Almond Milk

Food · Drink · Food, Typed Supps

A seventh of milk’s protein. Everything it does offer was added at the factory.

Stage by stage

Mostly water (The carton): Around 2% almonds; the rest is water, a stabiliser and whatever was added.
No protein load (Stomach): 0.5 g per 100 g means it does almost nothing for satiety or muscle protein synthesis.
Added calcium (Skeleton): Fortified lines match dairy at around 66 mg per 100 g. Unfortified ones do not.
Vitamin E (Cell membranes): The one nutrient that genuinely comes from the almonds and survives the dilution.

Timing

Nothing to time. The one practical instruction is to shake the carton before every pour, because the calcium fortificant settles.

Time to effect

Immediate: Nothing accumulates; the value is per-glass fortification.
Months: Where it replaces dairy in a child’s diet, the protein and iodine gaps are what show up.

Allergens

Contains: Tree nuts. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Keto, Gluten-free.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Environmental footprint

0.7 kg CO2e and 371 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Almond milk" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 16
Protein: 0.5g
Carbohydrate: 0g
Fat: 1.4g
of which saturated: 0.1g
Fibre: 0.5g
Sodium: 43mg

Food vs. supplement

Whole almonds and almond milk are barely related nutritionally. Twenty almonds give around 5 g of protein, 3 g of fibre and a substantial dose of vitamin E; a glass of almond milk gives a fraction of a gram of each, because there are only about three almonds in it.

Kitchen tip

Shake it properly. Added calcium settles to the bottom of the carton, and an unshaken pour can deliver a fraction of what the label promises.

Common myth

“Almond milk is a healthy swap for dairy milk.” In reality: On calories and saturated fat, yes. On protein it is not close — 0.5 g against 3.4 g per 100 g — and on iodine, which Australians get largely from dairy, most brands offer nothing at all. If the swap is one glass in an otherwise varied diet, none of this matters. If it is the main milk for a small child, the protein and iodine gaps are the whole story.