#Plant-based #beverages are entering the market from different directions and from unheard of ingredients. While there is nothing wrong in consuming these products and is good for both consumers as well as the World at large; being trapped in #marketing #fallacy of targeting established products like #cow #milk and painting them black to attract attention towards themselves is unfair and warrants serious discussion. Let’s discuss the pros & cons with Indian perspective:
1. Plant based beverages are not milk:
First of all, in order to attract consumers towards itself, these plant based alternatives call themselves milk and therefore we have products like Almond milk, Soy milk, Coconut milk, hemp milk, oat milk, rice milk, etc. However, strictly as per definition, only mammary secretions from mammals can be called milk and food regulators have also realised this short-cut taken by manufacturers and FSSAI (Food Safety & Standards Authority of India) has in its new draft regulations, clarified the aspect, stopping alternate plant-based products from calling themselves as milk, which is a welcome decision for more clarity to consumers.
2. Plant-based beverages are not animal-rights saviours OR milk is not a product of animal-rights abuse:
Second argument put forth by plant based beverages is that milk is a product of animal rights abuse as cows are treated very bad in factory farms and used as machine to produce milk. While this may be true in case of large factory farms prevalent in few countries like China where cows are kept purely for milk production and 'milked' to the extreme, it is not at all applicable in India.
Average herd holding per farmer in India is around 2-4 cows. There is strong cultural bonding of cows with humans in Indian society and cows are considered part of the family and even above that; considered as God with relevance of 33 crore Gods residing in cows to Kamdhenu, the never-ending stream of wealth. Thus, cow rearing in India is not just for producing milk. In fact, we also have a concept of creating Go-Shala (community cow-sheds where cows are taken care of) in every village and practice of first feeding the cow before having own food.
3. Milk is not bad for environment OR plant based beverages are not good for environment
It is argued that milk is bad for the environment because of its carbon footprint, land & water usage as depicted below:
Here, there are three factors involved:
Firstly, the entire load of carbon footprint, land & water usage is put on milk, which is wrong. Milk, meat, leather are major beneficiaries of the same environment impact and there are numerous minor beneficiaries as well. Therefore, impact of purely milk would be much smaller.
Milk is 88% water and obviously, with better nutrient profile and conversion of coarse food into value-added food as well as the whole cycle of preservation, packaging and reaching out to end consumers; would entail water usage at this level, which is still far better than any animal products.
Further, in India dairying is complimentary to agriculture. A typical farmer would have small piece of land, growing agri produce, selling grains in the market and feeding the straws to cows. Therefore, there is merely conversion of farm waste into value-added product like milk and this makes Indian farmer a low-cost producer of milk. Now what would happen to carbon footprint of agricultural waste not given to cows but burnt straight away in the farm (as experienced in some parts of North India during winters)? There is a direct carbon addition into the atmosphere.
Against that, let’s also understand the entire methane cycle and how methane produced from cows is released into atmosphere, converted into CO2, again absorbed by plants and consumed by cows as detailed below:
Therefore, over a longer term, the carbon effects of milk also gets nullified.
4. Milk is OK for grown-ups; does not create health problems
There’s also discussion going around that milk is not for grown-ups. Yes, nature has designed it for infants but as human beings, we have been consuming milk since more than 7,000 years and it has only helped us evolve into better beings rather than anything else. Shall talk about health benefits in later section.
There are certain section of people who suffer from lactose intolerance (inability to digest lactose in milk) and few having issues in digestion of proteins. However, rest of the people who can digest milk, there are no issues and milk is a superfood for them. For lactose intolerant people, there are always products like Yogurt, Buttermilk, Cheese, etc., which they can enjoy without any issues.
5. Milk is a complete food and rich source of nutrition:
Nature has designed milk for infants, which is meant not only for maintenance but also for growth. It has a well-balanced mix of macro-nutrients like proteins, fats & carbohydrates (in broad ratio of 1:1:1.5 respectively in cow milk) as well as all essential micro-nutrients like vitamins & minerals. Everyone is aware about nutrition benefits of milk.
On the other hand, plant based products fare poorly compared to milk as detailed below:
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5756203/
Further, milk being created for infants, has highest digestibility & bioavailability amongst all food products. Milk proteins are complete proteins as it contains all essential amino acids, a well-balanced ratio of 1:4 for whey & casein respectively, contains important oligosaccharides, superior fatty acid profile and vitamins as well as minerals with high absorption. Therefore, not just the quantity of nutritional ingredients, but its quality is also far superior in milk (Refer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk)
Against that, bioavailability as well as quality of nutritional ingredients in plant based beverages is quite low (Refer: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27540708/, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7760957/ )
In fact, plant based beverages are mostly fortified with necessary vitamins & minerals as these are not available in sufficient quantities in the base plant.
Lastly, what about wonder ingredients of milk like Lactoferrins, Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), Alpha-Lactalbumins, glycomacropeptides, ALA, CLA, DHA, etc. which could never be found in plants?
6. Milk is all natural while plant-based beverages are highly processed
Milk is all natural in its raw form and only processed with necessary pasteurisation to preserve it for longer time. On the other hand, plant based beverages are highly processed to convert it into something similar to milk. (Refer https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464620301997?via%3Dihub)
7. Milk is tastier
Everyone right from infants to adults, all enjoy the taste of milk in its pure form or various products made out of it. On the other hand, plant based beverages does not taste that great and they invariably contain added sugars, salts as well as flavours to make it taste good.
8. Milk is livelihood for farmers
Same as plant based beverages, milk is also harvested by farmers and it is a livelihood for them in equal parts. In fact, while farmers at vagaries of nature and later on the agri-commodity markets in terms of their realisations from other agriculture produce, milk is their only source of daily cash, which helps them manage household.
9. Milk is cheap
Ultimately, milk still trumps over plant based beverages in terms of pricing. Visit your nearest supermarket to experience for yourself.
Conclusion:
Plant based beverages are not bad. In fact, they are good for people who like it and also contains necessary nutrition as available in the source plant. It’s also always better than meat and other alternatives available for food.
However, these beverages are not milk, and nothing can make them milk. (Now even FSSAI agrees!) Milk is a naturally healthy choice that people make. It is therefore unfair to establish these products into the market creating fear about milk in the market.
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