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Oatly: The New Coke?

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Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#81

What's wrong with sugar though? I also don't buy the cartoonishly simplistic claim that "coca-cola is unhealthy". Does it cause obsesity? It doesn't "cause obsesity" in the same sense that ingesting more calories than you spend causes obsesity: It's not the coca-cola or the sugar by themselves.

The only thing wrong with sugar is overeating it to the point of ruining one's macro proportions and going into caloric surplus. Just saying that "sugar is unhealthy" is not true from a dietary perspective. A better statement would be "too much sugar is unhealthy".

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#82
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),…

Yeah, and one shouldn't ignore the economic and environmental drawbacks of milk – in the US, at least, the government subsidises milk production heavily so it's profitable for the farmers. And dairy milk is terrible for the environment: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46654042

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ok, but it's not "swedish" anymore at least. Even if the chinese ownership is 30%, it's still the state of china that owns a large part of it which is enough for me to never buy that product again. Also, they have sponsored a festival outside Gothenburg in Sweden several times where they banned regular milk in the area, citing that it's bad for you.

That's ok to me, most of the stuff I buy is not made by a local company. We live in a globalized world after all.

I assume you mean Way out West? Oatly does seem like a good fit there so I wouldn't be surprised. That's been a vegetarian festival since 2012. Vegetarian as in they don't sell any meat. Non-vegetarians are of course welcome to party along. Oatly's marketing is quite tongue in cheek yes, it's part of their image.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#84
When I used to go to Japan, they had some kind of artificial creamer that was awesome. I actually preferred it to milk. I used to look forward to guzzling cup after cup of coffee in the hotel breakfast restaurant.

It was probably 100% artificial, but it was great. I normally can't stand non-dairy creamers, of any kind, in the US.

They seem to have an industry that makes artificial food, and it's quite advanced.

I remember these artificial strawberries that were made of something like white chocolate. They were better than the "real thing."

I'm probably gonna drop dead, because I consumed these things, but I did like them.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have some level of lactose malabsorption. Also cows milk has pretty grave health implications for the cows

I asked my vegan friends if they’d rather these animals would not exist at all rather than be used for milk production (because they are only bred into existence for that). I wonder how that logic applies to humans born into living in rough countries, would vegans rather they would not exist at all? It’s not like a dairy cow has a life of eternal suffering after all. It eats, grazes, rests and socializes. It does cow…

Dairy cows exist because we actively breed them. We inject dairy cows with sperm to keep them pregnant so they keep producing milk, then take their calf away and repeat the process. They're not multiplying on their own.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#86

What's wrong with sugar though? I also don't buy the cartoonishly simplistic claim that "coca-cola is unhealthy". Does it cause obsesity? It doesn't "cause obsesity" in the same sense that ingesting more calories than you spend causes obsesity: It's not the coca-cola or the sugar by themselves.

A good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5TLzNi5fYd-dBPvkjtfO...

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#87

> 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.

Oat Milk, even the very best, is syrupy and thick. I think most people looking for a latte without dairy are better off seeing the Milk Alternative’s flavors as their own thing rather than trying to replicate a dairy latte. There are a lot of upsides to be found if you stop chasing an impossible goal. Notably, I found that a Soy London Fog is actually single-handedly a better drink than a milk London Fog...but it is…

I disagree. I have access to several different brands of oat milk, and some of them are sweet, some are not. The neutral ones declare less sugar than Oatly and they don't use any noteworthy amount of salt to balance things out. The brand I prefer declares sugar content at 3 grams per 100, which is a bit less than the nominal amount of lactose in cow milk. I of course understand that these two sugars' GI profiles are different, I'm just pointing out that there is such a thing as neutral non-viscous oat milk.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#88
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I asked my vegan friends if they’d rather these animals would not exist at all rather than be used for milk production (because they are only bred into existence for that). I wonder how that logic applies to humans born into living in rough countries, would vegans rather they would not exist at all? It’s not like a dairy cow has a life of eternal suffering after all. It eats, grazes, rests and socializes. It does cow…

Dairy cows exist because we actively breed them. We inject dairy cows with sperm to keep them pregnant so they keep producing milk, then take their calf away and repeat the process. They're not multiplying on their own.

That’s exactly my point. With no utility, these animals would not exist. Are their lives so miserable that we can morally assert that they should not be living?

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#89
post #24

Any recommendations for a different good-tasting, ‘healthy’ milk alternative, then? Porridge or cereal with water is inedible...

what about just drinking water and eating berries? I kid you not, you will feel so much better.

Maybe I should try a serious comparison with berries specifically, but my personal experience is that I don’t get the same sustained slow energy release from fruit that I’d get from porridge or low GI cereal - I get hungry faster.

Re: Oatly: The New Coke?

#90
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...

The article is about the failings of Oatly, not the failures of milk.

There’s lots of milk substitutes that aren’t as bad for you as Oatly.

I read the comparison to milk as just a comparison to the baseline or what Oatly wants to taste like, not as an endorsement of cow milk.

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