Carbonated Milk and Imitation Milk

Carbonated milk is a new product that has been called the “soft drink that is not junk food”. It is simply milk that has had carbonated bubbles added to make it fizz like a soda. Regardless of whether milk is carbonated or not, it has a higher nutrient density than any soft drink.

Imitation Milk

Imitation milk looks like milk but usually has little or no dairy content. Ingredients include water, corn syrup solids or sugar to replace the lactose, vegetable oils to replace the milk fat, protein from the sodium caseinate in soybeans, whey or milk solids-not-fat to substitute for the protein, and some stabilizers, emulsifiers, and flavoring agents.

Nutritionally, imitation milks are lactose-free and so are useful for people with lactase deficiency, but sometimes sodium caseinate and whey are added, which makes these products inappropriate for people with milk protein allergies. The vegetable fat, like milk fat, may be high in saturated fat from coconut or palm oils used in the manufacture of these products. The calcium and protein content is about half that found in regular milk. Although the nutrient content of milk is superior to imitation milk, the latter is less expensive. To emphasize their products’ superiority over imitation milk, some dairy processors place a “REAL” seal shaped as a drop of milk on their products.