Almond Milk The Choice Milk for a Healthy Lifestyle

By Mystify on September 6th, 2009 HealthMad.com

Traditionally almond milk was used as a cleansing,purifying drink that was ingested before rituals or feasts but today it is used as an excellent alternative to cow and soya milk and is suitable for vegetarians and all of those wanting to avoid lactose,gluten and soya .For the rest of us it is used as a way to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

There is a saying I heard for almond milk, healthy food for lazy people and even though this saying does make sense to an extent,I don’t believe you have to be lazy to drink it because with todays hectic lifestyles many of us simply just do not have the time to have a nutritional healthy meal.

So what makes almond milk so healthy?

Almonds are high in unsaturated fat which has been proved to greatly reduce heart disease by causing rise in good cholesterol levels.
The milk is cholesterol free and contains high levels of omega fatty acids and protein,which are proven sources to help aid and maintain healthy living.
Almonds also contain an unrivaled source of vitamin E which is a powerful antioxidant and one of the only known vitamins to help reduce stomach fat.
Zinc, Magnesium,Potassium,Fiber,Phosphorus,Iron and Calcium are among the other vitamins and minerals in this powerhouse of a drink, helping aid everything from your bones to your blood.
In fact just by drinking one ounce of almond milk you will have gotten 10% of your daily intake of calcium.

If your a skeptic like myself you may need a bit more convincing than that to actually want to try it, so upon doing some extra research, I came upon a physicians website aimed at cows milk and what I found was quite shocking.
A number of physicians worldwide have noted a link between Multiple Sclerosis, a neurological disease, to dairy products.
Because Norway has the highest intake of dairy and the highest rate of Multiple Sclerosis it didn’t take long to link the two together.
Dr.Luther Linder , involved in clinical MS experiments at Texas A&M university wrote,”It might be prudent to limit the intake of milk and other dairy products.”

Quite shocking, I know but yet another benefit almond milk has over cows milk.

Personally I think it is not too bad as a drink. But to be completely honest with you the true reason I began to look for an alternative to cows milk is due to my son who suffers from a very bad case of eczema. Cows milk is a known cause to aggravate eczema making it worse. So for anyone suffering from this and/or lactose intolerance this is simply just one more good reason as to why you should try it.

Almond milk is non dairy product and because it doesn’t have the powdery temperament that other non dairy products have such as soya , it behaves well in the kitchen, making nice foods, desserts and wonderfully creamy sauces.
It is great to have as a drink or to add to your coffee and because it is creamy texture it can be whipped into a spread, a lot like butter, although, a lot healthier.

So now that we have covered the benefits of almond milk, perhaps you would like to try making your own and fortunately, it is simple to make but if you cannot be bothered to make it, you can always buy it already made which is just as good.

Raw Almond Milk



1 cup of soaked almonds
3-4 cups of water
1/4 cup of agave nectar (optional)
Pinch of sea salt

Blend soaked almonds and water until thoroughly blended. Strain the milk through a nutbag or cheesecloth into large bowl. Rinse blender and put strained milk in with agave nectar and sea salt. Blend.

Cooked Almond Milk

1 1/3 cups of ground almond
2 cups of water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (Optional)

Bring water to boil. Turn off heat. Add almonds and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain with cheesecloth or strainer into blender. Add vanilla extract. Blend!

Copyright © 2007 Tanya Kime-Wallace