Some Americans are milk drinkers. They love milk so much that they can drink a gallon milk every day. But I am a soymilk drinker. There are not very many people here in America who have ever heard of or tried soymilk. If I give you one cup of milk and one cup of soymilk, you would not be able to tell which is which, because milk and soymilk look like perfectly alike --- both of them are pure white suspension liquid. But if you take a drink, you can immediately tell which one is milk and which one is soymilk because they taste so very different. However, the differences between soymilk and milk are not just their tastes. There are some other aspects that could possibly influence your decision on whether you will choose milk or soymilk.

It’s true that regular milk is from a cow and soymilk is from soybeans. This fact determines that the fat in milk is animal fat is saturated and the fat in soymilk is plant fat, which is unsaturated. Everybody seems to know why we should avoid saturated fat in our diet --- the cholesterol in the saturated fat raises cholesterol and is harmful to our health. That’s why there is regular milk labeled “2% reduced fat” and “1% fat” on the grocery store shelf. But does “2%” or “1%” mean saturated fat free? Or cholesterol free? NO. They don’t. Compared to regular milk, soymilk has an advantage --- its unsaturated fat includes cholesterol busting ingredients like linoleic acid and Omega-3. By drinking soymilk, you don’t have to worry about how much fat you are ingesting. True, skim milk has no fat, but soymilk's good-for-you fat could possibly be even better than no fat at all.

Now, Let’s take a look at the protein content in both milk and soymilk. Milk is whole protein, which means it contains all nine missing amino acid which can’t be produced by human body. Soymilk is whole protein too, but it also contains isoflavones, which are chemically similar in structure to estrogen. To menopausal women, drinking soymilk instead of taking Hormone Replacement Therapy might prevent hot flashes, breast cancer and osteoporosis. So drinking soymilk doesn't reduce your protein intake and may even be better for some milk drinkers.

Well, now you might want to know which one cost more money, milk or soymilk? The average price for one gallon of milk is $2.40. If you go through one-gallon of milk every three days, within a year, you need 122 gallons, which will cost you $292.80. Soymilk at the grocery store is very expensive, often costing as much for 1/2 gallon of soymilk as a whole gallon of regular milk. However, I can get dry soybeans at the oriental store for 60 cents a pound. By using a soymilk maker, which cost me $99, I can make 5 gallons of soymilk out of one pound of dry beans. If I consume one-gallon of soymilk every three days, that will cost me $73.20 a year for dry beans. Plus the price for the soymilk maker, the total is $172.20 at the first year. Then after that, only $73.20 a year. In both the long and short term, soymilk can be cheaper than milk!

Another thing I want to compare between milk and soymilk is the freshness. There is an expiration date on milk’s label. But how many days is that expiration date from the day the milk leaves the cow? What happened to the milk during the process? Many dairy farmers use hormones and other chemicals to increase their cow's milk output. But with a soymilk maker, you can get fresh homemade soymilk every day. Just simply add dry soybeans and water to the soymilk maker and ten minutes later, you get fresh soymilk! And the bulk soybeans sold for human consumption are not allowed to be genetically altered, so there's no danger there, either.
Soymilk is also a good news to those who are lactose intoleration. Regular milk contains lactic acid; it's a main element of what makes milk, milk. Soybeans do not contain any lactic acid, and so do not trigger lactose intolerance.

Overall, soymilk is simply a better, cheaper choice than cow's milk. Humans are not cattle, after all, and cow's milk is not really designed for humans, which is why such problems as lactose intolerance happen. Soybeans are a natural food source for humans, and have been used to feed people for centuries. Yes, the taste is different from regular milk, but why does different have to mean bad? At the very least, benefit from the positive differences in your cooking. After all, when's the last time you tasted the milk out of all the ingredients in a recipe?