Home-Made Soy Milk!?

Have you ever stopped to think about how strange it is that we drink milk? Humans are the only species to drink milk from another species (outside of extreme circumstances like dogs nursing stray kittens, etc). Also, the purpose of milk is to help babies gain as much fat in as little time as possible and with we Americans drinking so much milk; who should be surprised that we all seem to be gaining weight at an alarming rate? Even more disturbing are the hormones that transfer directly from the cow to you...eek! There are many excellent sites that give information about why cow milk may not been good for us to drink. Did I mention that its also pretty expensive considering that it is mostly fat and water? About a year and a half ago I started to exeperience some pretty unsettling adult acne. My dermatologist suggested that I stop ingesting dairy for about two weeks and then take a look at my skin. It really was amazing, my face cleared up completely. I have also developed estrogen related liver lesions, could my life-long love affair with dairy have aided in this development? One site that will really give you pause is http://notmilk.com/. I decided to cut back on dairy as much as possible and switched to fat free milk to begin the process. Since then, I've learned to prefer fat-free milk to whole and I've even learned to enjoy soy milk. My biggest issue with organic fat-free cow milk and soy milk are the prices. I currently live in Baltimore, MD and with the price of milk at nearly $4.00 a gallon it has certainly aided in my dairy cut back. However, I'm not about to start putting water on my cereal and I really enjoy baking, so what to do? Well, I may have found the answer...While shopping for my favorite bread ingredients at the King Arthur Flour online I noticed that they were having a sale on the Soyabella Soymilk Maker. Make your own soy milk, I wondered..that's kind of strange. As I read further I realized that you can make your own soymilk at home for about .50 a gallon; crazy! At $79.95 this thing will pay for itself in less than a year, and I don't have to drive to the store each week to buy milk for my daughter's breakfast; awesome! If you are interested in checking out this soy milk maker yourself, just go here: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?id=4351. Mine is in the mail now and here is some information direct from the manufacturer for your reading enjoyment: http://www.soyabella.com/index.php. Next, I sought out where to buy some beans to make my own soymilk and stumbled upon a few good reviews pointing to here: http://www.fairviewfarms.com/. Fairview Farms sells 14lbs. of Non-GMO (genetically modified) soybeans for $18.95, which includes shipping. The website indicates that 1lb. of beans will make slightly less than 2 gallons of milk in a soy milk maker. That means that my 14 lbs. of beans should last me about 2-3 months months. I can't wait to get started!

Some other interesting milk related websites:

"Milk, Doing Your Body Good?" http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume6/issue3/features/lee_and_wei.html


"Does Milk Really Look Good On You? Don't Drink It!"
http://www.mercola.com/2000/feb/27/no_milk.htm

"Milk Sucks!"
http://www.milksucks.com/index2.asp