The five healthiest milks you can buy from the supermarket

There's so many options when it comes to milk these days but which ones are actually worth drinking? Our Nutritionist debunks 5 of the best milks/ milk alteratives you can buy. No matter what your taste preferences or dietary requirements, there’s a milk to float everyone’s boat here.

1. Baramnah Organics Full Cream Milk

@littlesisterscoffeeco

We prefer full cream milk over the low fat or skim stuff at GMB for several reasons:

Like we always say, fat keeps you full! Firstly because it delays stomach emptying, and secondly, because its creamy, lingering mouthfeel helps you feel satisfied – so you’re likely to want a smaller serve of full cream milk than you would low fat or skim. Also worth noting is that full cream milk isn’t actually ‘full fat’ or as high in fat as you’d expect, containing around 3.25% fat.
It’s less processed; low fat and skim milks often have added skim milk powder to make up for the creaminess lost when the fat is removed. Milk powder ups the lactose content too, so if you’re lactose intolerant, you may find full cream milk easier to digest than low fat or skim.
It aids the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins naturally occur in milk, like vitamins A and D – which require the presence of fat for optimum absorption.

2. Pure Harvest Organic Unsweetened Almond Milk

@plantsoulco

If you don’t do dairy, you can’t get much better than this when it comes to shelf stable almond milks. One of the more reasonably priced almond milk options out there too, with the RRP being $3.10 Check out the ingredient list:

Filtered Water, Organic Activated Almonds (7%), Organic Brown Rice, Sea Salt, Natural Almond Essence.

What we like about the ingredient list above:

The short list of quality, wholesome, recognisable ingredients; an almond milk with an ingredients list as long as your arm is a red flag for one that’s highly processed and probably full of funnies that may not be so good for you (read: carrageenan!)
The higher percentage of almonds: this almond milk has almost four times the amount of almonds than other almond milks,
There’s no added sugar – unlike many other shelf stable almond milks

3. Inside Out Unsweetened Almond Milk

@wholesomestef

Made with locally sourced almonds, this one is 100% natural and cold-pressured to lock in the natural flavour and nutrients. It also contains an impressive 14% almonds. This explains why it’s not watery or bland like some almond milks tend to be, and also why Inside Out’s range comes at premium prices.

This one won’t curdle in your tea or coffee though, which is why so many health conscious cafes – and baristas who care about their almond milk coffee drinkers – are using Inside Out. You’ll find 1L bottles of Inside Out at most good health food stores too, but because it’s fresh it’ll only stay good for a few days once opened.

4. Pure Harvest Coco Quench

@pureharvest

If you’re more of a coconut milk than almond milk person, this one’s my go-to. Thanks to the addition of organic brown rice, this isn’t as rich as coconut milk or cream from the can. And while several other shelf stable coconut milk beverages have added refined sugar, the only sweetness in Coco Quench is from the brown rice, which naturally adds a nutty flavour and subtle sweetness.

Coco Quench tastes especially awesome in porridge, and here’s my Iced Mocha recipe that I make with Coco Quench on an almost daily basis:

Ingredients

1 tsp instant coffee (or 1 shot of coffee)
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coconut sugar
1-2 dashes just-boiled water
Coco Quench (you’ll need about ½ - ¾ Cup)
*3-4 ice cubes

Method

Add coffee, cocoa and coconut sugar to a heat-proof glass. Add the just-boiled water and stir until dissolved. Top with Coco Quench and ice cubes and you’re welcome!

5. Barambah Organics Lactose Free Milk

@barambahorganics

If you love your dairy, but even a little of it doesn’t love your guts so much, Barambah’s range of lactose free dairy products are amongst the best I’ve tried. To make it lactose free, Barambah adds purified lactase – the enzyme which breaks down lactose – to their milk…so lactose intolerants, you can have your milk and drink it too

Don’t expect it to taste identical to regular milk though; the lactose has been broken down into the simpler sugars glucose and galactose, which make the milk taste slightly sweeter.

I love the old-school creamy top, thanks to the milk being unhomogenised; this means it’s been heat treated, but unlike pasteurised milks, the fat content hasn’t dispersed through and stays on the top. We’re all for organic dairy too at GMB, being better for all involved – from the cows to the farmers to us consumers. Cost-wise though, we acknowledge that organic isn’t always feasible.

Do you have a favourite healthy milk option you can recommend?