Alternative Milk Options <3
9December 26, 2012 by Living Girl Living Foods
According to the Oxford Dictionary Milk is an, “opaque white fluid rich in fat and protein, secreted by female mammals for the nourishment of their young: some new mothers don’t believe they produce enough breast milk.” Also listed, “the milk from cows (or goats or sheep) as consumed by humans: a glass of milk. The white juice of certain plants: coconut milk. A creamy-textured liquid with a particular ingredient or use: cleansing milk.
In many living vegan recipe books the word “mylk” is sometimes supplemented to show that this is some sort of alternative milk & is not an animal product.
There are many ingredients added to packaged alternative milks, yes they are still a healthier choice compared to dairy milk but take a look at a label yourself and see. There is, “natural flavor,” carrageenan. Carrageenan is created by using seaweed. Arguably, Carrageenan is a rather new additive. It is a complex polysaccharide extract made from seaweed, and is used as a binding agent. This helps give that texture and mouth feel that dairy milk has.
As stated by Dr. Blaylock (Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life; pg. 196), “Experimentally, carrageenan is used as an agent to induce intense inflammation in experimental animals. A recent study found that when carrageenan was injected in animals along with a cancer-causing chemical, tumors appeared more rapidly and in significantly higher numbers than in control animals injected with carcinogen alone. The same was seen when human breast cancers were implanted in animals along with carrageenan: the combination made the tumores grow faster and spread more widely than in control animals. As a result, carrageenan is classified as a tumor promotor.”
A few other additives such ascalcium carbonate. Most seeds and nuts have some levels of calcium and following a vegan diet already provides loads of options with whole foods with more than adequate amounts of calcium
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound made up of one atom of calcium bonded to one atom of carbon and three atoms of oxygen. Its molecular formula is CaCO3. Common names for this compound include limestone, calcite, aragonite, chalk, and marble, and while all contain the same substance, each has different processes underlying its formation. Calcium carbonate is used in cements and mortars, producing lime, in the steel industry, glass industry, and as an ornamental stone. Why the heck would we need or want this in our body?
Instead try making your own seed or nut milk at home. You will want a high speed blender, water, nuts/seeds and a nut milk bag. These alternative milks are wonderful for making tonics, to mix with granola, add it with seeds for a porridge, make your own dehydrated cereal and serve with milk, make aged cheeses, yogurts, cream and even ice cream.
Here are a few nut/seed milk recipes 🙂 I recommend trying out different ones and see what works best for you. A lot of my friends prefer different alternative homemade milks. Each one has a different taste, texture and has it’s own pros and cons. Like hemp and sesame seed milk is slightly savory and much lighter in texture & color compared to cashew and almond milk.
I personally love to add fresh vanilla and a little coconut nectar to my nut and seed milks 🙂 I do sprout my sesame seeds and nuts for making these milks, but that is completely up to you. Here is an article I have written about the importance of soaking.
Living Vegan Seed Milk
1 cup raw seeds (sprouted or soaked)
1 cup water
1-3 tbs of your preferred sugar, I like Coconut Nectar by Coconut Secret. 2 dates also works excellent if you do not mind the color being a little darker.
Stevia drops, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like.
Lots and lots of options here! I love using seeded milks for porridge, tonics, smoothies and teas.
Living Vegan Cashew Milk
1 cup raw cashews (sprouted or just soak if that’s more of your thing)
3 or 4 cups of filtered water (try less at first this way you can add more if needed. This really depends on how rich and thick you like your milk.)
1-3 tbs of your preferred sugar, I like Coconut Nectar by Coconut Secret. 2 dates also works excellent if you do not mind the color being a little darker.
Stevia drops, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like.
Cashew Milk is so smooth that it’s great for everything. Soups, smoothies, tonics, teas, cereal, yogurt, cream and ice cream!
Living Vegan Coconut Milk
1 cup coconut meat from a Young Thai Coconut
3 cups of coconut water from a Young Thai Coconut
1-3 tbs of your preferred sugar, I like Coconut Nectar by Coconut Secret. 2 dates also works excellent if you do not mind the color being a little darker.
Stevia drops, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like.
This is great to have around to add to soups, curry dishes, cereal, smoothies, teas, or to make yogurt! I would say this milk and cashew milk have that truly fatty milk quality to it.
Living Vegan Almond Milk
1 cup raw almonds (sprouted or soaked)
3 cups of purified water
You will want to use a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio – 2 or 3 cups of purified water for every cup of soaked almonds, depending on your preference.
Strain the blended mixture through a nut milk bag and literally do milking motion. Otherwise, it can be easy to rip the bag. The pulp can be saved for crusts, breads, crackers, desserts like macaroons, and dehydrated cereal.
1-3 tbs of your preferred sugar, I like Coconut Nectar by Coconut Secret. 2 dates also works excellent if you do not mind the color being a little darker.
Stevia drops, a pinch of salt, a pinch of cinnamon, ginger, whatever you like.
All of these homemade living vegan milks should be stored air tight in something like a jar. The life on these is about 5 days and before using please to stir or shake.
These all taste wonderful as shakes also…
Add strawberries for strawberry milk, cacao or carob for chocolate milk, Thai tea with milk for a almost tradition drink, chai spices, just vanilla, sarsaparilla for a root beer shake…let your taste buds give you ideas 😉
Recently there has been a lot of chatter about a possible price increase in milk. I am hoping that this will get people to start thinking more about what they buy, what they can make at home and the costs of raising animals for our own twisted purposes. Making these nut and seed milks are easy, quick, affordable and can be used for so many different things.
Thank you all for stopping by 🙂 I hope your holidays were peaceful, warm, and joyful with the ones you truly love. Much love ❤ and raw power 😉
xoxo Jess
Living Girl ☆ Living Foods 
SO MUCH FOR THE MYTHS CONSIDER THE FACTS ON CARRAGEENAN FOR A CHANGE
Dr. Harris J. Bixler ScD.
Q. What is Carrageenan??
A. Carrageenan is a naturally-occurring seaweed extract. It is widely used in foods and non-foods to improve texture and stability. Common uses include meat and poultry, dairy products, canned pet food, cosmetics and toothpaste.
Q. Why the controversy?
A. Self-appointed consumer watchdogs have produced numerous web pages filled with words condemning carrageenan as an unsafe food additive for human consumption. However, in 70+ years of carrageenan being used in processed foods, not a single substantiated claim of an acute or chronic disease has been reported as arising from carrageenan consumption. On a more science-based footing, food regulatory agencies in the US, the EU, and in the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) repeatedly review and continue to approve carrageenan as a safe food additive.
Q. What has led up to this misrepresentation of the safety of an important food stabilizer, gelling agent and thickener?
A. It clearly has to be attributed to the research of Dr. Joanne Tobacman, an Associate Prof at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She and a group of molecular biologists have accused carrageenan of being a potential inflammatory agent as a conclusion from laboratory experiments with cells of the digestive tract. It requires a lot of unproven assumptions to even suggest that consumption of carrageenan in the human diet causes inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. The objectivity of the Chicago research is also flawed by the fact that Dr Tobacman has tried to have carrageenan declared an unsafe food additive on weak technical arguments that she broadcast widely a decade before the University of Chicago research began.
Q. What brings poligeenan into a discussion of carrageenan?
A. Poligeenan (“degraded carrageenan” in pre-1988 scientific and regulatory publications) is a possible carcinogen to humans; carrageenan is not. The only relationship between carrageenan and poligeenan is that the former is the starting material to make the latter. Poligeenan is not a component of carrageenan and cannot be produced in the digestive tract from carrageenan-containing foods.
Q. What are the differences between poligeenan and carrageenan?
A. The production process for poligeenan requires treating carrageenan with strong acid at high temp (about that of boiling water) for 6 hours or more. These severe processing conditions convert the long chains of carrageenan to much shorter ones: ten to one hundred times shorter. In scientific terms the molecular weight of poligeenan is 10,000 to 20,000; whereas that of carrageenan is 200,000 to 800,000. Concern has been raised about the amount of material in carrageenan with molecular weight less than 50,000. The actual amount (well under 1%) cannot even be detected accurately with current technology. Certainly it presents no threat to human health.
Q. What is the importance of these molecular weight differences?
A. Poligeenan contains a fraction of material low enough in molecular weight that it can penetrate the walls of the digestive tract and enter the blood stream. The molecular weight of carrageenan is high enough that this penetration is impossible. Animal feeding studies starting in the 1960s have demonstrated that once the low molecular weight fraction of poligeenan enters the blood stream in large enough amounts, pre-cancerous lesions begin to form. These lesions are not observed in animals fed with a food containing carrageenan.
Q. Does carrageenan get absorbed in the digestive track?
A. Carrageenan passes through the digestive system intact, much like food fiber. In fact, carrageenan is a combination of soluble and insoluble nutritional fiber, though its use level in foods is so low as not to be a significant source of fiber in the diet.
Summary
Carrageenan has been proven completely safe for consumption. Poligeenan is not a component of carrageenan.
Closing Remarks
The consumer watchdogs with their blogs and websites would do far more service to consumers by researching their sources and present only what can be substantiated by good science. Unfortunately we are in an era of media frenzy that rewards controversy.
Additional information available:
On June 11th, 2008, Dr. Joanne Tobacman petitioned the FDA to revoke the current regulations permitting use of carrageenan as a food additive.
On June 11th, 2012 the FDA denied her petition, categorically addressing and ultimately dismissing all of her claims; their rebuttal supported by the results of several in-depth, scientific studies.
If you would like to read the full petition and FDA response, they can be accessed at http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=25;po=0;s=FDA-2008-P-0347
Thank you Debbie for this wonderful information. I personally am still wary of using such ingredients. For over a decade there has been on going research on both sides (for & against the use). Thus, I feel like there is something here that isn’t settling right with me.
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