Nutrition in the News

So many food fads come and go.  In the nutrition class I teach, it is interesting to hear about the latest food fad trends.  A current trend is alternative milk.  For some reason people are shunning real milk for fake milk.  Another faux milk is coming to a store or coffee shop near you.  Some food fads are really unhealthy fads like coconut oil.  Almost every week I hear someone talking about adding coconut oil to their diet.  Thankfully, this unhealthy fad seems to be coming to an end.  

1.  Oat milk – yes, you read this correctly, the newest alternative to real milk is made from oats.  Time magazine’s article, The dairy aisle’s next new thing, describes this faux milk and why it is being used as yet another replacement for real milk.  Apparently, almond milk was the number one faux milk but has fallen from grace recently.  Why?  According to Time, almond milk was linked to the drought in California.  It takes a whole lot of water to grow almonds.  ONE ALMOND takes ONE GALLON of water to grow. 

a.        Oatly is the new oat milk – developed by a food scientist in Sweden.  He wanted lactose free “milk” so came up with his own formulation made from oats and no real milk at all.  For fat, he adds canola oil. It is been used in the US for about a year.  You may not have seen it in stores but baristas are using it in coffee shops.  Why?  Because they like the stable, creamy foam oat milk produces.  Time states that baristas have tried other alternative milks like almond, coconut, soy but these didn’t work well with coffee.  But because Oatly contains the dipotassium phosphate, the oat mixture and canola oil don’t separate when added to coffee.  But Oatly doesn’t produce the creamy foam that real whole milk does.  Even so more and more coffee shops are using Oatly in the coffee they serve.

b.      What stores will offer Oatly?  You may start seeing it in Wegman’s , Fairway and Shop-Rite.  The Time article didn’t outline any nutritional benefits of Oatly except no lactose.  

c.       Why Buy Oatly?  I am not sure.  As for me, I will stick with REAL MILK that provides the calcium, vitamin D, protein and many other nutrients I need.  

    2.  Coconut Oil – so refreshing to read this week that the coconut oil fad may be reaching its end.  Hard to believe it has lasted this long.  Cooking Light’s article, Coconut Oil Sales Plummet as Everyone Realizes What We’ve Been Saying All Along, is encouraging.  However, not “everyone” has yet received the message.  So what does this article say about coconut oil and why sales are down? 

a.       Saturated fat – this fat is the bad fat – the fat that is not good for your heart. So what oil is high in saturated fat?  Coconut oil.  The American Heart Association recommends we should lower our intake of saturated fats and replace these fats with unsaturated fats like polyunsaturated fats.   WebMD reports, that 84% of the calories in coconut oil are from saturated fats.  One tablespoon of coconut oil has about all the saturated fat you should eat in one day.  So heart healthy it isn’t.  In other words, for heart health, focus on no or less coconut oil and more on olive oil, corn oil, canola oil, and safflower oil.   The American Heart Association’s recommendation to cut down on saturated fats has caused some slide in coconut oil sales, dropping them more than 24% from their 2015 high according to the Washington Post in their article, The sudden collapse of coconut oil, 2015’s favorite superfood.  

b.      Weight loss – some people used coconut oil to boost their immune system.  Others to lose weight.   In 2015, the Mayo Clinic wrote an article; Can coconut oil help me lose weight?  Katherine Zeratsky, a registered dietitian, reported that some people use coconut oil “as a weight-loss aid.”  But it is high in saturated fat and has a lot of calories.  I tell my students coconut oil has more saturated fat than lard.  

If you want to avoid fake foods, processed foods, then you may not want to start drinking alternative  milks.  I drink real milk, every meal, every day.  I like “real” and not the fake milks.  The dairy association used to run commercials about “real” milk.  I like the real thing.  Real milk sports the “real” seal.  And if you fell for the coconut oil fad, you can now be on the band wagon of those dropping coconut oil from their diets.  Instead, buy some olive oil or canola oil and add a heart healthy oil to your day.

Sources:  The dairy aisle’s next new thing, Cooking Light’s, American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic. Real milk  Image Sources: oatly,  Real, coconut oil