How to Choose the Best Oat Milk without Foaming Agents, Oat Starch Sugar, Processed Oils & Gums

Last Updated on September 12, 2021 by Colleen

The best oat milk is made fresh at home but life doesn’t always allow for that.

But if you’ve got 15 minutes, we’ve got a quick recipe for you below using ZEGO’s purity protocol gluten-free Double Protein Oats. If not, we have a list of ingredients to avoid when choosing oat milk. And we list some better options from Dr. Gonzolez of the Heal Thyself podcast, with some added notes by us.

Make the Best Oat Milk Fresh, at Home

But before we talk about the best oat milk on the store shelf, let’s take a hot minute to talk about how easy and economical it is to make your own.

Why Make Your Own Oat Milk?

• First, a bottle of gluten-free oat milk can cost upwards of $8. Making the highest quality, cleanest, best oat milk from ZEGO’s Double Protein Oats costs about 75% less!

• Second, if you’ve looked for a healthy, clean, gluten-free brand in the grocery store, you’ve likely been frustrated. That’s because few oat milk brands are USDA organic. And, almost no brands are gluten-free, let alone purity protocol gluten-free.

• Third, many contain the gums, over-processed fillers, and chemicals like foaming agents and pesticide residue.

• Fourth, most contain hidden sugars. How is that, you wonder? Well, it’s very tricky. Oat milks may list “oats” in their ingredients even if they are really using oat starch. Why use oat starch? Well, it makes a sweeter milk. So, if the label doesn’t include sugar but the nutrition panel has more than 2-3g/serving, it’s likely added oat starch sugar.

• If you use our Double Protein Oats, you’ll get the cleanest, most nutritious organic, purity protocol gluten-free oat milk possible. Better yet, it takes only 15 minutes and costs less than $1 for 2 cups. Check out our recipe here. We keep it in a glass ball jar. Shake before pouring if it separates.

No time to make the ZEGO oat milk at home? Dr. G shares his fave clean brands in his best oat milk review. See our summary (with added notes) below.

What Is Important to Know About Oats?

Many brands use problem oils like canola (which is often processed with hexane), defoamers (phosphates), and stabilizers (gums). Adding to that, they make their products with commercial oats that may have residue from glyphosate, paraquat, and other toxic pesticides. As if that weren’t enough cause for concern, many brands use oat starch sugar to make their milk sweeter without having to list sugar on the labels.

• Look for Organic. Oats can have toxic residue from glyphosate, paraquat, and other pesticides.
• Phosphates. Phosphates are used in barista versions of non-dairy milk to help them foam. But added phosphates can damage your bones and kidney.
• Over-processed oils. Canola, safflower, and some sunflower oil.
• Gums. Gums can cause gastric distress.
• Hidden Sugars and Fats. Oats naturally have 0-1g of fat and 0g of sugar per serving. So how is it possible that some of the oat milks on the market list nothing but oats, water, and salt in their ingredients and yet they have 5 or more grams of sugar and fat listed in their nutrition panel? See the 4th bullet in the previous section. You’ll see that many oat milks are made from a high-carb oat starch base, not whole grain oats.

Dr. G’s Review

We are big fans of Dr. Christian Gonzalez, ND and his podcast Heal Thyself. One of the reasons is that in every episode he does product reviews to help us find the cleanest products on the shelf. You see, though ZEGO offers purity verification and transparency, other brands do not. So Dr. G does the research for us.

Listen in to why he does not recommend Oatly, Simple Truth, Silk, and Leaf of Farms. And his second-tier choices are Forager, Malibu, and Rise. (Note: Doctor G did not review the Pacific brand due to a lack of information.)

One of the things Dr.G points out that the higher quality prepackaged oat milks don’t last long in the refrigerator. And as a result, brands sell these in smaller bottles. In addition, if you have nut or seed allergies, read the labels carefully. Malk, Three Trees, and MANY other brans also make nut- and seed-based milks, and some coconut.

No Time to Make Your Own? Here are the Cleanest, Best Oat Milks

Here is Dr. G’s list of best oat milk brands, with a note of any concerns we have about some of these brands.

• Willa‘s – USDA Organic, unsweetened has no oils and low sugar but creamy has some organic sunflower oil and sugar (unsweetened is our favorite profile, but we haven’t tasted it yet)
• Good Mylk (blended with tiger nuts) – Organic (not certified), frozen-you thaw and mix (very clean profile, but we are looking forward to trying this)
• Three Trees (blended with seeds) – USDA Organic, Gluten-Free Oat Milk (nutrition label says 3g added sugar but the ingredient list doesn’t have sugar in it, suggesting they start with a processed oat starch base)
• Malk – USDA Organic (delicious but the protein, fat, and sugar content compared to the ingredient list suggest they start with a processed oat starch base)

What is your favorite oat milk? Have you tried Willa’s or Good Mylk? We’d love to hear your feedback. Better yet, have you tried making it from scratch from our Double Protein Oats? Let’s us know your experience! We’ve found our homemade version to last 2 weeks in the fridge and not have the separation problems others have.