Milk important part of vegetarian diet

A well-planned vegetarian diet must have protein, iron, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B12, according to the nation's nutrition adviser, MyPlate. Millions of vegetarians turn to milk for many of these key nutrients – including protein, calcium and vitamin B12.

About 5% of U.S. adults call themselves vegetarians, removing most meat products from their eating plan. Experts say however the milk should remain in a vegetarian diet. Along with a good source of high-quality protein (milk has even more protein than an egg), milk is also the top source of calcium in our diets. The good news is vegetarians drink about 30% more milk than non-vegetarians, and get an extra 150mg calcium in their diets, on average.¹  Overall, milk provides more than one third of the calcium and more than half of the vitamin D in America's diet.²

"There's really just no substitute for milk – especially in a vegetarian diet," says Carolyn O'Neil, MS, RD, co-author of The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous! “Milk is simple and nutritious. I especially like that I know exactly what I'm getting; drinks like fortified milk imitators have a long list of added ingredients -- plus, it delivers more nutrition per penny than just about any other drink.”

Whilst vegetarians may turn to some of the beverages manufactured to mimic milk's nutrition, they often cost nearly twice as much as milk. Beyond the impact on the budget, research suggests substituting milk with other calcium sources like a fortified soy drink and fortified orange juice can lead to gaps in calcium – along with other key nutrients like protein, phosphorus and B vitamins.³

1 Farmer, et al. A Vegetarian Dietary Pattern as a Nutrient-Dense Approach to Weight Management: An Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004. JADA. 2011.

2 Fulgoni, et al. Food sources of calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, and potassium in the U.S. FASEB. 2010

3 Fulgoni, et al. Nutrients from dairy foods are difficult to replace in diets of Americans: food pattern modeling and an analyses of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006. Nutrition Research. 2011