So You’ve Ditched Dairy. Now What?
Two alternatives to add to your shopping list and three to avoid
Almond, oat, pea milk… what next?
Walking down the milk aisle is overwhelming these days. And they just keep coming. If you’re anything like me when I first abandoned dairy milk, assuming you’re brave enough to venture down that aisle at all, you might want to run screaming.
Well, you don’t have to. I’ve tested the main contenders but before we get into them, some context about dairy milk.
Dairy milk is naturally white, creamy, tasty and nutritious.
Alternatives might have any of a range of additives to make them:
- White. Let’s face it, yellow or brown milk doesn’t look appetising.
- Creamy. In their natural form alternatives are at least 90% water, which means they have a very thin consistency and a diluting effect.
- Not awful. Alternatives range in taste from naturally terrible to acceptably bland, to pretty good.
- More healthy. With only up to 10% (often much less) of whatever the main ingredient is, alternatives are comparatively neutral in health terms.
Calcium carbonate is the additive used for whiteness and opacity and it adds just a little dose of calcium. Many people view additives with suspicion and some naturalists contend that alternatives ‘shouldn’t mimic dairy milk’. Your choice should be based on how you use it and why you don’t drink milk.
What’s the point for you?
As a general rule, foods are healthier and more nourishing the more natural they are. But let’s face it, it isn’t very natural to milk a pea. For me, milk alternatives are just another facet of the concept of cooking and baking. Long before molecular gastronomy became a thing, everyday housewives, michelin starred chefs and (at least in my imagination) backyard amateur inventors were discovering new ways to use and combine ingredients. The history of ‘processing’ food goes all the way back to cavemen!
To me, the point is what you want from the food you eat. I stopped drinking milk because I’m lactose intolerant. But I want creamy coffee, painless dessert, soup that doesn’t make me burp, and I want to have as positive an impact as I can on my world. I also don’t want to be duped into paying more than I should.
So, I’m a fan of the additives that make my coffee creamier and my soups tasty, and I’m not averse to any extra calcium I can get. And I don’t mind that with additives like calcium carbonate, other fortifying nutrients, thickeners, sweeteners, etc, alternatives can’t be certified as organic.
With that in mind, I’m less interested in the label compared to the story behind it and purity is pointless to me if it doesn’t bring a specific benefit. But you’ll need to decide for yourself.
Oats are a sustainable crop that can be grown anywhere, which means it has less carbon impact from transportation and tends to be inexpensive. Oats also contain a range of nutrients. The taste differs across brands but is on the neutral side of the spectrum. Non-professional versions split in hot drinks, (which makes it look as if the milk has gone off). All oat milks work really well as a milk replacement for cooking and baking.
Coconuts are a sustainable crop where they are grown but, being tropical, transportation means higher carbon impact. Coconut milk changes the taste of coffee, in my opinion for the better! My friends who prefer an unadulterated coffee taste disagree. Coconut milk is also good for cooking and baking but, since it has a stronger taste than milk, I use it in dishes that need the flavour, such as Thai food.
Soya milk is only a sustainable crop when it is responsibly farmed. The massive uptick in demand due to the growth in vegetarian and vegan trends has devastated rainforests in South America. South American soya also has a higher carbon impact compared to locally grown. It has a very bland taste that tends to make coffee taste a bit watery. Most soya milk has sugar, thickeners and other additives — making me wonder what on earth it’s like au naturale.
Then, there are possible mild hormonal effects from the phytoestrogens in soya that mimic the effect of oestrogen. This hasn’t been confirmed but, in combination with its taste all in all, soya isn’t high on my list.
Almond milk hit the big time as a popular milk alternative because almonds are considered a nutrient-packed superfood, plus it sounds fancy to order an “iced almond milk latte, thanks love”. But almond milk only has around 3% almonds, so not really nutrient ‘packed’ as such. The bigger issue is the water needed to grow almonds.
It takes around 400L of water to make a litre of almond milk, which is much better than the 1000L for dairy. But the problem is that almost all that water impact is in California where about 80% of the world’s almonds come from.
Along with devastating wildfires, California is also ravaged by drought and can’t really afford to feed the almond fashion trend. On top of that, most almond milk actually tastes terrible in coffee! Some may claim otherwise but even so, I’m not sure the improvement is worth the cost.
Hemp is a sustainable crop high in nutrients as well as other possible health benefits that are gaining popular attention. Much to the despair of law enforcement in countries where it’s banned, it can easily be grown anywhere. The main downside is that it’s more expensive than oat milk but I also find it bland and a bit watery and therefore not worth the expense.
Other options that I haven’t tried yet are:
- The nutters: hazelnut, peanut, tiger nut, walnut and cashew
- The grain train: Rice, spelt, quinoa
- So random: Pea milk
The main reason I haven’t tried these is that I’m sold on oat milk. It’s hard to justify the usually higher cost of the other options, or the risk of bad coffee! But I’m going to have to get around to trying pea milk: I love peas and they’re quite nutritious (vitamin A, K, C and some protein) so I have to find out what the milk is like. If you’ve tried it, let me know!
