The healthiest and best dairy milk substitutes to make at home for children and adults and why to avoid commercial versions even if organic.
Milk allergy affects approximately 2-5% of children worldwide.
Many times “milk allergy” simply masquerades as “pasteurization allergy”, which means that when a switch is made from processed store milk to farm fresh unpasteurized milk, the “milk allergy” magically disappears!
Why is this?
Pasteurization denatures fragile milk proteins and renders them allergenic because digestive enzymes no longer work effectively on them.
It also destroys lactase, the enzyme necessary for digesting lactose, the naturally occurring sugar in milk.
A simple switch to fresh from the farm raw milk solves both of these problems.
Beware the Plant-Based Milk Scam
In those rare instances when a child is truly allergic to cow or goat milk – even the farm-fresh variety, figuring out which plant-based milk to try can be a bewildering experience for a concerned parent.
Soy milk, also called soya bean milk, is clearly not a good option as high amounts of isoflavones (plant estrogens) disrupt the hormonal development of young children.
Commercial rice milk is high in sugar and low in nutrition with little to no protein or fats to stabilize the blood sugar.
Even store-bought almond milk is not a good choice as it is also very low in protein and fat, high in sugar, and is not made from almonds that have been properly soaked/dehydrated first to eliminate anti-nutrients.
Besides all the issues with the ingredients themselves, the tetrapak packaging of these products is incredibly toxic.
To sterilize the container, boiling hot liquid is poured into the container that is lined with thin plastic before sealing.
While this results in a long shelf life, toxins leach into the product itself! In short, you are no doubt getting a hefty serving of petrochemicals with that plant-based milk.
The short answer is to never buy alternative milk from the store if you value your health.
Fortunately, making safe, healthy milk substitutes yourself is easy. Suggestions below!
Who Should Drink Non-Dairy Milk?
Before we go any further, an important point requires clarification.
Despite being healthy, all-natural, and homemade, the milk substitutes suggested below are ONLY for adults and children older than one year.
A baby younger than one that is not breastfed should be getting a homemade formula and if allergic to milk, homemade dairy-free baby formula is best.
Goat milk formula, sheep milk formula, or camel milk formula may be used instead if the allergy is only to cow’s milk.
One final point…never use these recipes to make plant-based or vegan baby formula.
Nutritious DIY Dairy Milk Substitutes
Below is a summation of the ones I recommend trying to see which recipe works best for your family!
Coconut Milk Beverage
This healthy coconut milk beverage is made with whole coconut milk so that it is high in good fats to stabilize blood sugar in a manner similar to full-fat dairy milk.
The base is ideally homemade coconut milk. However, if you must buy, I suggest this brand or this brand of commercial coconut milk.
Powdered coconut milk is also an option, but it is quite expensive per serving. This type of product also usually contains maltodextrin and sometimes digestion-irritating gums.
Cultured Rice Milk Recipe
This fermented rice milk recipe is lightly cultured and sweetened with raw honey.
If your child is allergic to coconut as well as dairy, traditional rice milk works well. Avoid the sugar-laden, nutritionless versions from the store packaged in toxic containers!
If you prefer nonfermented beverages, this wild rice milk recipe uses soaked rice instead of fermentation. This renders the rice digestible without the slightly sour taste typical of cultured foods.
Since wild rice is not technically a grain, substituting it for brown rice is suitable for those on a grain-free diet.
Sprouted Almond Milk
This easy recipe for sprouted almond milk is a huge step up from anything you can buy from the store.
If even more digestibility is needed, you can lightly culture the beverage into fermented almond milk. This additional step provides gut-balancing probiotics and even more enzymes.
Note that while this beverage is well tolerated by most people, those who are sensitive to oxalates would be better off picking one of the other alternative milks in this list.
Almonds even if sprouted or soaked are one of the highest foods in oxalic acid.
Sprouted Oat Milk
There are a couple of different ways to make healthy oat milk (never buy commercial oat milk!).
The first is this recipe for homemade oat milk using sprouted rolled oats.
The second method is this yummy beverage from soaked oat groats.
While you normally need to cook oats after soaking or sprouting if you will be consuming the entire grain, for purposes of beverage-making, the antinutrients are sufficiently deactivated with soaking or sprouting only.
The key point here is that the fibrous portion of the grain is discarded or composted when making oat milk at home.
While I have not seen causative research on this as of yet, anecdotal evidence from those with digestive disorders indicates that the effect on digestion is not disruptive or inflammatory such as would occur when eating uncooked or lightly toasted oats (even if sprouted or soaked overnight first).
References
Eat Fat, Lose Fat
Nourishing Traditions Cookbook
Why Almond Milk and Coconut Milk from the Store Should Be Avoided
thank you SO much for these recipes! my sons (3 and 5) are anaphylactic to dairy so they’ve been drinking commercial rice milk with coconut milk (about 1 Tb rice milk and 1/2 cup coconut milk a day). once i get the dolomite powder and bpa canned coconut milk , i’ll give this recipe a try first!
btw, you wouldn’t know of a non-dairy yogurt starter would you? i’ve heard of GI Health and Cultures for Health but not sure if they’re safe for people with life-threatening allergies to dairy. i’d really like to try to make coconut yogurt for my kids but at a lost!!
Hi Felicia, try Cultures for Health and call the customer service line and ask. I believe the cultures should be fine but it is important to double check directly with the company since your boys are both so milk allergic.
Great post ! Exactly what I needed to know. Even if on isn’t allergic to milk it’s not really healthy anyway.
Is there a way to make pasteurised milk safer to drink? Here in B.C. it’s illegal to sell raw milk, but I start to feel sick and get headaches and such if I don’t drink any milk for extended periods of time. I know you’ve mentioned low-temp pasteurised milk in other posts, but I’m not sure if I’d find the same brands you mention, plus I’d rather support the local farms around me…
Ashley, unfortunately, pasteurized milk has already been damaged to the point where it is not of benefit to drink it in my opinion. Is there any way you could perhaps barter for some raw milk in your area from a local farm .. this way there is no sale going on, only an exchange of services. Or even a cow-share program perhaps?
Mm, if I had a vehicle I would consider it, but I don’t, and it takes way too long to get anywhere near the farms that here. I guess I’ll just have to cut down how much I drink, or only drink it during stressful periods like exams…(I dunno, I find it helps, but that may just be from always drinking it while de-stressing during such times) 🙁
I wonder if there’s any groups lobbying for the legalisation of raw milk that I could help out with..
Hi I read your post and there is a farmer in Ontario who is at the front heading the battle to legalize raw milk in Canada. His name is Michael Schmidt and so far he’s won the first leg of a supreme court battle, I’m sure he could use any support on the side of raw milk. Check him out on facebook and good luck :).
What brands of canned coconut milk are BPA free?
Native Forest is the only one I know of. If you click on coconut milk link in the recipe above, it will take you to a picture of the can so you can see what it looks like.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/are-your-canned-foods-safe-to-eat-a-bpa-free-buying-guide/#axzz2Y0LSDf2d
I bought the Aroy-D. They sell it on Amazon but it’s much cheaper to get it at 99 Ranch Market.
Hi! Thanks for the info! All 4 of my kids have some degree of milk allergy. I’m wondering how what age a child can be before they can consume one of the recipes (i.e. coconut milk) listed above? My youngest is 8 months and still reacts to his lactose-free formula (for medical reasons, I am unable to breastfeed).
Hi Amy, at 8 months – if the child is not breastfed – the hypoallergenic homemade formula is the best choice if there is a milk allergy. I have a video on this blog on how to make it:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/2010/09/video-hypoallergenic-baby-formula/
Hi Amy!
Did you ever try one of these recipes for your youngest? Hopefully you see this reply as your comment is from January. Thank you!!
wish they had explored hemp as it’s SO nutritous but so less known! it’s way more healthy for you then rice milk.
Hi Christel, thanks for the comment. I am a bit concerned about hemp milk and have been wary of it as it was never used traditionally as a food except during periods of starvation. Here is a snippet from an article I read on the subject from westonaprice.org:
“Hemp was not traditionally used as a food except during periods of starvation as seen in the book, The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium — An Englishman’s World, by Robert Lacey. In a chapter called “July: The Hungry Gap,” he writes about the period of near starvation that would occur every summer for poor people before the August harvest was ready. You’ve probably heard of the LSD-like mold that grew on rye. But he also writes, “This hallucinogenic lift was accentuated by the herbs and grains with which the dwindling stocks of conventional flour were amplified as the summer wore on. Poppies, hemp and darnel were scavenged, dried and ground up to produce a medieval hash brownie known as ‘crazy bread.’ So even as the poor endured hunger, it is possible that their diet provided them with some exotic and artificial paradises. ‘It was as if a spell had been placed on entire communities,’ according to one modern historian.” (p.102)”
I’m SO glad you commented on the Hemp Milk…we were wondering about whether it was good stuff or not… So many good things said about it online but I trust you more than any of the others.
Doing the Coconut Milk Tonic for our 12 month old who can’t have dairy. So glad I checked your posts before “settling” for something else. THANK YOU!
Hi Sarah,
Great article with recipes! As for the coconut milk, would the powdered kind (with no additives) make a good substitute for the BPA-free canned ones? The canned ones are hard to find locally…
Thanks!
I have also found that adding a little Liquid Chlorophyll helps too.
I don’t think this makes sense. The study that this theory comes from dealt with mostly cooked milk. It was pasteurized in that sense, but the kids lived on the farm (hence “fresh farm milk”). I wouldn’t give raw milk to a child if I were you.. that’s gambling with their health. Raw milk is much more likely to make them very sick.
Hi Reality, there are two raw milks .. the raw milk from unhealthy, confined cows eatig unnatural feed that is destined for pasteurization which is the one you speak of in your comment. I would never drink this milk raw.
The other raw milk is the one produced from healthy cows on unsprayed green pastures that is actually much safer than pasteurized milk. This is the raw milk I drink and my family drinks and has safely consumed to the incredible betterment of our health for 10 years.
http://www.realmilk.com/tworawmilks.html
My DD doesn’t tolerate my raw farm fresh milk, but as her gut heals I imagine that will go away. In the meantime, I’m nor worried about her being able to have “milk” She can drink homemade stock! Great post though, the store options all have so many additives.