coconut milk
- Very smooth and satisfying
- <=1 g natural sugars so basically carb-free
- amazing replacement for milk in cereal and smoothies
Oat milk followed by homemade cashew milk. I found coconut milk and almond milk both to be too watery tasting.
Edit: Here is my recipe for nut/seed milk. This works for cashews, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and pepitas. I haven’t tried it with other nuts or seeds.
- 1/3c nuts or seeds
- 4c water
- Sweetener of choice (I just use 2 Splenda packets but I’ve also used agave and pitted dates)
- 1/8tsp salt
- 1/8tsp xanthan gum (can be ommitted but it helps the texture IMHO)
- 1/2tsp vanilla (optional)
Blend seeds or nuts with water, salt, and sweetener in a high speed blender. Strain through a nut milk bag. Add xanthan gum and re-blend. Stays good for a week or more.
Mountain Dew
I always felt like it tasted like already flat soda
You gotta get it straight from the Mountain cow. It’s never quite as good once it’s bottled.
I always felt it tasted like pine-scented dish soap.
Unsweetened almond milk, then oat milk, then coconut. Last resort is soy because I can ALWAYS taste some sort of soy-ness flavor, the same way I can taste a hint of coconut with coconut milk, and that soy taste is just weird.
Rice Milk
Specifically: Califia Farms Toasted Coconut - Coconut Almondmilk Blend. This is the closest I have found since I started watching my carbs/sugar intake 4 years ago.
I found almond milk to be a great substitute a couple of years ago when I was dieting. Particularly the ‘unsweetened, vanilla’ variety from Almond Breeze.
As an added bonus, it also has a much longer shelf life than regular milk.
For information, almond milk is by far the least environmentally sustainable milk substitute. Almond farming is extremely water-intensive.
Ah damn, and it looks like almonds are grown mostly in California. Adding insult to injury.
California-grown almonds account for 80 per cent of the world’s commercial almond production.
(From https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/the-best-plant-based-milks-for-the-planet/)
I can’t stand the sugary versions of any of them, unsweetened with/without vanilla is all the flavor needed haha
Almond milk is my go to
I like soy milk. I don’t know why people freak out about it.
I liked the smell of it in my shaving cream but yet to formally try it in the mouth hole
It’s fine? It’s not ambrosia, but it’s easier on my stomach and a little bit healthier than the moo juice.
something about estrogen load
Oatly had this strawberry-elderflower sort of drink and then it stopped being made / imported.
It was so fucking good, and I just don’t enjoy the other flavours as much.
Oatly adds amylase to convert oat starch into maltose. The result is that the sugar content is about that of Coca-Cola while they still write “unsweetened” or “no added sugar” on their sassy packaging because it’s technically true.
It’s good for a dash into your coffee, but I wouldn’t suggest it as a daily substitute due to the sugar content.
Wouldn’t the starch break down into an equivalent amount of sugar during digestion?
Yes. In fact, human saliva contains amylase. Also, coke is way less calory-dense than regular milk.
I keep getting surprised that people seem to think that adding amylase to oat water suddenly adds calories. You merely increase the amount of simple sugars. On the whole, the calory total is stil much lower than regular milk.Nice strawman you got going there, but I never said anything about calories. It’s about sugar.
Your uptake of sugar is not equal across all forms, but varies by the underlying sugar. The rate of uptake is measured with the glycemic index, the higher, the faster the uptake. Lactose has a GI of around 45, sucrose of 65 and maltose of 105. Maltose lets your blood sugar level spike significantly more than the others which leads to a more significant crash which induces hunger, irritability, fatigue, and overeating.
Coke is a lot more sugar-dense than milk (more than double the density) and coupled with the presence of a higher GI sugar, it’s more of a snack than a refreshing drink.
Additionally, the controlled enzymatic conversion by adding amylase breaks down a lot more of the oat starch than what would normally happen while eating and digesting, so my point still stands.
I see where you’re coming from and I didn’t mean to misrepresent your argument.
I am wondering about the following though:the controlled enzymatic conversion by adding amylase breaks down a lot more of the oat starch than what would normally happen while eating and digesting
On what basis do you say this? Do you know literature that shows this? Are blood sugar levels clearly impacted differently by oat-water starches with and without amylase treatment?
There is this study about different kinds of processing with alpha-amylase. The relevant data is in Figure 2, control (C in the figure) was just an oat-water slurry that was heated for some time, En is with the addition of amylase. The rest is about exploring different processing techniques.
It doesn’t compare starch-sugar ratio during digestion tho, not sure if there are any studies that do that. But higher initial maltose content means a higher spike.
Thanks for the ref.
higher initial maltose content means a higher spike
Based on your ref, I’m not convinced that this is truly the case though. I think this may be more relevant to your point:
https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fbf01092074
From the quick googling I did at work, it seems that there are different types of starches that digest at different rates. Whole grain cereals are in the slower-to-digest category *and might not get digested fully.
I personally suspect that the process of making oat milk - blending and straining the oats - makes them easier to digest and probably has an impact on GI. So it’s probably a wash.
I don’t enjoy coffee or the Oatly meant for coffee that much.
The elderberry-strawberry thing actually tasted refreshing. I don’t drink any other drinks like that. I’ve tried, but I’ve just not enjoyed a single one outside of that, pretty much. They all have that sort of beany aftertaste. It’s not bad, but it’s not too enjoyable for me.
Rice milk for oatmeal, oat milk for baking, soy milk for drinking straight due to protein
Swap use cases of rice and soy milk and it’s me.
Oat for lattes, rice for drinking straight, coconut for smoothies, almond for cereal
Nice call out on rice milk straight. I do think it has a nice subtle sweetness to it the others don’t.
Depends on what I am using it for. I quite like oat milk in my coffee drinks. I feel like it is nice to have the oaty flavor paired with the coffee taste.
surprised nobody mentioned lactose-free cow milk. lactaid changed my life.
non-dairy
Oat milk. I can make it at home and customize it for 1/10th the price.
It’s also near the bottom for CO2 emissions as well.
neat!
Now this I have to try! Could you talk me through how you do this? Just read a quick article on it: you only blend oats and water, then strain it? Would coffee filters be good for straining?
I use a metal strainer.
I had to try out a couple of recipes in order to get one that works well.
My recipe:
Oat Milk:
-
1 cup oats
-
6 cups water (chilled)
-
1 tsp vanilla
- Add all to blender and blend on high for 30-40 seconds
- Strain with strainer 2x
- Add maple syrup for flavoring (and/or honey) 3 tbsp
Keeps for about a week.
Theres some other similar ones like: https://www.loveandlemons.com/oat-milk/ that work out well and may keep for longer (salt).
Do you try cooking the oats, or just cold soak?
I think its quick oats? It just said oats when I bought them but I get them in bulk food or 25 pound bags once a year-ish.
I’ve never been able to make non-slimy oat milk. I’ll give this a recipe a try.
-
Oatly is my one and only.
