Is Oat Milk Keto?

Plant-based milks have grown in popularity over the last few years, with good reason.  They’re full of essential minerals and vitamins, have a fantastic flavour, and provide a super substitute to dairy milk.  Many people choose to avoid cow’s milk for ethical reasons or due to an intolerance or allergy. 

Cow's milk is also high in net carbs due to the presence of lactose, which is essentially a milk sugar.  One cup of cow’s milk contains 12g of net carbs, making it a no-go on Keto.

So what are some of the best alternative milks to consume while following a Ketogenic diet?  One of the most favoured alternative milks on the market is oat milk.  It’s easy to see why with its rich flavour and creamy consistency, making it a perfect milk for your morning coffee or post-workout smoothie. 

But what is oat milk and is it Keto?

We have all the info you need, along with suggestions for the best plant-based milk to enjoy on Keto.

What Is Oat Milk?

Oat milk is made from whole oat seeds; the oat seeds are soaked in water and blended until smooth.  The mixture is then squeezed through a fine strainer to remove the pulp, and the remaining liquid is the drinkable oat milk.  The process of making oat milk is relatively quick and easy and can even be easily replicated at home.

Oat milk is a firm favourite with consumers thanks to its creamy consistency and flavour.  It also has many nutritional benefits such as good amounts of vitamins B12 and B2, calcium and phosphorus along with a moderate amount of protein per serving (8oz/240ml).

Nutritional Information

Is Oat Milk Keto?

The short answer is no.  Unsweetened oat milk is low in fat content and high in carbohydrates - there is more than double the daily recommended allowance of carbs in one 240ml (1 Cup) serving. Many oat milks that are available to buy also have added sugar, making them even higher in net carbs. 

Unfortunately all oat milks are therefore completely non-Ketogenic.  You should opt for an alternative plant-based milk if you want to stay in ketosis and achieve the health goals you’re aiming for.

Thankfully, there are many great alternative milks available that are low in carbs and high in fat, making them the perfect choice to include in your Keto diet.

The Best Low-Carb Milk Options On Keto 

There are a great variety of alternative milks available to buy in stores and online.  In fact, there are now so many options it can be difficult to know which ones are the best choice for you.  On Keto your aim is to maintain ketosis, you may also be striving to lose weight and/or improve a health condition.

Therefore to decide which milks are the best to drink on Keto, you’ll need to consider the amount of fat, protein and net carbs present in each one.  This takes time and effort that can feel overwhelming, and we know you can think of much better things you’d rather do, so we’ve taken care of it for you.

Here are the best of the bunch:

Unsweetened Almond Milk

A popular and readily available milk option, almond milk is naturally sweet with a light consistency that’s ideal for adding to coffee, smoothies or Keto Granola.

It has a moderate amount of fat and the lowest net carb content compared to other alternative milks.

Unsweetened Coconut Milk

Another favoured alternative milk, coconut milk has a distinctive, creamy taste and texture.  It’s also affordable and widely available in store and online.  It’s perfect for smoothies or simply enjoyed on its own.

Unsweetened coconut milk has a high fat content and low net carbs, making it a superb Keto milk choice.

Unsweetened Soy Milk    

Soy milk is the original alternative milk.  It was the first and for a while, the only, alternative milk option to cows milk.  Its mild in flavour and its consistency is most like dairy milk compared to the other choices.  For these reasons, soy milk has long been a firm favourite.

Unsweetened soy milk is low in net carbs, has a decent amount of protein and some fat, although less fat content than the other milks listed here.  An additional health benefit to soy milk is the high percentage of minerals it contains. 

1 Cup serving will provide you with 5.4% of your daily recommended iron intake, 2% of your calcium and 3% of your potassium.  Soy milk could therefore be a fantastic post-workout choice to boost mineral levels for cell repair and keep you feeling energised.

Unsweetened Hemp Milk

Probably one of the least well known of the alternative milks, hemp milk is a relatively new option.  It may be difficult to find in your supermarket, but you could probably find it in specialised health or food shops or most definitely online.

Hemp milk is much like nut milks; naturally sweet and slightly nutty in flavour, and a thinner consistency compared to oat and coconut milk.

Although less well tried and tested, unsweetened hemp milk has a lot to boast about as an alternative Keto milk.  It has the highest fat and protein content of all the milks mentioned, and very low net carbs.

Unsweetened hemp milk also has a fantastic amount of iron and potassium along with some calcium.  1 Cup serving will provide you with 6.6% of your daily recommended intake of iron, 5% of your recommended intake of potassium, and 1.4% of your calcium.

What Is The Best Milk On Keto?

We’ve established that oat milk, while delicious and readily available, is low in fat and high in net carbs due to its content of oat seeds.  This makes oat milk a terrible alternative milk choice for you on the Keto diet; you should quickly remove it from your weekly shop and avoid it in coffee shops from now on.

One of the best milks you can use is unsweetened hemp milk; it has the highest concentration of fat per serving and comparative amounts of net carbs to the other milks mentioned.  It also has the additional benefit of high levels of the micronutrients, iron and potassium.  The downside is the availability; it may be tricky to find the next time you’re browsing the supermarket for the items on your shopping list.  But if you can find it, it’s a top Keto milk choice.

Unsweetened hemp milk is closely followed by unsweetened coconut and almond milk.  These milks in their unsweetened form have very low net carb content and a good amount of fat per serving. They are also easily found in your local store, so probably the most likely go-to Keto milk option. 

If you find yourself out and about with little variety of alternative milks to pick from, soy milk is a reliable and safe Keto milk.  It’s low in net carbs making it Keto-friendly, it just doesn’t have the high fat content that the other milks listed here offer.

The other important note to take away from this info, is that all of these alternative milks must be unsweetened to be Keto.  Lots of alternative milks contain additional sugar or sweeteners that would make them unacceptable for the Keto diet, so always opt for unsweetened milks.

Now why not go ahead and enjoy a fabulous latte or smoothie with one of the best Keto milk alternatives, reliably knowing it’s Keto-friendly.

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