When my oldest daughter, Abigail, was born, my husband and I discovered she was allergic to cow’s milk. Every time she ingested dairy, her face, arms, and legs would break out in eczema. From the time she was two years old, she has been drinking soy and rice milk as the rest of the family continued to drink regular milk. From time to time I enjoy a soy latte; however, soy milk has never been a part of my regular diet.
When my family and I were invited to participate in the “Least Challenging Challenge” by the producers of Silk non-dairy products, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to switch the whole family over for a week to see if it was something our whole family could enjoy. The challenge we accepted was to switch from regular milk to Silk Pure Almond Vanilla and Silk Soy Vanilla Light for a minimum of one week. As I explained this challenge with Abigail she was hesitant because her favorite soy product is Silk Very Vanilla Soy milk. The “light” version of her favorite milk was a subtle but seemingly big change. As a ten year old girl who is quite particular about certain favorite products my greatest fear was that she would resist the change. There was also my three year old son, who drinks a lot of regular milk and gets very upset if I try to have him drink soy milk. Quite honestly, I am looking forward to this challenge for the health benefits of both soy and almond milk.
Silk Pure Almond Vanilla milk contains only 90 calories per serving and 50% more calcium than regular milk. Another impressive health benefit of this milk is that it contains 50% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin E. Silk Light Vanilla contains 6 grams of soy protein, is lactose and dairy free, low in saturated fat, and contains 130 mg. of ALA Omega-3. It is also sweetened with Stevia, making this milk only 70 calories per serving.
This will definitely be challenging during breakfast when my kids expect to drink their preferred milks with their cereal, but I am hopeful they will be pleasantly surprised with the switch.
Stayed tuned for updates on how we’re doing!
Disclosure: This post is underwritten by the producers of Silk.
I have been a fan of almond milk for about 6 years now. One of my vegetarian friends introduced it to me and I love it in cooking and cereal and I make a wonderful protein shake with it. I have tried to embrace soy, but I just really find it starchy tasting. The new thing for me has been coconut milk. Its supposed to be very good for people with digestion issues (which I have). As far as getting my family to embrace alternatives to dairy milk….My 2 daughters like soy and coconut milk but refuse to try almond milk? My husband turns up his nose at all 3.
Oh well….more for me :o)
Thanks for stopping by! Have you tried baking with coconut milk? Love it!
I hope it’s gonna be going great!
Alice – good luck to you and your family! We absolutely look forward to the results.
For those who are inquiring about soy and hormones, I thought I would share some nutrional information on soy, because there is so much conflicting information out there. http://www.soynutrition.com/ourexperts/ourexperts-answered-questions/does-consuming-soy-affect-hormone-levels/
This website is a comprehensive resource that has a variety of great articles and study results. We hope your readers can find information they need from the breadth of topics here. And of course, there is an even a link where you can ask one of our experts a specific question: http://www.soynutrition.com/category/ourexperts/
Thanks for the great dialogue everyone!
Margaret, Social Media Manager at Silk
@lovemysilk
Cool!! Good luck with the challenge 🙂 my boyfriend only drinks soy/rice milk – – he lives by it. I find it a little too sweet for my liking, but it’s perfect to bake and cook with. I find that it substitutes quite well in baked goods for cows milk.
Can’t wait to find out how the family reacts to the challenge 🙂
I love Silk Soy Milk! The children I used to baby-sit drank another brand and it was awful-like cake batter! I decided to try Silk one day and loved it. Light and refreshing. I have no reason to drink it except I don’t like regular milk and it gives me a stomach ache when I drink it (maybe that’s the Asian side of me?). I am kinda sad that I live in Europe now and Silk is not available.
I agree with you Alice, but the remainder of the Japanese & Chinese diets are much healthier compared to the typical American diet that is often full of processed foods and unnecessary ingredients. I think the Japanese & Chinese diets balance much better.
I love love love Silk Almond. I use the Unsweetened Vanilla In my diet shakes in the morning. So many less calories than skim milk and it tastes GREAT!
I look forward to hearing what you and the kids think of these new products. I’d be willing to try the almond milk, but I stay away from soy as much as possible. It does contain naturally occurring plant estrogens. I already have too much estrogen in my system and don’t need more. Soy milk gives me headaches as well, so it’s just easier to not ingest it.
Are you at all worried about the often reported hormonal effects from too much soy? I haven’t tried soy milk in any form as I have read many reports about it causing estrogen and thyroid related issues. I am not in any way knowledgeable about this, and was just wondering about your thoughts on the soy issues. Thanks in advance for your reply.
Hello! I appreciate the dialogue happening because of this post today. When Abigail was born I cut out dairy from my diet because she was having severe eczema attacks as a newborn which was being transferred from me to her while nursing. I was told she would grow out of it but she never did. We had her tested a couple times throughout the years and dairy is not her friend.
I am aware of the studies which have been done in the past regarding too much soy. As someone who grew up eating a lot of tofu, edamame beans, and other soy products, I am not convinced by the merits of these studies since many Asian cultures, Japanese and Chinese in particular, eat a soy enriched diet and they seem to be some of the most healthiest people groups out there. Also, to my knowledge, I cannot find any suggestions from these studies on how much is too much.
I know a lot of studies have also been down on cows milk and the benefits and health concerns on the human body. I’m not convinced by these studies either to stop drinking regular milk.
Abigail has had rice milk switched into her diet throughout the years but prefers soy milk. Personally, I think the Silk almond milk is fabulous as well as some newer coconut milks sold in the dairy section, too.
Ultimately it comes down to choice. With so many studies always being done on almost every type of food out there, if I let the findings dictate how I eat, the only safe thing for me to eat would be nothing. Not a great way to live if you ask me. 🙂
When I order a latte I always order a soy latte. I figure a treat might as well be good for me. I am a woman and know the benefits of soy for women. Do I want to drink it by the glass full no not really. My son loves tofu, he eats it maybe once a week. I agree with Steph on the fact that too much for males isn’t a good thing, therefore I would caution it for your young son. Your daughter is the one with the milk allergy so why wouldn’t getting vanilla soy specially for her, well make her feel special!
Alice, did you have your daughter tested for milk allergies? We went through the same thing with my now 12 yrs. old daughter. She only showed slight sensitivity to dairy when tested, but her skin was an open wound throughout her infant and toddler years. We suspected it was the cow milk but her Dr. sugested only goats milk as an alternative. One thing that her allergist said was that she will outgrow it, and she did and is still consuming milk. However my son is going through the same thing , but as asoon as he was one, we gave him Rice Dream and he is fine. We see the eczcema flair on him only when he has an ocasional cheese stick or icecream… He is five now and is very much in love with ” his milk” as he calls it, but I will offer him some Silk Soy and see how he likes it. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I like almond milk and am interested in trying coconut milk. Soy milk, although I like the taste of the very vanilla, makes me too gassy.
when i was in school (i’m 27 now), i thought abigail was the worst name in the world. everyone picked on me because they said the name was old sounding. we studied the presidents and one of the presidents wives was named abigail. she wasn’t very young looking either lol. also every old person i was introduced to would always say ohhh i love that name…you don’t ever hear names like that any more. i thought i was cursed with a horrible name. i dreamed of beautiful popular names. then…i grew up and now everyone loves my name it’s the new ” it ” name and everyone wants to name their child that. ha ha ha little mean kids now my name is better than yours.
While I am Chinese, I only drink soy milk at family gatherings. It is tasty, but not enough for me to make the switch. I tried almond milk, but not the Silk brand. Maybe Silk’s tastes better? The brand I bought from Trader Joe’s for almond wasn’t good at all. I’ve heard great things from a health nut friend about rice milk, though. Hmm?.. what do you think?
We LOVE SILK !!! I had bariatric surgery in November and have become loctose intolerant. SILK is a Miracle. We found the chocolate about a month ago and LOVE IT. About 2 weeks ago I found their fruit and protein. LOVE LOVE LOVE it too. I drink High Protein drinks avery morning and they have added flavor, protein and calcium with out all the drama of lactose in my body. JUST LOVE THE STUFF. Vanilla in cereal is the best. Once you try it, you will wonder WHY you still drink cows milk. SO EASY on the tummy and waist line, and good for the heart !!!