"I personally prefer almond milk ... it's good for the heart."
My coconut milk has 2 ingredients: Coconut Extract (85%) and Water. No added chemicals. Take a look at the list of ingredients on your carton of almond milk. If there's a lot of additives, it may not be as healthy as you think it is.
And thanks for the heads up on Goat's milk, but I hate going to Wal-Mart.
Ever since coming to China, I've really been amazed by how many different kinds of "milk" existed. Walnut milk?? Who'd have guessed?? Since being here, I've experimented with walnut, almond, and soy milks. They're all good for drinking and cereal. But, none really do a good job if you're cooking with them. They lack the fat and protein content to really enrich certain dishes. I also learned that when you combine them with certain ingredients, plus heat...they can often break down and create an ugly mess.
I love using coconut "milk", but to me its more like butter than milk. It's definitely in the ingredient category for me.
I've been really delighted with the quality of the niunai/cow milk here. It's really good. (Now, if I could only find some non-sweet yogurt.)
hard wnough to find non sweetened milk with addedlactose
@Magnifico - it's funny, I was actually going over the exact same things about coconut oil to someone the other week. I've been cooking with it for over a year because of the MCT and high smoking point it has, so I'm aware that it's not necessarily the same as other saturated fats. There are some marginal differences between that and regular milk in terms of nutrition, but upon looking at coconut milk closer, you're right in that it has a lot of the same properties as coconut oil on paper. I don't know why I still had the feeling coconut milk wasn't all that healthy while I've been using coconut oil and drinking coconut water in smoothies for over a year... And of course if your lactose intolerant anything that's not dairy is going to be better. Ultimately there isn't much scientific evidence to back up the claims that coconut oil (or milk) is healthier. It has been shown to elevate both LDL and HDL and not necessarily tipping in favour of "good cholesterol", but also not causing the typical raise of bad either, as you would see with other saturated fats. Most of the health claims are theoretical at best, not that it stops me from using it.
Mostly I just can't imagine using thick coconut milk in cereal.
The health claims about coconut oil come from studies that were done on Pacific Island populations who get 30-60 percent of their total caloric intake from coconut oil. These people have virtually non-existent rates of heart disease.
According this new zealand website, eighty percent of milk in nz comes from artificial insemination, meaning the male doesnt know female, female doesnt know male.
Plus other atrocities according this site
Hey...sorry to go off-topic. Does anyone know if you can get real (sour) yogurt, or sour cream in Kunming without paying some sort of crazy high price? I'd like to make some Indian dishes, but this sweet, gelatinous yogurt that is common here won't work.
@Shyam, we get yogurt in our weekly dairy order from a farm, they have an unsweetened yogurt that is quite good. You may be able to get this at Salvador's also, since they get milk from the same farm. If not, PM me and I can give you the details if you want to order some.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they were not so much formal studies as they were observed correlations between diet and heart related illness. There were no formal studies, no control groups, just theories.
Not saying there's nothing there, just that there is no actual science behind it yet. and yes, I am in part just playing devil's advocate here.
