Your Almond Milk Is A Fraud: Gullible Shoppers Fooled

Image – EatLocalGrown (with permission)

So do you have any idea just how many actual Almonds are in your “Almond Milk”? Be honest.

There are many reasons to snack on whole, raw almonds. They’re an excellent source of protein, healthy fats, and antioxidants, for starters, and almond skins even contain beneficial phenols, flavonoids and phenolic acids, which are typically associated with vegetables and fruits.

Drinking almond milk may therefore seem like a smart choice, one that may offer you the health benefits of almonds in beverage form – but it might not be as healthy as it would appear, particularly if you buy commercial varieties.

What exactly is commercial almond milk? It’s typically a combination of almonds, water, sweetener, thickener such as carrageenan (see our report What Is Carrageenan And Is It Safe To Eat?) and, often, fortified nutrients such as vitamins A, E, and D.

The problem is that most almond milk contains hardly any almonds, but is mostly water, added sugars, thickeners (to convince you that your product is bursting with almonds) and a smattering of vitamins for good measure.

The same goes for hazelnut milk and so on.

There are even clever tricks on the ingredient list, such as listing the #1 ingredient as “almond base” (almonds, water). This subtly deceptive wording enables the manufacturer to put almonds right at the top of the list, when in fact the “almond base” is of course… mostly water.

It’s all part of the game. Clever marketing of “all natural” products all packaged up with polished haloes, so that you can “live the dream” without actually snapping out of your consumer trance for one nanosecond… it’s sad how they are not actually interested in health. They are interested in selling you consumer products and will take advantage of your perceptions. Vigilance is always required!

For much better results, make your own almond or other nut milks! It’s actually very easy and we have a great tutorial on how to do this here: – How To Make Your Own Almond, Nut, Rice and Seed Milks

You should also find that the price is way cheaper than buying it from the store. You can use organic ingredients, filtered water and still save money.

Check out also this super recipe for Banana And Almond Butter Ice Cream

The other (and very-little discussed) benefit of making your own nut milks is that even though triple layer beverage cartons are now recyclable – they are still plastic-lined. It’s not ideal to leave food sitting in plastic for months or even years and the health effects of plastics / BPA have now been well documented. For best results we suggest using sealable glass jars such as these super ones by Fido (Amazon Link), refrigerating your home made almond milk and using within 2-3 days.

Go here to learn more about the health benefits of nuts with references to scientific research.