Do you have any questions about plant-based milk?
In recent years, the consumption of vegetable milk (or vegetable drink) as a substitute for milk of animal origin has grown significantly. That’s why we can find more and more options and brands to choose from.
I remember that when I stopped eating dairy products because they made me feel sick, this was not the case. It was difficult to find vegetable milliliter than soy or rice.
Now there is something for everyone: nuts, cereals, seeds, legumes…
But what’s happening?
The more variety there is to choose from, the more doubts arise.
Every day I get a lot of questions about which plant-based milk is the best, which is the healthiest, what ingredients they should and shouldn’t have, what machines I recommend for making them at home, and which is the cheapest…
So in this article, I am going to resolve all these doubts.
And I’m also going to tell you how to lower the price of these vegetable drinks, which are quite inexpensive on the market.
Let’s go!
Almond, coconut, and oat milk: my three favorites.
As I was saying, there are a lot of types of vegetable milks, and they all have different characteristics both nutritionally, as well as in terms of taste, smell, texture…
That’s why one person may like rice milk more, and another person may like oat milk, for example.
In my case, I stick with almonds, cocoons, and boats.
On a nutritional level, especially almond milk, because being a drink made from this dried fruit, is rich in healthy fats, vitamin E, minerals such as potassium, and antioxidants
Plus, it’s one of the lowest in carbs, which is what I’m looking for daily.
Of course, although I love its flavor, not everyone indeed likes it because it is less sweet (as long as it does not contain sugar, which we will talk about later).
Oat milk has a milder flavor, which is why many people prefer it, especially when they start drinking vegetable drinks.
The cons that I see to this option are that if it is not certified gluten-free, people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity have to be careful, and that hydrolyzation is normally used in its production process (we will see it now).
Finally, coconut milk in a carton not in a can, which contains more fat and is used for other things, is also nutritionally interesting because it does not cause glucose spikes.
But it has an intense flavor different from what we are used to and it is not always liked.
Now, here it is the same as always, although these drinks can be very healthy, you have to look at the ingredients they contain. And in the case of oat milk, you also have to see if it is hydrolyzed or not.
You always have to take out the magnifying glass.
Ingredients to avoid when buying plant-based milk.
Well, if you are going to buy vegetable milk in the supermarket, whatever it is, what it should have is the main ingredient (oats, coconut, almonds…) along with water and perhaps salt, nothing else.
The percentage of this main ingredient is important.
In the case of cereals, it should be at least 11-12%, in legumes 13-14% and in nuts 4%.
However, many times, in addition to this percentage being much lower, other ingredients are added to reduce costs or to achieve certain nuances in flavor, but which are not at all healthy.
These are the ones you have to avoid in your plant-based milks:
- Sunflower oil: when heated to high temperatures it oxidizes and releases substances that are toxic to the body.
- Starches: These are used to improve texture, but it is not advisable to overuse them because they have the same effect on the body as sugar. If you buy vegetable milk, make sure it is made from tapioca or potato, and avoid corn milk.
- Additives (those weird names you see in the ingredients): carrageenan (E-407), potassium citrate (E-332), potassium phosphate (E340), guar gum and xanthan gum, cellulose (E-460), calcium phosphate (E.341), aspartame, acesulfame K (E950)…
- Sugar with any of its names: refined white sugar, brown sugar, panela, honey, agave syrup, maple, fructose, dextrose, maltose, sucrose, saccharin, sucralose… plant
Special case: hydrolysation in oat (and other cereal) vegetable milk.
In the case of cereal drinks such as oat drinks, we need to be even more careful.
Even if they do not contain added sugars, they may contain sugar due to the hydrolysis process, by which the chains of complex carbohydrates present in the cereal are converted into short chains, which are the sugars.
They do this to get a sweeter taste, but of course, you are consuming sugar. And the worst thing is that you don’t realize it unless you look at the nutritional table. plant
So in this type of milk, it is not enough to look at the ingredients, you have to go to the part that says “Carbohydrates of which sugars.”
If the value is 0 grams, it means that it is not hydrolyzed and is healthy.
Many brands put labels on the front of the carton such as “no added sugars”, “no additives”…
And this creates the impression that they are healthy, but this is not the case, because the reality is that they contain a lot of sugar. Here is an example:
Also, keep in mind that these values are calculated for 100 ml. and that a glass is 250 ml., so you would be drinking 24 grams of sugar in each glass.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults with a normal body mass index reduce sugar consumption to 5% of daily caloric intake, equivalent to 25 grams.
For children, much less, about 16 grams of sugar maximum.plant
So with just one glass of this milk, you are already consuming practically the maximum amount of sugar recommended by the WHO (it exceeds it for children) and the worst thing is that you are doing it without being aware of it.
And thinking that you are drinking something superhealthyh, when in reality it would be that “sugar treat” that you can have a day.
What to do to make plant-based milk more affordable.
Okay, now that you know what ingredients cannot be contained in the plant-based milk you buy, another problem comes into play: price.plant
Plant-based milks are expensive, that’s a fact, and the healthier they are, the more so.
For example, in the case of almond milk, you often pay a gold price for a minimum percentage of almonds and the rest are starches, additives, sugars… And if you buy one with a higher percentage of almonds and without these ingredients, the price goes up.
How can we reduce the cost and make them healthier? By making them at home.
There are several options for machines and systems, and depending on your needs and tastes, one or the other will suit you better.
I’ll tell you.
Machines to make them at home: manual vs. automatic version.
When you make homemade plant-based milk, you ensure that it will have only the necessary ingredients and that they are healthy.
But different systems or machines have pros and cons. Let’s look at them all. plant
The first thing we are going to do is differentiate between manual and automatic options.
Manual milk makers are cheaper, but the price of the resulting milk will be the same or more expensive than those in the supermarket because a larger quantity of nuts, cereals, legumes, coconut, etc. is needed than in automatic milk makers. plant
And they also involve more work and time.
For example, with this type of system, cereals have to be cooked beforehand, while automatic machines do it themselves.
The problem is that it does not have a function for cooking cereals or legumes, so you would have to do this step beforehand if you want to make oat, quinoa, or soy drinks…
These other automatic machines that I recommend do have this function:
- MIOMAT vegetable milk maker with a capacity of 1.3 liliters199 euros).
- BB-Vegetal (EKOIDEAS) with a capacity of 1.3 liters (this one normally costs 244 euros, although you can sometimes find it discounted for 189 euros).
Both have different programs to make all kinds of vegetable milk and even to make other types of preparations such as porridge, milkshakes, and reams… plant.
I have left you the links to each of them so you can look more in-depth at their functions.
But keep reading because just below you will find a table in which I have calculated how much a liter of vegetable milk (oat, coconut, and almond) would cost you in each of the options we have talked about.
PS This post is purely informative, nobody pays me to say anything about any machine, nor has anyone given me any machine 😉
** Oatmeal is not included in the Vegan milk maker and the manual options because they do not have the cereal cooking function .plant
So, as l conclusion after this table, I think that although automatic machines are more expensive than manual ones and require a larger initial outlay, in the long run, they are profitable because they significantly reduce the cost of a liter of milk.
The Vegan milk maker from the CREATE brand is a great option if you are not going to drink cereal or soy milk because you have to cook them first and things get more complicated.
The Miomat and BB-Vegetal are more versatile, although more expensive, if you look at the price per liter of milk, it is much cheaper than if you buy it at the supermarket.
And the manual options, although they indeed allow you to ensure that the ingredients you use are healthy, there is not much difference in price with the ones you can buy (they are even more expensive). plant
In any case, this depends a lot on what you need and what you are going to use it for. But now you have all the information so you can see which option best suits you. read more
