Which is better for children, soy milk or cow milk?

Soy Milk

1 of 6

by Kate Johns

• 

Write now Print Invite a writer™ Add to Favorites RSS Feed Contact this writer

Good old cow's milk, a staple of the American diet for a century. Once in a long ago era, delivered right to the backdoor of almost every home in America. It was a common site to see your milkman delivering the milk everyday. Housewives knew their milkmen by name, and he knew his customers' names. When a child didn't quite look like Dad, people would joke that the milkman was the father.

But, today everything has changed and milk is getting a bad rap. And rightly so. Milk, it turns out isn't all it is touted to be. Milk that we buy from grocery stores all over this fine land of ours comes from cows. This is milk that is meant to be drunk by cow's babies; their calves, not by human beings. Milk is manufactured by big businesses that pump the cows up with hormones, and antibitoics to get the most milk out of them. Cows are not normally meant to produce many gallons of milk everyday.

Children are growing up faster and developing teenage bodies earlier. And proven or not, this may be due to all the growth hormones present in good old, regular milk. And to think we all trusted our milkman. The cows are fed growth hormones and antibiotics to have them produce as much milk as possible. I guess you could say that if you want your child to grow as tall as possible have him drink as much milk as he possibly can down every day.

Although milk does contain a lot of healthy ingredients, it also contains a lot of fat that when drunk in large quantities can do a body harm. You know the old saying that your Mom would always tell you when you were a kid, "Drink your milk." Now, Moms are saying ,"Drink your soy milk."

Back in the 1960's and 1970's the only people who even knew soy milk existed were people who were classified as "health nuts". But those so -called health nuts knew what they were drinking.

Soy is derived from a a bean that contains many good nutrients. It has natural protein, and natural estrogen, and vitamins that milk can't possibly ever have. Not only is soy milk great for children to aid in their growth and development, but it is also good for women to drink who are going through perimenopause and menopause. In actuality those health nuts of a by gone era were right and soy milk and soy beans are great to be consumed by everyone.

Here is a comparision of milk and soy to let you ponder which drink will be your choice. To make it as fair as possible I am comparing two percent milk and regular soy milk. After looking at the comparision this may leave you wondering just how many grams of fat are in regular milk, and why we were drinking it for so many years.

A 2 percent, 8 ounce glass of milk contains:

130 calories Vitamin A 10% Vitamin D 25% Calcium 30% 5 grams of fat

A regular 8 ounce glass of soy milk contains:

120 calories Vitamin A

10% Vitamin D

25% Iron

6% Calcium

20% Fiber

2% 1.5 grams of fat

Soy milk also comes in many different tasty flavors such as vanilla, and chocolate. If you have never consumed soy milk before, it does take some getting used to. But, when you start a child from an early age drinking soy milk, they can drink it as naturally as regular milk. After several glasses, flavored soy milk kind of grows on you.
Soy milk is all natural, and doesn't have growth hormones and other unknown factors added. Soy milk can be drunk with just about anything, and it can be added to your coffee or even your tea. It leaves you with a nice satisfying feeling also, that you are drinking something very healthy, that is meant for human consumption.

Learn more about this author, Kate Johns.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.