Milk is a versatile ingredient be it cow/buffalo milk or plant-based milk. Just think of the number of products or recipes that require milk. There are tonnes of them. So clearly it is impossible to eliminate milk entirely from your diet.

Milk is added to your tea, coffee, smoothies, and in a variety of Indian sweets.

Indian sweets like Rasgulla, Gulab Jamun, Shahi tukda, Ras malai, Kalakand and more.

Milk is used to make Paneer, from which you can make delicious dishes like Palak Paneer, Shahi Paneer, Paneer tikka masala, and much more. The substitute for paneer for vegans is tofu. You can make all these dishes using tofu.

Dudh ka Dudh, Pani ka Pani

India is the largest milk producer in the world and in Indian culture milk is given a lot of importance from a religious point of view as well.

Milk has an important place in our diet considering it is a natural source of protein and calcium. World’s milk production is derived from cows, buffalos, sheep, and goats where cow’s milk stands first in consumption and buffalo’s milk comes a close second. 

It’s an ongoing debate as to which milk is better- cow’s milk or buffalo’s milk. To draw a conclusion we need to compare the nutritional value of both types of milk.

Let’s first see the nutritional information of cow’s milk in a 200ml packet.

Energy, kcal	62.3
Total fat, g	3.5
Total carbohydrate, g	4.7
Protein, g	3.0
Calcium, mg	102

Source: www.amul.com

 

The Nutritional value of buffalo’s milk in a 200ml packet.

Energy, kcal	91
Total fat, g	6.5
Total carbohydrate, g	5.0
Protein, g	3.1
Calcium, mg	120

 

Source: www.amul.com

As you can see, the fat content in buffalo milk is more than cow milk. Other factors stand in a similar position in both the types of milk except in the value of calcium. 

Cow milk is lighter as compared to buffalo milk making it creamier and hence more suited for butter, paneer, yogurt, etc.

The bottom line being, buffalo milk can be consumed by those who want to increase their weight as well. Cow milk is good for children, the elderly, and people with weaker digestion. There’s no major difference that you can find between buffalo and cow milk. Otherwise you can always choose the milk according to your health objectives. Therefore, both cow and buffalo milk is the winner here.

Hello Vegans! I hope you haven’t left the chat. We know that you might not be open to the idea of drinking either of the milk due to reasons like lactose intolerance, vegan diet or lifestyle, concerns over antibiotics, pesticides, or hormones or ethical concerns. Therefore there are options for vegans to choose their milk too. Plant-based milk like almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, coconut milk etc are a great alternative to traditional milk. This being said, the nutritional value of regular milk versus plant-based milk varies immensely. Soy milk is closest to the nutritional value of that of the cow milk but still is lower in potassium and other nutrients. Also, plant protein is generally lesser in quantity as compared to animal protein. If you are a vegan or want to shift to a plant-based milk option then it is of utmost importance that you read your food label and know which nutrients you’ll get from particular plant-based milk and identify which nutrients you need to obtain from other food. So make a choice- cow, buffalo or plant-based. Whatever suits your taste, ethics or preference. If you want to make some delicious recipes using milk or paneer you can check our website.