There has been plenty of talk about plant-based diets and the health benefits from it, but are we getting the full amount of vitamins from all plant-based products? On the recent blog of Dr. Marion Nestle, she shared a concern from FDA commissioner saying “There is a public health concern with plant-based milk” Such as soy-milk.

Reports of infant children deficient in protein and vitamins who are being fed plant-based milk instead of cow milk, even though they are being routinely fortified. I think cow milk has become less popular these past few years due to the increase of plant-based diets such as the vegan diet. According to the FDA commissioner, the problem is not too much on soy-milk or almond-milk being deficient in vitamins but consumers think it’s equivalent to regular cow-milk.

The FDA is trying to regulate plant-based foods with misleading labels for the public to know the difference between actual dairy “milk” and plant-based milk. As well as trying to change these alternative milk companies from using the word “milk” in order to avoid confusion among consumers. In my opinion, the word “milk” after a plant-based product is the correct term to use such as “almond-milk” because it describes the product in a way consumers would understand. The consumer should look at the nutrition label and look up the actual vitamins and protein of these plant-based milk to assess an opinion themselves.