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Comment by zitterbewegung | Hacker News Reader

So is this the new fad after almond and coconut milk?

Or does it also cater to people who are lactose intolerant? I wonder if I will be seeing Camel milk at a Starbucks soon.

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Oat milk[1] is the next fad after soy, almond and coconut milk. These are mainly for people who are lactose intolerant, although perhaps some people who aren't lactose intolerant prefer a different taste for lattes or cappuccino drinks.

In the US I believe there’s now also another type of milk called A2 that doesn’t have certain forms of beta-casein proteins[2], which allegedly will help ease the discomfort lactose intolerant people feel after they ingest cow's milk.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/style/oat-milk-coffee-oat...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A2_milk

Isn't lactose the ingredient that causes discomfort with lactose intolerant people's stomach's?

As someone lactose intolerant, I looked at the citations and none of them claim A2 milk is lactose free, as I understand it.

This is why I threw in the word "allegedly" above. The producers of a2 milk are trying to go with a new theory that claims that people who self-report as lactose intolerant aren't actually lactose intolerant, but that the cause of their symptoms is their inability to digest the A1 beta-casein protein which is commonly found in North American milk[1].

That's the spiel anyway. I have yet to try it. I'm one of those self-reporting-as-lactose-intolerant-people-who-experience-discomfort-after-ingesting-cow's-milk.

[1] https://thea2milkcompany.com/about-us/

Do you feel discomfort after ingesting cheeses?

a2 has been around in australia for ages (started in new zealand afaik), and from personal anecdote, i can say that it works. i could drink cows milk (and did a couple of times per day in flat whites) but by the end of the day, it made me feel a little off and i frequently had a “enough milk for today” moment. after starting on a2 i get none of that, and what’s more it makes it easier to drink regular milk for a few days after a week of only a2

nothing scientific, but i’m going to continue paying a bit more for my milk :p

I believe there's recent research suggesting that some people who can't tolerate milk are actually allergic to something other than lactose.

Oat milk's actually quite nice. Seems to do much less "taste damage" toward espresso drinks than other nut milks.

It'll be the fad alt-milk until we hit macadamia milk, I reckon.

I'm lactose intolerant and I've tried nearly every alternative.

None of them match up to regular cow's milk.

I've basically given up milk altogether.

> So is this the new fad after almond and coconut milk?

yep. the only hard benefits listed is "five times the vitamin C" -as if anyone's getting scurvy in the first world-, and "ten times the iron" which may sound impressive, but but a quick search for milk nutrient says that a cup of regular milk has 0.4% of daily iron requirement, so it's 10x of a small number.

>Or does it also cater to people who are lactose intolerant

notice how it says "It doesn’t contain the whey proteins found in cow’s milk that contribute to dairy allergies". so basically it only helps if you're not lactose intolerant, but are allergic to milk proteins. they can't even jump on the lactose free bandwagon with this.

I just assumed all mammalian milk contains lactose.

This chart[1] seems to support my assumption. Interestingly it looks like Kangaroo milk might be okay for lactose intolerant folk.

1. http://ansci.illinois.edu/static/ansc438/Milkcompsynth/milkc...

I would suggest that Kangaroo milk would be exceptionally difficult to farm, however... This is more a feeling I get after years of hunting them, rather than any first-hand experience in trying to milk them.

That's okay, just throw the word artisan on it and charge a lot.

Many people are lactose intolerant [1] and rely on milk that is not from a cow. The marketing behind it may be offsetting to some, as it is not directly aimed at lactose intolerant people, but calling it a fad is a bit too early to tell I think.

There's a major shift of consumer preference in the 21st century, mainly towards healthy and individualised choices, which for a single consumer is great. Maybe like camel milk - I've never tried it, but why not?

[1] https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance#statis...

My daughter is lactose intolerant, and drinks cow's milk just fine - the trick is that it's had lactase added, an enzyme that converts the lactose into, from memory, galactose and some other sugar.

Interestingly, lactase drops are also used when breastfeeding babies that have trouble with lactose (it can give them colic).

Nut-based milks are actually quite convincing, good even, but soy and oat milk... wow, don't know how anyone can drink those!

Soy milk is the only milk I drink. Any other plant milk is too much water and too little nutrients.

That much is true, the nut-based milks are mostly water.

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