Plant-Based Milk Versus Cow’s Milk

Plant-based milk is not milk – to get straight to the most important thing. Plant-based milk is only called milk because it is liquid, white, and drinkable and therefore looks like animal milk. In reality, plant-based milk is simply a plant-based beverage.

Plant-based milk or cow’s milk

On June 7, 2017, researchers from the University of Toronto published a study examining how plant-based milk, as opposed to cow’s milk, affects children’s body growth. They found that children who drank cow’s milk grew taller than children who were given plant-based milk.

The researchers analyzed data from over 5,000 healthy Canadian children between the ages of 24 and 72 months. You looked at how many 250 ml cups of plant-based milk the children had received per day. It turned out that the children were smaller the more plant-based milk they drank per day. The children were 0.4 cm shorter per cup of plant-based milk. For example, three-year-old children who drank three cups of plant-based milk a day were 1.5 cm shorter than children of the same age who drank three cups of cow’s milk a day.

Vegetable milk and child growth

The media gratefully picked up the study and posted headlines like this:

• Soy milk and grain milk slow down the growth of children
• Children: does plant-based milk stunt growth?
• Study: Plant-based milk stunts children’s growth
• Children who only drink soy milk, almond milk and the like are smaller

Although at the end of the article it is usually explained that you really don’t know whether it is actually good and healthy to grow fast and ultimately be taller, it is well known that very few people read the article to the end…

Matthias Schulze from the German Institute for Human Nutrition (DIfE) in Potsdam-Rehbrücke is then quoted there, who said that it was known for a long time how well cow’s milk can promote length growth. However, it is not known whether this is good or bad for health. Because Schulze and his team found in a study in 2016 that taller people are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases and diabetes than shorter people, while shorter people have a higher risk of cancer.

Plant-based milk is not just plant-based milk

The Canadian scientists also failed to take into account that the individual types of plant-based milk have completely different nutritional values, which means that they do not all fit into the same category and therefore cannot all be compared with cow’s milk.

Soy drink, for example, provides 3.4 percent protein and thus slightly more than cow’s milk, while almond drink provides 0.5 percent and rice drink 0.1 percent protein. The latter consists of almost 10 percent carbohydrates, oat drink 6 percent, cow’s milk 4.7 percent, almond drink 3 percent, and soy drink only 2 percent.

These two comparisons of nutritional values ​​alone show that the individual plant-based drinks cannot be lumped together – which should come as no surprise, especially since the raw materials sometimes come from completely different plant families. For example, soybeans are legumes, oats are cereals, and almonds are stone fruits.

You can also make many plant-based kinds of milk yourself, e.g. B. Almond milk. The nutritional value of such milk can easily be greatly increased or reduced, depending on how many almonds you use per 100 ml of water and also depending on whether you pour the almond milk through a sieve or drink it unsifted.

Plant-based milk versus cow’s milk: pointless comparison

It is particularly meaningless to compare plant-based drinks with the mother’s milk of a mammal. Cow’s milk, for example, is there to provide a newborn calf with ALL the nutrients it needs to not only survive the first few weeks and months of life when it cannot yet digest green fodder but also to be able to feed as quickly as possible during this time to be able to grow (700 grams daily).

In order to enable this rapid growth, which is typical for cows, the cow’s milk contains an appropriate nutrient growth hormone cocktail. The growth hormones or growth factors are endogenous substances that are naturally contained in breast milk – always suitable for the respective needs of the baby. (To avoid misunderstandings, these are not human-administered hormones.)

No wonder children who drink cow’s milk grow stronger than children who don’t drink the nutrient-hormone mix that’s naturally meant for a giant animal.

Plant-based milk is NOT baby food!

Breast milk – whether from the cow or the woman – is, therefore, a nutritious and vital substance-rich SOLE FOOD for the respective infant or – in a certain transitional period – an additional food as soon as the offspring start to eat solid food. Plant-based milk is neither of the two, neither a stand-alone food for anyone nor a nutrient-rich supplementary food.

So plant-based milk is NOT baby food and never has been! So anyone who gives their toddler plant-based milk and believes that it can provide them with lots of nutrients and vital substances in this way is of course wrong. Compared to breast milk, plant milk is extremely poor in nutrients and vital substances. Babies and toddlers should therefore never be given plant milk as a breast milk substitute. With the exception of soy drinks, plant-based milk is neither a good source of protein nor a good source of vital substances, even for adults.

Orange juice instead of breast milk?

Nobody would think of feeding their child with orange juice instead of breast milk. However, orange juice has – as far as the main nutrients are concerned – a similar composition as e.g. B. rice drink, which also contains some vitamin C, more fiber, and more protein.

Areas of application for plant-based milk

Plant-based milk is therefore neither baby food nor a superfood. They serve a completely different purpose. These are drinks that you B. can be mixed into muesli, with which you can prepare shakes, and are suitable for cooking and baking.

Even if you fancy a sweet, you can have a small glass, e.g. B. drink rice drink and get used to the sugar consumption. For example, many people prefer to drink a glass of plant-based milk instead of reaching for the usual cake in the afternoon or biscuits in the evening.

Which milk for children?

Last but not least, the Canadian researchers also stated that they had only looked at who was drinking how much plant milk or cow’s milk. However, the rest of the diet of the children was not included in the study. Of course, it is clear that children who already drink 3 cups of plant-based milk per day are no longer so hungry to be able to get the nutrients and vital substances they need from other foods. But three-year-old children should generally get the majority of their nutrients slowly but surely from solid food – and no longer from liquid food.

Unfortunately, the result of the headlines mentioned is that people quickly turn to cow’s milk again instead of dealing with a healthy diet. Because the question is not: cow’s milk or plant milk, but rather: How do I provide myself and my children with all the nutrients and vital substances – and in the most environmentally friendly and animal-friendly way possible?

Babies and toddlers need their mother’s milk – not milk from a cow. The latter is only emergency food for young children whose mothers are unable to breastfeed, which is very rarely the case. And here, too, as is well known, normal cow’s milk cannot simply be used. Precisely because the needs of calves and human infants are so different, cow’s milk has to be adapted to mother’s milk and “converted” to infant formula at great expense. Only now can the baby digest and tolerate them without getting sick.

Which milk for adults: plant-based milk or cow’s milk?

Adults no longer need any baby food or milk at all – neither from their own mother nor from the cow. They can cover their nutritional needs very well without cow’s milk, namely through a healthy, purely plant-based diet, such as we do e.g. B. have described here: The rules of healthy vegan nutrition

As explained above, plant-based milk can be integrated very well here and used as a light snack, for example.