Metabolism-Boosting Non-Dairy Milk Alternatives
Choose the right milk, and you’ll stoke your metabolism with every sip. Instead of your usual skim milk or soy milk, opt for these yummy non-dairy milk alternatives.
Non-dairy milk alternatives
- Unsweetened rice milk
- Unsweetened almond milk
- Unsweetened coconut milk
- Unsweetened hemp milk
What’s so great about these kinds of milk? First, they taste terrific! If you’ve never tried them, they’re all mild-tasting and lightly sweet. You’ll find them in your supermarket’s dairy case next to the regular milk, or check the health-food section. (Coconut milk comes in two types: a beverage packed in cartons like milk, and a thick canned version for recipes.)
Second, they’re loaded with the good stuff: healthy carbs, proteins, and fats that feed your metabolism in exactly the right way.
Third, they’re missing some bad stuff that you’ll, unfortunately, find in soy milk (see this previous post on soy) and dairy milk.
Dairy’s got some good things going for it. Greek yogurt is a good protein source, for example, and full-fat milk can be helpful for women trying to conceive.
But when you’re trying to heal your metabolism, dairy doesn’t help. Milk, cheese, yogurt—it all suffers from exactly the wrong sugar-fat-protein ratio for what we’re trying to accomplish. The lactose (milk sugar) dumps into your bloodstream way too fast, instantly slowing your metabolism.
Fat-free dairy is the worst. These fake foods replace natural fat with extra sugar, thickeners, and chemical preservatives that force your liver to work overtime, cleaning all those toxins out of your body—instead of burning fat.
Hormones pose big problems, too. Conventional dairy cows are pumped full of synthetic hormones to make them give more milk—and even organic dairy (which is free of synthetic hormones) has an amino acid profile that alters your sex hormones and sluggishly drags down your metabolism.
On the 28-day Fast Metabolism Diet, we don’t use any dairy products. And be aware—dairy sneaks into foods under assumed names:
- Casein/Caseinate
- Lactose
- Whey
Protein powders and shakes usually include at least one of these. Cereal bars and canned soups are big culprits, too.
On the Fast Metabolism Diet, instead of a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast, you might have oatmeal with rich almond milk, raw almonds, and peaches (on Phase Three). Dinner might be a quick coconut-chicken curry, made with creamy coconut milk (also Phase Three). Really, it won’t be so hard to skip the dairy!
Choose the right milk, and you’ll stoke your metabolism with every sip. Instead of your usual skim milk or soy milk, opt for these yummy non-dairy milk alternatives.
Non-dairy milk alternatives
- Unsweetened rice milk
- Unsweetened almond milk
- Unsweetened coconut milk
- Unsweetened hemp milk
What’s so great about these kinds of milk? First, they taste terrific! If you’ve never tried them, they’re all mild-tasting and lightly sweet. You’ll find them in your supermarket’s dairy case next to the regular milk, or check the health-food section. (Coconut milk comes in two types: a beverage packed in cartons like milk, and a thick canned version for recipes.)
Second, they’re loaded with the good stuff: healthy carbs, proteins, and fats that feed your metabolism in exactly the right way.
Third, they’re missing some bad stuff that you’ll, unfortunately, find in soy milk (see this previous post on soy) and dairy milk.
Dairy’s got some good things going for it. Greek yogurt is a good protein source, for example, and full-fat milk can be helpful for women trying to conceive.
But when you’re trying to heal your metabolism, dairy doesn’t help. Milk, cheese, yogurt—it all suffers from exactly the wrong sugar-fat-protein ratio for what we’re trying to accomplish. The lactose (milk sugar) dumps into your bloodstream way too fast, instantly slowing your metabolism.
Fat-free dairy is the worst. These fake foods replace natural fat with extra sugar, thickeners, and chemical preservatives that force your liver to work overtime, cleaning all those toxins out of your body—instead of burning fat.
Hormones pose big problems, too. Conventional dairy cows are pumped full of synthetic hormones to make them give more milk—and even organic dairy (which is free of synthetic hormones) has an amino acid profile that alters your sex hormones and sluggishly drags down your metabolism.
On the 28-day Fast Metabolism Diet, we don’t use any dairy products. And be aware—dairy sneaks into foods under assumed names:
- Casein/Caseinate
- Lactose
- Whey
Protein powders and shakes usually include at least one of these. Cereal bars and canned soups are big culprits, too.
On the Fast Metabolism Diet, instead of a bowl of cereal with milk for breakfast, you might have oatmeal with rich almond milk, raw almonds, and peaches (on Phase Three). Dinner might be a quick coconut-chicken curry, made with creamy coconut milk (also Phase Three). Really, it won’t be so hard to skip the dairy!
