Q. I’m lactose intolerant, but still enjoy milk in cereal and coffee. What is the best alternative, nondairy milk to drink?A. The bottom line is that a variety of alternative drinks can provide similar nutrition to cow’s milk, so other than personal preference, it comes down to how you define “best.”Cow’s milk is naturally high in protein, calcium and a variety of other important vitamins and minerals. Through fortification, it also offers vitamins A and D.If the goal is to enjoy a product as similar to cow’s milk as possible, then lactose-free cow’s milk or soy milk may be your best bets. “A diagnosis of lactose intolerance actually doesn’t mean you have to fully avoid cow’s milk dairy products,” said Alicia Romano, a registered dietitian at the Frances Stern Nutrition Center at Tufts Medical Center, and a spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Lactose is the sugar that’s naturally present in milk and other dairy products in varying degrees; milk has the most, hard cheeses have the least, Ms. Romano said. People who are lactose intolerant don’t produce enough lactase, the enzyme that helps you digest lactose.Lactose intolerance affects approximately 25 to 40 percent of adults globally. Tens of millions of Americans are thought to be lactose intolerant, which can cause cramping, diarrhea and bloating when they eat lactose-containing foods. Lactose intolerance is particularly common in African Americans, Ashkenazi Jews, Latinos and American Indians, affecting up to 80 percent or more of some groups. From a nutritional perspective, Ms. Romano recommends lactose-free milk as the first alternative to consider because the nutritional profile is the same as regular milk, with lactase enzyme added to it. But there is a wide variety of healthy nondairy, plant-based alternatives available as well.“If you’re looking for a milk alternative that’s most similar in a side-by-side comparison, that ounce by ounce has the most similar nutritional value, then unsweetened, fortified soy milk is your best bet,” Ms. Romano said. “It lines up with calcium, vitamin D, other nutrients, calories — the profile is almost identical.”Other good options can be various nut milks and oat milk.Aileen Son for The New York Times“Soy and nut milk have healthier fat profiles than cow’s milk,” Dr. Walter Willett, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said. Coconut milk, like cow’s milk, is high in saturated fat, which raises cholesterol levels. Soy milk and the various nut milks without added sugar — such as almond, walnut, peanut, cashew, hazelnut or macadamia nut milk — as well as hemp and flax milks are higher in heart-healthy unsaturated fats, and also tend to have fewer calories than cow’s milk. Oat milk, without added sugar, is high in fiber, and calories are comparable to cow’s milk.Soy milk is one of the only nondairy alternatives that matches cow’s milk’s eight grams of protein per cup. But protein deficiency is not a concern in the United States, Dr. Willett said, especially for adults. If, however, you are looking to get a significant amount of protein from milk, check the labels on different products, as amounts vary widely among the alternatives to cow’s milk.Both Ms. Romano and Dr. Willett also suggest checking labels to look for alternatives that are fortified with calcium and vitamin D, which may help with bone health. “We definitely need vitamin D,” Dr. Willett said, though we probably don’t need the high levels of calcium that many Americans think they need. “When we look at dairy directly, we don’t see that high dairy consumption reduces fracture rates in terms of the evidence,” he said.They also advise watching out for lots of added sugar in flavored milk alternatives. Ideally there would be no added sugar in the product, but generally aim for below 10 grams per serving.One last consideration: the planet. “It’s important to look at everything through both a health lens and an environmental lens at this point in time,” Dr. Willett said. Dairy production is tied to high levels of greenhouse gas emissions and requires a lot of water. “So for the environmental footprint, alternative milks are actually desirable.”Sophie Egan is the author of “How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet” (Workman, 2020).

I keep finding myself biting into an apple or a peach, only to find I’ve eaten half the sticker the store put on there. Is there any harm in eating produce stickers?While the stickers that get placed on fruits and vegetables won’t cause you any harm, it’s probably best to remove them before eating.PLU stickers, which stands for “Price Look Up,” serve an important function in grocery stores: telling the clerk how much to charge for that item. In the United States, about half of fresh produce doesn’t arrive in packaging, so the sticker is the main source of information on what type of produce it is and how it was grown. (Stickers that start with the numbers 3 or 4 mean the item was grown conventionally, and those starting with 9 indicate the item was grown organically.)“Because produce stickers have contact with food, the intended use of these stickers is the subject of premarket approval by the Food and Drug Administration, to ensure that any substances that may migrate to food from the use of the sticker is safe,” said a spokeswoman for the agency in an email. “As these stickers are intended to be removed before consumption of produce, the F.D.A.’s review does not include the exposure that would result from regular consumption of these labels. However, as these substances are of low toxicity, any exposure from the occasional, unintentional consumption of a sticker would not be expected to be a health concern.”There are three main components to the sticker, according to Ed Treacy, vice president of supply chain and sustainability for the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), the organization that invented the produce -ticker system decades ago. There’s the ink, which spells out the PLU number; there’s the substrate it’s printed on (typically plastic, plastic composite or paper); and there’s the adhesive, which makes it stick. “All three of those have to be safe for humans,” Mr. Treacy said.Aileen Son for The New York TimesThough the stickers are edible, they have no flavor and no nutritional value. And there is an environmental downside to not removing them before discarding skins, peels and other parts that you don’t eat: Produce stickers are not home compostable, so they won’t break down in the compost.When it comes to making the stickers biodegradable: “That is a challenge that our industry is spending a lot of time, effort and money trying to solve,” Mr. Treacy said. “The challenge is the adhesive” — finding something that is sticky enough to stay stuck to the fruit or vegetable throughout the entire supply chain.“For something to be compostable, it has to be made out of natural ingredients — something that was once alive and is now dead,” said Jean Bonhotal, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute. She explained that every time you forget to remove the label before tossing your banana peel, avocado skin or orange peel in your countertop compost bin, those stray stickers contaminate the compost with tiny microplastics that, in turn, contaminate the soil where that batch of compost gets dropped.Just one more reason to remove the sticker and place it in the trash before enjoying your fruits or vegetables.

A food safety specialist offers tips on helping to keep your food safe.To minimize the risk of food poisoning, you really do need to wash produce before eating it, though no special produce washes are required.Wash your hands before handling any produce, then rinse the foods under cold, running tap water. Five to 10 seconds is typically sufficient, so long as you’re covering the full surface of the produce item. Rinsing removes debris and dirt and any microbial contaminants they may contain. Washing also helps remove some of the surface pesticides that may be present, though guidelines are generally the same for organic produce as for conventional produce.With greens, such as romaine lettuce, a good approach is to break off and rinse individual leaves, then dry in a salad spinner. Another strategy is to submerge the produce in a bowl of water before rinsing.“None of our food is sterile; there are always microorganisms there, but there are certain types that if we ingest, we become sick,” said Erin DiCaprio, assistant cooperative extension specialist in community food safety at the University of California, Davis. “So, washing is a best practice to help mitigate some of that risk.”By and large, the American food supply is quite safe, but food safety specialists keep their eyes on certain pathogens, both bacteria and viruses, that have been associated with dangerous outbreaks tied to produce. For example, E. coli O157:H7, a bacterium found in the intestines of cattle and other animals, also turns up in leafy greens and, if ingested, can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Certain groups, such as the very young and the very old, are particularly prone to developing severe symptoms and potentially deadly kidney failure.“We see a number of outbreaks caused by viruses in produce,” said Dr. DiCaprio. “So, when we talk about food-borne viruses, primarily it’s hepatitis A virus and norovirus. We see those viruses causing a number of outbreaks in soft berries because often these commodities are harvested by hand, so we as humans can cross-contaminate those berries during harvest.”If you see dirt, sand or grit on your produce — for example, in the grooves of a celery stalk —you’d certainly want to remove that material. But it’s also important to rinse off dust and other small debris that you may not see but that can also contain harmful germs.Early fears about the possible transmission of coronavirus on foods were not borne out, though other viruses may be spread by the dirty hands of other customers. So wash any fruits or vegetables you pull off the shelves or produce stand, including leafy greens, whole fruits and raw vegetables. Washing won’t completely decontaminate a piece of produce, Dr. DiCaprio said, but generally removes 90 percent to 99 percent of the microorganisms. Ingesting fewer microbes makes it less likely you’ll get sick.There’s no need to rewash greens or other items that say “pre-washed” on the package. In fact, washing them could raise the risk of cross-contamination with other foods, such as raw meat, that you may be preparing — a concern whenever you are washing any foods, so take care to keep work surfaces clean.It’s important to wash produce regardless of whether you’re going to eat the skin (such as apples) or peel it (such as bananas, carrots, oranges or avocados). Rinse before peeling or cutting. Using a clean brush to gently scrub firm surfaces of items like melons can also help remove any debris.Dr. DiCaprio does not recommend special produce washes, bleaches or detergents. “There can actually be negative impacts on health if consuming residual levels of soap or other detergents,” she said. “It’s more of a marketing type of thing. I personally wouldn’t spend my money on them because I know they aren’t any more effective than regular water.”Lastly, some temperature tips. While heat can inactivate microorganisms, hot water does not appear to be more effective than cold water in terms of food safety. The level of heat required would most likely be too hot to subject your hands to in the sink and might affect the quality of the produce.As for frozen produce, there’s no need to rinse before consumption. However, it’s important to follow the handling instructions on the package, including any heating recommendations.Sophie Egan is the author of “How to Be a Conscious Eater: Making Food Choices That Are Good for You, Others, and the Planet” (Workman, 2020).