They're small white boxes with bright blue, stylized Chinese characters. Each box is ominously labeled, "Not a substitute for infant formula." They're available in every dining hall. And so far this year, Harvard students have taken more than 8,000 of them--nearly 1.25 boxes per undergraduate.

They are containers of soy milk, a beverage on the rise nationwide and increasingly popular at Harvard.

Soy milk is a natural product extracted from cooked, ground soybeans. Nutrition experts say it is an excellent substitute for cow's milk for people who are lactose intolerant, and a relatively healthy drink option for all.

The amount of soy milk consumed in Harvard dining halls has risen each year since it was introduced five years ago, according to Harvard Dining Services (HDS) Executive Chef Michael Miller.

So far this year, students have gone through about 170 cases of 48 boxes each, a total of more than 280 gallons, Miller says.

Soy Lovers

Although the drink is available in every dining hall, students say soy milk is most popular in Quincy House. (House-by-house statistics on soy milk consumption were unavailable.)

An elder Quincy soy drinker is Montira Horayangura '97, who calls herself "a real aficionado" and says she consumes at least one container every two days.

Horayangura, a former Crimson executive, says she tries to "sneak out" of the dining hall with as many containers as she can.

"The dining hall staff is kind of picky," she says, adding that some HDS workers let her take more than others. "I've been known to sneak out a whole six-pack on occasion."

Unlike in many houses, where soy drinkers must ask for their cartons, Quincy diners can get the drink themselves from refrigerators just behind the serving area.

For Horayangura, who is from Thailand, the drink is "a little taste of home."

"It's not something I expected to find here," she says.

Although only popular in the United States in the last several decades, soy milk has been consumed in Asia for 5,000 years.

"It's still mostly Asians who drink it," Horayangura says. "To a lot of people it's kind of an acquired taste."