The Truth About Dairy Free Milk Options
Mar 06, 2021
At this point, none of us are strangers to the world of alternate milk options. Whatever your style, there's an alt milk for you - oat, almond, flax, hemp, soy, coconut. Take your pick. But what is best? Are these alternatives really better for us than dairy and how to we know which ones are the best?
We got the opportunity to speak with Brooke Harris, Founder of Goodmylk Co., on how she came up with the brilliant and clean brand as well the scoop on picking the best of the best. Read below and be sure to check out all of Goodmylk's products here!
First up, mind sharing a quick bit about you and what brought you to the world of nut milks? What made you decide to start a company selling...mylk?!
Like many entrepreneurs, I was solving my own problem. I was plant-based and found myself getting really sick - to the point that I spent 2 years going to doctors to try to find a solution. I didn’t think to examine my diet because I was eating 100% plant-based foods which I thought equated to eating healthy. I was VERY wrong and some of those plant-based foods were the root of the problem. Including the almond milk I was drinking. Once I actually understood the ingredients and nutrition facts it was clear that it was doing way more harm than good. I started making homemade alt-mylk at home for myself and knew it was something I had to share with my community.
We have SO been there, on the path of being our own advocates and having to dig deeper to figure out what's making us feel so crummy. So what actually is it that is typically wrong with the nut milks that we find in stores?
Well, so many things. The biggest being the ingredient list - most have little real food ingredients (I'm talking 1-3 almonds/cup) and contain binders, gums, fillers, and preservatives. So zero nutritional value and the ingredients are actually really bad for you. Then they are highly processed and packaged into unsustainable packaging. Oh, and don’t get me started on non-organic alt-milks and their impact on the consumers, the farmers and the environment.
Zero nutritional value - that's not great! So when we do find ourselves in the grocery store, looking at the overwhelming options, what should we be looking for on the label? What are those ingredients that are especially important to avoid and why?
I would say avoid anything that has things in it you don’t recognize as real food - I mean it’s 2021, every grocery store should have some kind of better-for-you option by now. But absolutely avoid added oils which you will find in 99% of the oat milks on the market. Also steer clear of any non-organic milks but especially oat milk. Oats are sprayed with additional pesticides right before harvest making non-organic oat milk highly concentrated and harmful.
Yikes. We'll take our mylk sans pesticides. Can you explain why most of the “cleaner” milk options, including homemade, don’t froth like the ones you get in a store or a lot of coffee shops?
Well, Goodmylk - which we consider homemade - does! It froths just like dairy and that’s because we use more real food ingredients. Frothing is about the fat to protein content and for us we use more real food ingredients to balance the ratios similar to dairy milk. If you look at any other brand’s version of a barista blend you will find oils and dipotassium phosphate added to help the frothing - which are much cheaper than real food ingredients.
That's amazing that Goodmylk has clean mylks that actually do froth! You already know we fans and we can attest to this. Can we just make our own alt mylks at home?
Absolutely!! We love to see people doing that. It’s a bit messy and time consuming but way better than buying the boxed stuff.
Messy + time consuming = why we like to get it from GM! Okay, we have to know...which Goodmylk is your favorite right now?
Almond will always have my heart.
A classic. Any alt mylk recipes you are loving right now?
I’m a big morning ritual person and the most important part of that ritual is my morning latte. I add 2-3 TBSP of our Almond Latte Creamer into a blender with my matcha, hot water, 1 date and cacao butter, plus whatever adaptogens I’m feeling that day - blend on high for 30 seconds and it makes the most perfectly creamy latte.
That sounds truly heavenly. Big matcha fans here, of course! Do you have any wellness beliefs that you live by? If you could impress upon people to make one change in regards to their wellness, what would it be?
I think being informed about what you're putting in your body is one of the most important things you can do - it impacts every piece of your life. And that’s not saying you have to be perfect with everything you eat but understanding why something might be bad and still choosing it because it makes you feel happy is much more empowering than feeling sick and not knowing why. If there’s one thing you should do - read the ingredient list. Don’t trust the front label or the branding.
Love that! There's much to be said for knowing what you're putting into your body. Lastly, where can we buy Goodmylk?!
Thanks for asking! You can order all of our products online here to be delivered to your door!
For more about alt mylks, follow Goodmylk Co and to see what Brooke is up to, follow her here.
