Which Plant Milk?

Plus: pandemic may have triggered second “midlife crisis” for over-50s

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The 10almonds Team
April 10, 2023

❝Write intentions with divine ink. Write your plans in pencil.❞

~ Mary Anne Radmacher

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s Key Learnings:

Flying by? Here are some key take-away ideas from today’s newsletter:

  • Hemp milk and pea milk broadly come out best in nutritional profiles (and incidentally, environmental friendliness indices, too)

  • Soy milk and almond milk are great healthy choices (provided you aren’t allergic to soy or nuts)

  • Coconut milk has a little more fat, and/but also contains MCTs (see below) which raise HDL (good) cholesterol

  • Oat milk is a fine middle-of-the road option. A bit higher in carbs and/but contains the most soluble fiber, which is good for your heart

  • All plant milks (even water-guzzling almonds and soy monocrops) are much more environmentally friendly than dairy (bold statement, but scientifically uncontentious; see data and research linked below; it’s not even close)

  • If you are at risk of cardiovascular disease, exercise may offset the increased mortality linked with short sleep duration

  • Our brain appears to be able to repair itself; research is ongoing

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Yoga for Shoulders | Shoulder Flexibility & Mobility

This short (3:09) video shows how to gently build and maintain shoulder flexibility and mobility:

🥛 MAIN FEATURE

Plant-based milks—what’s best?

You asked us to look at some popular plant milks and their health properties, and we said we’d do a main feature, so here it is!

We'll also give a quick nod to environmental considerations at the end too (they might not be quite what you expect!). That said, as a health and productivity newsletter, we'll be focusing on the health benefits.

While we can give a broad overview, please note that individual brands may vary, especially in two important ways:

  • Pro: many (most?) brands of plant milks fortify their products with extra vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D and calcium.

  • Con: some brands also add sugar.

So, by all means use this guide to learn about the different plants' properties, and/but still do check labels later.

Alternatively, consider making your own!

  • Pros: no added sugar + cheaper

  • Cons: no added vitamins and minerals + some equipment required

Almond milk

Almond milk is low in carbs and thus good for a carb-controlled diet. It’s also high in vitamin E and a collection of minerals.

Oat milk

Oats are one of the healthiest "staple foods" around, and while drinking oat milk doesn't convey all the benefits, it does a lot. It also has one of the highest soluble fiber contents of any milk, which is good for reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.

Coconut milk

Coconut has a higher fat content than most plant milks, but also contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). These raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Hemp milk

Being made from hemp seeds that contain a lot of protein and healthy fats (including omega-3 and omega-6), hemp milk packs a nutritious punch. It's carb-free. It's also THC-free, in case you were wondering, which means no, it does not have psychoactive effects.

Pea milk

It's very high in protein, and contains an array of vitamins and minerals. It’s not very popular yet, so there isn’t as much research about it. This 2021 study found that it had the nutritional profile the closest to cow’s milk (beating soy by a narrow margin) and praised it as a good alternative for those with a soy allergy.

This is Research Review Monday so we try to stick to pure science, but for your interest… here’s an interesting pop-science article (ostensibly in affiliation with the pea milk brand, Ripple) about the nutritional qualities of their pea milk specifically, which uses particularly nutrient-dense yellow peas, plus some extra vitamin and mineral fortifications:

Soy milk

Perhaps the most popular plant milk, and certainly usually the cheapest in stores. It's high in protein, similar to cow's milk. In fact, nutritionally, it's one of the closest to cow's milk without involving cows as a middleman. (Did you know three quarters of all soy in the world is grown to feed to livestock, not humans? Now you do).

And no, gentlemen-readers, it won't have any feminizing effects. The human body can't use the plant estrogens in soy for that. It does give some isoflavone benefits though, which are broadly good for everyone's health. See for example this research review with 439 sources of its own:

Quick note on flavor: nut milks have the flavor of the nut they were made from. Coconut milk tastes of coconut. The other milks listed above don’t have much of a flavor—which in many cases may be what you want.

Note on environmental considerations:

A lot of us try to be as socially responsible as reasonably possible in our choices, so this may be an influencing factor. In a nutshell:

  • Oats and Soy are generally grown as vast monocrops, and these are bad for the environment

    • They are still better for the environment than cow’s milk though, as for example most soy is grown to feed to cows, not humans. So including cows in the process means four times as much monocrop farming, plus adds several other environmental issues that are beyond the scope of this newsletter.

  • Almonds are particularly resource-intensive when it comes to water use.

    • Still nowhere near as much as cows, though.

  • Peas are grown in places that naturally have very high rainfall, so are a good option here. Same generally goes for rice, which didn’t make the cut today. (Nor did hazelnuts, sorry—we can only include so much!)

  • Hemp is by far and away the most environmentally friendly, assuming it is grown in a climate naturally conducive to such.

  • Making plant milk at home is usually most environmentally friendly, depending on where your ingredients came from.

  • Literally any plant milk is much more environmentally friendly than cow’s milk.

See also (if you like graphs and charts): Environmental footprints of dairy and plant-based milks

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

How to Find Happiness In Yourself: 25 Habits Guaranteed to Help You Live a Happier Life - by Michelle Mann

A lot of books about happiness tell you what to pursue, generally. What things to focus on, and that's good, but incomplete. This book does cover those things too (complete with academic sources to back up what really works), but also goes further:

Michelle Mann gives 25 key habits that will cumulatively build happiness, which is what it's really about. After all:

  • If you watch your favourite movie, you'll be happy for 90 minutes (or 9 hours if it's The Lord of the Rings).

  • If you build daily habits that add happiness to you, your surroundings, and those around you, you'll be happy for life.

They do also cover happiness while going through difficult times, such as divorce, job loss, illness, or bereavement.

Sometimes, knowing what we "should" do in theory is the easy part. Where Mann excels here is in providing explanations of each habit. This means that rather than it being some platitude, the principles underlying it are truly understood... and thus motivate us to actually apply the advice and build the habits into our life.

While the explanations are therefore the greatest value of the book, we do recommend copying out the 25 habits (which are effectively subchapter headings) and putting them somewhere to read often.

Bottom line: we recommend getting yourself (and/or your loved ones!) a copy of this book. You (and/or they) will be happy you did!

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Wishing you a wonderful week ahead,

The 10almonds Team