Article
Plant Milk vs Cow Milk
Nut milk bad, cow milk good?
“You’re still destroying the environment with almond milk! Also why is plant-based milk, called milk? When it’s just nut water! I’ll stick with my natural, nutritious cow’s milk!”
The claim is not entirely wrong. Almonds are quite a thirsty bunch, but let’s see where they stand in comparison to other plant milks and cow’s milk.
N.B. Plant-based milks are called “milk” cause it sounds a lot better than “nut water”. Cultural language, marketing and similar nutrition all play a role too.
Skimming over the data
The biggest study on this, Poore & Nemecek (2018), compared a few environmental footprints of different milks. Here’s roughly what it takes to make one litre:
Environmental footprints of dairy and plant-based milks
Soooo dairy milk comes out worst in every category. Firstly, land use isn’t even close in comparison. Then we see dairy also produces roughly 3–4× the greenhouse gas emissions and 2–10× the eutrophication of the plant milks (this is when bodies of water get overloaded with nutrients, leading to algae blooms, wildlife loss and bad water quality - so more eutrophication is bad!).
Then there’s the stat brought up the most, water use. Almond milk demands a lot (relative to other plant milks), nearly all of it grown in drought-prone California, which is why the criticism sticks. But cow’s milk still uses even more, indirectly through their feed crops and the cow’s own needs.
If water usage is your top concern, then oat and soy milk use a fraction of either anyway.
Spooky skeletons in us all
“How else am I meant to get my calcium if I don’t drink cow’s milk? I need it for strong bones!”
We do indeed need calcium for strong bones, and cow’s milk is a source of it but not the only source. Other sources include tofu, soya beans, other plant-based milks fortified with calcium, leafy green vegetables, and nuts like almonds. Not every plant milk is fortified though, so double check!
So plant-based milks do fall flat when it comes to getting protein. If you are a protein maxer then soy milk (around 3.4g per 100ml) does have a comparable protein content to cow’s milk (around 3.5g per 100ml). Others not so much
Stop milkin’ it
It also makes me question whether we’re really suited to drinking milk at all. A lot of us (including me) are a little lactose intolerant. An estimated 68% of the global population has some degree of lactose malabsorption, meaning our bodies struggle to digest lactose, the sugar found in cow’s milk. I used to just face the repercussions after having a bowl of cereal with cow’s milk in the morning.
So yes, it’s nut water. Nut water that uses a fraction of the land, emissions and water of the alternative.