 25g oats.
25g hazelnuts, walnuts or a mix of both.
A sprinkle of cinnamon.
250ml almond milk.
Zap it in a bullet blender and then microwave for 90 seconds. Stir in a tiny bit of honey. Zap for another minute.
You can use ordinary milk but it has more carbs and the resulting porridge is a bit too runny.

I do something similar but instead of oats I use some ground almonds and a quarter teaspoon of psyllium husk and str in a teaspoon of crunchy peanut butter. I mix all the ingredient together in a bowl with a spoon and then microwave for a minute or two until it thickens up. Then I stir in a spoon of greek yoghurt.

 

[Finn]

I use cow milk in tea (one cup of black tea with milk a day, the rest are all herbal) and I count the carbs in the milk. I estimate 3g of carbs in a cup of tea with cow milk for me. I'm T1, so I include it in my mealtime bolus.

When I make a recipe that calls for milk, like waffles, I use unsweetened soya milk for the recipe (about 1/4 litre), then use the rest for tea. The unsweetened soya milk has 0 carbs, so nothing to count. But using it for tea only, I'd never get through it before it went off, so I just have one cup of black tea with cow milk a day.

I wasn't a fan of unsweetened almond milk for tea, plus the water issues mentioned by @Robin, so I tried out some other unsweetened milk alternatives. I'm pretty happy with unsweetened soya.

 

[Drummer]

Any name ending in 'ose' indicates a sugar - which is also a carb.
Cows milk contains the sugar (carb) called lactose. It is digested by many people (some do not have the required enzyme) and becomes simple sugars in the bloodstream.
There are no other carbs in milk.
I drink coffee with cream and fruit teas, so don't need any additives

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

Any name ending in 'ose' indicates a sugar - which is also a carb.
Cows milk contains the sugar (carb) called lactose. It is digested by many people (some do not have the required enzyme) and becomes simple sugars in the bloodstream.
There are no other carbs in milk.
I drink coffee with cream and fruit teas, so don't need any additives

I drink my tea and coffee and herbal teas without milk and have done for decades. I use a lot of milk but I use it in cooking and I drink it in smoothies.