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Call me shallow, I've been watching too many food documentaries, and I'm beginning to think I should cut out milk from my diet, but I'm pretty confused as to what to replace it with. What have folk tried, what's best tasting? I need it to be good for coffee and porridge.
Human Breast Milk. It's the natural choice.
It's very sweet though.
Does that follow a cycle according to the month perchy?
My wife drinks the Alpro lacto-free stuff, not sure if that's what you're after (think it still comes from cows) but it's relatively indistinguishable from cow's milk, no disaster if I have to use it for my morning weetabix etc. My wife uses it for porridge with no complaints.
Think I accidentally used some almond milk or similar in my breakfast, wasn't unpleasant but gave me a pause when I first tasted it, sort of sweeter and thicker than normal.
Alpro unsweetened almond milk here. My wife is happy as I no longer trump explosive milk fuelled gas bombs. I miss them a little but yes I feel better for it. Great for porridge yes. Coffee, dunno.
changed mainly for health and to a lesser extent environmental reasons (oat milk is the best for that, but I think it's rubbish 🙂 )
I've only tried Almond milk so far for coffee / tea. It didn't taste great and was a pain as it 'curdled' easily if you didn't take your time pouring in the hot water.
I use Soya milk which is good in tea, on cereal etc,. Doesn't work with coffee but you should really just drink that without milk anyway so do that at the same time as switching.
Always have a mixture of soy, coconut and oat milk in the fridge.
I've been veggie for years, not quite given up cow milk as I'll still have it in tea at friend's houses occasionally. Found a lovely coconut milk ice-cream (which I think I would often choose in preference to a cow one purely on taste, it's really good) Had some very, very nice vegan cakes too, again would probably choose in preference to ones made with eggs based purely on taste.
So why aren't I vegan? Cheese. Never found a good vegan cheese, and I do like cheese.
Anyway, milk. Soy is good for porridge and tea (no idea about coffee, I don't drink that) Oat milk doesn't taste of much but the wife likes it, really just seems to colour the tea and cool it down a bit. Coconut is really nice on cereals and porridge but makes tea taste funny.
Oat milk for coffee(oatly specifically, doesn't seem to split) and almond milk for cereal etc.
Soya/Almond milk for cups of tea
Coconut milk for coffee (buy the name brands as cheaper coconut milks can separate)
Oat milk for cereals/smoothies/porridge.
Thats the general rule of thumb I work with I guess.
Ash.
If you are male soya milk it will make you put weight on. It makes you produce more ostragen ( female hormone )
it ‘curdled’ easily if you didn’t take your time pouring in the hot water.
P'raps you might try putting the milk in last, as it SHOULD BE DONE! (separate thread I think...)
there is a really good coconut milk yoghurt too, can't remember the name. it's gorgeous!
We have coconut milk almond milk and oat milk dependant on what we are eating or making..... Still go through alot of dairy as well.
I find soya milk revolting
I like oat milk on the rare occasion I take a recovery shake without water
They all come with their own eco issues.
Not sure what the documentaries you have been watching are but do bare in mind that everything is bad for you.
Moderation is key.
Oatly all day long in coffee.
Yes, inasmuch as I don’t drink dairy milk now. I used to drink a pint a day (70s kid, up until my 30s 🤣) as the Milk Marketing Board or whatever it was convinced us all that we’d die of skeletorism without gallons of cow’s milk as a ‘staple’.
Now it’s soy in tea, oat cream in the odd coffee when I fancy a change from black. Regular soft drink is black coffee or water. I make porridge with water and sweeten with apple slices. Don’t eat wheat cereals anymore.
Very ocassionally will fancy a glass of cold ‘milk’ with a biscuit. A sweetened soy milk I find is most enjoyable for this purpose. Taste and quality varies between brand. The regular Lidl one tastes great imo. Oat milk too, but it’s expensive iirc
Looking to make my own oat drink.
I don’t like or support intensive dairy farming at all for, a number of reasons, so what I buy or don’t buy is more about that than my health. Still, I’m a fat knacker who gorged on beige and dairy for 40 odd years of his life until recently. Actually...side benefits and all that...
One of the kids has a dairy intolerance so we've tried all of them.
Oatly seems to be the most all round pleasant as substiture for cows milk, and they do a 4% fat version that actually tastes OK in coffee etc. It's not the cheapest though, but IMO probably worth it.
Some of the others IME are good for specific things, if you want that flavour in it. So hot chocolate, cakes, pancakes, rice pudding, custard etc made with almond or coconut milk ca actually be nicer than if made with dairy.
Soy based milks can GTF. Bleurgh.
+1 Soyboy here. I actually prefer the taste of my coffee with soya milk in it.
No new breasts or any negative side effects to report.
How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?
How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?
Dunno, but i've heard that you can get them from some kinds of bees.
I tried it for a few months, made absolutely no difference health wise, but the alternatives are more expensive. Back to using dairy now, the only stipulation I do have is organic, a lot of the hormones they pump into dairy cows are transferred into milk.
92% of northern Europeans are absolutely fine with drinking cows milk, it is a genetic mutation that creates the enzime that breaks down lactose that gave an evolutionary advantage and therefore became dominant. Where as in lots of asia where dairy farming was not common, intolerance is at nearly 100%.
I understand that for some as they enter old age then those enzymes can decrease and some signs of intolerance can start.
Definitely oat milk for everything, especially porridge. It’s like a mega oat hit. Stir it with a flapjack.
How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?
How do you get nut-cream from a lovely bunch of coconuts?

Cashew here , IMO it's the best tasting of all non dairy milk . As for Soya giving you breasts I would take that if I could get a payout like this .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49982237
I tried it for a few months, made absolutely no difference health wise
Science ftw
but the alternatives are more expensive
Dairy is heavily subsidised because of demand because of subsidies because of demand because of subsidies.
You might not believe how cheap it is to make oat or soy milk at home vs buying dairy. I offer this for balance of the discussion, not to suggest everyone immediately becomes more self-sufficient and less-supporting of Cow Corp TM.
I was going to suggest date milk, but you asked for non diary recommendations.
here's a more balanced report than my statement. All i know I drank quite abit of it over a couple of weeks and gained a few pounds. A body builder friend told me about it also.
I gave up cows milk about 18 months ago, tried all sorts of non dairy and my favourite is oatly, it’s the closest in taste and texture to milk although I do like Alpro hazelnut in my porridge every now and again.
For coffee I use oatly barista, it seems a bit thicker than the standard stuff but it is expensive.
Ashweee - Tried Oatly Creamy Oat in coffee? It comes up on offer regularly we usually buy two or three 250ml cartons and refrigerate.
Doesn’t work with coffee but you should really just drink that without milk anyway
Thanks, don't like black coffee.
MSP, it's not my health primarily, but animal welfare I'm interested in, I'm one of those hypocritical veggies that still eats diary It's time I did something to reduce that consumption.
I'm trying to use less cow juice for environmental and ethical reasons - I've been veggie for more than 30 years. It seems that oat milk has the lowest environmental damage quotient, so I'm using Oatly, regular for most uses and the barista edition for my cappuccinos and flat whites. I don't much like it, but I'm persevering in the hope I get used to it. As a side effect, it contains calcium carbonate (chalk, and the major ingredient of Rennies), which seems to help with the heartburn I've recently started suffering from.
nickc I never used to like black coffee. But personal tastes change over time if you stick with it. What I discovered was that I didn’t like rank coffee without milk, but decent coffee doesn’t require milk. I still like a hit of cream once in a while, so go with Oatly Creamy Oat as mentioned.
I remember the first time drinking UHT soy milk circa 1980s I was going boik wtf. Didn't try in vain again until a few years back. Now I actually prefer a decent soy drink to what I over time came to find the slightly sour gakky taste of dairy milk, that same thing I loved for 40-odd years. I still drink less of all ‘milks’ than I used to. Hardly at all in fact. Humans and our habits are weird, and no accounting for taste etc...but it has been interesting for me to observe my once-believed ‘rigid’ tastes change.
Still ride rigid bikes the most tho.
Wife prefers Alpro Rice to all other substitutes and milk, Rice Rream splits and separates in tea where as Alpro doesn't.
I'll use it if I run out of real milk but then realise that I actually would have preferred just to use water with my cereal or coffee...
Human Breast Milk. It’s the natural choice.
Are you married to some kind of nut?
Soya milk is usually fine in coffee for me. Depends on the coffee, ie instant coffee will curdle, proper usually coffee doesn't. And depends on the soya milk, some of the cheap brands can be prone to separating, or the organic ones. Lidl own brand is fine for me. Heating the milk before adding it may help.
Malvern rider, not tried creamy oat but I will do now, thanks 👍
Better half has gone vegan in past year and so now often gets Oatly, it tastes OK but my god, it's expensive at ~£1.80+ for 1 litre compared to ~£1.10 for 2 litres of low fat milk.
it’s expensive
£8.99 for 8 x 1L Alpro Oat at Booker if you can find someone with an account.
Alpro is generally a no-go for me, knowing the brand is owned by Danone. Ethical consumers be-aware.
Lidl now have oat or almond milk, 89p per litre. Or about 60p for soya.
Interesting thread! Have often pondered this and some years ago I switched to Oatly but it became difficult to source so gave up. Had started going to a local farm for their raw Jersey milk in glass bottles and definitely enjoyed seeing the curious cows in the adjoining field. Summer arrived and no longer wanted to drink it so back to lactose-free.
As per n0tg's post, £1.80 in Tesco is a lot to pay for Oatly so back to ruminating (sorry!) this topic. Not vegan or vegetarian but concerned from both a moral and ethical position.
Lidl now have oat or almond milk, 89p per litre.
Longlife or from the chiller?
Another oat milk recipe, described as good for adding to hot drinks and works in the frother
This thread reminds me I have to buy a nutmilk bag 😂😋😬
I was going to suggest date milk, but you asked for non diary recommendations.
Underrated post