Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink?

[Islander]

Annette McGivney
Wed 29 Jan 2020

A glass of dairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gas than any plant-based milk. But vegan options have drawbacks of their own

For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees. Our recent investigation into the connection betweenCalifornia’s industrialized almond industry and a record 50bn commercial bee deaths created quite a buzz. The widely read story prompted one primary response from readers: “What should we be drinking instead?”
This is a thorny question, and food sustainability experts are reluctant to single out any one plant milk as best because all have pros and cons.
But we’re going to try.

Keep reading: https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ign=pockethits

[Islander]

My children were weaned onto organic full fat dairy milk from our own cows, which I milked twice a day, morning and night. I have no problem with that since milk is the nutrient for a similar mammal — but mammals are weaned, whereas many children go on drinking milk right into adulthood. No thank you!
I admit I don't like fluid milk, never have, so I have a difficult time imagining an acceptable beverage that looks and tastes like dairy milk but comes from oats or nuts or soy beans! No thank you on that either!

[Mr. Wizard]

I consume most of my organic cow's milk with a bowl of oatmeal mixed with a few raisins, and a teaspoon of ceylon cinnamon. Yum, yum!! Some believe warm milk improves sleep. According to sleepadvisor.org, milk protein a-lactalbumin is high in tryptophan. Tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, and serotonin is converted to melatonin, the hormone that induces sleep. Combining milk with carbs, like oatmeal, increases the amount of tryptophan that enters the brain. The higher the fat content of milk the more tryptophan it has. Hmmm. I wonder if more milk in the diet might mean better sleep??
Keep reading: https://www.sleepadvisor.org/warm-milk-sleep/

[Islander]

You make me smile, Mr. Wiz. As a child who was having trouble sleeping, my grandmother or other caregiver would offer me warm milk. I dislikes milk to begin with, and warming it made it absolutely inedible for me!

[Julieanne]

Warm milk is horrible! I don't know why heating it changes the taste, but it does. Most days in summer I have 1/2 lge or one small banana with a scoop of cocoa in a glass of milk. Whizzed up, the banana is undetectable, but it sweetens the drink. I have lately been adding MCT oil, which gives it a nice, creamy 'mouth feel.

[Islander]

Jule, I do that with avocado, but with added stevia and coconut milk. I'll try adding coconut oil as well!

[grulla]

Almonds are out for me too. And so are peanuts and cashews, all of which give me a brief appx. 20 min. bout of lower bowel cramps about 18 hours later, and it reminds me somewhat of horse colic. Not sure if it's the binding pasty texture of those particular nuts, or perhaps a food intolerance due to oxalates, or perhaps both, or something else??? So far, the black walnuts I consume don't seem to bother me in that regard, but then again I don't eat as many of them as I had with the other above mentioned nuts.

I already eat a few foods high in oxalates, such as oat groats, spinach, etc., so perhaps the above nuts exceed my oxalate tolerance threshold point??? My favorite blackberries cause me digestive stress many hours later also, and they are supposedly low in oxalates according to this one (questionable oxalate chart as I see some contradictions to other oxalate charts and sources like Mercola) website source, so perhaps there are other issues like Vit C bowel intolerance??? I might add that I have been observing all this for at least the past year thinking I had food poisoning from salmonella et al from the blackberries, now I'm not so sure???. And I'm also not sure if more than one digestive issue may be at play complicating things, the jury is still out, but at least I now know what foods to avoid. http://lowoxalatefoods.com/blog/low-...et-foods-list/

[Islander]

That seems strange, Grulla, since almonds and cashews are tree nuts, but peanuts are a legume. Are there any other legumes that bother you?

[grulla]

Not that I'm aware of. But the thick pasty nature of the digesting nuts suggests to me the binding effect in the lower gut. One day, I posted this matter on Mercola, and Dr. M. himself responded suggesting a nut allergy. I also eat some black walnuts stirred into a bowel with certain berries, pineapple, and chocolate chips, so I'll watch that as well. And blackberries have also become problematic in a similar way, suggesting oxalates, which was recently discussed on mercola, but the oxalate chart contradicts that??? As long as I avoid these articular foods, I'm OK.