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Age Wise
The Truth About Nondairy Milk
Alternatives to cow’s milk are flowing off store shelves, but they’re not all healthy
Touring the dairy aisle at my local supermarket the other day revealed an utter bevy of New Age milks that have never oozed from an udder, including numerous almond-based amalgams, copious coconut concoctions, and oodles of oat options (oat nog, anyone?). Several other seedy, grainy, and nutty alt-milks are creeping into the fringes.
It’s turning into the nondairy section, with a few gallons of regular ol’ cow’s milk practically put out to pasture, relegated to a few bottom shelves so the unenlightened must bend over.
U.S. sales of this bewildering array of fancy-schmancy plant-based milk products — many with unhealthy added ingredients — grew 20% last year to $2.5 billion, snagging 15% of the total milk market. Sales of oat milk, the latest darling among alt-milk enthusiasts, soared 170%.
Younger adults are leading the new milky way. While only half of Americans 55 and older have ever tried nondairy alternatives, 92% of the 18-to-34 set are into alt-milks, according to a survey by the International Food Information Council.
