Which type of milk is best for you? - Jonathan J. O’Sullivan & Grace E. Cunningham

5,323,878 views ・ 2020-10-20

TED-Ed


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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If you go to the store in search of milk,
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there are a dizzying number of products to choose from.
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There’s dairy milk, but also plant-based products.
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To turn a plant into something resembling milk,
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it must be either soaked, drained, rinsed, and milled into a thick paste,
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or dried, and milled into flour.
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The plant paste or flour is then fortified with vitamins and minerals,
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flavoured, and diluted with water.
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The result is a barrage of options
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that share many of the qualities of animal milk.
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So which milk is actually best for you?
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Let’s dive into some of the most popular milks:
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dairy, almond, soy, or oat?
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A 250 ml glass of cow’s milk contains 8 grams of protein,
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12 grams of carbohydrates, and 2 to 8 grams of fat
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depending on if it’s skim, reduced fat, or whole.
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That’s approximately 15% the daily protein an average adult needs,
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roughly 10% the carbohydrates and 2 to 15% the fat.
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Most plant-based milks have less carbohydrates than dairy milk.
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They also have less fat, but more of what’s often called “good fats.”
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Meanwhile, the healthy nutrients vitamin D and calcium found in dairy milk
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don’t occur naturally in most plant-based milks.
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Looking more closely at our plant-based milks,
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both almond and oat are low in protein compared to dairy.
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But while almond milk has the least nutrients of the four,
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oat milk is full of beta-glucans, a healthy type of fibre.
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It also has a lot of carbohydrates compared to other plant milks—
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sometimes as much as dairy milk.
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Soy milk, meanwhile, has as much protein as cow’s milk
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and is also a great source of potassium.
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Soybeans contain isoflavone,
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which people used to think might trigger hormonal imbalances
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by mimicking the function of estrogen.
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But ultimately, soy milk contains very small amounts of isoflavones,
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which have a much weaker effect on our bodies than estrogen.
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Depending on individual circumstances,
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one of these milks may be the clear winner:
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if you’re lactose intolerant, then the plant-based milks pull ahead,
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while if you’re allergic to nuts, almond milk is out.
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For people who don’t have access to a wide and varied diet,
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dairy milk can be the most efficient way to get these nutrients.
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But all else being equal, any one of these four milks
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is nutritious enough to be part of a balanced diet.
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That’s why for many people, the milk that’s best for you
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is actually the milk that’s best for the planet.
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So which uses the fewest resources and produces the least pollution?
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It takes almost 4 square kilometers to produce just one glass of cow’s milk,
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land use that drives deforestation and habitat destruction.
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Most of that is land the cows live on, and some is used to grow their feed.
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Many cows eat soy beans and oats.
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It takes much less land to grow the oats or soybeans for milk
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than it does to feed a dairy cow—
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only about a quarter square kilometer per glass.
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Almond milk has similar land use.
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But where that land is also matters—
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soybean farms are a major driver of deforestation,
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while oat and almond farms aren’t.
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Making milk uses water every step of the way,
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but it’s the farming stage where big differences emerge.
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Dairy milk uses the most water— about 120 liters per glass,
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mostly to water cows and grow their food.
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Almonds take second place, at more than 70 liters of water per glass.
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Most of that water is used to grow almond trees,
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which take years of watering before they start producing almonds.
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The trees must be watered consistently, or they die,
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while many other crops can be left fallow and still produce later.
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All told, soy and oats require less water to grow:
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only about 5 to 10 liters per glass of milk.
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Milk production generates some greenhouse gas emissions—
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about 0.1 to 0.2 kilograms per glass for the plant-based milks.
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But for dairy milk, the cows themselves also produce emissions
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by burping and farting out large quantities of the gas methane.
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Overall, each glass of dairy milk
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contributes over half a kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions.
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So while depending on your dietary needs,
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any one of these milks may be a good fit, in terms of the health of our planet
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there’s a strong case for choosing plant-based milks,
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particularly oat or soy milk.
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