(Note: This post is currently a work in progress.)
I have regular full-cream milk on my cereal every morning for breakfast. It’s an import food because it contains a lot of vitamins and high quality proteins that are easily absorbed by the body.
There are many kinds of milk available in a regular supermarkets – the variety is quite surprising. The two most obvious reasons there are so many is for lower-fat alternatives and working around allergies/intolerances.
While trying to control my paunch size I have been tempted to try different varieties of milk to reduce my fat intake. Here’s a summary of all the different kinds of milk I have tried.
Summary of Milk Types
Full Cream (Coles – Full Cream)
This is the ‘control’ milk that I have been having most of my life. Obviously this is going to bias my outlook but I figure most people would be in the same situation.
Light (Dairy Farmers – Lite White)
Similar to full cream but with some of the fat removed.
Skim (Dairy Farmers – Shape No Fat)
Skim milk is like light milk but it has less than 1% fat.
Soy (Sanitarium – So Good Regular)
Due to lactose intolerance, my siblings grew up on this milk. In the last few years the varieties of it have exploded.
Fat Free Soy (Sanitarium – So Good Fat Free)
This type of soy milk feels like an unfortunate experiment that involved sucking the taste out and leaving a rather dull sort of chalk-water behind. The liquid is still white, but only barely. It seems to fare pretty well nutritionally if you’re serious about cutting out fat (99.9% fat free is quite a feat), the question is whether you can handle the untaste.
Rice (Pureharvest)
The taste of rice milk reminded me a little of soy milk but a lot weaker. I expected it to be white in colour but it actually had a bit of a brown tinge. Nutritionally speaking, it was rather devoid, although you can get calcium-enriched versions. The main problem I had with it was that it was very low in protein.
Almond
I don’t like almond nuts, particularly their aftertaste. Somehow they managed to extract the pure aftertaste of these nuts and turn it into a light brown milk. I’m not sure why I thought it would be any different but it tasted terrible! It was the most expensive milk out of the lot too. It was so bad I never even had the strength to finish off the carton.
Goat (Nanny Goat Lane – Goat Milk)
Untested.
Oat
Untested.
Nutritional Statistics
| Type | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Carbohydrates (g) | Calcium (mg) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full Cream | 3.3 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 114 |
| Light | 3.9 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 134 |
| Skim | 4.8 | 0.1 | 6.7 | 163 |
| Soy | 3.4 | 3.4 | 5.0 | 120 |
| Fat Free Soy | 3.5 | 0 | 5.1 | 120 |
| Rice | 0.3 | 1.1 | 9.8 | n/a |
| Almond | 0.3 | 0.4 | 9.1 | 3 |
| Goat | 3.2 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 105 |
| Oat | 3.2 | 2.8 | 6.2 | 3 |
For the nutritional information I didn’t have on-hand, I used ClubOptiSlim’s Food Database.
