Plant Milk

Food · Misleading · Marketing Labels

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The milk in plant milk describes how it looks. A glass of oat or almond drink has a fraction of the protein in the same glass of cow milk, and only soy drink comes close on protein; calcium, vitamin D and B12 are there only when added. Swapping plant milk for cow milk means choosing a fortified one and reading the label, not assuming the nutrition is the same.
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What plant milk is · one word, four very different drinks

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What plant milk gives you depends almost entirely on two things: how much of the crop went in, and what the maker added. That is why, under one name, soy milk comes close to cow's milk on protein while oat and almond milk fall far short, and why calcium and vitamin B12 appear only in fortified cartons; the chapter on fortification explains why they have to be added.

Plant milk is not milk. It is a drink made by soaking a plant, grinding it with water, filtering out the pulp, then flavoring and thickening it; the milk in the name describes how it looks, not how it nourishes. Four common kinds sit under the one word, and they differ a lot:

Soy milk: high in protein, close to cow's milkOat milk: high in carbohydrate, low in protein, naturally sweetAlmond milk: very low in calories and protein, mostly waterCoconut drinks: the most saturated fat among plant milks, almost no protein
Plant milk took off because of lactose intolerance (see milk for the mechanism), plant-based eating, the environment, and the hunch that plant means healthier. The first few are fair reasons; that last hunch is what this story takes apart. To judge a carton, read the nutrition panel, not the word plant.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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