Oat Milk Ingredients
All oat milks include at least oats and water, and the best store-bought oat milk brands will contain only those ingredients.
Many other oat milk products also have sweeteners, oils, thickening agents, emulsifiers and stabilizers, flavorings, preservatives, and added vitamins and minerals. These additives are used to enhance texture, appearance, performance, shelf-life, and nutritional profile. They can also be problematic for a variety of reasons. Consider the following:
- Added sweeteners might produce a yummier milk, but simple sugars can raise your blood sugar and insulin levels. Most of us don’t need any extra sugar in our diets! (Read more in the sugar section, below.)
- Added oils in oat milks typically come in the form of lower-quality seed oils, like rapeseed or canola. These sources of fat can throw off a healthier fatty acid ratio; most of us need more omega-3 fatty acids but get a lot of omega-6 fatty acids from plant-based oils. This can result in increased inflammation, which none of us needs! The best store-bought oat milk brands have just the small amount of fat that occurs naturally in the whole oat.
- Flavoring ingredients (even “natural flavors”) are highly complex, not very natural, and opaque ingredients–as consumers, we don’t know what’s actually in them. Good old vanilla extract is the only flavor ingredient that you'll see on the best store-bought oat milk labels.
- Ingredients used to thicken, emulsify, stabilize and preserve oat milk can include gums and mineral salts. While these additives are generally considered safe in low amounts, many of them are highly processed and may not be tolerated well by some people. If oat milk is a staple in your diet, you probably want an additive-free product. The best store bought oat milk will be free of all of these additives.
- Added vitamin and mineral ingredients might look good on the nutrition label, but they can be highly processed, and they aren’t necessarily bioavailable (able to be absorbed by the body). I prefer to get most of my nutrients from whole-food sources. Again, the best store-bought oat milks won't be packed with added synthetic vitamins.
Sugar in Oat Milks--Extra Sneaky
Because cow’s milk is naturally sweet, we expect milk alternatives to have a little sweetness, too. Many plant-based milks include sweeteners to make their products appealing to consumers who are switching from dairy milk.
Oat milks are a little tricky when it comes to sugar content. If you look at the ingredient list for many oat milk products, you won’t see any added sweeteners. But, if you look at the nutrition label, you’ll see plenty of sugar.
Why is this?
Oat milk manufacturers typically use enzymes to partially break down the oats to make the milks creamier and sweeter. Naturally occurring oat starches become a simple sugar called maltose.
The good thing about this is that manufacturers can use fewer (or no) additional ingredients to get the creaminess and sweetness that make their products appealing. The bad thing is that the product can be sweet and high in carbs and sugar while still technically having “no sugar added.”
Manufacturers do have to list these sugars on the nutrition label, so if you’re watching your sugar intake, check for “total sugars” and “added sugars.” There are some zero-sugar oat milks that are made without this enzymatic process and have some carbs but no simple sugars. I’ve included a couple of these products among my recommendations below.
An important difference between cow’s milk and oat milk is that the lactose in dairy doesn’t impact blood sugar responses as much as maltose and added sugars do. So even if you’re not sugar conscious in general, do watch out for the added sugars in oat milk.
