It Might Be Time To Put Down The Almond Latte

Got milk? What once was a simple question is now far from it. Soy, almond, coconut, hazelnut, rice, oat, goat, cow, camel; we’re drowning in milk options, thanks largely to general consensus that traditional dairy is the culprit doing us damage (both body and globe). Now the global dairy alternative market is raring to hit $US24 billion by 2022. At the forefront sits almond milk, the most popular plant milk in the United States, and no doubt Australia if its presence in local cafés is anything to go by.

Almond milk’s popularity boom has largely been led by the fact plant-based eating is relatively mainstream these days, the lifestyle cemented into legitimacy by documentaries like Cowspiracy, What the Health, and Food Inc. Cowspiracy in particular outlines the unsustainable practises of the agricultural industry, and infers that not just human health is improved by avoiding animal-products, but the environment too. As a result, the almond, heralded by the rise of the plant-based and the health-invested, has emerged as a messiah of sorts, delivering us from the so-called green-ravaging ways of the dairy industry and towards a more eco-friendly, health-conscious future.