Is plant-based milk better? First read the label
We’re drinking less dairy and more plant-based beverages than ever. But are we missing out on the good stuff?
How do you like your milk? Full cream, skim or I-hate-the-stuff?
Not so long ago this would have been a straightforward question with few possible answers. But milk has been pretty well milked and today it’s a four-letter word that includes a cornucopia of plant-based products.
Soy and almond; cashew and coconut; oat, rice, pea and even pistachio: once they were foods in their own right. Now, increasingly, they’re finding their way into our teas and coffees and on to our cereals – and business is booming.
Across the five years to 2022-23, consumption of dairy milk alternatives in Australia increased by a striking 55 per cent.
At the same time, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we drank 7.7 per cent less dairy milk.
There also has been a significant expansion in the variety of stuff to drink. In a 2022 audit of plant-based foods, Australian researchers identified more than 150 dairy milk substitutes on our supermarket shelves. Given the increase in consumption, that range is likely only to have increased since.
So does greater consumption of plant-based drinks mean we’re on to something good? And does the drop in consumption in dairy milk mean that it’s best avoided? Not necessarily.
“We take milk for granted,” farmer and chef Matthew Evans says. Although he’s no massive drinker – “I milk a cow but I wasn’t the person who slugged back a glass of milk even once a day” – he’s concerned that in our rush to embrace plant-based options we’re missing out on many benefits of dairy milk which, he says, increasingly is seen as “very much replaceable. In reality this product is a miracle of 200 years of evolution.”
With its rich mix of protein, fat and carbohydrates, dairy milk is a great source of vitamins and minerals, especially calcium. It’s important for bone health, may have a protective effect for the risk of stroke and is associated with lowered blood pressure and a reduced risk of developing colon cancer.
All good stuff, says Evans, who is also the author of Milk: The Truth, the Lies and the Unbelievable Story of the Original Superfood, a 2024 book born from his love of “what comes from cows”. He says milk substitutes are “generally nutritionally hollow or bereft of the complexity of milk”. Adding milk alternatives to your coffee, he says, will make it whiter but not necessarily more nutritious.
“I get that (some) people can’t drink milk but I guess what I am saying is that if you want to get rid of milk, then don’t look at these substitutes as an actual substitute. All they’re doing is making things wet and white.”
What’s what?
A 2023 statement by Dietitians Australia outlined some of the benefits of specific plant-based alternatives.
Made from ground soybeans or soy protein powder, soy milk generally contains more protein than other plant-based milk alternatives. Most soy milk is fortified with calcium and many versions contain vitamin B12, which is especially important in a vegan diet.
Commercial almond milk, which is made from ground nuts, contains 2 per cent to 14 per cent almonds. Some products contain sweeteners. Almond milk is lower in energy and saturated fat than dairy milk and tends to be very low in protein, although recent varieties have more added protein. The best options, Dietitians Australia suggests, are fortified with at least calcium, vitamin B12 and vitamin D.
Oat milk is low in saturated fat and, unlike most plant-based milks, is a good source of fibre. It is naturally sweet because it has a higher carbohydrate content than cow’s milk. But it has about half the protein of dairy milk and, unless fortified, tends to be low in calcium
Among numerous other options, rice milk, which is made from milled brown rice and water, is best when protein and calcium-fortified; pea milk is made from pea protein, and often with water and sunflower oil, and the protein content is similar to dairy; and coconut milk is low in calcium, lower in carbohydrates and protein than dairy milk and is higher in saturated fat.
Noting that many dairy alternatives are fortified with a mix of nutrients, Dietitians Australia stresses that consumers should check before they buy and opt for calcium-fortified products. Vegans also should seek out varieties with added vitamin B12.
What’s best?
So are all milks equal? “There’s certainly a halo effect with a lot of plant-based products, the perception that they are healthy because they are marketed as a plant-based product and people assume that plants are healthy, but that’s not necessarily always the case,” Deakin University Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition senior research fellow Katherine Livingstone says.
She was part of a 2022 audit that included 157 dairy milk substitutes found in Australian supermarkets. While the variety was extensive, not all options were nutritionally ideal. Livingstone’s research found coconut milk, for example, could contain up to six times more saturated fats than almond, oat and soy milks.
While cow’s milk is relatively high in saturated fats, it also contains much more desirable polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. “Because it’s derived from animal processing rather than industrial processing, the fats are just a healthier profile overall,” Livingstone says. “There’s plenty of research to suggest that (cow’s) milk is a much healthier food just because it’s a complete product.”
Cow’s milk is natural and a good source of calcium and of protein, important for bone health and maintaining muscle. Derived from plants, non-dairy milks are processed, and the risk is that some can be ultra-processed.
“If you think about an almond, you would find it has gone through a lot of processing to produce the milk from that, or other nuts,” Livingstone says. “We definitely encourage people to consume minimally processed foods.”
She recommends carefully reading the labels of plant-based milks to ensure they contain some of the comparable ingredients to cow’s milk, particularly calcium but also vitamin B12, riboflavin and phosphorus.
Already there are indications that many products are being fortified with increasing levels of nutrients. While Livingstone’s 2022 audit found 70 per cent of milk alternatives were calcium enriched, a study of 129 products by researchers at the University of Wollongong, published in September 2024, found a little more than 80 per cent were fortified with calcium.
Same-same?
They may share similar names and have many similar uses. But dairy milk and plant-based milks are not the same. A paper by Spanish researchers, published in 2023 in the journal Food Research International, found while they had their own benefits, milk alternatives were available in a wide variety and composition, with differing types and amounts of plant material and additives including sweeteners and enriching vitamins and minerals.
As a result, “plant-based beverages cannot be considered as a milk analog but a different food product, with their own nutritional profile and functional properties”.
That range in enrichments has further implications. The study by researchers at the University of Wollongong found while calcium increasingly was present in plant-based milks, fortification with other micronutrients was less common.
Only about 3 per cent, for example, were fortified with iodine or magnesium. And while there was no significant difference in protein content between soy products and cow’s milk, “overall, particularly due to low fortification rates, plant-based milks identified in the audit had significantly lower levels of protein, sugar, iodine, phosphorus, zinc and vitamins A, B2 and B12 compared to cow’s milk”.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand has no food standard on what constitutes a plant-based milk in terms of its composition. Neither is it mandatory for plant-based milks to be fortified with any nutrients. As a result, the report’s authors said, the micronutrient content of plant-based milks in Australia varied.
Even so, the audit found fortification rates were low for nutrients other than calcium and, compared with cow’s milk, many of the plant-based milks had significant differences in nutrient content.
“Our audit confirmed that plant-based milks were nutritionally dissimilar to cow’s milk, supporting the notion that making a direct substitution may place vulnerable individuals, such as young children, at increased risk of nutritional inadequacy,” the authors said, adding: “The current research identified that, in general, Australian plant-based milks are not nutritionally equal to cow’s milk. However, there was no statistically significant difference in micronutrient content in fortified plant-based milks.”
Assuming that a plant-based product, say rice milk, was fortified with the same level of calcium as cow’s milk, would that milk alternative then have any benefits that were superior to cow’s milk?
Not really, University of Queensland community health and wellbeing professor and Dietitians Australia board director Lauren Ball says. Health issues aside, “I don’t see a massive improvement in health that would come from avoiding cow’s milk.”
So why avoid it unless you have an associated health issue? “The heart of the answer is around our personal drive for health or wellbeing,” Ball says.
“If someone tells me that they’re choosing rice milk because that helps them feel like they are eating well … and it’s all part of a lifestyle choice, then I say go for it.”
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