Plant Milk Proliferation: Oat, Soy, Almond, and More, But Which Is Best?

September 8, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

For most of human history, nobody drank milk. Not cow’s milk, not almond milk, not soy milk. People used milk—whether from animals or plants—as an ingredient: to make cheese, butter, tofu, or to enrich a stew. The idea of pouring a glass of white liquid and drinking it straight is a very recent invention, and it took a combination of 19th-century chemistry, industrial scandal, and government marketing to make it seem normal. Now, plant-based milks are everywhere, and the question of which one is “best” depends on a tangle of history, nutrition, and environmental impact that the episode unpacks step by step.

The Prehistory of Plant Milk

Long before oat milk became a Brooklyn status symbol, people around the world were making white liquids from plants. In the Pacific, they grated coconut and pressed out the milk. In North Africa, tiger nuts were ground into a drink that eventually became Spanish horchata. In East Asia, boiled rice was strained into a milky liquid. In North America, hickory nuts and pecans were pounded with water to feed babies. Soy milk is one of the oldest—it goes back at least two thousand years in China. But as food historian Wendy Fu explains, early soy milk wasn’t meant to be drunk. Raw soy milk contains compounds that block digestive enzymes and taste astringent; boiling neutralizes them, but the result still tastes beany. For centuries, soy milk was p

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What you'll learn

1 (00:39) **The Plant Milk Explosion** - The hosts introduce the bewildering array of plant-based milks now available, from oat and soy to pistachio and macadamia, and pose the central question: are they actually healthier and better for the planet than cow's milk?
2 (03:12) **What Even Is "Milk"?** - The definition of milk is explored, revealing that humans have been making white, nutritious liquids from plants for centuries, long before the modern dairy industry.
3 (04:05) **The Ancient Origins of Soy and Almond Milk** - The deep history of soy milk in China and almond milk in the Middle East and Europe is uncovered, showing they were not originally consumed as drinks.
4 (06:56) **The Rise and Fall of Almond Milk in Europe** - The reasons for almond milk's decline in Europe are explained, linking it to the Protestant Reformation and the economics of importing almonds.
5 (07:51) **Nobody Used to Drink Liquid Milk** - A key historical revelation: for most of history, almost no one, even in dairy-centric Northern Europe, drank a glass of plain milk.
6 (09:57) **Milk Becomes a "Perfect Food"** - In the 19th century, the new science of chemistry hailed milk as the most perfect and complete food, setting the stage for its mass consumption.
7 (11:14) **The Deadly "Swill Milk" Crisis** - The dark side of the milk boom is revealed: in rapidly growing 19th-century cities, cow's milk became a lethal product, killing up to a quarter of all babies in New York and Boston.

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Show Notes

Cow milk is out, and plant milk reigns supreme. At least, that's how it feels in the supermarket these days, where the refrigerated section is full of "milk" made from oats, almonds, peanuts, coconuts, soy, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and even peas, with new plants being milked seemingly every day. But this proliferation had us wondering: who invented all these plant milks, and are they better for us and the planet than the OG cow-based beverage? To find out, we're exploring the surprisingly long history of plant-based milks—including why most civilizations preferred them over any animal's, why Henry Ford thought plant milk would replace dairy the way cars replaced horses, and how Vince Lombardi and some catchy ads made drinking cow's milk de rigeur, even for grown-ups. Plus: we've got the inside story of how Swedish underdog Oatly took the third wave coffee world by storm, plus a science-based breakdown of which of these new alt-milks you should be drinking for the maximum health and environmental benefits.

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