Swaps

[warmmfeet]

Hello,

I'm posting here because I want to cut out a lot of dairy due to high cholesterol (genetic) and I'm thinking this will be a good crowd to ask.

I bought some oat milk for my porridge and now have seen it's only 10% oats and contains quite a lot of oil and sugar.

Can anyone advise me on a healthier oat milk ? Is there one with less sugar and oil? I bought the Lidl barrister one. It's pretty nice but don't want to add extra sugar and oil to my breakfast when I'm trying to be healthier.

Any other yummy and healthy non-dairy swap recommendations welcomed 🙂 thank you

I buy oat milk from Aldi or Sainsbury's and it's ok.

Flora plant butter is great.

Aldi soya yoghurt also good.

@bakewellbride thank you. Is it usual for oat milk to contain a lot of oil and sugar ?

No I don't think so. It's much better for you than cow's milk!

They add oil and sugar to simulate the fat and lactose sugar in cow’s milk.

I think oatly skinny has no oil. It’s not usually added to soya milk so unsweetened soya milk should be fine too.

Naturli (in Sainsbury’s and Waitrose) is good for butter and I quite like cathedral city non dairy and Philadelphia dairy free for cheese.

@kikisparks thank you that's v helpful, I'll have a look for the skinny one and hope it still tastes good!

Looking at the labels oat milk has twice as much fat as semi skimmed cows milk but less 'of which saturates' which I think is the bad for cholesterol bit.

I guess I'll try some different alternatives and see. I like oatmilk and then British heart foundation website says oats are a cholesterol busting food

I've not done it, but it's easy to make your own oat milk. You just whizz up oats and water, and then strain it.

Dairy free since 2008 here. If you're cutting out dairy, you need to get good at reading the labels on things. Not just the things you're buying but those that you're replacing. In isolation, the nutrition information doesn't give you enough info to compare. If you look at the label on a bottle of cow's milk you'll see how much sugar and fat it usually contains. Another example is dairy free cheese has negligible protein in it, where dairy cheese has about 25-35g of protein per 100g. Don't rely on rumours about things like "quinoa is a complete protein" this is not the same as it being high in protein (it doesn't actually have very much compared to pulses, lentils or nuts)!

Barista milk usually has more oil so it will emulsify in coffee and make a milky effect instead of separating from the coffee as some non-barista plant milks will do (unsweetened cheap soya milk, I'm looking at you). If you don't want it in coffee, non-barista milks will do, too. Also oils aren't a bad thing, though, as we need a dietary intake of these as well e.g. to absorb vitamin E.

If you just want something white and watery, you could try making your own oat milk or soya milk at home. I do batches of soya milk in the pressure cooker and buy big 3kg bags of yellow soya beans from Amazon. Then I know exactly what's in it (and it's cheap at the scale I drink plant milk). I've never made oat milk but heard it's not difficult either.

You can fortify your homemade milk with liquid vitamin drops but it's a bit inaccurate, or you can take a supplement to get your calcium and vitamin D. At first you'll have enough vitamin D from going out in the sun for plenty of time a day (cholesterol converts to cholecalciferol under UV light) but as your cholesterol drops, if you stay dairy free, osteoporosis and bone density loss is a real risk if you don't supplement vitamin D especially (D2 and D3 both very important).

@SisterMichaelsHabit thanks for your reply! Some very useful info to consider.
I would say I'm not going to be militant about it but want to cut right back.
Will be interesting to make my own oat milk.