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Ashley Lee

Why I Started Drinking Non-Dairy Milk (2022)

By, Ashley Lee

Photo: Wix

Growing up, I was raised to drink lots of dairy milk, so that it could benefit my bones and help me grow.


Unfortunately, during grade school, my system could not agree with the dairy milk I drank at the time, so I could not really drink milk by itself often.


It’s weird, because I can eat dairy products such as cheese and butter, but drinking milk by itself was the another story.

Now, I‘m not going to reveal any personal medical information about myself regarding this matter, but I ended up turning towards various alternatives to dairy-milk.



My Short Memories of Almond and Soy Milk


Taking a break from dairy-milk, I settled for soy and almond milk.


Admittedly, I was not a huge fan of soy milk, because of how sweet is was upon my first taste.


I can't recall the brand, and I don't know if it's still in operation.


At that time, I was not aware that soy milk can be sweet in contrast to the unsweetened dairy-milk. Either way, I was thrown off from the soy milk's taste. Perhaps there's an unsweetened version out there, but I'll think about it...


Then, I tried almond milk. As I recall, my reaction to the taste of the milk was not as lukewarm as the soy milk I ingested. Like the soy milk, I cannot remember the brand, but this kind of almond milk was unsweetened which I favored.


Initially, if I had to pick which of these milks I preferred, it would be the almond milk.


However, as I got older, I ended up considering neither one of them. I couldn't find myself drinking both of those milks with my meals. They seemed somewhat bland to me.


I can't remember if they gave me any health issues like the dairy-milk I had did, but either way, a void was starting to form inside of me as I continued to search for other milk alternatives.



My Encounters with Plant-Based and Oat Milk

Recently, I tried the plant-based milk and found it to be quite interesting. Well obviously, it tastes like milk, but it’s different than dairy, almond, and soy milk. Though I will give credit to the brand (which I won't specify for legal reasons) that it tastes good, I felt it was missing something that the dairy milk I drank had but could not calculate what it was.


The thing that I liked about that plant-based milk was the amount of calcium and omega inside. I don't know how much calcium was in that brand, but I felt the effects of the omega after consuming every cup of it.


I would buy this brand again.


After finishing the plant-based milk, I went for the oat milk and tasted a bigger difference. I think I found the missing element as to what the plant-based milk lacked, and it’s the fact that it’s creamier and richer.

I liked how this milk had more flavor than the plant-based one.


I tried two brands of oat milk and found that their amount of creaminess was different from the other.


Brand A made it clear to me that it was the richest milk I drank while Brand B managed to keep its level of creaminess at a moderate while it also had lots of calcium.


I can't even decide which one was better, because I enjoyed them both.


For sure, I would purchase these brands again as well.



Conclusion


Looking back on my experiences with drinking dairy-milk, I felt bad that I had to leave it as I thought it was healthy for me in general.


When I tried the almond and soy milks, it's not the same as dairy-milk (of course), but it certainly did not impress me (in terms of taste).


When I decided to give the plant-based and oat milks a chance, I realized that these kinds of milks are what's missing in my life in terms of drinking some kind of milk. I feel that the void is starting to fill up now because of these milks.


I plan to drink these kinds of milks for a while until I find something else or my health tells me it's not working out.


Sorry, dairy-milk, but I'm doing what's best for me.




Photo Credit


Cover photo is from Wix.




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