Milk… it does a body good, or so we’ve all been told by commercials growing up. But the truth is that there is mounting evidence supporting the fact that cow’s milk simply is not the best source of calcium for humans, contrary to what the mainstream media might have you believe. In fact, dairy products have been linked to cancer of the breast, colon, and prostate cancer.
But that doesn’t mean that you have to shun milk altogether to stay healthy. You’ll find that milk can be made with just about any type of nut or seed you can think of, offering a plethora of flavors and textures to choose from. Almond milk is tantalizing when used in pudding and creamy soup recipes. Cashew milk’s ultra creamy texture makes a perfect refreshment to go along with graham crackers or cookies. And the nutty flavor of peanut milk complements pad Thai dishes and Asian sauces well.
Most plant-based milks have a high fat content though, so it’s wise not to indulge too much if you happen to be watching your waistline or for optimal digestion. However, there are a few tasty lower fat alternatives to consider that will allow you to enjoy your milk and keep your waistline in check too.
Check out these three awesome options:
Banana Milk
Bananas are an excellent source of potassium and minerals, and they’re filling too. When blended, they create a perfect low fat alternative to cow’s milk. Just blend about a half a cup of water with each banana you use, adding more water as you see fit to get the texture you prefer. Pour your banana milk over granola to make cereal, use it to make milkshakes in your blender, and freeze it to make soft-serve ice cream!
Sweet Oat Milk
Oats are fun eaten as oatmeal for breakfast and they can be added to burgers, casseroles, and even smoothies for a boost of protein without a lot of fat. Believe it or not, oats are also easy to make milk with. You can simply blend a handful of oats with water for a quick milk fix, but for a delectably sweet outcome add a couple of dates to the mix and strain your milk with a nut milk bag or mesh strainer before using it.
Cucumber Milk
Cucumbers create milk that is naturally sweet and is light and watery in texture. It makes a great replacement for cow’s milk and nut milk in recipes, and it quenches thirst almost as much as water does. All you need to do to make cucumber milk is blend one or two cucumbers with half a cup of water and a date. To make the milk richer while maintaining a lower fat profile, replace the water with nut milk of your choice. Use cucumber milk in coffee and tea, or in place of coconut milk and water in smoothies.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and come up with your own exotic milks at home using your favorite fruits and vegetables. Add squash to your favorite nut milk to cut the fat a little, or combine juiced celery with a tasty seed milk to create a creamy base for your soup. It’s all about personal expression and experience! And don’t forget to add spices to mix things up a bit – cumin, curry, cinnamon, and even cayenne are all fun options to try.
What kind of low-fat milk alternative will you try this week?
Image Source: Essie/Flickr
Jayne Carr not too sure on the cucumber milk i have to say! X
The banana milk sounds a good idea, Sarah x
It does i’m gonna give it a go x
SUPPORT A WORLDWIDE TRANSITION TO A RESOURCE BASED ECONOMY
Founded in 2008, The Zeitgeist Movement is a sustainability advocacy organization, which conducts community based activism and awareness actions through a network of global/regional chapters, project teams, annual events, media and charity work.
The movement’s principle focus includes the recognition that the majority of the social problems that plague the human species at this time are not the sole result of some institutional corruption, absolute scarcity, a political policy, a flaw of “human nature” or other commonly held assumptions of causality. Rather, the movement recognizes that issues such as poverty, corruption, pollution, homelessness, war, starvation and the like appear to be “symptoms” born out of an outdated social structure.
While intermediate reform steps and temporal community support are of interest to the movement, the defining goal is the installation of a new socioeconomic model based upon technically responsible resource management, allocation and design through what would be considered the scientific method of reasoning problems and finding optimized solutions.
This “Natural Law/Resource-Based Economy” (NLRBE) is about taking a direct technical approach to social management as opposed to a monetary or even political one. It is about updating the workings of society to the most advanced and proven methods known, leaving behind the damaging consequences and limiting inhibitions. which are generated by our current system of monetary exchange, profit, business and other structural and motivational issues.
The movement is loyal to a train of thought, not figures or institutions. The view held is that through the use of socially targeted research and tested understandings in science and technology, we are now able to logically arrive at societal applications that could be profoundly more effective in meeting the needs of the human population, increasing public health. There is little reason to assume war, poverty, most crime and many other monetarily-based scarcity effects common in our current model cannot be resolved over time. The range of the movement’s activism and awareness campaigns extend from short to long term, with methods based explicitly on non-violent methods of communication.
The Zeitgeist Movement has no allegiance to country or traditional political platforms. It views the world as a single system and the human species as a single family and recognizes that all countries must disarm and learn to share resources and ideas if we expect to survive in the long run. Hence, the solutions arrived at and promoted are in the interest to help everyone on Earth, not a select group.
For a more in depth understanding these videos are recommended.
The Venus Project – Resource Based Economy
Paradise or Oblivion
An Intro. to a Resource-Based Economy [ TEDx – Peter Joseph ]
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward
The Zeitgeist Movement Defined: Realizing a New Train of Thought
https://thezeitgeistmovement.com/orientation