No cows please!! (Soya Milk)

Name: JammyJo

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Product:	Soya Milk
Date:	19/02/02 (981 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ideal for those on a dairy free diet, vegetarian

Disadvantages: aquired taste!, popping round friends for a cuppa isn't as easy., More expensive than dairy milk

In August last year I was forced to do the unspeakable … give up chocolate!! Argh! Just to make things even worse …. No more milk in my tea. How bad can it get?! The reason for having to take such drastic measures was because my son was diagnosed with a severe dairy intolerance and as I intended to keep breast feeding it meant I had to give up on all dairy produce. See my op on beating dairy intolerance through breast-feeding for more details if you are interested.

So … it was time to start looking seriously at my diet, and at the ingredients in everything that I was consuming. It was hard at first but a couple of months down the track, my son is so much healthier and happier and I am actually used to having black tea!! Obviously because I was cutting out a major food type I had to make sure I substituted it with something else. I switched to Soya products wherever possible .. do I hear you say “eeeeeeew”? Well that is what I thought, but actually most of the products I have tried have been surprisingly ok.

What is Soya?

The Soya bean was discovered in China and has been cultivated for around 5000 years. The Soya Bean Plant is similar to the Broad Bean family. It is a tall erect plant growing up to five feet in height. The Soya beans grow inside pods and come in lots of coloured varieties including green, red and black but the most popular variety is the yellow bean. It is a staple food in the Far East and is referred to as the "meat of the soil" due to its high protein content. The bean was introduced to Europe in the seventeenth century.

Nutritional benefits of Soya

Protein - Soya contains the same amount of protein as dairy milk.

Cholesterol and Fat - Soya is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and is also naturally free of cholesterol. Compared to semi-skimmed cows milk Soya contains much lower levels of saturated fat and higher levels of essential fa
tty acids, which are thought to lower cholesterol levels.

Vitamins and Minerals – Soya is an excellent source of B Vitamins, Calcium, Iron and Zinc.

Fibre – Soya is a good source of fibre.


Health Benefits of Soya:

Lowers Cholesterol

Helps maintain bone density, good for those with Osteoporosis

Soya is a natural remedy for symptoms of the menopause.

Can alleviate symptoms associated with:
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Autism
- Asthma
- Eczema
- Excess mucus formation

So concludes a brief run down of what Soya is and the many benefits that consuming it can have. There are a lot of Soya products stocked in the supermarkets and Health Shops. Provamel is just one of the makes of Soya products available.

Provamel

Provamel make a variety of dairy free Soya produce including milk, yoghurts, ice cream, desserts and drinks.

Finally on to the product that this opinion is on!!

Provamel Milks

Provamel milks are just as versatile as dairy milks. You can put it in your tea, have it over cereal, cook with it and drink it on its own. There are quite a few different varieties of milks. They include, sweetened with apple juice, unsweetened with added vitamins, organic with no added sugar or salt, organic sweetened, organic vanilla, organic cereal milk and flavoured milk shakes. I have actually only tried the sweetened variety, so can’t really comment on what the others taste like. (I have to admit that I accidentally bought the unsweetened milk and couldn’t bring myself to put it on my cereal!)

The Provamel added calcium and sweetened with apple juice milk really does taste good on my cereal. It has a nice creamy flavour and doesn’t leave me with much of an aftertaste. If you put it in hot drinks you are supposed to wait until the water has cooled a little first to avoid curdling. Unfortunately
the first time I put it in my tea it curdled and no way can I try it again now! That put me off for good! I have used the milk in quite a few recipes and no one noticed the difference.

The sweetened range comes in 250ml, 500ml, and 1 litre cartons. These cartons are mainly white with blue writing on … I know how difficult they can be to spot unless you know what you are looking for! It is suitable for vegetarians and vegans and is lactose and gluten free.

Ingredients

Filtered Water, Hulled Soya Beans, Concentrated Apple Juice (3.4 %), Tricalcium phosphate, Sea Salt.

Nutritional Information (Values per 100 ml)

Energy 188 kj/45 kcal
Protein 3.6g
Carbohydrates 2.9g
Of which sugars 2.4g
Fat 2.1g
Of which Saturates 0.4g
Mono-unsaturates 0.5g
Polyunsaturates 1.2g
Cholesterol 0.0g
Sodium 66mg
Calcium 140mg

Provamel sweetened milk can be found in pretty much all supermarkets. You will find it in the long life milk section costing £1.35 for a one-litre carton.

I really had to force myself to try Soya milk because I was so used to the gross smell of powdered Soya baby milk (and if any of you have smelt that you know it would be enough to put you off Soya for good!!) I knew I had to have a dairy substitute so finally managed to pour some over my cereal one morning. I made sure I only had a tiny bit of milk with my fruit and fibre and held the spoon over the sink as I expected to have to spit it out as soon as I put it in my mouth. I was pleasantly surprised! It really does taste good.

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