[Reason077]

I'm not vegan or anything, but I've found oat milk not only tastes great on cereal etc, but it also keeps fresh for much longer in the fridge. I've pretty much given up buying cow's milk now days, unless I have a specific recipe or something that calls for it. Cheese, on the other hand, I can't see myself giving up any time soon!

[etrautmann]

Same - not veggie but switched to oat milk (despite not liking it much at first) and now strongly prefer the taste, texture, and all of the other benefits like fridge longevity, lack of smell if I leave a thermos with a latte for a few days, etc.

[unicornporn]

When it comes to Oatly... It tastes good, but that's because it contains plenty of sugars. You'll notice the difference when you make your own oat milk from oats. It's tastes quite terrible actually.

Oatly adds enzymes to break down the starches to sugar.

https://www.gq.com/story/oatly-nutrition-ipo

[zukzuk]

So does cow milk. 7g* of added sugar in a cup of Oatly, about 8g of various sugars in a cup of milk. Oatly add the sugar to more closely simulate the flavour of milk, but it tastes about as sweet... and both are way too sweet if you ask me.

*The nutrition profile is a bit more complicated as I think they add enzymes to break down starches in the oats, so you end up with more sugar even though it's not technically "added".

[unicornporn]

Oatly's primary sugar, maltose, has 2.3 times the blood sugar impact as lactose, the primary sugar in cow's milk. Maltose has a glycemic index of 105, compared to 46 for lactose.[1]

[1] https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/oatly-responds-in-defense-of...

[Reason077]

> "7g of added sugar in a cup of Oatly"

Oatly (and most other oat milks) do NOT "add" any sugar! The sugar in oat milk comes from the starch naturally present in the oats, which is broken down into sugars by amylase enzymes during the production process.

(AFAIK the "added sugars" wording on US Oatly labels is due to a technicality of US labelling laws. It's doesn't say that on European labels.)

[Reason077]

> "When it comes to Oatly... It tastes good, but that's because it contains plenty of sugars."

Absolutely, but that's also true of cows milk. The sugars in oat milk are a bit simpler (primarily maltose rather than lactose), which gives a lower glycemic index, but the total sugar content isn't much different.

Either way, if you compare them to something like fruit juice or full-sugar soft drinks, the sugar content is still pretty low.

[unicornporn]

> The sugars in oat milk are a bit simpler (primarily maltose rather than lactose), which gives a lower glycemic index

That would lead to a higher glycemic index?

>> Either way, if you compare them to something like fruit juice or full-sugar soft drinks, the sugar content is still pretty low.

From https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/oatly-responds-in-defense-of...:

Even with the slightly lower glycemic index for maltose due to the soluble fiber content, I get more or less the same result for Oatly’s blood sugar impact: a glycemic index of 77 (previously 79) and a glycemic load of 18.4 (previously 19.0) for a 12 oz portion; still about the same blood sugar impact as a 12 oz cola, which has a glycemic index of 63 and glycemic load of 20.8.

[oh_sigh]

Oatly original has 7g of sugar - 1 cup of whole cows milk has 12 g of sugar. So it is still significantly less sugar than cow's milk. I drink planet oat milk, and that only has 4g of sugar and tastes good to me.

[unicornporn]

Oatly's primary sugar, maltose, has 2.3 times the blood sugar impact as lactose, the primary sugar in cow's milk. Maltose has a glycemic index of 105, compared to 46 for lactose.[1]

[1] https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/oatly-responds-in-defense-of...

[googlryas]

Ok, but if Oatly is 100% maltose, it has only a slightly higher glycemic index than cow's milk. But the aforementioned planet oat is still lower(assuming it is 100% maltose)

[zihotki]

I double-checked the amount of sugar in milk and in my area, Netherlands, all milk (whole or not) contains less than 5g of sugar per 100g. While Oatly has indeed about 7g per 100g. So it's quite the opposite, oatly has significantly more sugar with higher glycemic index.

[Reason077]

The US nutrition label lists sugars per serving, which is 240ml. So according to the US rules it's 7g sugar per 240ml, not per 100g (or 100ml).

The US Oatly label lists "Total Carbohydrate 16 g, Includes 7 g added sugars" per 240ml.

The UK Oatly label lists "Carbohydrate: 6.6 g, of which sugars: 4.0 g" per 100ml. Pretty sure the Netherlands product and label is the same as the UK one.

[causi]

Is that not a good thing? Starches break down into sugars in the body anyway and presumably have similar deleterious effects on the liver. May as well enjoy tasting them.

[zihotki]

It is not, timing matters. It takes some time for starches to break into sugar therefore the release of sugars is not spiking. Glycemic index was created to show a difference between good and bad carbs.

[jkestner]

Yes, longer fridge life is a nice benefit. I have some heavy cream for baking, but use soy milk fine in most sweet recipes.

There's more variation in alternative milks, even within one type, than cow milk. We're mostly soymilk (bean milk, the kids call it), but it took a little while to find one that didn't feel chalky or weird. Happily it's the store brand that's $2 a half gallon. Settled on soy creamer, which is not as thick as dairy creamer but next best thing among non-dairy that tastes good.

With you on cheese! It's what makes plant burgers taste good.

[tetris11]

It makes superior hot chocolate as it doesn't burn as it boils compared to regular milk

[falcolas]

Why are you boiling the milk?

Get the milk hot - hot enough to melt the chocolate and sugar. Don't boil it.