Plant Milks

Animal + Alt Milks 3: This is a high level exploration of several aspects of plant milks, often as a comparison to cow’s milk. After this post, I will be posting every Monday for the next number of weeks a review of specific plant milks.

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Why Drink Non-Dairy Milks?

There are a handful of reasons people decide to remove animal milks from their diet, and switch to plant milks.

• The 2020-2021 Pandemic has caused a dramatic increase in the amount of shelf-stable plant milks sold in the USA according to the FoodandBeverageInsider. People are stocking up or drinking non-dairy milks as a hedge on food system disruptions, and food unavailability. Plant milks have shelf lives that run into a couple of years.
• Lactose intolerance is one of the main personal reasons people turn to plant milks.
  • Cornell Univ reports (in 2005) that according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, some 30 million to 50 million Americans are lactose intolerant, including up to 75 percent of African Americans and American Indians and 90 percent of Asian Americans.
• Vegan dietary restrictions do not allow the consumption of animals or animal by products (like milk, honey, etc.), so fortified plant milks could provide milk-like nutrition and allow for cooking requiring a rich creamy liquid.
  • VeganNews writes (in 2020), a new study has revealed that the number of Americans following plant-based diets is up nearly 9.6 million over the last 15 years. This is a 300% increase and nearly 3 percent of the population in the United States.
• Children’s cow milk allergies show up in ~2–3% of kids who are <3 years old. While it is calculated that ~80% of the children outgrow this allergy by age 16 (1), if the habit is not there for diary milk, folks generally continue to not drink it.
• Cultural Dietary restrictions means some people exclude animal milks because of their cultural or religious beliefs, including that milk is for children, not adults and milk should not be consumed with certain other foods.
• Potential health risks prevent some people from consuming animal milks; they are concerned about antibiotics, pesticides, hormones, saturated fats, etc. Additionally, there are studies that speak to higher risks of breast cancer and other diseases for those who drink milk (2, 3).
• Environmental concerns related to the amount of damage dairy farming can create in our environment (soils, waterways, forests, etc.).
• And finally, there are some people who just do not like the taste, for instance I do not like the fatty taste of whole dairy milk, so when I do use cow’s milk, it is often organic, fat-free from a cooperative of family farms.

Truth About Plant Milks

Nutritionists seem to agree that while none of the plant milks can match the nutrition of cow’s milk, with proper fortification they can come close. Each plant milk contains its own set of nutritional ingredients, so the consumer needs to research, compare and taste. (If you are a baker I would love to hear your favorite plant milk in your baking efforts.)

Healthiness: Just because a beverage is made from plants does not mean it is automatically healthy, good for the environment, or ethically manufactured. In general, everyone seems to agree any plant milk is better than animal-based milks, but that may be a low bar to cross.

Environment: Each type of animal or plant milks can be harmful to the environment, animals, and humans. At a minimum, we need to remember that dairy or plant farmers are human and can make the same mistakes and share the same human-shortsightedness. Often harms can be caused through unimagined consequences due to our own foibles.

Businesses: We have also learned that just because companies produce healthy food alternatives, does not translate into that company being ethical, dedicated to human and animal welfare, or regenerative agriculture. Some plant milk companies are owned, in part, by Dairy Agriculture or large multinational food companies.

So with these understandings, let’s look at the pros + cons of plant milks.

Pro Plant Milk

The benefits of plant milks are very clear, and make sense on their face without me having to cite a variety of sources. These statements are made “in general,” since there are exceptions that I describe further down.

• Plant milks are generally considered cruelty free, since no animals are used to produce the milk.
• Plant milks support vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian diets, provided they are fortified to add in calcium, VitD’s and B‘s.
• Plants do not contain lactose, so are less likely to be an allergen.
• Plant milks are generally considered better for the environment than dairy animals: they use less potable water, less likely to poison wells + waterways, require less land, and produce less noxious waste.
• Plant milks contain less saturated fat, no cholesterol, fewer hormones than used in industrial dairy farming, and fewer antibiotics than used in industrial dairy farming.
• Plant milks can have longer shelf life without bad preservatives.

Studies continue on plants milks, and one was presented at the American Chemical Society Fall 2022 event reviewing the mineral content specifically, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium of various plant-based milk options including almond, cashew, coconut, hemp, oat, rice, pea, and soy, according to EurekAlert! Not only did they find that both pea and soy milk had higher levels of these minerals when compared to cow’s milk, but pea milk actually had 50% higher levels of phosphorus, zinc, and selenium than milk from a cow. This makes the chart I post above already ”out of date” with findings.

Con Plant Milk

But there are also negatives associated with plant milks, which we also need to understand so we can make the best decisions on which to consume.

• Not all plant milks are cruelty free
  • Concerns about forest clearing and animal habitat harm (like Brazil Soy Beans).
  • TheCut writes about concerns regarding almonds, which are killing bees due to overused pesticides, disrupting their seasons, over populated orchards spreading germs.
  • Concerns about companies causing animal torture for harvesting (like some Thailand Coconuts).
• Not all plant milks are beneficial or neutral to the environment.
  • Concerns about water use (like with California’s almonds).
  • Non-organic farming uses synthetic pesticides, and organic farming uses natural pesticides, can result in both leaking into the environment and ruining soils, waterways, and forests (please see my post on regenerative agriculture).
  • Concerns are growing about monocultures that focus on producing mass quantities of consumer demanded foods (like Italy’s Hazelnut growth) ruining animal and environmental habitats around the world.
• Not all plant milks treat laborers fairly.
  • Concerns about companies causing laborers physical harm and providing barely survival wages (like India’s Cashews).

Production Issues

We are often blinded by marketing to assuming organic is always coming from a small farm, run by people who care. But as I show below, many very large international, industrial food companies and dairies own many plant milk companies.

So remember, it is all about the priorities and guiding principles of the farmers, manufacturers, and processors that we rely on to give us good information, but ultimately is is our responsibilities as consumers who have to decide what to purchase.

• Not all farmers are ethical people, some are strictly business people focused on producing products as cheaply as possible.
  • Many non-organic farmers use glyphosate pesticides.
  • Some do not care for their workers or laborers.
  • Some do not care for the land, waterways, soil or forests.
• The capitalistic manufacturing processes often favors profits over quality, so they aim to make their milks perceived by consumers as a “real” alternative to cows milk,
  • Many articles stress that plant milks may contain few of the main plant ingredient, but are actually filled with cheaper water, fillers, sugars, gums, emulsifiers, and other thickening ingredients.
  • Some plant milks contain the red-seaweed Carrageenan to thicken and prevent ingredients separation. There are studies that have linked carrageenan to inflammation, gut irritation, and cancer.
• The marketing of plant milks overstate the benefits in an effort to sell.
  • Some of these plants, like soy and tree nuts, are an allergen themselves, but generally no clear statements about this known allergy is noted in the packaging.
  • Not all of the fortified plant milks have the same bioavailable vitamins and minerals as cows milk; so they may claim Vit XYZ is in the drink, but Vit XYZ may not be absorbable in your body.
  • The important details are hidden in the nutrition label and list of ingredients so read them carefully before you choose.

Are Plant Milks Big Ag?

Animals Lactate “Milk”

Many of the plant milks in the USA do not use the term “milk” on their cartons. They tend to primarily use “beverage” as a result of tremendous push back from the USA Dairy Farmers and their Lobbyists who argued milk only comes from lactating animals, and since plants do not lactate, plants cannot therefore produce milk.

Dairy’s complaint is that consumers will be confused and think that plant milks are animal produced milk, thereby harming the existing dairy industry and duping consumers into thinking the two are nutritionally equivalent.

• Trade groups for the dairy industry are fighting to get the Food and Drug Administration to prevent non-dairy options from using the term “milk” on labels. Outgoing FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb seemed willing to consider the idea. A Ninth Circuit court, however, disagreed and ruled in 2018 that almond milk is unlikely to be confused with dairy milk.

The Dairy Lobby, representing the business, has a major role to play in both state as well as federal guidelines.

Dairy Hedging Bets

At the same time, while milk sales are going down, the consumption of alternative milks is increasing. Statista has shown that in 2016, nearly 1/3 of American households have some plant milks in their house.

Bloomberg writes that while Milk Farmers and Lobbyists are trying to shut down the ability of plant-milks to use the term “milk”, at the same time, some are actually jumping into the plant-milk market. Hedging their bets, because they too have seen the numbers.

Dairy + Ag Business and Plant Brands

Here is information on the brands I tasted in this post. This list enforces the idea that plant milks are rapidly turning into big business.

Dannon is a French multinational food-products corporation based in Paris and founded in Barcelona, Spain. So Delicious (started in 1987) was acquired by WhiteWave, which was subsequently acquired by Danone (now known as DanoneWave). Both of these brands are owned by Dannon. The Danone company also owns Danone, Oikos, Activia, and International Delight as well as plant milk brands Silk (1978) and Alpro (1980).

Dream and Imagine Foods are part of the Hain Celestial Group (started in 1999), the country’s largest natural and organic foods company. They have statements on ecological impact, sustanability, and labor on their site.

Eden Foods (started late 1968) is a Michigan company that has 7 different soy milk products, and four with these flavors: vanilla, cocoa, and carob.

Good Karma Foods (1996) focuses on flax milk, and is a Colorado company where in 2017 Dean Foods, a large dairy company, became the majority shareholder. Recently, May 2020, the Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) acquired a substantial portion of Dean Foods’ assets. The DFA is an organization of local, family farmers from across America.

HP Hood, one of the nation’s largest, oldest dairy operations, produces the fortified Planet Oat Oatmilk.

Hudson River Foods is a food brand that makes Tempt Hemp Milk from imported Canadian hemp.

Milkadamia (2016) focuses on macadamia milk sourced from family-owned Jindilli Farms, in the eastern coast of Australia, where macadamia tree is a native Australian rainforest tree.

Privately held Pacific (1987) is a natural food brand. Their Cashew milk was certified Fair Trade

Trader Joes is owned by Aldi Nord, and produces plant milks among all sorts of other food items.

Other common names I have seen in the alt-milk world:

• Califa (2010)
• Chobani produces an oat milk called Chobani Oat.
• Forager (2012)
• Innocent (1998)
• Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, owns Coffee-Mate and its new vegan creamers made from almond, coconut, and oat milk, it also has released an oat milk version of Nesquik.
• Oat-ly (1985)
• Ripple (2018)

Mitigation on Plant Milks

On the positive side, we can make choices that mitigate or improve the bad aspects of industrial farming. So when looking to convert to plant milks, here are some suggestions.

• Buy the plant milks that are GMO free and organic.
• Buy drinks with as few ingredients as possible.
• Purchase fortified milks (especially Calcium and VitD) for better nutrition.
• Avoid any drink with carrageenan.
• Choose “unsweetened” milks.
  • Sweeten it yourself to control the amount and type of sugars in your beverage.
• Avoid flavored plant milks, they contain way too much sugar (I do not care that it is organic cane sugar).
• Check the ingredient list for possible allergens, and dangerous chemicals.
• Choose your brands carefully, they are not all equal.
• Make sure the company adheres to free trade certification.
• Figure out how important the politics, environment, or exploitation is to you personally, and make your choices based in part on those ethics.

Plant Milk Commonalities

So let me start with what all the containers of milks that I bought had in common.

• All were in paper containers that are recyclable.
  • Except for the imported, tinned Coconut milks + creams
• All state they have GMO-free ingredients.
• Nearly all stated they were organically grown.
• All clearly state they are vegan and lactose free (duh!).
• All are cholesterol free.
• Nearly all state they are fortified with calcium, and various vitamins.
• They all have a clear, stamped expiration date.
• Some have saturated fats or added sugars so read the labels.

Finally, I will make my recommendations, and reasoning for my decisions, in subsequent Monday posts where I review the plant milks. There are a handful of plant milks that I have found ethical, nutritional, and safe to consume, so do not worry that nothing is out there.

— Patty

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