Soy milk (also called soya milk or soybean milk) and sometimes referred to as soy drink/beverage is a beverage made from soy beans. A stable emulsion of oil, water and protein, it is produced by soaking dry soybeans, and grinding them with water. Soy milk contains about the same proportion of protein as cow's milk~ around 3.5%; also 2% fat, 2.9% carbohydrate and 0.5% ash. Soy milk can be made at home with traditional kitchen tools or with a soy milk machine.
Health benefits
Soy milk is nutritionally close to cow's milk, though most soy milk commercially available today is enriched with added vitamins such as vitamin B12. It naturally has about the same amount of protein (but not the same proteins[citation needed]) as cow milk. Natural soy milk contains little digestible calcium as it is bound to the bean's pulp, which is insoluble in a human. To counter this, many manufacturers enrich their products with calcium carbonate available to human digestion. Unlike cow's milk it has little saturated fat and no cholesterol, which many consider to be a benefit. Soy products contain sucrose as the basic disaccharide, which breaks down into glucose and fructose. Since soy doesn't contain galactose, a product of lactose breakdown, it can safely replace breast milk in children with Galactosemia.
