What Is Pea Milk and Can It Be a Good Dairy Alternative for Toddlers?
Babies don’t need cow’s milk, but it can be an easy source of nutrients that their bodies need – fat, protein, calcium and vitamin D. When my daughter was one year old, she was allergic to dairy products (and did not complain about like leafy green vegetables without much persuasion), so we looked at several alternative types of milk: almond, soy, rice, hemp. Each had its own advantages, but also disadvantages. Almond milk is simply “a jug of filtered water clouded with a handful of ground almonds,” Mother Jones concluded. It is known that soybeans are treated with herbicides . Hemp milk and rice milk are practically free of fat, which is necessary for the growth and development of babies.
Now there is a new milk alternative that is grabbing attention: pea milk. (Say it out loud and chuckle. You know what you want.) The Washington Post has a headline, “Prepare for Pea Milk. It doesn’t taste like peas or even green. “ How can you not be intrigued? According to Bloomberg, the largest player in the pea milk market is Ripple Foods, which received $ 44 million from Google and Silicon Valley venture capitalists. To make the drink, they take yellow peas and mix them with water, sunflower oil and, in sweetened versions, organic cane sugar.
The nutritional characteristics of Ripple’s pea milk are impressive: Compared to cow’s milk, it contains the same amount of protein, 50 percent more calcium, and the original version contains half the sugar. It is rich in potassium and is a good source of omega-3s, vitamin D, and iron. Plus, it’s free from dairy, egg, gluten, soy, and nuts (although it’s made in factories that process almonds). Not to mention, peas have little environmental impact.
I bought some Ripple at Target (it’s also available at Whole Foods), then sent my pediatrician friend Pam Cheetamitar Kennedy a photo of the Ripple food label and asked her what she thought of it as a dairy alternative for toddlers. She replied, “Compared to cow’s milk, it looks good.” She explained that a plant-based diet is “generally healthier” than an animal-based diet, and that many children are sensitive to cow’s milk proteins. If parents want to give Ripple to their toddlers between the ages of 1 and 2, Pam suggests adding half an avocado or peanut butter daily to give them healthy fats. (As always, check with your doctor when changing your child’s diet.)
Now how does it taste? Good! My husband and daughter (who is now four years old) and I have tried the original, vanilla and chocolate versions. “It’s like a smoothie,” said my daughter, who asked for a few seconds of chocolate milk and then a third. It is drinkable with a silky, creamy, not overly heavy texture and a slightly chalky aftertaste. Vanilla tastes quite sweet, but goes well with coffee.
At Target, a 48-ounce bottle cost just over $ 4, slightly more than organic dairy milk, but Ripple Foods founder Neil Renninger told Bloomberg they could produce it cheaper in a couple of years. Pea milk might just be part of our daily grocery list. And yet we will giggle when we see this every time.