Got (Alternative) Milk?
Don’t have a cow! (Literally, no cows here)
—By Alex Vena
When I open up my tiny fridge in my Ann Arbor shoebox apartment, my eyes are immediately met with a line of four various milk cartons, only one of which is traditional dairy milk. However, interestingly enough, neither I or my four roommates have a dairy allergy or are lactose intolerant. Skim, almond, oat, and soy milks grace our refrigerator shelf, with the intention of being used for cooking, baking, and most importantly, coffee creaming. The latter three varieties constitute the more popular options of alternative milk, which have become a go-to item for not just those with dietary restrictions, but for those who choose it solely out of personal preference, as well.
This has prompted the introduction of alternative dairy options to the menus of coffee shops, from local coffee houses to large chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks. The health and environmental benefits of plant-based milk options are often used as support for those who make the switch from dairy milk, but are they as significant as health experts say? Which form of milk reigns supreme in what has come to be both the dairy and non-dairy aisle of the supermarket?
From Cow to Now
According to The Guardian’s article entitled “White Gold: the Unstoppable Rise of Alternative Milks,” soy milk was essentially the only available alternative dairy option on grocery store shelves prior to 2008. Nine years later in 2017, “the global dairy alternative market was estimated at a value of $11.9 billion,” as mentioned in Forbes’s Brian Kateman’s “Non-Dairy Milk Alternatives Are Experiencing A ‘Holy Cow!’ Moment.” Now, in 2021, there are as many as 16 alternative dairy options, ranging from the more common varieties such as almond milk and oat milk, to the more unique options such as pea milk and flax milk. The seemingly endless list of options contributes to the versatility of alternative dairy, as well as fostering variety for those who have dietary restrictions.
Lactose intolerant LSA sophomore Vaishnavi Krishnan uses alternative milk when it comes to her coffee and cooking needs, and with more options becoming accessible, has been able to change it up if she ever gets bored with her choice. Primarily using almond milk, Krishnan chooses “unsweetened if [she] need[s] to use it in savory stuff, and [adds her] own sweetener [when] putting it in coffee”, but has recently branched out to oat milk-based creamers, as she “feel[s] like it makes [her coffee] creamier and it also froths.”
This sense of versatility has been embraced in on-campus dining, too. Michigan Dining currently offers soy, almond, oat, and rice milk in each of their seven dining halls, as well as some non-dairy cheese-like products. As a registered dietitian with her Master’s in Public Health from U of M, Michigan Dining’s Culinary and Nutrition Specialist Lindsey Haas speaks to the aforementioned popularity phenomenon. When she first started in her role at Michigan Dining in 2013, “[MDining] primarily had soy milk and rice milk that was available and I believe it was brought on mainly for food allergy purposes.
But, as time has gone on, more and more people have been interested in the alternatives for a variety of reasons, including health benefits [and their] impact to the environment, so we have seen a rise in popularity of those types of requests for dairy alternatives.” Aside from dietary restrictiveness, culture holds a tight grasp on the powerful trend. With the development of new diets and diverse culinary palates over time, Sarah Baird proposes that the decline in traditional dairy milk consumption could be a result of “a generational shift decades in the making” in her Eater piece “How Cow’s Milk Went From a Basic Beverage to a Dismissed Drink.”
So, Are Environmental Advocates Just ‘Milking It’?
In addition to the dining halls, the majority of coffee shops on campus offer alternative milk options. Vertex Coffee Roasters, located at “the vertex of Washtenaw and South University” in Ann Arbor, offers both oat milk and soy milk on their menu. According to Vertex owner Kara Huckabone Sato, they’ve always had alternative milk options. “We try to be inclusive to alternative diets. I personally can’t have gluten, so [this is] just [us] trying to make it possible for people that have some sort of restriction to feel safe.”
This inclusive mentality is emphasized through their choice to include oat milk as an alternative dairy option, for it is free of the “big 8 allergens”—milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish, wheat and soy—and is accommodating for most gluten-free diets. However, one of the most popular alternative milk options is omitted from their menu—almond milk. “Probably the most popular alternative milk right now is almond milk, and we intentionally chose not to serve almond milk for a few reasons, but one is the environmental impact of almond milk, and two, I don’t think it tastes very good with coffee.” In regard to the environmental implications of almond milk, the production of almond milk requires an immense amount of water, for as mentioned in an article published by the UCSF Office of Sustainability, “it takes approximately 15 gallons of water to produce just 16 almonds,” which in some recipes, may not even contribute to a half-gallon of almond milk. Furthermore, the use of pesticides in almond planting is argued against, too.
However, such negative environmental impacts have long been disputed amid the dairy industry, as well, which Haas explains. “Whenever you’re raising livestock, there are higher CO2 emissions, there is higher land use, and there is higher water use than when you are growing plants for consumption, and so, in terms of environmental impact, you can see a little bit higher of an environmental impact on traditional cow’s milk than plant-based alternatives.” Despite not having any dietary restrictions, Public Health sophomore Eve Sherwood prefers alternative dairy options, as she “tries to steer clear of animal byproducts” due to the very unethical nature of the meat industry. “Even though there are some issues even with some of the plant-based milks, for the most part, they’re more sustainable in general [than dairy products].” This environmental consideration being taken into account in the formation of one’s diet has grown in popularity, as Haas believes that people are “definitely making choices with a larger view than just their own personal health.”
Health Benefits
As substitutes of dairy milk for those who have a dietary restriction, the health aspects of alternative dairy options are the principal feature of the item. On the other hand, the consumption of dairy milk has seemed to be a tale as old as time being preached by health professionals, especially to growing children in regard to its high calcium levels. With that being said, both alternative dairy supporters and skeptics are curious about the health benefits of the plant-based beverages. Vertex’s Huckabone Sato speaks of the common misconceptions in regard to the sugar content and amount of calories in both alternative diets and seemingly healthy dairy options such as skim milk. She has found that when customers discover that they do not offer almond milk, “they’ll jump to skim, but skim milk has more sugar than whole milk because they have to replace the fat.”
These misconceptions transcend alternative dairy options when consumers choose a sweetened variety of their plant-based milk of choice. However, as encouraged by both Huffpost’s Beth Krietsch and Michigan Dining’s Haas, consumers should read the labels in order to figure this out for themselves, for each alternative dairy option has different benefits or drawbacks in accordance with your specific diet. Krietsch suggests searching for “unsweetened or fortified options” in order to secure key nutrients from your consumption. For example, soy milk contains approximately six or seven grams of protein per serving, which may perfectly accommodate those looking for more protein in their diet. Specific diets involve different goals, which is why alternative milks may be one of the pieces to someone’s “dietary puzzle.”
Haas cites the example of ketogenic diets currently being very popular. Ketogenic diets consist of high fat, adequate protein, and low-carbohydrate dining. “Some non-dairy alternatives will fit well [into ketogenic diets] if they’re lower in carbohydrates than cow’s milk. For example, almond milk if it is unsweetened can be low in carbohydrates.” Haas even cites the term “flexitarian” to describe people who are embracing a more flexible diet, often for health and/or environmental reasons. “It is interesting right now because you’re seeing fewer people identifying as a certain type of diet.” However Haas firmly believes that either option, “whether it’s cow’s milk or plant-based milk, can fit into a healthful diet.”
Emphasis on Alternative
There is an assortment of opinions surrounding the trend that are just as, if not more, extensive as the list of non-dairy options comprising the trend, and its versatile nature is an essential aspect contributing to its continuous popularity. The fact that there are now even alternatives to the original alternatives of soy, almond, and rice milks demonstrates the vast development of this trend. With a plethora of crops at our disposal, who knows what will become the base for the next alternative dairy option to grace my refrigerator shelf?
Featured image: Latte art alongside a carton of Califia Farms Oat Milk. Photo by Kaffee Meister on Unsplash.