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
I do but it didn’t work 🙁 just left them in chunks
Hey there! My son has had a milk protein problem since birth. We discovered what the problem was when he was 6 months. Since I nurse him, I have been off all dairy since. He will turn 1yr on March 8th which is just about 3 weeks away. My supply has been slowing decreasing and I am not successful with pumping much. Do you think it would be fine if I added in one of the above “milk” recipes to supplement (like at meal time with his food) it would be ok? I think purchasing the stuff needed to make the homemade formula when he is only 3 weeks away from a year kinda silly. I still plan on nursing him until he weans himself so he would still get mama milk for a while. Also-I make the almond milk for myself and cannot get the almonds into a paste. Any suggestions? Thanks so much-learning lot’s about my health in relation to what I eat.
Jacpualine, do you have a good food processor?
lilyput
Also, the new reports say something about arsenic in brown rice!
how do I know the brown rice is safe?
I am waiting on the doloimite powder for the coconut milk to try.
thanks so much
goodness! I forgot to filter the water!
what does that mean?
thanks so much, hope to hear back soon as I have the rice milk sitting and waiting 🙂
lily
Thank you for the post Sarah. I just found your website a few months ago and have shared several of your posts with friends. I’m always looking for information to improve the way we eat. I tried the rice milk recipe with apple cider vinegar and the taste was way too vinegary for me or my 3 year old daughter. I’ll try it with lemon juice and see if we like that better. Thank you for all the great information!
Hooray! I’ve done some searching around for Weston Price leaning mom bogs and I hit the jackpot today. So I’m not all knee deep in WP stuff, but lived w/ a family in New Zealand who were and a lot of it made sense to me. I incorporate it in various ways…fermented veggies, cooking with lard, coconut oil, etc. And I have a 2.5 year old and we’ve just fallen into giving him cow’s milk as part of the nighttime ritual. Mostly so that I could get a break. I’m still breastfeeding happily, so it just seemed that we should replace my breastmilk with something and I also wanted a break from pumping. Anyhow, its been in the back of my mind for ages that I want to stop the milk. I just really feel that its not a good source of nutrients for him, esp. since its pasteurized. So I’m thinking of just going off the milk altogether. And I love your recipes for the milk alternatives. FINALLY. My question: What do you think is the ideal beverage other than water to offer children? I’m thinking that don’t really want to replace the milk with an alternative. If anything, I’m thinking of herbal tea or lemon juice with water and stevia or maybe a homemade kefir…? Just curious what the nourishing traditions take is on this. I’m guessing most tribal diets don’t have much emphasis on giving children some other animal’s milk after they’re weaned…is that true? I’m just curious what other traditions are in this regard, so I can start envisioning what a milk free life looks like for a toddler. THANK YOU!
I would watch the lemon juice with water only because the acid can be harmful on their teeth.
Thank you for the information. I would like to also know, how long does the homemade Coconut Milk tonic last when refrigerated? Also, which brand contain NO BPA in the cans of Coconut milk? Thank you!
How much soymilk does it take to cause the detrimental effects?
I have made the Nourishing Traditions Almond milk before but I did not take the time to blanch my almonds and just used them with the skins on. I am curious if this it is harmful to leave the skins on or if it is just a matter of taste/texture? I do strain in a nut milk bag so I would assume the majority of the skin stays out, am I wrong?
By the way, I have also just recently found your website and I am loving it, thank you for all you do.
Hi Jerian, leaving the skins on is not a problem as long as the almonds are soaked first to eliminate the anti-nutrients 🙂