Diet Food Reviews

Rice Dream Vanilla Rice Drink Review

Rice Dream Rice Drink is a dairy free milk substitute made from brown rice. I'm mildly lactose intolerant, which means that I can have some milk with my cereal with no symptoms, and a bit of ice cream with only mild stomach issues, i.e. flatulence, which is really worse for you than it is for me! But this has effectively cured me of any ice cream or chocolate cravings - wouldn't you know that something about chocolate makes me more sensitive to it than anything else! So I'm used to drinking milk substitutes - but it's usually soy milk. For some reason, I just couldn't wrap my mind around milk made from rice. Something about it screamed that it would taste nasty, BUT, I was so wrong! Rice Dream Rice Milk is the best tasting dairy milk substitute I have ever tried!

I bought the Vanilla flavor, because I knew the vanilla would be subtle and I would be able to detect any off tastes. I didn't have to worry. The taste of the rice drink itself is very mild, as it should be with 'milk', and there was no off or after-taste. I tried a little on it's own, and it was pretty good. I think kids who are finnicky about milk would probably love this. I also tried it with cereal, and it was great. Then I added it to a pack of Nestle Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink [read the review] and it was also a winner - it tasted like chocolate milk, albeit maybe a bit too sweet for me in this case.

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One cup of Rice Dream Vanilla Rice Drink has 120 calories, 2.5 grams of total fat, no saturated fat or cholesterol, 12 grams of sugars (26 grams total carbohydrates) and 1 gram of protein. The Rice Dream Rice Drink I bought was enriched, so there was 10-30% of vitamins A, D, and B12, plus 30% calcium and 15% phosphorous. There is no added sugar, but I can't say that I was too thrilled about the 120 calories, but, to put it in perspective, whole milk has 146 calories, 8 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat (23% of your daily value) and 8 grams of sugars per cup. 2% milk has 125 calories per cup, along with 12 grams of sugars, and skim milk is still 91 calories per cup and 12 grams of sugar.

Another benefit of Rice Dream Rice Drink (other than the fact that I'm enjoying saying Rice Dream Rice Milk), is that it has a longer shelf life than regular cows milk. The half gallon carton that I bought doesn't expire for another month. Of course, it is also a little more expensive than regular milk, at about $4.00 for the half gallon carton.

I actually found a recipe to make rice milk on the internet [here]. It seems pretty easy to do - blend 1 cup WARM cooked rice with 4 cups of hot water. Strain and add vanilla extract or almonds or whatever. I wonder how that tastes? Anybody willing to experiment?

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