I was wondering if you knew anything about such milk substitute products as soymilk and rice drink (Rice Dream). Do you know of any other products available for lactose intolerant people?
Are they healthy and what other benefits do they provide? Thank you very much for your time.
Any soy and or rice beverage would be appropriate for lactose intolerant people though you should still read the food label for milk ingredients since manufacturers periodically change product formulas. Avoid any food containing milk, lactose, whey, curds, milk by-products, dry milk solids or non-fat dry milk powder. There is a lot of new soy and flavored soy beverages, which I think, taste really good and there are lots of health benefits to consuming soy products.
Eight ounces of plain soymilk contains 90 calories, 6 grams protein and close to 2% milk in fat content. It contains more than 10% of the Recommended Dietary Allowances for protein (includes all 8 essential amino acids), vitamin A, D, B12, riboflavin, folate, calcium, and magnesium. Eight ounces of cow’s milk contains 8 grams protein, more than 10% vitamin A, vitamin D, riboflavin, vitamin B12, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. Plain rice milk is comparable in calories and fat to 1% milk but is higher in sugar than cow’s milk since rice is not as sweet. I compared to cow’s milk to a brand name rice milk which is enriched with vitamins to mimic cow’s milk, but it lacks enough protein. So rice milk would not be an acceptable substitute to cow’s milk especially for infants or children since milk is such a big contributor to protein in kids’ meals.
I would suggest lactose intolerant people who do not drink soy or rice milk take a calcium supplement (1,000 milligrams per day) that includes around 1,000 International Units vitamin D and include foods high in vitamin A, vitamin D, riboflavin and vitamin B12 to compensate for these nutrients normally found in cow’s milk.
