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- My name is Rosemary, I'm a food scientist.
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[upbeat light music]
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And today we're going to be talking about
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each and every plant-based milk.
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[upbeat jazz music]
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[light music]
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First up, almond milk.
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Almond milk has been around for centuries.
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It's first referenced in Baghdadi cookbooks,
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as well as medieval European cookbooks in the 14th century.
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It's very neutral, it's slightly thinner
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than some of the other plant-based milks.
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One of the benefits of almond milk
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is it's high in alpha-tocopherol or vitamin E.
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It's also slightly lower in protein,
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and it's lower in carbohydrates as well.
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Most of the almonds that we consume
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in North America come from California.
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California does not have a lot of water.
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Almonds take up a lot of land space,
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and they require quite a lot of water
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as irrigation in order for the plants
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to grow and proliferate.
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So that is environmental impact that's very significant.
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Almond milk can separate in your coffee.
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And that's because when you put it in a really
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acidic environment like coffee,
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it just forms these small particles at really high heat
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with low acidity, which is exactly what you have
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when you have a cup of coffee.
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[light music]
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Oat milk is the new milk on the market.
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Oat milk is another super popular plant-based milk
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and it's very easy to make at home.
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All you need are rolled oats,
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some very icy cold water
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because the oats will start to gelatinous.
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It's a chemical process where the bonds
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between the starch molecules start to break,
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they open and allow water in.
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We don't want that with our oat milk,
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because that's how it gets slimy.
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And we're going to get as much of the oats as possible
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because that's where all the flavor, the fiber,
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some of the protein and the beta-glucans
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that we really want for our good health to come out.
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You wanna use rolled oats and not whole groats or instant,
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because the instant have some chemicals added to them
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that make them really porous.
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So they're not quite as nutrient dense
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as the straight slow cooked rolled oats.
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It's really only been around since the 1990s.
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It's based on a grain oatmeal,
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which has known health benefits.
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Let's see how oat milk made at home is gonna froth.
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This is frothing somewhat, but not quite as much
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as if you had a commercial brand.
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The commercial brands are specially designed
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with additional emulsifiers
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as well as lipids that are going to really cause it to foam
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more like cream than we have here.
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So it's not the greatest foamer,
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but it's certainly delicious
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and it's full of fiber and beta-glucans.
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Also, it's pretty abundant.
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So it grows really well in a lot of different places.
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[light music]
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Soy milk has been around for a long time.
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It's first referenced in literature from China
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in the 14th century.
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It's the first step in making tofu.
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Soy milk gained popularity from the '80s
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when they moved it from the center part of the grocery store
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to the refrigerated section.
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And that's because that's where the dairy milk is.
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Soy milk resembles bovine milk pretty closely.
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It's very high in protein.
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It has most of the essential amino acids
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that we need in our diet to make the proteins
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that we need in our bodies, just like cow's milk does.
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Let me show you some of the similarities
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and differences between soy and cow's milk.
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We have soy milk and we have cow's milk.
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If you were to look really closely
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at the nutritional labels,
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you will find that cow's milk is higher in fat per serving.
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Soy milk has about eight grams of protein
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in an eight ounce serving,
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which is your typical serving of any kind of milk.
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It's also lower in calories
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and it has some really good nutritional benefits as well.
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It's got phytoestrogens, as well as isoflavones.
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These are plant chemicals
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that are associated with good health.
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The other thing is soy milk is part of the 2020
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to 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
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It's recommended in the dairy category
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which is unique and very interesting.
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The reason it's there is because glass per glass
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or serving per serving,
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you're going to have very comparable amounts of protein.
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[light music]
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You can make rice milk
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from almost any kind of rice.
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Commercially, it's fortified with other nutrients
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like B12, vitamin D, sometimes calcium.
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One of the advantages of rice milk
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is it does have a bit of a wider appearance
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and some people really like that.
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Rice milk is great for people with gluten sensitivity
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and that is because it has no gluten.
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[light music]
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Macadamia nuts make a fabulous milk.
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This plant-based milk tastes the most like the nut,
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which is extremely high in fat.
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In fact, it's the fattiest nut that we have on the market.
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So a lot of the flavor is translated into the milk
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because a lot of the flavor compounds are lipid soluble.
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[light music]
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Hemp milk is from a seed.
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It is really becoming popular
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because like soy and like cow's milk,
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it's very high in protein.
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It also does not require a lot of emulsifiers
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or additional chemicals to give it shelf stability,
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so you may consider it to be slightly less processed.
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It's high in protein, it's high in fiber.
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Hemp is high in omega-3 fatty acids,
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which is an essential fatty acid,
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that means we have to take it in through our diet,
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our body doesn't make it itself.
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It's also very high in essential amino acids.
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They work the same way.
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They're the building blocks of the proteins
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that we need for our metabolism.
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So this little tiny seed delivers a big nutrient density.
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Hemp milk is really good for people
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who wanna avoid nuts or soy or other allergens.
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And as you can see, it has a pretty nice viscosity
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from that omega-3 fatty acid.
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[light music]
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Coconuts are one of the plants
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that are very, very high in fat.
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Whether or not that translates into your coconut milk
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depends on the packaging.
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If you buy a can of coconut milk,
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it's got a lot of fat in it
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and one of those fats is called lauric acid.
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It's a 12-carbon fatty acid that is really important
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for as an intermediary, for forming other biomolecules
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for human metabolism.
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When you buy coconut milk in the carton,
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it's gonna be much thinner,
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it's gonna be lower in fat, lower in protein,
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and it's gonna be slightly lower in carbohydrates as well.
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When you make coconut milk at home,
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you are not adding any extra enzymes,
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you're not any adding any polysaccharides
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like gellan gum or locust bean gum that you will find
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in the commercial versions.
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So this is just as pure as it gets.
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This homemade coconut milk
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has so much complex coconut flavor
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that you won't get from some of the refined process
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in the commercial world.
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It also froths really nicely.
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Just in the blender, you can see
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I have a layer of frothy foam,
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so that the fats that were leached out
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are really nicely emulsified
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and they hold a really good foam
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compared to some of the other plant-based milks.
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[upbeat light music]
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Pea milk does not taste like peas, ironically.
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And that's because the protein
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is isolated from the other components in the yellow peas.
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So you're really just getting pure protein
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along with water and some emulsifiers
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and thickening agents as well.
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It is made differently than some of the other
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commercial plant-based milks.
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It's made with yellow pea protein.
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And the manufacturers usually separate
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the fiber and the starch from the protein,
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and then they use the protein powder in making the milk.
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Pea protein, you can actually buy as a powder
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at the grocery store and make your own that way.
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[upbeat light music]
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Cashew milk is made with cashews.
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They're nice and white with isoflavones.
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This milk is fortified with vitamin B12 and calcium.
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Cashew milk contains anacardic acid,
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which in one study showed to reduce liver fat accumulation
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which can be beneficial for type 2 diabetics.
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Flax seed is another plant-based milk on the market.
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As you can see, it's a really dark nutrient dense,
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tough little seed.
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Flax seeds are also really high
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in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids,
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which are essential for human metabolism.
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So this is really nutrient dense milk.
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Flax seed milk though sometimes has other
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types of plant-based milk added to it,
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and that's to give it the protein content or viscosity
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that you're looking for in the final product.
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[upbeat light music]
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Quinoa milk is a grain-based milk.
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Quinoa is called a super grain
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because it's very high in protein.
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So this is a high protein, high carb milk
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that's made again by steeping the grain
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in water and then filtering it.
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[upbeat light music]
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Pistachio is the newest milk on the market.
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It just came to the grocery store shelves in about 2020.
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So this is something that you may see growing.
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If you open a pistachio,
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you can see it's beautiful green color,
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as well as some slight purple.
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The green is from chlorophyll, it's lipid soluble
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and the purple is from a compound called anthocyanins,
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and it's water soluble.
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Your nut milks in particular are gonna be higher in fat
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when they're made at home than they are commercially.
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Many companies wanna take the fat out of the nut,
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which also removes some of the fat soluble vitamins
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and minerals and they wanna sell it.
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It's a higher grossing product than the nut milk
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so it's also a nice way to utilize the entire nut.
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[upbeat light music]
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Hazelnut milk, also known as filberts,
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they're from a hazel tree.
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Usually when you make hazelnut,
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you take this outer skin off.
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Because it's full of tannins
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that can be a little bit of stringent
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and give you a little bit
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of a puckery feeling in your mouth
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that you don't want in your milk.
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Hazelnuts are also really high in Vitamin E
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similar to almond milk.
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You don't have a really intense hazelnut flavor here,
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but you do get an essence of hazelnut
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so it pairs really nicely with chocolate.
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And you might even call it a Nutella plant-based milk.
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[upbeat light music]
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Potato milk is one of the newest milks on the market.
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And in fact, you can't even get it in the United States yet.
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It's made by a company based in Europe, in Sweden,
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and they take potatoes in a proprietary process
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and cook all of the starches out
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so that you're left with just the potato protein.
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It's becoming really popular in European coffee shops
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because it does foam so well.
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It also has a lower impact on the environment.
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It doesn't require quite as much water or space.
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It also is a nitrogen fixer.
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So it might not require as much fertilizer as well.