{"id":17295,"date":"2021-04-26T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=17295"},"modified":"2021-04-08T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T14:13:18","slug":"choosing-a-plant-milk-check-the-nutrition-facts-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2021\/04\/26\/choosing-a-plant-milk-check-the-nutrition-facts-label\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing a Plant Milk? Check the Nutrition Facts Label!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does your plant milk supply calcium, vitamin B12, and\nvitamin D? Not everyone relies on plant milk to supply these nutrients;\nhowever, plant milks are often identified as an easy way to get significant\namounts of these essentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     A recently\npublished study examined 148 different plant milks from stores in Europe,\nAustralia, and the United States. The plant milks from the U.S., as opposed to\nthose in other countries, were more likely to be fortified with calcium,\nvitamin D, and vitamin B12 and for an 8-ounce serving to contain at least 20%\nof the Daily\nValue<\/a> for these nutrients. A food that contains at least 20% of the Daily\nValue per serving for a nutrient is considered to be high in that nutrient. Of\nthe plant milks examined in the U.S., 87% were fortified with calcium and 82%\ncontained vitamin D. Surprisingly, less than half (47%) supplied vitamin B12. If\nwe look at the number of products that were examined in the U.S. that would be\nconsidered to be high in a nutrient, 73% were high in calcium, 47% were high in\nvitamin D, and 40% were high in vitamin B12. These results suggest that\nconsumers cannot assume that the plant milk they purchase is a good source of\nkey nutrients unless they have confirmed this by checking the Nutrition Facts\nlabel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     All the plant milks that were examined,\nexcept for those based on coconut, had very little saturated fat; more than 60%\nwere low in sodium. More than half of the plant milks had low to moderate\namounts of added sugar. The Nutrition Facts label lists added sugar, making it\neasy to select a milk with little or no added sugar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     If you are relying on a plant milk to\nsupply calcium, vitamin D, and\/or vitamin B12, be sure to check the Nutrition\nFacts label to see if the product you plan to purchase supplies these\nnutrients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craig\nWJ, Fres\u00e1n U. International analysis of the nutritional content and a review of\nhealth benefits of non-dairy plant-based beverages. Nutrients<\/em>.\n2021;13(3):842.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nnutrition information on coconut, nut, seed, pea, grain, and soy milks, see: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/nutrition\/milk_alternatives\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For VRG\u2019s national poll on what Americans expect from a\nbeverage labeled as soymilk, see: https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/30\/what-do-american-adults-expect-from-a-beverage-labeled-soymilk-questions-asked-by-the-vegetarian-resource-group-in-a-national-poll\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Does your plant milk supply calcium, vitamin B12, and vitamin D? Not everyone relies on plant milk to supply these nutrients; however, plant milks are often identified as an easy way to get significant amounts of these essentials.      A recently published study examined 148 different plant milks from stores […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17297,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17295\/revisions\/17297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}