I’ve written about dairy products made from donkey milk and moose milk I’m going a little left field with this one. I introduce to you: pea milk.
Last May, Sainsbury’s started stocking pea milk and the benefits are pretty good:
- 8x more protein than almond milk
- 40% less sugar than cow’s milk
- 2x more calcium than cow’s milk
- Dairy-free, nut-free and soy-free
- High in fibre
- Low in saturated fat
- It takes 100x less water to farm than almonds and 25x less water to farm than dairy
At first glance, you’re probably thinking pea milk is green and comes from garden peas. But in fact, pea milk is made from yellow split peas and it’s creamy in colour.
While any plant-based milk alternative has its environmental and moral advantages, it’s important to adjust your diet to reflect any potential loss of nutrients from cow’s milk if your pea milk isn’t fortified.
If you are going plant-based, however, she [Dr Hazel Wallace] says there’s one thing you should always consider when choosing a product: “Plant milk doesn’t offer us all of the nutrients that cow’s milk does, so for people who are vegan or can’t consume dairy because they’re lactose intolerant, it’s really important that we encourage them to check the labels for fortification. Plant-based milks are not required to be fortified, but they should be,” she says.
Fortification is the process in which vitamins and minerals are added to the base product. The Mighty Society’s pea milk, for example, has been fortified with calcium, Vitamin D and B12, but this doesn’t mean to say that all pea milk products will be.
But we’re missing an all-important question: how does pea milk taste? The folks at Cooking Light tried some in 2018 and uploaded the experience on YouTube.
Stream it below and if you’ve had pea milk or you’re looking to try it, let us know how it is in the comments.
