Organic coconut milk and almond milk are common purchases at the health food store by those with dairy allergies. Usually, these people are savvy consumers who know enough nutritionally to avoid soy milk with its endocrine disrupting isoflavones and gastric inflaming phytates. Rice milk is also steadily declining in popularity as it is really not much more than a glass of sugar water nutritionally speaking.
Organic, unsweetened coconut milk and almond milk in cartons seem like great alternatives at first blush, but are they really as “healthy” as people believe?
Let’s take a look at the labels. Â I was shocked at what I found.
Check out the labels of the three brands I photographed. Â I checked all the brands, by the way, and they all contained the same dangerous additives I’m about to describe.
First, Vitamin A Palmitate is added, the synthetic version of Vitamin A. Â I personally avoid synthetic versions of Vitamin A like the plague. Every single multi-vitamin I’ve ever examined contains some form of synthetic A, including the so called “whole foods” multis.
Synthetic vitamins are the chemical mirror images of the real, natural versions. They can cause imbalances over time. Even small amounts of the synthetic fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin A can prove toxic and should be strictly avoided!
The Organic Consumers Association warns that isolated vitamins such as those produced synthetically cannot be recognized or metabolized by the body in the same way as the natural version.
Large doses of natural vitamin A are well tolerated by the body as established by researchers decades ago, however. Traditional diets contain 10 times or more of the RDA of this nutrient with no ill effect.  However, synthetic vitamin A is associated with birth defects and bone fractures.  It has no benefit in the diet whatsoever.
The second really bad additive in these organic cartons of coconut milk and almond milk is Vitamin D2. Â Vitamin D2 is a form of the wonder vitamin that you should take great pains to avoid.
In all known cases of Vitamin D toxicity where the dose was intentional, Vitamin D2 was the culprit. Â By comparison, Vitamin D3 is much less toxic and requires an enormous or even an accidental dose to produce any toxic effect.
Vitamin D2 is manufactured industrially by irradiating yeast. Â It is dangerous for D2 to be added to any food product particularly if this product would be given to children, where toxicity symptoms would appear at much lower dosages.
None of the store brands of cartoned coconut milk or almond milk were free of these dangerous and synthetic versions of the fat soluble vitamins!
Notice also that carrageenan is present in 2 of the 3 products as well! Â Dr. Andrew Weil has been telling people to avoid carrageenan since 2002.
Carrageenan is so toxic and inflaming to the human digestive system that this food additive is formally classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) as a potential human carcinogen.
In my view, it would be a mistake to purchase and consume these items. Â They are in no way health promoting or beneficial, particularly for growing children!
Healthy Alternatives to Coconut Milk and Almond Milk in Cartons
Coconut milk and almond milk should be healthy and they can be if they are produced at home without these dangerous additives. I wrote an in depth post on how to easily make these nondairy beverages yourself. This recipe for wild rice milk is a good option as well.
Believe it or not, even organic coconut milk in BPA free cans would be a better alternative to cartons of coconut milk based on my label inspection!
Check out my video on homemade coconut milk and my article on how to make healthy DIY almond milk, fermented to add probiotics and enzymes to boost immunity and improve digestion.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources
From Seafood to Sunshine: A New Understanding of Vitamin D Safety
In Canada, there is no Vitamin D2 not Vitamin A palmitate added!
I was looking to buy coconut milk today and reading the labels… The “So Delicious” dairy free Coconut milk beverage is free of Vitamin A palmitate and vitamin D2.
The only ingredients are “ORGANIC COCONUT MILK (water, organic coconut cream), ORGANIC DRIED CANE SYRUP, CARRAGEENAN, GUAR GUM.
It also says “ALL INGREDIENTS ARE NON-GMO”
I wish I could attach a photo of the ingredients list to this comment.
Does this mean they listened and have changed the make up of their coconut milk? If so, that is awesome!! As much as I would like to make everything from scratch myself, working tons and away from home doesn’t give me the chance to do so. Glad that some companies do listen to what the public wants…
Tara, if they have removed the Vitamin A Palmitate and the Vitamin D2 from their Coconut milk, that is great news. However, until they remove the Carrageenan I would still not recommend it.
Also, I was just in the Supermarket yesterday (March 7, 2015) and I saw labels with those ingredients still listed.
Look at the refrigerated versions of So Delicious – mine does not have the Carrageenan listed.
My label for So Delicious Coconut Milk matches – I am in USA. Go to their websites for back labels, they match. I also checked the sources at bottom of post – they spell it out.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_3697.cfm
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/vitamin-a-on-trial
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/seafood-to-sunshine
I found this page when looking for info on “Are the almonds in organic almond milk irradiated?” Found good info.
Since going vegan, I will occasionally still buy Silk Almond Milk Unsweetened, runs about $5USD for a large carton because it is the only brand that is fortified with B12. The “Blue Diamond” brand is not B12 fortified so I consider it a complete waste of money. I don’t take a B12 supp so this is easier for me than having to take it in pill form. Vegans who are not supplementing B12 need to get some fortified foods in their diet so Almond milk from the carton is not necessarily a bad thing once in a while. Nutritional yeast or Fortified Almond Milk or Vitamin supp are the only places to get B12 for a vegan.
Some weeks, I will make fresh nut milk which is extremely easy, cheaper, and more nutritious than the store bought. The only thing you have to remember to do is ALWAYS SOAK RAW NUTS TO GET RID OF THE PHYTIC ACID (overnight) and then next day, put some filtered water in a personal blender and strain with a mesh strainer or a cheesecloth. Very easy to do. You can add more water or less water depending on how creamy you like your nut milk. Again, delicious and nutritious when homemade but not fortified with B12. Unless I want to be deficient in B12, I switch up homemade nut milk for store-bought cartons.
Blue Diamond uses “almond flavoring” to their miks, so they dont have to use too many actual almonds. Not really as organic as I thought.
NATURAL FLAVOR IS NOT MSG AND ANYONE THAT LIOKS AT THAT AS A “RED FLAG” IS INCORRECT! IT’S A SECRET RECIPE PEOPLE!! NOT ALL “NATURAL FLAVOR” IS AUTOMATICALLY BAD INGREDIENTS… Wow, people are so dense sometimes.
It’s a secret recipe—–so that makes it safe?!?!??! Who is really dense here? Natural flavor = made in a lab=CHEMICALS. There is nothing NATURAL about ‘natural flavors’. The more apt title should be ‘imitation vanilla’, or imitation fill-in-the-blank.