June 23, 2025
Discover how your milk rates for health and the environment.
Think Your Plant Milk Habit is Virtuous? Think Again.
If you’re pouring almond milk over your porridge or ordering oat flat whites, thinking you’re making a healthy, eco-friendly choice, you might want to reconsider. New research from Oxford University suggests the so-called “milk alternative” might not be as green — or as healthy — as we’ve been led to believe.
The Environmental Trade-Off
Oxford’s latest study cuts through the hype. On paper, swapping dairy for plant-based options looks planet-friendly. But when you compare calorie for calorie, the picture flips.
Take almond milk. You’d need four servings to match the calories of one serving of whole milk. The environmental hit? It jumps by about 14% overall, largely due to the massive water demand for almond farming.
The researchers point out that this isn’t just about calories. Most people aren’t looking to directly replace the energy content of milk. We’re after the vitamins, minerals, and protein — or sometimes just a lower-calorie option.
Cow’s Milk
Health Ratings:
Whole cow’s milk is nutrient-rich, packed with calcium and vitamin B12 — the kind of essentials many vegan diets miss. It’s also a complete protein, which is rare among plant-based options. Sure, it’s calorie-dense at about 68 calories per 100ml with 3.5g of fat, but unless you’re actively trying to lose weight, that’s not necessarily a bad thing — it’s fuel.
Skimmed milk cuts the calories nearly in half and slashes the fat to just 0.3g per 100ml, but the trade-off? You lose the fat needed to absorb key vitamins, especially vitamin A.
Environment: ★☆☆☆☆
When it comes to sustainability, dairy collapses spectacularly. It’s the gold standard of eco-unfriendly. Even the worst plant-based milks look good next to it. In Europe, dairy is estimated to account for 25-33% of total food-related carbon emissions. Producing cow’s milk creates three times the greenhouse gases of any plant-based milk, uses up to ten times more land, two to twenty times more water, and causes up to ten times more nutrient pollution (think: algae blooms and dead rivers).
But here’s the catch: when researchers compare environmental cost per nutritional value instead of just per litre, the picture shifts. Some studies suggest that dairy’s carbon footprint per micronutrient is less than a third that of oat milk. Almond milk, in particular, can use 67% more water than dairy to match its nutritional content, despite almond’s low water use per litre of drink.
Almond Milk
Health: ★★★☆☆
Low in calories, low in most nutrients. Most almond milks are fortified with calcium and vitamins, but these added nutrients aren’t as easily absorbed as the natural ones in dairy. They’re also ultra-processed (UPFs), often packed with stabilisers and emulsifiers. If you care about clean labels, you can find simpler versions made with just almonds, water, and salt.
Naturally, almond milk offers some vitamin E, but unless it’s paired with fat, your body won’t absorb much of it. And let’s face it — if you’re chasing vitamin E with a cheese sandwich, you’ve missed the point.
Environment: ★☆☆☆☆
Almond trees are thirsty. It takes about 372 litres of water per litre of almond milk. Cow’s milk takes even more — 628 litres per litre — but because you’d need to drink four times as much almond milk to match dairy’s nutrition, almond’s total water use can end up being worse.
Still, most of us aren’t matching like-for-like calories; we’re just swapping milk millilitre for millilitre. So almond milk earns a slightly better eco rating here — but with a big asterisk: almond farming is brutal for bees. In the US, pesticide-heavy almond cultivation contributes to the loss of a third of bee colonies each year.
Oat Milk
Health: ★★☆☆☆
Oat milk’s health glow has dimmed. Whole oats are great — full of fibre that’s good for your heart and gut. But oat milk? Not so much. It’s high in carbs (7g per 100ml), more than dairy or almond milk, and can spike blood sugar. Most oat milks are also UPFs, often loaded with added sugars and emulsifying oils to get that creamy texture coffee drinkers love.
Environment: ★★★☆☆
Oat milk is a sustainability poster child at first glance. It generates less than a third of the greenhouse gases of dairy and uses far less water. But oats are the most land-hungry of the plant milks and non-organic crops are doused in pesticides that harm wildlife and soil ecosystems.
Soy Milk
Health: ★★★★☆
Soy milk hits closest to cow’s milk nutritionally. It’s a complete protein, offering all nine essential amino acids. Fortified versions can even beat dairy on vitamin D. Unsweetened soy is the best like-for-like swap, but check labels: many soy milks list sugar as the third ingredient. Some people avoid soy over concerns about phytoestrogens (plant hormones that mimic oestrogen), but the science isn’t settled. Soy allergies are another consideration.
Environment: ★★★★☆
Soy has a bad reputation thanks to deforestation, but the vast majority of soy grown in deforested areas is fed to livestock, not humans. Soy milk scores well across the board:
Soy might actually be the original and best alt-milk after all.
Rice Milk
Health: ★★☆☆☆
Rice milk offers little nutritionally. Fortified versions can mimic dairy’s vitamin profile, but it’s low in protein, high in sugars (even unsweetened versions pack about 10g sugar per 100ml), and sometimes contain trace arsenic. Some dietitians call it “sweet water” — and they’re not wrong.
Environment: ★☆☆☆☆
Rice milk is the environmental flop of plant milks. It’s almost as water intensive as almond milk, using about 270 litres per litre, and it’s bad for nutrient pollution. It also has the highest emissions of the plant-based options. All that, for minimal nutritional payoff.
Coconut Milk
Health: ★☆☆☆☆
Most supermarket coconut milks are heavily diluted with water and usually contain added rice for sweetness. They’re ultra-processed, light on nutrients, and only offer a touch more natural fat compared to other alt-milks. Fortification helps, but you’re basically drinking a processed blend.
Environment: ★★☆☆☆
Coconut farming seems sustainable on the surface — trees capture carbon and need less water — but demand has driven some ugly side effects:
So What Should You Stock?
If your goal is personal health, cow’s milk still holds strong. If your priority is the planet, plant-based options can help — but the environmental benefits aren’t as clear-cut as we thought, especially when it comes to resource-heavy choices like almond milk.
In short:
The milk debate isn’t as simple as we’ve made it. Whether you’re sipping for your body or the planet, the smartest choice depends on what you’re really trying to get out of that glass.
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