4 Ways Oat Milk is Ruining Your Health
Don’t fall for clever marketing… just because something is “gluten free” or “non-GMO” doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
Oat milk is all the rage these days, but for those of us in the nutrition realm… we were never impressed, and I’ll explain with a little bit of science.
First of all, similar to nuts, oats actually contain a lot of oil, which puts oats at high risk for growing mold. This is especially common with U.S. grown oats and the particular mold toxin Ochratoxin-A (OTA). In a recent study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers found that in most samples of oat-based products, the concentrations of OTA exceeded the European upper limit by more than 8 percent [1]. The researchers concluded that oat production, storage, and processing needs stricter standards to protect unsuspecting Americans. Laboratory animals exposed to OTA for a limited time in experiments developed kidney tumors and cancer.
Not only that, but non-organic oats contain the highest amount of pesticide residue than any other crop in the U.S., particularly the cancer-causing herbicide glyphosate. In February 2019, a “compelling link” was found between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma [2], and since then, over $10 billion to has been paid out to settle thousands of glyphosate-related cancer lawsuits across the country.
The Environmental Working Group tested samples of Quaker Oats products and found that their oats had the most glyphosate per sample, with more than 1,000 ppb in more than 66 percent of the samples. That level of exposure is more than 60 times the safety level set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and that’s just legally speaking. However, legal is not the same as harmless. And unfortunately, more than 200 million pounds of glyphosate is sprayed on crops in the US each year, not just on oats, but on every GMO crop like grain, soy, and corn [3].
So, what if you buy organic oat milk? You might have a little mold, but who cares right? Would you care if I told you it would make you gain weight faster than dairy milk every could?
The process of turning oats into milk is helped by mashing up oats, water, and adding a sugar processing enzyme – which turns starches into sugars. Sugar processing enzymes are also what turn corn into fructose, and fructose into high-fructose corn syrup. The natural digestive enzyme is much different than the chemical processing enzymes. But, I digress.
Processing oat starch into sugar liquid produces quite a bit of the sugar molecule called maltose. Of all the sugars and all foods in the world, maltose has the highest glycemic index of them all, coming in at 105/100. For reference, white rice and potatoes rank 69/100 on the GI and refined carbs like donuts, cakes, and bagels sit around 75/100. The Glycemic Index (GI) is a ranking system of simple sugars and carbohydrates according to how they affect blood glucose levels (aka how much damage they can do to the body).
And how does the body store excess sugar in the bloodstream? The liver immediately stores it as fat! So that 7 grams of sugar the popular brand Oatly boasts of is merely a ruse, by the way it spikes your blood sugar, negatively affects your hormones, and potentially causes insulin resistance and weight gain. Not all sugars are created equal, and gram-for-gram, drinking oat milk is no better than throwing back a couple shots of simple syrup.
And that’s not all. Most oat milks contain a substantial amount of canola oil – sometimes masked as the ingredient “low erucic acid rapeseed oil”. Brands like Oatly will claim that canola oil is perfectly fine for health… but is it really?
The evidence proving the dangers of canola oil continues to grow each and every day. Research so far has linked it to Alzheimer’s disease [4], cardiovascular disease [5], diabetes [6], and decreased brain function [7], among so many others. And while there are a few studies on the health benefits of canola oil, all the major ones were funded by the Canola industry.
This is why I will never drink oat milk. It’s the toxic mold, increased cancer risk, weight gain, and inflammatory canola oil – for me.
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References:
[1] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf505674v
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383574218300887
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17373-3
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215974/
