Does oat milk have calcium?
Do you need calcium?
Whilst calcium is typically associated with bone and teeth health, it’s also required for a wide range of other functions including muscle and nerve processes. Common sources of calcium include dairy, green vegetables, and baked beans. However, for those who don’t consume dairy, making sure you are getting enough calcium in your diet can be challenging, especially if you are not living on a diet of baked beans...
How much calcium is in dairy milk?
Dairy milk contains around 120mg of calcium per 100ml, and this is similar for all fat contents (skimmed, semi, whole). To put this into context, a 200ml serving of cows milk would contain approximately 240mg of calcium (30% of your recommended daily intake).
Does oat milk contain calcium?
Oat milk is the UKs most popular plant milk variety and as a result, drinkers are keen to find out how it compares to dairy milk in terms of calcium content. The answer is that oat milk does naturally contain calcium albeit in smaller quantities when compared to dairy milk. As a result, oat milk brands often fortify oat milk with calcium. Fortifying is the process of adding additional calcium (typically in the form of calcium carbonate). Fortified oat milk contains a comparable amount of calcium to dairy milk, typically in the range of 60mg to 120mg of calcium per 100ml.
Do all oat milks contain calcium?
It’s important to note that not all oat milks contain significant amounts of calcium, so be sure to check the label to see if a specific oat milk has been fortified with calcium. Look for the bit that says “%, NRV” as this will tell you what percentage of your daily recommended calcium intake is contained.
Why doesn’t oat milk contain large amounts of calcium naturally?
Oats naturally contain calcium; however it's important to remember that oat milk is 90% water and so the calcium content is essentially diluted which is why fortification is required to achieve higher amounts of calcium.
Why is oat milk 90% water?
Simple answer - during manufacturing oats are mixed with water in a roughly 10:1 ratio... Now, you may be wondering, if oat milk is 90% water, then why would we not add the water at home instead of transporting around all those bulky and heavy cartons.
We wondered the same, which is why we launched Overherd - we decided to concentrate on the… well… concentrate. We focus on the 10% that contains the oaty goodness – you add the water at home which saves a tonne of packaging, CO2 emissions and food waste. Here we explain why powdered oat milk is more sustainable. Check out the UK's first oat milk powder.
Wondering whether oat milk has gluten?
Also wondering if oat milk contains gluten? We've got you covered, check out our run down explaining why oat milk is not usually gluten free, oh and we also have a list of gluten free oat milk brands in the UK to save you some time.