Fad dairy alternatives like oatmeal and almond milk could put the health of teenage girls at risk who could miss out on essential nutrients, warns a food expert
- Professor Ian Givens said that plant-based diets mean losing essential nutrients
- Milk substitutes, with the exception of soy, usually do not match the protein in cow’s milk.
- One study found that almost half of adolescent girls had less than recommended iron intake
They are the trendy alternatives to milk that have become a multi-billion dollar industry.
But by drinking oatmeal or almond-based substitutes and following a meatless diet, teenage girls could be putting their health at risk, a nutrition expert warned yesterday.
The shift to more plant-based diets means that many are missing essential nutrients, said Professor Ian Givens.
Milk substitutes, with the exception of soy, generally don’t match the protein content of cow’s milk, while avoiding meat could lead to iron deficiency, he warned.
By taking oatmeal or almond-based substitutes and following a meatless diet, adolescent girls could be risking their health, a food expert warned yesterday (Stock image of almonds and almond milk)
She added: “We already have a population of young women, particularly in the UK, particularly in their teenage years, but also women in the slightly older age groups, who have very low intakes of some key micronutrients.”
“The concern is that there have been a number of very specific cases where young children have switched to these products and have developed a type of protein deficiency that would not be expected in Western societies.”
Professor Givens, director of the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health at the University of Reading, warned that, on average, nearly half of women and girls are not getting enough iron, in part due to the drop in red meat consumption. .
“That has happened in the last 20 or 30 years, actually,” he told a news conference.
And that is a concern. If we look at some of the nutrients like calcium and iodine, we’ve gotten close to 30 percent of that young female population who are way, way below the nutritional requirements for those two nutrients, and that’s largely a function. reduction of milk consumption. ‘
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey conducted by Public Health England (now the UK Health Safety Agency) and the Food Standards Agency found that, between 2008 and 2017, 49% of girls aged 11 to 18 and older 25% of women ages 19 to 64 had iron intakes below the recommended daily minimum.
Milk substitutes, with the exception of soy, generally do not match the protein content of cow’s milk, while avoiding meat could lead to an iron deficiency, said Professor Ian Givens (File image of milk vegan non-dairy and rolled oats)
In 2020, shoppers spent £ 400 million on “alternative milks” made from oats, almonds or soybeans, £ 100 million more than the previous year, according to Mintel.
Substitutes are drunk by one in three of us, with oat milk being the most popular.
Professor Givens said manufacturers “are beginning to try to fortify these products to make them much more like milk than perhaps they were originally.”
But he added: “I think there’s still a long way to go actually … particularly things like iodine, which for most people milk is the most important source.”
There is also uncertainty about whether the added calcium in substitutes is as easy for the body to absorb as that from cow’s milk, he said.
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