The Futuristic Historian

An oat inundation is occurring all around us. Forget instant oatmeal; try oat groats, oat bran, oat bread, oat flour. There is oat yogurt, oat spread, oat ice cream, and that monarch of millennials, oat milk. The grocery aisles, even the narrow, single-file ones here in Europe, are crammed with oat products, and they are dominating the dairy alternatives. Is it just good marketing, or is this particular edible plant truly the ‘greatest of all time?’

Many will point to its rapid rise and say it’s only a trend. It will be gone before we know it. But a trend is only a trend if it also appears quickly, almost out of nowhere, and oats have been slowly encroaching into the kingdom of wheat for 4,000 years now. Oats grew plentifully in the ancient Middle East, but were not widely eaten. Denizens of the Mediterranean considered them a mere weed. Greeks and Romans cultivated wheat and barley, but they already looked down on barley as the inferior plant (since it was also easier to grow.) Even the self-punishing Spartans had no interest in oats. When boys and girls joined the agoge, the communal military education program, at age seven, they subsisted mostly on melanas zomos, a gruel made of barley and pig’s blood. There is some mention of the Greeks using oats for medicine, though, and Pliny the Elder mentioned that the Ethiopians ate them.[1] Somehow, around 2000 BCE, some stray oats traveled to northern Europe and east to China, where the climates are cooler and damper compared to the hot and dry Mediterranean.[2] About three and half millennia later, they became the favored cereal of Celts, Scandinavians, and Poles.

Maybe these tribal farmers were onto something. Although the English Dictionary creator Samuel Johnson saw the Scots as eating a grain suitable only for horses, what the oat doubters didn’t realize was that the unassuming grass was packed with nutrition. Grains all have their own complex nutritional profiles, but when oats face off with wheat, they win in almost every category. A serving of oats contains 7.6 grams of protein vs. 5 grams for common wheat. They also contain higher levels of vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium, phosphorous, manganese, and thiamin.[3] But their stand-out feature is the soluble fiber beta glucan, which feeds your gut microbiome and lowers cholesterol. Mind you, this refers to whole or steel-cut oats; the processing of rolled ‘quick’ oats depletes them quite a bit.

The dairy-alternative playing field is becoming quite competitive though, so does oat milk still hold the nutritional edge over other milk substitutes? Well, there are many options out there—too many to list, in fact—but the most commonly sold are beverages made from soy, coconut, almond, flax, hemp, and even peas. Among these, each has its own benefits. Since cow’s milk is so strong on protein, that becomes an essential factor for many seeking milk substitutes. Soy, flax, and pea drinks are the highest in protein—on par with milk in fact, at 7 to 10 grams per serving. Oat and hemp milk are medium on protein, with 1-3 grams. Coconut and almond have the least, the latter of which is surprising, considering that nuts in general are a major protein source. Coming from plants, milk alternatives can have a little bit of something that milk won’t provide—fiber. In this case soy and oat drinks fare the best, with about 2 grams, while the others have 1 gram or less. It seems like soy is leading so far, but oat does well again when it comes to fat content. While soy, pea, coconut, flax, and hemp drinks all contain 4 to 5 grams of fat, oat milk only contains 1.5 grams. Almond drinks also have about 1 gram, but they are low in protein and fiber as well. Cow’s milk, of course, ranges from high in fat to fat-free skim. So how does oat milk rank overall? It is a medium competitor in protein, with more fiber and less fat. Make sure to buy versions that contain calcium, though, as that is the biggest loss when quitting animal milk. Other added vitamins, like B12, are a bonus as well.

Nutrition is the core of how we choose our diets, but fortunately, nutrition and sustainability usually go hand in hand. Is that coincidence, or is it because prehistoric humans survived longer and more easily when they ate foods that gave them nutrients AND maintained an abundance of resources? Alas, we are far beyond eating our immediate surroundings, and sustainable food means more than just the ingredients—it comprises production, packaging, and transportation, too. As my favorite oat drink brand Oatly admits, “reducing the climate impact from our production has turned out to be a real challenge considering the fast pace of growth, and our production solutions being in constant flux.”[4] So, making and getting oat products to the world is increasing their carbon footprint (although it is well below the footprint of animal products). On top that, not all oats are equally sustainable. According to Oatly, Finnish oats create twice the carbon footprint as Swedish oats, simply because of the type of soil.

Oats are a comparatively sustainable crop to grow. They are good for soil, absorb excess nitrogen, are naturally resistant to weeds and insects,[5] and use significantly less water than their primary alt-dairy rivals, almonds and soy. Just like with nutrition, sustainability varies based on many factors. Besides carbon footprint, which measures greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and excess water use also negatively impact the environment. Almonds take massive quantities of water, but the total carbon footprint for a glass of almond milk is slightly lower than a glass of oat milk: 0.14 kg/CO₂e versus 0.18 kg/CO₂e. Growing almonds in a drier climate that requires lots of irrigation is certainly problematic. Soy milk’s footprint is only slightly higher than oat milk’s, at 0.195 kg/CO₂e. Oats use the least amount of both water and land. Dairy cows have the highest carbon footprint by far at 0.6 kg, and they require at least 80% more land and water than the alternatives.[6] Oats, like any major crop, are not totally environmentally friendly, as they sometimes result in the cutting down of rainforests. The more these products grow in popularity and variable usages, the more land they take up—this has happened with soy, for example. We can only hope that dairy alternatives will replace dairy products enough that the land currently used by cows can be repurposed for sustainable crops.

I feel good about consuming oat products because they are nutritious, relatively sustainable, and delicious. Everyone has their taste preferences—de gustibus non est disputandum. Yet, you can’t get away from the fact that oats carry their own innate creaminess—that’s why their historical format was always porridge. Oat milk is, in my opinion, creamy and tasty, though I remain aware that a little oil is added to enhance those traits. But I also think that taste is not the most important factor; few adults regularly drink plain glasses of milk. It is usually poured over cereal or into coffee and smoothies, where it takes on the flavors of the other food or drink. By the way, oat milk can be used in any recipe that calls for the addition of milk—my Mixed Veggie Balls, for example, contain both oat milk and rolled oats. Find them on my Recipes page. What I can say for certain is that my morning granola or Weetabix, made thick and mushy with my calcium-fortified Oatly, is something I looked forward to as soon as I wake up.