Soy milk: benefit or harm?

Soy milk is a vegetable milk – an analogue of animal milk. By the very name, it already becomes clear that soy milk is a liquid which is made from soy beans.

The exclusion of dairy products as a part of vegan diet significantly changes the nutrition system, since milk and its derivatives are present today in a huge number of food products that are familiar to us. 

However, such products as vegetable milk let people still eat same products they are used to.  It can be yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, smoothies and various dairy desserts. Such a variety allows you to exclude dairy products from the diet relatively painlessly for your taste habits.

Presumably, such milk appeared in East Asia. Soybeans are soaked  for several hours. Then the soaked beans are crushed to a puree, and after this puree is boiled intil ready.

Then it cools down, it is filtered and, in fact, the finished product is obtained-soy milk. This liquid is quite rich in protein — about three percent of the total weight, as well as various trace elements. In industrial production, the final product is additionally enriched with vitamins such as calcium and B12 to maximize the similarity of soy milk with cow’s milk in terms of nutritional value. 

Nutrients

potassium-118 mg;
phosphorus — 52 mg;
sodium — 51 mg;
magnesium — 25 mg;
calcium — 25 mg;
choline — 23 mg;
selenium — 4 mg;
iron — 0.64 mg;
manganese — 0.2 mg;
zinc — 0.12 mg;
copper — 0.12 mg.

Benefits

It contains about the same amount of protein as animal milk. In its natural form, it contains less calcium than cow’s milk, but often manufacturers artificially enrich soy milk with calcium.

Compared to cow’s milk, soy contains much less saturated fat and does not contain cholesterol, which makes this product a dietary product. Also, this milk is easier to digest, since it does not contain lactose. 

In addition, it contains a high percentage of vitamin E and lecithin, as well as isoflavones, which are phytoestrogens — substances that affect the metabolism and hormonal background.

Soy milk: harm

The problem of such vegetable milk  lies precisely in the fact that most of the soy is imported from China, where herbicide treatment is very popular. To avoid this problem, it is better to buy soy and soy milk, which are grown in environmentally friendly conditions and are best of all localy produced.

It is also worth noting that milk made of soybeans has other negative aspects. For example, it contains a high concentration of phytic acid. According to the results of scientists ‘ research, this prevents the assimilation of important trace elements: magnesium, calcium, zinc and iron, which actually does not allow these substances to be fully absorbed, which seem to be contained in the product itself.