I have always loved milk. My mom used to turn up her nose because I would prefer milk over just about any other beverage — I even drank milk with pizza. When I went low-carb, I quickly learned that milk is a huge source of sugar, and I dreaded giving it up.

Even “healthy” Skim and 2% milk have 12g of carbs per cup — all sugar! Meanwhile, 1% and whole have 13g of sugar. To put it in perspective, that’s a little less sugar than a Snickers bar. We’ll save the discussion of why fat isn’t bad for you for another day, but suffice it to say that you aren’t saving much by drinking watered-down skim milk. If you’re going to drink milk, you might as well enjoy it and drink it whole.

So, what does a low-carbing milk lover like me do to quench my thirst? Well, there’s soy milk, which packs 12g of carbs per cup (9 of which are sugar) – not much better, unless you opt for the unsweetened variety, which is a much easier to swallow 4g total carbs per cup (1 fiber and 1 sugar).

Taste-wise, however, I prefer vanilla unsweetened almond milk. It has only 2g total carbs, 1 of which is fiber, and <1 g sugar. When calculating net carbs, you subtract the fiber from the total, so this example has a net value of only 1g. Almond milk has less protein than regular milk, but I make up for that with the rest of my daily intake of meat, cheese & nuts, so it’s no biggie.

Besides the dietary rationale, milk has gotten so darned expensive, it’s not much more pricey to buy the almond milk. My boys like the flavor, and although they aren’t on a low-carb plan, I do try to watch their sugar intake. We haven’t axed regular milk all together, but I’m seriously considering it. The price difference just isn’t worth it, when milk is pushing $4/gallon and the store brand almond milk is $2.30/half-gallon.