Milk Alternative: Hemp Milk

I always find it funny to see people's reactions when they hear about Mara's allergies. The most common question I get with the "no dairy" restriction is "So what are you doing to replace it?"

My response? Nothing. She does not need cow's milk in her diet, nobody does. What she needs is a good source of fat and calcium, which many people get from dairy. We get to be creative :)

With Mara, soy milk is out so at first we used rice milk. While it tasted good, there really isn't much to it and I wasn't too impressed with how it cooked. Plus in Mara's case, we needed to get as many calories and nutrition in every bite or sip she took. While shopping through a health food store, we saw hemp milk. Comparing it with rice milk, I was impressed that it had 4 grams of protein compared to 1 gram in rice milk. Calorie-wise, hemp milk has 30 more calories per 8 ounce cup (hopefully I can finish Mara's story soon, and you'll see why every calorie counts!)

For calcium, we have always used Kirkman's calcium powder. We sprinkle it into her milk, food, everything. It was exciting to see that hemp milk has even more calcium then cow's milk! It contains 46% of your daily intake, compared to 30% in cow's milk. It also contains many things not found in either cow's or rice milk.
Each serving contains:

700 mg Omega-3

2600 mg of Omega-6 with GLA

All 10 Essential Amino Acids

4 grams of Protein

Essential Vitamins A*, B12*, D*, E, Riboflavin* and Folic Acid

Essential Minerals Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Iron and Zinc

So we decided that we had to try it out.

For taste, hemp milk wins out for us. We use the vanilla for drinking, and I love it. I even prefer this over the soy milk we used to drink. The chocolate is my special treat :) It is thicker, and seems a bit heavier then rice milk. Beware-shake it up before you pour it or you'll get this clear, oily mixture that is not too appetizing!

For cooking, the plain hemp milk wins as well. It has been great in everything we have tried, especially scrabbled eggs (which we eat every morning). The vanilla is great in desserts and other "sweet" dishes.

The only downside to drinking hemp milk? The price. It's a bit more expensive then rice milk, but the price does seem to be coming down a bit. Also- we found it cheaper to buy it in bulk though our buying club, so that may be an option as well.

Oh-and you have to watch it in sippy cups. We usually keep a cup in the fridge for Mara and fill it as needed. In a sippy cup, it will go sour, and the taste is horrible-like drinking vinegar. So be sure to check those sippy cups before giving it to your little one if it's been in the fridge!

So grab a glass of hemp milk today and let me know what you think!

We use the brand Living Harvest because that was the only option when we first started buying hemp milk. At the Green Festival, we saw a few other companies now selling it as well! Maybe a future post will be on comparing the brands.... :)-