Cow's Milk Vs Soy Milk

Have you ever wondered how cow's milk and soy milk compared? 

Let's see what the American Dietetics Association has to say below:

Soy milk has different nutrient content compared to cow's milk. 

Naturally, soy milk (made by pressing ground, cooked soybeans) is significantly lower in calcium. That's why as a substitute for cow's milk, you want to choose soy milk that is fortified with calcium. Right now in the US, we have soymilk that is either fortified with tricalcium phosphate or calcium carbonate. (Look at the ingredient label!)

Next, do you know that our body also absorbs calcium from fortified foods differently?

Take a look at the So Good soymilk below:

 So Good Soymilk is an example of soymilk fortified with tricalcium phosphate.

which contains 30% DV calcium per serving of 1 cup. 

This is the same percentage of calcium as in 1 cup of cow's milk.

( 2% Reduced fat cows milk also contains calcium of 30% DV per 1 cup of serving)

However, since tricalcium phosphate is not absorbed as well in our body, you would need to drink 1 and 1/3 cups of the tricalcium phosphate-fortified soymilk in order to get the same amount of calcium from that one cup of 2% cow's milk.

Another example, 

Silk Soymilk has its calcium fortified with calcium carbonate. The calcium from 1 cup of cow's milk and 1 cup of soy milk fortified with this type of calcium, is about the same. 

So say if you drink 1 cup of Silk soy milk (45%DV Calcium), your body would absorb the same amount of calcium in a cup of cow's milk with same percentage of calcium.

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More about soy milk...

Naturally, soy milk is lower in protein and riboflavin (vitamin B2), and has little vitamin A or D. That's why some soy milk are fortified with vitamin A and D and riboflavin. 

Soy milk or soy beverage is also popular as it contains phytoesterogens, proteins found in soy that may have cardiovascular benefit. Soy beverage is also cholesterol-free, since it is derived from plant. 

The fat content of soy milk is similar to 2% cow's milk. Regular soy milk often contains 5% of total fat, where as 2% cow's milk contains 8% of total fat. Whole milk would have 12% of total fat in it.