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Oatly: The New Coke?

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Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#11

Post by cinntaile »

ecmascript wrote: post #3

> Little Oatly in the south of Sweden Oatly is owned by a Chinese company so it's not very Swedish anymore. They claim bullshit like cow milk is bad and spread a lot of vegan propaganda. It's a really crap company with crap interests.

It's mostly owned by a Belgian company, Verlinvest (40%). Which is a venture capital company run by the families behind Inbev (the beer company). After that it's 30% owned by a Chinese company. At least according to Wikipedia. On their own website they list some more owners but without any percentages.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#12

Post by CPLX »

Every time I read about products like this I can't help but think back to Michael Pollen's simple phrase on the cover of The NY Times Magazine:

Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not Too Much.

The relevant paragraph:

"Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat."

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t...

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#13

Post by spodek »

The article mentioned Merchants of Doubt. I recommend following it up with Industrial Strength Denial https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Strength-Denial-Corporatio..., which documents similar practices supporting industries like leaded gas, radium (promoted for health including injecting it and using it in suppositories), and slavery.

As an alternative to Oatly, I bought a soy milk making machine (used from Craig's List for $15). Like a rice cooker, it's not necessary but it does the job easily. It can work with rice, oats, cashews, etc. I make new soy milk every few days. Ingredients: soy beans and water.

The article doesn't mention the packaging, another similarity with Coke, but food packaging creates a lot of waste. Buying soy beans in bulk in reusable bags reduces a lot of that pollution.

Another great alternative to Oatly is water -- for hundreds of thousands of years the only beverage humans drank after weaning.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#14

Post by kitbrennan »

> anyone who's tried a latte with oat milk can attest it is by far the best tasting, most milk-like alternative

That's quite a bold & generalising statement. Personally I think cashew nut milk is the most milk-like alternative in terms of flavour and mouthfeel.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#15

Post by Robbsen »

cpach wrote: post #9
ecmascript wrote: post #3

> Little Oatly in the south of Sweden Oatly is owned by a Chinese company so it's not very Swedish anymore. They claim bullshit like cow milk is bad and spread a lot of vegan propaganda. It's a really crap company with crap interests.

I find it kinda hilarious that despite this Oatly is very popular in vegan/new age/alternative circles. If I was a vegan I would rather drink organic soy milk.

And lots of us do. I see Oatly more of a mainstream brand than a vegan brand tbh

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#16

Post by evilsetg »

cpach wrote: post #9
ecmascript wrote: post #3

> Little Oatly in the south of Sweden Oatly is owned by a Chinese company so it's not very Swedish anymore. They claim bullshit like cow milk is bad and spread a lot of vegan propaganda. It's a really crap company with crap interests.

I find it kinda hilarious that despite this Oatly is very popular in vegan/new age/alternative circles. If I was a vegan I would rather drink organic soy milk.

I have similar feelings. The organic soymilk I buy has two ingredients: water and sugar. Reading the ingredient list on oat milks always makes me a bit uneasy in comparison. I do sometimes buy oat milk though since it does go better with tea.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#17

Post by ecmascript »

cpach wrote: post #9
ecmascript wrote: post #3

> Little Oatly in the south of Sweden Oatly is owned by a Chinese company so it's not very Swedish anymore. They claim bullshit like cow milk is bad and spread a lot of vegan propaganda. It's a really crap company with crap interests.

I find it kinda hilarious that despite this Oatly is very popular in vegan/new age/alternative circles. If I was a vegan I would rather drink organic soy milk.

Or almond milk, which actually tastes good compared to soy milk and oatly.

If you look at men who are vegan, they are almost always weak and feminine. Maybe that's just the kind of individuals that get drawn into a vegan diet, but I think there might be something else in play.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#18

Post by harel »

I don't drink dairy due to intolerance and I find it disgusting possibly for the same reason. I also don't like any milk substitute so I'm out of any target demographic anyway. However, as far as I know according to traditional Chinese medicine milk is considered a big no no.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#19

Post by thepete2 »

spodek wrote: post #13

The article mentioned Merchants of Doubt . I recommend following it up with Industrial Strength Denial https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Strength-Denial-Corporatio... , which documents similar practices supporting industries like leaded gas, radium (promoted for health including injecting it and using it in suppositories), and slavery. As an alternative to Oatly, I bought a soy milk making machine (used from Craig's…

> The article doesn't mention the packaging

Every time I go to the grocery store I wonder why we haven't come up with standardized food boxes that you can just refill. Probably has to do with hygiene, but god I hate buying so much packaging...

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#20

Post by gvjddbnvdrbv »

puttycat wrote: post #10
krthkv wrote: post #5

Great write up on debunking oatly's "health benefits". But fails to mention the the moral reasons to choose oat milk over cow's milk. TBF lot of the meat replacements are plagued by similar problems. [1] [1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/impossible-and-beyond-ho...

Exactly what I had in mind. The article does not mention cow milk's health implications, and only focuses on debunking Oatly's alleged health benefits. This creates the same "Obscure the Truth" effect the article opens with, giving the impression that there's nothing wrong with cow milk. If both options are equally unhealthy (which is at the minimum the biased impression the article gives by not discussing cow milk),…

What actual proven health implications does cows milk have?
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