The oat milks that are ultra-processed foods… and the expert who says they are NOT healthier than regular cow’s milk

Journalists always say things are everywhere: the color pink is everywhere, the Uniqlo crossbody bag is everywhere, cockapoos are everywhere. But let’s be clear, oat milk really is everywhere.

According to the latest statistics from market research firm Mintel, a third of people in the UK now drink plant-based milk – and oats are the most popular.

In 2020, Mintel said the British spent £146 million on oat milk, up from £74 million the previous year. You would think that number has only grown.

If you search for ‘oat milk’ online, Sainsbury’s has 33 varieties at the time of writing, Tesco 37 and Waitrose 50. But despite all the fuss, is it actually good for you?

“If you were on a deserted island and could only have oat milk or broccoli, you should take the oat milk,” says Dr Chris van Tulleken. “It has carbs, fat, and a few vitamins.”

But does Van Tulleken drink it himself? No.

He has cow’s milk, more on that later.

In April, the 44-year-old infectious diseases doctor at University College London Hospital published a book, Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We Eat All Stuff That Isn’t Food… and Why Can’t We Stop?, which looks at the world of ultra-processed food (UPF).

A UPF is a whole food that has been modified to last longer and often contains flavourings, gum, coloring agents, foaming and binding agents and emulsifiers.

Simply put, it’s any product with at least one ingredient that isn’t found in a home kitchen. And, like oat milk, pink, Uniqlo pouches, and cockapoos, UPF is everywhere.

It makes up more than half of the average Briton’s calories. That is bad. ‘UPF is strongly associated with many negative health outcomes,’ says Van Tulleken. “Cancer, obesity, inflammation, dementia, early death from all causes.”

So is oat milk ultra-processed? Of the most famous strains – Oatly, Alpro, Mighty, Minor Figures, Rude Health – all but the last are UPF.

‘Although some oat milks meet the definition of UPF’, says Van Tulleken, ‘they are not the most harmful kind. They contain no artificial sweeteners or phosphoric acid. However, they are somewhat harmful, as any UPF is, because they are low in nutrients and don’t make you feel full.

As for oat milk without UPF, it’s “not particularly bad,” says Van Tulleken. “I don’t want to demonize oat milk!” Yet they are liquid calories. “You consume it quickly and it’s not very satiating, so it can predispose you to weight gain.”

In 2020, Mintel said the British spent £146 million on oat milk, up from £74 million the previous year. You would think that number has only grown (stock image)

Dr. Sarah Berry, associate professor of nutritional studies at King’s College London, takes a similar view. “For research (in KCL), we fed some people large, whole oats and others finely ground oats (these are in oat milk) and found that after eating the latter people had a higher ‘postprandial response’.”

In non-technical terms, that means more happened to their bodies after they ate them. With the finely ground oats, “people had a big rise in circulating blood sugar.”

But what’s bad about that? It’s a “normal response to eating carbs,” says Berry, “but if it’s too much, it triggers a cascade of effects, like inflammation, which makes you feel hungry faster and you take in more calories at your next meal.” Does that make oat milk unhealthy?

Not particularly, says Berry. A splash in your tea is fine, but if you’re drinking ’20 pints a day’ it’s not. But just because something isn’t unhealthy doesn’t mean it’s actively healthy. What annoys Berry is the “health halo” surrounding many commercial oat milks.

Their advertising campaigns make people think that oat milk is better than cow’s milk. “That’s not right,” she says. Cow’s milk contains all kinds of nutrients: iodine, calcium, vitamin B12. Oat milk can also have these, but only by adding them by fortifying the liquid, making the product more processed.

Both Van Tulleken and Berry agree that there are valid reasons not to drink cow’s milk. The dairy industry produces a lot of carbon, there may be ethical concerns about agricultural standards, some people are lactose intolerant. But, says Van Tulleken,

‘Cow’s milk, for those who can drink it, is part of a healthy diet. Oat milk, I would suggest, isn’t it.’ And, “if you think oat milk is healthier than cow’s milk, you’ve sold a puppy.” Ultimately, that’s “a lot of money to spend on a mash of oat carbohydrates and rapeseed oil in water that is unlikely to have any positive health benefits.”

And we haven’t even mentioned the costs yet. In Tesco, for example, cow’s milk costs £1.20 per litre, Alpro oat milk costs £2.10. That’s a lot of money to spend on that slurry. ‘It’s absurd,’ says Van Tulleken. ‘The profit margin on oat milk is huge. You have to ask yourself, who makes it and why?’

While cow’s milk, which has been farmed for thousands of years, is a loss leader, “oat milk is there to generate income for investment funds that have bought into these new milk brands,” says Van Tulleken. “They’re not traditional food companies.”

If you search for ‘oat milk’ online, Sainsbury’s has 33 varieties at the time of writing, Tesco 37 and Waitrose 50. But despite all the fuss, is it actually good for you?

He is right. For example, Oatly is owned by a long list of companies, including investment firms Verlinvest and Blackstone, which have backers such as Jay-Z and

Oprah Winfrey, plus China Resources, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate. So yes, not a traditional food company.

Many oat milk companies may be “very fancy on the packaging,” says Van Tulleken. (Oatly proudly says on the box, in kitschy font: ‘no milk, no soy, no bad-ness’.) ‘But the product only exists to generate growth for investment funds. That’s fine! That’s just how the world works.’

But ‘if you’re drinking it because you’re vegan, it’s not clear to me that all these companies will share your ethical values.

If you accept that you are just giving money to conglomerates and you like the taste of oat milk, the solution is to enjoy your oat milk. But don’t believe too much of what you read on the box!’