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Comment by hn_throwaway_99 | Hacker News Reader

I am a bit surprised that oat milk is as popular as it is, given that, nutritionally, it's a very poor substitute for dairy as it's mostly just more sugar and carbs with very little protein.

In terms of non-dairy milk, soy milk is basically the only one that gets close to the nutritional value of dairy (and a lot of the fear mongering about endocrine effects of soy are just wrong). Even almond milk usually only has a teeny amount of actual almonds in it, as it's primarily just added water and sugar.

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I drink milk because a) I prefer flat whites to espressos and b) to make my cornflakes wet. In both cases I prefer oat milk and in neither cases do I care about nutrition. I’m guessing that’s the reason.

Makes sense. For me it was less about the health aspects of nutrition than the fact that I just feel a lot less sated when I drink protein-devoid plant milks. Corn flakes with oat milk is basically a big bowl of sugar with a little bit of oil and some vitamins sprayed on - it's not like it's a ton better with cow's milk but I'm not craving a "second breakfast" an hour later like I do if I have a breakfast that's primarily only carbs.

Soy milk actually has as much protein as dairy and less sugar. It has even more protein if you get the traditional kind. You can often find soymilk with a single ingredient at an Asian grocery store.

Soy milk is wildly superior to oat milk - I say as a vegan attempting to hit my nutrition targets. Oat milk is essentially flavoured water

I'd even say it's superior to cow milk altogether.

Not if it causes contact allergies with your mouth, as soy milk does for me. Same with coconut milk. I have to stick to oat, almond or animal milk. (Goat milk tastes pretty good too by the way.)

And non-homogenized full fat milk is delicious.

I drank cow’s milk for taste, not for health or nutritional reasons. It’s the same for oat milk.

> and a lot of the fear mongering about endocrine effects of soy are just wrong

Farmed cow's milk contains enough oestrogens, progestogens, etc. that academics have argued (e.g. in the 00s) over the extent to which cow milk consumption affects human health. The macho crowd seem to think that it's implicitly obvious that the juice of a bean is more feminising than the mammary secretions of calved female mammals, from a lineage selectively bred to have massive udders. I don't understand this, but I do find it very funny. (From a distance. I like having teeth.)

That said, if there were a significant and obvious effect on humans from dairy (or substitutes), academics probably wouldn't have argued about it for so long.

> The macho crowd seem to think that it's implicitly obvious that the juice of a bean is more feminising

I’m not sure that’s true. But they’ve heard that soy milk has phytoestrogens in it, and that Asians tend to be smaller than Americans. From there it’s just math: 1+1 = 11

The problem is not that milk is a mammary secretion. After all, boys and girls both drink mother’s milk!

The problem is dairy practices that keep cows pregnant for 9 months out of the year, every year, and milk them for 10-11 months out of the year, every year. !!

When you operate a dairy on a more natural rhythm you don’t get the elevated pregnancy hormones in the milk.

This is one of the reasons why goat milk is healthier, because they don’t do the same to goats.

Source: I’m a farmer

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