Plant based milks are big business, but are they all as good as they claim?
Hey my friend. Welcome along to the but this still chefs nutrition nuggets podcast, helping you get clarity on nutrition, on pen at the medicinal chefs. Best selling author, nutritionist and creator of nutrition coach. Your monthly every week here in the podcast I'm going to be answering your questions and discussing key topics around the field of nutrition to help give you clarity and to expand your knowledge. Hey folks, how you doing? Hope you guys are doing
Speaker 2:well and you've had a good week. So this week we are just in audio only because apparently the a the videos, the audio was only coming out of one channel. So until I actually know what was going on there, um, were just in audio only but that doesn't matter because that's where most of you are consuming the podcast anyway. So it is all good. So I've literally just got back to the office from doing a segment on the ITV program this morning. And on the back of that, so many people ask me to do a podcast on the subject that I was speaking about. I was talking about plant milks as in you know, nut milks, seed milks, dairy alternatives, a small or small segment on that. It was obviously very, very fast moving. These TV segments only average average out in about six minutes anyway, so it's quite hard to get a lot of detail in and so many questions came in off the back of that feature and a lot of people asking me to do a podcast on it. So here I am. I hadn't got around to recording this week, so that was perfect timing. So plant milks, but the main crux of what people were asking me are are they any good or not, are they Laden with rubbish or are they a good option? Well, what I really say is that it can be the good, the bad and the ugly to be honest. There's great options and there's less than great options. What are the first problems with a lot of the, let's say a lot, a lot of the earlier brands and a lot of the, the very big mainstream brands, at least they do tend to add quite a lot of sugar, which is a problem. You look at some of the, the the oat milks and some of the um, soy milks particularly, they have a huge amount of added sugar in the, which is very, very problematic. But obviously with the smaller more artists and brands that are coming at it, not from just commercial opportunity that are actually doing it because they have a passion for these kinds of products, you know, companies that are vegan at har or that are more environmentally conscious that are producing these really, really high quality products. These ones, you won't find those sugars in there. So the first take home really is always, always, always read the label. Don't assume just because it's dairy free, it's automatically going to be completely pure and clean and lovely and all that kind of stuff. There might be some nasty additives in there, like thickeners and added sugars, that kind of stuff. Second thing I would say about is they, I don't drink milk personally, but I do eat cheese. That's you know, total disclaimer. I do eat cheese, I love the stuff. I sometimes have a little bit of yoga. I like to have a little bit of full fat dairy because of the vitamin D content. Now obviously the primary source of vitamin D for humans is the conversion of cholesterol into vitamin D precursors upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation, IAA, this sun. Now in this country for most of the year, the sun is just a rumor. So for a lot of the time we buggered, we haven't really got enough exposure to get significant enough levels of vitamin D synthesized in the skin. So cutting out the few food sources of vitamin D will really enhance your need for a supplement. I think a vitamin D supplement is a good idea for everyone in this country anyway. And particularly people that don't spend much time outdoors, people with darker skins, um, people with a lot of skin covered up. So you know anyone that that wears burgers for example with so little of the skin is on show, your vitamin D needs will be even higher still. So for most of our population, unless you're lucky enough to be working overseas a lot or you get to take lots and lots of holidays a year, if you aren't going outside March, if you're covered up a lot of the time, if you aren't getting much sun exposure, then you will need a supplement. Vitamin D does exist in a few foods, full fat dairy, oily fish and certain types of mushrooms that have been specially grown. The more of those foods you can't out, the less exposure you have to vitamin D, so you will need to take a supplement. So those, yeah, those are some of the potential pitfalls. But now onto the good now one. Okay. Before we get onto the good, there's one question that I definitely do need to address. Someone did ask about the fire South East region content of soy milk. Right? Here we go. The fights. How East regions, these are phytochemicals plant chemicals that have a shape very similar to that of the body's own estrogen as such. They are estrogen receptor antagonists, meaning they will bind to an estrogen receptor, but they will pro. They won't actually deliver an estrogenic effect and they will prevent the body's own estrogen from binding. Now there can be several benefits here. This has been really hotly debated and if you're thinking about getting on one and send to be loads of emails about it, just please don't. I do not get involved in debates. I've got no interest of being involved in debates in any way, shape or form. If you want to have a debate, get on a Twitter, don't send it to me. So very, very hotly debated things fi, so East regions, these are some people have made claims that these increase risks of hormonal disorders, hormone related cancers, these kinds of things. If that was the case then in countries like China, in Japan where intake of soy, particularly fermented soy is very, very high and soy isoflavones, phytoestrogens in other words is very, very high. Then you would also see a proportionally large percentage of hormone driven cancers, I. E. breast cancer, ovarian and uterine cancer and prostate cancer. But you don't, you don't see it. If anything, there is an inverse relationship. The more soya a population that seems to actually consume the lower the incidents. Now obviously I fully acknowledge this is an observational study. This is not studying cause and effect, but the patterns are very, very clear. Now how these fights or Resurgens work, I mean the, the main phytoestrogen in, um, in soy is something called dyads. Zane dyads. He needs to be converted into something called AQL, which is biologically active in our body. Um, what can actually get into systemic circulation and start to deliver some activity now that needs to be done by gut flora and depended on the health and the makeup of someone's gut flora that will influence how effectively they do that conversion anyway. So it's not a given that if you consume them, you're going to actually get them into circulation. But we know that they can bind to East region receptors when they bind to estrogen receptors. This can have several benefits. Firstly, it seems they, when they bind to the estrogen receptor, they don't deliver an estrogenic activity. They prevent natural estrogen from binding to this receptor. So if someone is at greater risk of Eastern region driven cancers potentially, and let's you know, let's draw a line under the word potentially. We're not making any absolute claims here, but potentially there can be a protective role here because it's actually broken. It's working as a receptor antagonist. It's blocking the receptor and preventing the regular ligands that would bind to that receptor estrogen from actually connecting to the receptor and delivering an estrogenic response in that cell and tissue. So that's number one. Number two, soy isoflavones. Phytoestrogens are most well known in the context of them, the menopause and are often taken in supplemental form now in the menopause because the levels of Eastridge as a starting to go down, then that receptor is crying out for its league. And it's like, um, when a smoker stopped smoking, the nicotine receptor starts going mental for a little while because all of a sudden he's used to receive in the nicotine and then the nicotine is not there. So you start to get the cravings, you started to get those, those, uh, crazy sensations of craving. That is the receptor influencing physiology. It's the inset. It's the receptor throwing a hissy fair basically. So when that happens in the context of menopause, Eastern production goes down. The Eastern Rosette isn't getting its Lygon, so it starts to lose the plot a little bit. Phytoestrogens will bind to that receptor and yes, it doesn't deliver the Easter genic activity, but it does satisfy the craving that the receptor has. I'm putting this in layman's terminology obviously. So that's the phytoestrogen thing. I do not see convincing data that says these things are disease promoting agents. If I see convincing data, I will change my stance on it. But a couple of lines on a website or someone with a strong opinion, evidence does not make, okay, so we'll leave that one there. Now moving onto the other, some of these other nut milks people aren't saying that, you know, are they a good option? Now obviously I know so many people are moving towards a plant based diet and there are so many health benefits surrounding this. Absolutely. There's, there's no discussion to be had there. All these things automatically healthier? Well, yes, I think they're very, very good. I mean they do tend to have pretty low caloric density. So you know, obviously you're not get in a lot of empty calories. Um, when you're keeping away from the, the sugar Laden cheap versions, they tend to be very, very high in certain phytochemicals. So with oat milk you've got the OTE derived, um, antioxidant group. There you've got, um, good amounts of vitamin a in most of the nut and seed milks. Like almond belt for example, has got a great amount of vitamin E in it. It's also called zinc cashew nut milk. Absolutely amazing. Amazing stuff, man. I was talking about that on the show today. Cashew milk is super rich and creamy and gorgeous and I love it. Then you've got things like hemp milk, which has got quite a broad fatty acid profile. You've got a lot of Amiga nine fatty acids in hemp milk. There's ALA as well, which is the plant source of Omega three and if any of you have heard Herbie talk about the plant source of Omega three it doesn't really do a lot to human health. Yes, it can compete for enzyme attention with Amiga sex, you know, and it can block some of the, the immediate sex is present being converted and that kind of stuff, but it really doesn't provide any of the benefits that the long chain Omega three fatty acids do. But oleic acid in olive oil and the other fatty acids in the Omega nine family do have some wonderful benefits for cardiovascular health. So an important one to top up for cardiovascular health. So that's the long short of it. That's my take on it. The general questions, where should we be avoiding dairy? Well, there is a lot of evidence to show that dairy, particularly milk milk consumption can raise IGF one insulin like growth factor and that can fan the cancer flame sometimes. So if there is precancerous lesions for example, it can accelerate the progression of that. There's a fair bit of data to support that. Um, but then on the flip side, there are certain nutrients in there, but these are nutrients that you could very easily get in a supplement form should you decide. So really it's, it's a personal choice. If this is a discussion around animal welfare, there's no argument. There's no, there's nothing that I can, I can say that would be in support of it. I completely understand the whole process of dairy farming and I understand everything behind that. And you know, my, my, my stance, I just come at it from the, from the nutrition point of view. For me it's just about the nutrition. Um, but obviously there is a much wider issue within this, you know, a much wider issue at stake that can drive these kinds of decisions. And really I've got a, there is no argument from, from my point of view anyway, if animal welfare is real high priorities for you, then giving up the areas of is it is a an obvious step because it's not really the kindest of um, industries. That's for sure. So that's just my quick two pennies worth. That's my summary of the key things that we spoke about today. Yes, these plants, these plant milks, they are a great source of certain key fatty acids, fat-soluble antioxidants like vitamin a, there's a great mineral content. Some of them are rich in B vitamins a, the target up milk is high in potassium for example. And they are a great alternative to regular dairy. Yes, the vitamin D may be missing. You can take a supplement and if you live in this country you really should take a supplement. So that's it for this week and I shall see you guys next week. Hopefully I will have the whole video situation saw it actually like figuring out what the, um, what is going on with the audio because I didn't realize it was kind of out of one channel, but it actually is. But until then, I hope you have a wonderful weekend or whenever you're listening to this, I hope you have a wonderful day, even in morning, whatever it may be. Until next time. See, layer.