Question: Can someone with slightly high cholesterol levels happily drink oat milk? It tastes quite creamy.
Answer:
“Oat milk” may sound like an unlikely marriage of grain in a carton, but it has become a staple in many households. From fibre to fortifications, oat milk offers an intriguing mix of nutrients that are worth a closer look. But before you start pouring, here’s what you need to know to decide if it deserves a spot in your fridge.
Plant-based milk alternatives – whether soy, almond or oat – have become increasingly in demand because of their perceived sustainability and lower environmental impact than dairy. From a sensory perspective, oat milk is a milky white liquid with a bland or slightly sweet taste, closer to cow’s milk in flavour than soy milk, which tends to have a distinctive soybean smell.
Oat milk is generally made by combining oats with water, milling the mixture and then adding enzymes and heat to create a thick liquid base. Ingredients such as calcium and vitamin B12 are often added (these occur naturally in cow’s milk). Vegetable oils are frequently added, but not always. For example, the Macro brand of organic oat milk has no vegetable oil added, but many other brands do.
So, depending on which brand you choose, the creamy texture you describe may be due to the added vegetable oils, or it could just be the thickened texture from oats soaked in water.
You raise an excellent point in querying whether the creaminess of oat milk should be a concern for people with elevated cholesterol levels. The Heart Foundation advises people with high cholesterol levels to cut back on foods high in saturated fats, such as pies, cakes and chips. Instead, opt for a wide variety of heart-healthy foods, such as whole grains, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables and oily fish.
Oats are whole grains and contain a highly beneficial form of fibre called beta-glucan, which lowers blood cholesterol levels. Although processing oats into milk may affect beta-glucan levels, it is still likely to contain some. Conversely, oat milk also contains phytates from the oats, which impairs the absorption of iron, zinc, magnesium and calcium.
Interestingly, a clinical trial published in 1999 investigated the impact of oat milk on serum cholesterol levels in men with high cholesterol. Their regime of drinking 750 millilitres of oat milk daily for five weeks resulted in 6% lower LDL and total cholesterol levels than those drinking a control solution. Similarly, a study published this year found food therapy in the form of 50g of almonds and 290ml of oat milk daily over four weeks lowered LDL cholesterol levels in patients with high cholesterol though not to the same degree as a course of statins.
However, neither article mentions whether the oat milk used in these clinical trials contained vegetable oil. The type of oil added could potentially affect oat milk’s health profile. Some manufacturers, such as All Good (Good Oat), use rapeseed oil, also known as canola oil. Other oat milks such as Vitasoy’s range and Boring Oat Milk use sunflower oil. Sanitarium does not specify which type of vegetable oil it uses, and, as noted, Macro’s contains no vegetable oil.
Canola and sunflower oil are considered heart-healthy oils. However, canola may be more helpful than sunflower oil in lowering LDL cholesterol, a 2020 meta-review of studies published in Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases found. Though we can’t be sure the oat milk used in these clinical trials was comparable to what’s available in New Zealand, choosing oat milk with heart-healthy oils such as canola/rapeseed or sunflower oil seems unlikely to pose a risk to cardiovascular health and might even offer some benefits.
So if you enjoy its creamy taste, oat milk can be a valuable addition to your diet, even if you’re watching your cholesterol levels.
