Here’s the challenge:. Try swapping out Dairy Milk for Unsweetened Almond Milk for just one week.

It sounds impossible if you’re a regular milk drinker, and had you told me about 7 years ago that I wouldn’t be drinking milk today, there would have been disbelief, as I was averaging at least 1/4 gallon a day.

Why would someone want to switch out “healthy dairy milk,” for unsweetened Almond Milk?

Let’s do a comparison with the most commonly bought milk (2%,) using the serving size for both (8 fluid ounces).

From switching from dairy to almond these benefits will be realized; You’ll cut out more than 11 grams of sugar, going from 12 grams to less than 1 gram of sugar in almond milk. 100 calories will be slashed, dropping from 130 to 30. All saturated fat (3 grams) and cholesterol (20 milligrams) will be eliminated, being reduced to zero.

What about calcium you might ask. You’ll actually gain with the almond milk, going from 30% of your daily value to 45%.

Okay that all sounds good, but what about protein. No loss there, as most American’s consume 2-3 times more proten than necessary on a daily basis, and though the brotein myth still exists that more protein equals more muscle, scientific tests have long since debunked that myth, which was created by protein manufacturers to sell more product. Excess protein does the exact same as excess calories from fat or carbohydrates-it gets turned into fat, not to mention a host of other potential problems.

Anything in moderation is okay, but I’m especially wary of milk, especially if it’s not organic, as you’re potentially consuming hormones or antibiotics. Even absent of that, to use a Michael Pollan phrase; “you are what you eat, eats,” and I don’t know about you, but a factory farm cow potentially standing in it’s own filth, not getting any exercise, and getting force fed a corn, grain, wheat, soy, or whatevers available based diet is not my idea of a healthy food to consume.

The best inspiration for quitting milk came after reading the book, “Mad Cowboy,” by Howard Lyman. He was the Montana rancher who, along with Oprah Winfrey fought the multiple year legal battle, (they won, thanks to Oprahs tenacity, (and millions of dollars).

Again, you may think, as I did seven years ago, that cutting out dairy milk would be impossible. It’s quite the opposite though after you (try) and go back to it after you don’t drink it for an extended period of time.

In fact, I tried it in a bowl of Uncle Sam’s cereal a few years ago, and couldn’t believe how cloyingly sweet it was. I took one bite, and couldn’t take another, and that’s after consuming it for the vast majority of my life, often likely in more amounts than the average milk drinker. If I can do it you can (at least for a week).

Note, I don’t think grass fed, and/or organic milk is as bad, and anything in moderation is okay, but look at how many calories, and how much sugar you’d be reducing on daily basis by making this imple swap.

For a fun exercise, think about how much milk you drink on a daily basis, and add up those calories per serving day.

Let’s assume most milk drinkers are drinking 16 ounces a day. If you swapped the dairy for almond milk for just one week, per this challenge, that would save you 200 calories per day.

200 x 7 = 1,400 calories saved in just one week, with just one simple switch.

What if you did it for a year? That would be a reduction of 73,000 calorie, not to mention a reduction of 4,015 grams of sugar, not to mention the sizeable reduction in saturated fat, and cholesterol.

Food for thought if nothing else.

One more very imporant note for the thrifty grocer; get your unsweetened (I like vanilla flavored) almond milk at ALDI; it’s only $2 a half gallon, and it’s also the best tasting almond milk I’ve had by far.