Soy - it's not just another adjective to add when ordering a Starbucks drink

For my first post, I thought I'd start out with something positive: soy milk. Saroja started making the slow transition from regular milk to soy milk a few months ago and is now pretty firmly on board with it - to the point where she gets mildly irritated if Starbucks has run out of soy milk for her latte. Much like the whole vegetarian thing, although I still like my regular milk, I have begun to accept the permanent role soy milk has begun to play in my life.

There's no real scientific evidence or study to quote here (sorry Smokescreen!). Saroja's desire to use soy milk is based on the fact that dairy cows have to be kept pregnant all the time to produce milk. This is not really ideal for the vegetarian - especially when you consider that the byproducts of the pregnancy - i.e. the calfs - are sold for veal. While I was skeptical of soy milk in the beginning, it's really not that bad. Definitely a different flavour and texture, but not bad. I still use regular milk whenever I would normally - mostly on my breakfast cereal - but if I've run out of milk before the next grocery run, I have no problem reaching for the soy milk instead.

Interestingly enough, while we were out west skiing, I had the chance to try some almond milk for the week - and I actually liked that way better than the soy milk. Saroja's nut allergies sort of make that a hard sell though. While I'm not worried about keeping breakfast cereals with nuts around the house since I know the only breakfast cereal Saroja will eat will have chia seeds or hemp or some other hippie grains, the odds are much higher that she'll accidentally kill herself with some almond milk in the morning when she's post-call and lacking the mental faculties to read labels.

If you'd like to see an awesome video on regular people trying non-diary milk for the first time, click here. I feel like a lot of quotes from this video are pretty bang on.

- Penguin

Penguin is right, I originally made the switch from cow's milk to soy milk as part of my transition to becoming vegetarian. Honestly, I'm a wannabe vegan but with my nut allergy and hectic schedule, the chances that I could hack it as a healthy vegan are pretty low right now. So I try to choose vegan options when I can and soy milk was a pretty easy switch.

I was never a big milk drinker to begin with - I always hated having to drink a whole glass of milk with dinner when I was a kid. I like milk in stuff - mostly to make cream sauce, sweeten tea, or cook. I'm sure if you like to drink milk as a beverage, you'll be able to tell the difference if you compared soy and cow milk head-to-head. But, when you only use it in other stuff, I'm willing to bet you won't be able to tell them apart.

Aside from refusing to support a consumer culture that sees animals as commodities, 

soy milk has a few other advantages. It's lower calorie and lower fat than cow's milk while maintaining most of the protein (6g/cup). And, since most soy milk it fortified, it's equally nutrient rich in calcium, vit D, and B12.

Once I caught Penguin using soy milk on his morning cereal, I knew we had a winner.

Incidentally, almond milk has the lowest protein content of all the non-dairy milks at just 1g/cup. That, and I choose life. haha.

- Saroja