Aldi Milk - different types.

[Nige13]

So .......... Aldi do a selection of dairy free alternative milks , Soya, Coconut, Almond and Oat and was wondering if anyone has tried them and what do you think?
I was thinking of may be swapping my regular milk for almond (or other) just for having with cereal or an iced coffee mainly becasue of the lower carb value and no other reason but is it worth it?

Thank guys/gals 🙂

 

[Bloden]

I'm always put off by the list of ingredients tbh. But that's just me! Having said that, the fact that they're lower in carb is a definite bonus.

 

[Nige13]

I'm always put off by the list of ingredients tbh. But that's just me! Having said that, the fact that they're lower in carb is a definite bonus.

Yer, I know what you mean by the ingredients - some of which are very long lol

 

[Drummer]

I don't use milk for anything. I don't touch any sort of grain for weeks at a time, and I put cream in my coffee, then froth it with the Bamix hand held thingy.

 

[rebrascora]

Oat milk was definitely not lower carb than whole cows milk when I last checked so do read all the nutritional info labels before you make a decision. Personally I feel that buying local cows milk and cream has less of an environmental impact than the other options which as mentioned are highly manufactured/processed and the difference in overall carb intake in extremely minimal. It also supports rural communities which is where I live. My partner works on a farm. A litre of milk lasts me over a week and it maybe has a couple more g carbs per 100mls than almond milk.
Obviously I don't drink much milk but I do have cream (lower carb than milk) in my coffee each morning as my daily treat. I also buy lots of yoghurt and cheese made with British milk.

@Nige13 I would not be overly concerned about the carbs in my milk if I was eating cereal..... The carbs in the cereal and the banana you mentioned having with it in another thread, is of much more relevance. To me it makes more sense to substitute the high carb foods for lower ones rather than trying to find the lowest of the low carb foods in your diet.... if carb count is important to you for managing your diabetes.

 

[john e]

I have recently been looking at supermarkets and their products plus independent suppliers, low carb, low salt, low sugar etc, my conclusions are, I cannot afford bread from the independents, most food from supermarkets is ok with some exceptions, so I will stick with their products, just watching the amounts that I eat, I have tried Alpro soya milk but didn't like it much, It can get you confused and worn out hunting around

 

[helli]

I am also concerned by the amount of water needed for almonds

 

[grovesy]

I also saw a feature on CNN about crop failures in the US and Almonds was on of the failed crops.

 

[Nige13]

Oat milk was definitely not lower carb than whole cows milk when I last checked so do read all the nutritional info labels before you make a decision. Personally I feel that buying local cows milk and cream has less of an environmental impact than the other options which as mentioned are highly manufactured/processed and the difference in overall carb intake in extremely minimal. It also supports rural communities which is where I live. My partner works on a farm. A litre of milk lasts me over a week and it maybe has a couple more g carbs per 100mls than almond milk.
Obviously I don't drink much milk but I do have cream (lower carb than milk) in my coffee each morning as my daily treat. I also buy lots of yoghurt and cheese made with British milk.

@Nige13 I would not be overly concerned about the carbs in my milk if I was eating cereal..... The carbs in the cereal and the banana you mentioned having with it in another thread, is of much more relevance. To me it makes more sense to substitute the high carb foods for lower ones rather than trying to find the lowest of the low carb foods in your diet.... if carb count is important to you for managing your diabetes.

Hi,
I just wanted to know if anyone had tried them and what they thought - I am not giving up milk but the odd iced coffee I thought may be better with other "milks" rather than cows?
I know what folk are saying about water, almonds enviroment etc BUT don't cows give off more gasses than anything else and are also not the best for the enviroment? I dont eat red meat btw and half the stuff most of us eat come form half way around the world #notagreatcarbonfootprint

 

[rebrascora]

I am not suggesting anyone give up drinking milk.... or eating cereal or bananas, just for people to be logical in their choices. Personally I am not convinced by the argument that cows farting and burping in a field along the road from me where there is grass and trees to reabsorb the carbon dioxide and methane and the ground benefits from their natural fertilizer can be worse than the issues with almond production or even oat and soya milk production which involve global transport. It staggers me that even the oat milk is produced in Canada and transported across the Atlantic.... and of course milk is mostly water, so we are ferrying water across the ocean in pretty large volumes. Same with almond and soya.

It is our personal decision to make and I am just saying why I make the decisions I do and that there are lots of issues with any decision we make on global food. The oat or soya or almond milk is not significantly better for our diabetes unless we drink lots of it and if we do drink lots then that has a bigger environmental impact. Not eating cereal or having a smaller portion perhaps with more yoghurt and seeds or having berries instead of banana will probably have a much bigger impact on your carb intake and diabetes than which milk you choose.

As regards flavour, I love cows milk and so far unsweetened almond, soya and oat have all fallen far short of being enjoyable. Sweetened they are a little better but still nothing to rival cows milk in flavour in my opinion.

 

[Nige13]

I agree nothing beats the flavour of good old cows milk 🙂 and I do love a banana so bit hard to give them up. I do have some berries with porrige but to be honest I dont like any forest fruit, blackberries,rasperries,or currents,raisans,sultanas and dont like any dried fruits #fussybugger. I do love strawberries tho and lots of other fruits 🙂

 

[rebrascora]

Yes, I like bananas too but now they are a very rare treat and just half a banana at a time. Either I share with my partner or have half one day and the other half the next, then none for a few weeks or months even. The less you have them the more you really appreciate it as a treat when you do have some.
Thankfully I adore raspberries which are one of the lowest carb fruits. Not sure why you mention currants sultanas and raisins as they are all pretty high carb being made from grapes which are one of the higher carb fruits and drying them of course increased the sugar percentage. But yes, blackberries, raspberries, black and red currants are all low carb but absolutely no point in eating something you don't enjoy, although I found that after cutting my carb and sugar intake and having them with creamy yoghurt rather than low fat yoghurt I appreciate the sharpness of blackcurrants etc much more now and can even eat them straight off the bush which my mother used to do and I always cringed because they were so sour, but now my tastes have changes and I can detect the sweetness and the sourness and enjoy both..... plus they are really good for you, especially picked straight from the garden..... talking of which I have a big patch of blackberries to harvest and they are really big and juicy and sweet this year. Bumper crop.

 

[Nige13]

Yes, I like bananas too but now they are a very rare treat and just half a banana at a time. Either I share with my partner or have half one day and the other half the next, then none for a few weeks or months even. The less you have them the more you really appreciate it as a treat when you do have some.
Thankfully I adore raspberries which are one of the lowest carb fruits. Not sure why you mention currants sultanas and raisins as they are all pretty high carb being made from grapes which are one of the higher carb fruits and drying them of course increased the sugar percentage. But yes, blackberries, raspberries, black and red currants are all low carb but absolutely no point in eating something you don't enjoy, although I found that after cutting my carb and sugar intake and having them with creamy yoghurt rather than low fat yoghurt I appreciate the sharpness of blackcurrants etc much more now and can even eat them straight off the bush which my mother used to do and I always cringed because they were so sour, but now my tastes have changes and I can detect the sweetness and the sourness and enjoy both..... plus they are really good for you, especially picked straight from the garden..... talking of which I have a big patch of blackberries to harvest and they are really big and juicy and sweet this year. Bumper crop.

I mentioned them becasue I dont like them and I am well aware they are from grapes. As for the high carb value, what does that matter if someone wanted to eat a few? A bit like yourself having "half" of a banana .... I don't know why you mentioned yoghurt? 🙄

 

[notmez]

I haven't had proper milk in a really long time due to lactose issues.

From a non diabetes perspective...

Coconut is nice but I don't often buy it but its good for hot chocolate and coffee (a bit sweet but ok) and home made ice cream/sorbets. Makes tea a bit strange. Makes cereal feel too sweet for me.

Almond, no real comment it makes me sick.

Oat took me a while to get used to, preferred it for cereal and less so for hot drinks apart from hot chocolate. It was ok in hot chocolate. Made everything less sweet.

Hemp milk is bitter but actually ok for cereal and some hot drinks. Just takes a while to get used to it.

Soya milk is my go to. I buy unsweetened, wife likes sweetened. Goes fine in cereal porridge hot drinks. Also done some baking with it and it doesn't leave an after taste.

Rice milk I haven't used.

I don't know how any of them measure up to real milk from a diabetes standpoint but I usually have under 100ml of unsweetened soya milk under 5g carbs <0.5g sugar.

 

[Nige13]

I haven't had proper milk in a really long time due to lactose issues.

From a non diabetes perspective...

Coconut is nice but I don't often buy it but its good for hot chocolate and coffee (a bit sweet but ok) and home made ice cream/sorbets. Makes tea a bit strange. Makes cereal feel too sweet for me.

Almond, no real comment it makes me sick.

Oat took me a while to get used to, preferred it for cereal and less so for hot drinks apart from hot chocolate. It was ok in hot chocolate. Made everything less sweet.

Hemp milk is bitter but actually ok for cereal and some hot drinks. Just takes a while to get used to it.

Soya milk is my go to. I buy unsweetened, wife likes sweetened. Goes fine in cereal porridge hot drinks. Also done some baking with it and it doesn't leave an after taste.

Rice milk I haven't used.

I don't know how any of them measure up to real milk from a diabetes standpoint but I usually have under 100ml of unsweetened soya milk under 5g carbs <0.5g sugar.

Hello

Thank you for your message - is has been really informative 🙂 I'm gonna give them a go ......with a nice iced coffee.

 

[nonethewiser]

Have tried soya milk & it was yuk, out of that selection think I'd go for oat milk given choice.

Do like cows milk mind, blue top everytime & use it in my porridge & hot drinks.

 

[Bloden]

Yer, I know what you mean by the ingredients - some of which are very long lol

And unpronounceable (is that a word?)!

 

[Nige13]

And unpronounceable (is that a word?)!

well, it is in the dictionary so yer 🙂 and a good one.

 

[notmez]

Have tried soya milk & it was yuk

Around 20+ years ago when I first started having soya milk I agreed. I couldn't drink the stuff.

On cereal it was ok and in hot drinks it seemed to curdle. I just stopped having it in drinks and switched to black coffee.

Around 10-15 years ago I noticed that it didn't go horrible in hot drinks. The taste isn't a problem for me but I know some who aren't a fan.

Shame really because I used to drink lots of milk until I worked out that's what was making me sick.