Not Even 2% Of People Chose This As Their Favorite Non-Dairy Milk Option
Non-dairy milks are all the rage these days. Well, at least some of them are. Grocery stores stock all different flavors of soy milk and almond milk. And there are dairy-free options for practically everything — from coffee creamer to even egg nog. But not all of these replacements are the same, and everyone — even if they only use a replacement every now and again — has a preference.
We here at Health Digest turned to you, our readers, to find out what you're drinking. We polled 527 people in the United States, asking them to choose their favorite non-dairy milk from seven options: cashew milk, rice milk, oat milk, soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or other.
After tallying your votes, we weren't entirely surprised by the top three answers. What did surprise us, however, was the answer that took last place out of all the possible dairy-free options on the market today. Here's what we discovered.
This non-dairy milk barely made the cut
Our readers love almond milk. More than half of respondents — 51.8% — chose it as their favorite dairy alternative. Coconut milk came in second with 12.7% and soy milk landed in third with about 10.1% of the vote. Additionally, 12.5% of people chose "other," writing in to say they preferred a type not listed, like walnut, or were quite satisfied with cow's milk. Oat milk isn't everyone's favorite, but a considerable 8.1% are all about it. Second to last place is cashew milk, earning just about 3% of the vote. Surprisingly, rice milk is the least popular option among Health Digest readers. It received less than 2% of the vote, just 1.7%.
Perhaps this is due to the calories in rice milk. Healthline compared calorie loads, sugars, and protein content across several milk replacement options, using cow's milk as the baseline. Even without sweetener, 8 fluid ounces of rice milk has 120 calories and 0 protein. Almond milk, by contrast, has only 40 calories and 2 grams of protein.
Rice milk does have its benefits, though. It can be made at home and is a good option for people who may have nut or soy allergies. But by and large, our readers will probably be sticking to their almond milk and leaving the rice for something else.