CNA | Talking Point | E18: Can plant-based milk replace dairy in our lives?

We have grown up drinking cow's

milk

and it has become an integral part of our diet, but a new variety of

milk

is making waves around the world and its global demand for

plant

-

based

milk is set to soar by 14 percent. over the next six years and by 2024 revenue is projected to reach over fifty billion dollars in this

talking

point

episode. I'm investigating the hype surrounding

plant

-

based

milk. Is it better than

dairy

? There are at least seven varieties of plant-based milk. Today there is milk made from grains such as sport or rice milk made from soy nuts such as almonds and pistachios and pseudocereals such as quinoa.

Plant-based milk is not entirely new. Think about soy milk, which is an Asian staple that has been around for almost a century, but more recently other alternative milks such as almond milk and oat milk have taken the Singapore market by storm. I'm wondering why there has been this increase in demand and I think I know the person we can help me with and who I'm

talking

to. To the flagship store of Singapore's largest online grocery store, Red Brand, the company offers more than 550 varieties of milk. I'm meeting Richard Ruddy, the company's retail director, this contains some of our most popular products that we restock and select every day for our customers. the things that people order regularly, yes, they change very quickly, yes, what we have seen in the last two years is that plant milk from two years ago is up almost 100 percent year over year and last year it was even higher . by more than 50 percent, so why now I think that in general people are very conscious of their health, so

dairy

-free is considered a healthier option in the diet, so normally plant milk contains less sugar, less lactose and is also higher?

Regarding fatty acids, I think there is also a growing trend of allergens, so cow's milk has lactose and we have a growing population that is lactose intolerant, so dairy-free products also target to that market. From this growing demand it is clear that more Singaporeans are I do not drink plant-based milk, but this surprises me because banana is very expensive, a person on a normal diet with Jerry costs between two and four dollars and although soy milk It has a similar price, other plant-based milks such as almond, oat and rice milk cost more. At eight dollars, that's at least double the price, so our consumers pay more for plant-based milk based on the apparent health benefits.

Sumita t agura John certainly thinks so Samhita is a vegetarian who promotes sustainable living as part of her job which she quit daily six years ago mmm something smells good so I'm making a creamy vegan carbonara okay dairy free en Instead of using cow's milk to make it creamy or any kind of heavy cream, we're going to substitute it with a little bit of non-dairy milk, so I'm going to be using soy milk for cooking and there's also going to be a little bit of cashew powder to give it this rich flavor. really creamy. You're doing it because you're a vegetarian, yes, but I understand that you weren't always a vegetarian, yes, so I only become a vegetarian around six. years ago and that was because my mom actually had stage four cancer, so since then I'm very cautious about the type of food I eat and also about ninety percent intolerance to Asian select sauces, so that gives you a kind of you know. such as a feeling of swelling or discomfort.

I don't know if you've had that feeling when you drink cow's milk or too much cheese or too many dairy products, it feels very heavy and you become very lethargic. I don't understand this with plants. food-based food is very, very light, you know, it's like you still have energy to go and do things and you don't go into a coma, food comas, okay, I'm tasting the sauce and oh, can you tell the difference? Yes, it is much lighter. It's not as creamy, it's creamy in a different way, so it's actually very light and gives you a little bit of that hint of the same flavor without that heaviness.

Initially, Sumitra was motivated for health reasons when she switched to plant-based milk, but I stuck with it for something else, so when I researched dairy farming on cow farms, I was shocked at how the cows were treated. So do you think it's inhumane to milk cows when I saw that cows Oh, actually, they are constantly pregnant and you? I know I was forced to have babies and these babies were taken away. Definitely, you know what resonates with me? Does this seem a little inconvenient to you? Do you think you have to do more to achieve the same level of nutrition you would otherwise get?

I think maybe when I first became a vegetarian, then it wasn't like that, how is it common to find plant-based milks? But today I find that there is a wide variety of vegetable milks in almost all supermarkets. Do you think this is just a trend? The work I have done. In fact, the Soviets have explained why they decided to consider plant-based diets and the top three reasons were health and the environment and also animal welfare, so environmental was actually the highest. You think at some

point

people will get tired and change. Well, again, I think people are becoming more aware, you know, over the years and maybe one day we won't eat as much meat or dairy in the future as we're trying to.

The better the health of the planet. Environmental concerns about the dairy industry also ring true for humans and other animals. Let's put it into perspective: there are more than two hundred and seventy million dairy cows in the world producing 828 million tonnes of milk each year, but the byproduct of this is that the dairy sector alone contributes to 30 percent of agricultural emissions. greenhouse gases and half of this is methane, which traps one hundred times more heat than carbon dioxide. In comparison, the same standard of plant-based milk produces about a third of that amount of greenhouse gases, so the more dairy milk we drink, the hotter the earth becomes in terms of land use if every Singaporean drank a glass of milk every day we would need land twice as big as Singapore to produce all that milk which now produces the same number of parts of milk, on the other hand, it takes land which is 10 times smaller, so for the For the sake of the environment, is it time we drink these alternative plants?

I contacted a biodiversity expert, dr. Cheung may discover that he believes the environmental impact of importing and drinking plant-based milk is not as simple as we might think. If you look at plant-based milk, there are other issues: where it is produced, how far it had to be shipped. add things to make it nutritionally sound, so it's all about the journey, the production where it's grown, the amount of inputs, let alone you have to clean up the rain so we can grow that crop, so it's extremely harmful to the environment , so in a way, look where. their plant-based food comes from the process they go through, compare it to the daily note because for example we have a dairy farm here in Singapore, if we source the milk from there, definitely the impact is less than if we source it. something that was shipped from California just because we said all plantations are good, don't launch it just because it seems like a good thing, the whole plan is good, but it may not be the case, if you look at the entire supply chain.

The environmental benefits of plant-based milk are debatable, and in terms of cost, they can be twice as much as daily, so it has twice the nutritional benefits. I'm researching the growing demand for plant-based milk in Singapore and found that it's better for the environment, but is plant-based milk as tasty or nutritious as dairy? I'm tackling the flavor first by doing a blind taste test. I'm peeing oats, soy, almond rice, and coconut milk vs. dairy, these are our testers, five-year-old Karissa. she drinks milk twice a day like a father. Noah, five-year-old Essa, and her mother, Elaine, drink milk once a day, and my own children also join in on this challenge.

Lucy is a whole milk connoisseur or Joshua is a skeptic of all types of milk we have six different types None of them are your usual daily milk the others are slightly different versions of plants there are no alternative notes I'm not going to tell you which one it is which one it is for you to find out. I know what you think of every glass of milk. I tried not to seem a little naughty so you two know why you didn't like them, boy this is a penny, a little more fragrance, okay, definitely not like the usual and more. milk possible possible yes, it has no flavor, it's very simple, right, right, number three mmm, this one smells really good, it smells like ice cream, right, can you put this in your cereal?

I'm fine, it's just not something they drink regularly. It doesn't really have much flavor, that's fine, but the consistency is like milk. Well, well, it tastes healthy. I don't know how you would drink it regularly. No, no, they will taste very bad. Well, do you think you are? So, now this one is better than the last one you have. It's curious, too rich, it doesn't have a sweet taste. Do this one. I like it because it has no aftertaste. Let me try again. Very sweet. Okay, based on the six. different types of milk Josh, let me ask you first which one, if you had to choose one milk to drink every day, what would be number six, number six and the last one, number six, he really liked this one.

Number six is, oh, okay, number five. Which one did you like the most? Not okay, rice milk may have been the clear winner, but what about the nutritional content of the base plot note? Everyone thought it was healthy but reduced-fat plant-based, so you don't get the electricity you need. for traveling, I think nut milk, nut milk, almond milk, has this nutrition, you know, I think it's easily compared to the calcium in cow's milk. I think there is no difference. I enjoyed Cosmo as much as the next person, but our milk is just better. In general, the general perception is that the plant-based note is healthier than dairy.

I want to know how true this is. It is not equivalent to a glass of fresh food daily. I have been researching the growing demand for plant-based milk in Singapore until now. I have found that there is a general perception that pod-based milk is healthier and better for the environment and dairy products. I want to investigate if this is reality or fiction. Can traditional cow's milk still be relevant to today's health- and environmentally conscious consumer? To get some answers. I'm nutritionist Charlotte, friend, yes she's going to break down the nutritional facts for me for plant-based notes, but first she's planned a little surprise, let's make our own, oh yes, in fairness, so I'll show you how easy What is this process? so no real milk, all it takes is Motz and water mixed and strained.

It's definitely a process anyone can do and this is the closest you'll get to milking. How does it smell? It smells a little, but otherwise it doesn't smell at all. Yeah exactly, squeeze it so the only nutrients you get from oat milk are from the oats themselves, so you're soluble fiber, you can't cover the hydration, that's why it's slightly sweet, naturally sweet, that's it girl , but the type of nutrition. surely it can't be equivalent to what you could get in a glass of fresh whole milk it's definitely not much more complex than, oh, it's sure you're not going to get as much calcium as you're not going to get.

B vitamins and that's why you see the oat milk that you buy at the grocery store is fortified with a lot more nutrients, but this also comes down to bioavailability, so bioavailability is basically how much of the nutrient is actually absorbed in the bloodstream. after ingesting it, let's say you are buying soy milk outside and on the package it says it has 200 milligrams of calcium, but not all of the 200 milligrams are absorbed because it is fortified calcium, not natural calcium from cow's milk, so the Fortified calcium is not absorbed as easily as Natural calcium is absolutely the same with vitamins, for example, it's okay, in other words, if I drink a glass of this every day, even though it's fortified, it's not equivalent to a glass of water fresh, yes, it wouldn't be, and if you're making oat milk at home. it won't have calcium in it, it's not that it's unhealthy, it's great, take it if you want, but don't take it as your main source of calcium, it's fine and it can't be a

replace

ment, but do you know it can't be a dairy

replace

ment For populations like pregnant women, breastfeeding women, older toddlers, growing teenagers, calcium is very, very important for bone health and for our teeth, for some people who want to replace cow's milk with dairy milk. plant origin, they have to think why are you doing it?

Is it for environmental reasons? Is it for health reasons? Is it because you're tryingAvoid allergens because that helps you make a more informed decision about which plant-based milk to buy, for example, if you are allergic? to soy and not rice milk, yes, if you're looking for something a little more heart friendly than oat milk for you, it looks like Tom B's milk is more for adults, yes, or just enjoy some different type of drink. So in America they are actually saying they don't want to use the term milk because it's misleading, they say almond bread, popular French drink, so it's just a new product on the market, it doesn't replace Calais, so there are quite a few .

People are under the impression that plant-based milk is better for your health, it is healthier than cow's milk, but as I just discovered, that is not true, although plant-based milk may be suitable for some people , definitely does not offer the same nutritional value. of cow's milk, so I wouldn't rush to jump on the plant-based milk bandwagon. Singaporeans have grown up with the promotion of milk as a great source of nutrition in the 1930s when earlier education began. Distributing milk to students across the island the national scheme was introduced in 1974, milk was sold at a lowest price to students and was given free to those in need.

This new day that we promote aims to improve nutritional intake today, the food bank continues this tradition of collecting milk and giving it to Navy families. I want to know why cow's milk is so important in this initiative, so I'm meeting James at Chow. He manages the food donations that come in. Can you tell me what is in a typical kit? that you could provide to your beneficiaries, so usually one of the packages that we have is what we usually have as your staple foods and on top of that we have your meat, sometimes ten foods, okay, and then on top of that, usually it has a drink so we usually have like milk or any other type of drink oh yeah because Mill is one of the things that most people request so I guess that's why you have this milk drive for try to get more milk at the food bank, yes, that's because you know we don't get enough milk to serve all the families that we have in our care, we cover over three hundred and forty beneficiary organizations, that's approximately 100,000 families and the milk that we have here and here I don't think it's enough for that. there are maybe 50 or 60 packages in there, which means not everyone gets milk.

Yes, that's right, maybe we can only serve one organization and that's it. You know, actually we're always asking for milk. Cow's milk is getting a bit of a bad rap these days. Let's say plant-based milk is, you know, it's healthier for you, in fact, it's better for you, are you okay with that? Actually, no, you know, I hope you know that the perception doesn't change because milk at the end of the day is for its cheapest and most nutritious form of drink. I really hope that instead of having more of these plant-based milks, we get more milk donations because it's so important to the people we help because I know milk is almost complete nonsense. food alone, the demands for plant-based milk show that society is more environmentally conscious, so it's great news, but we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss the theory because when it comes to nutritional content, dairy They're still kings, so these guys and the milk they produce isn't going away anytime soon that's for me I don't think I'll pick a side of you