I'm not actually lactose intolerant, but ever since I've been seeing Oatly oat drinks at Rewe, I've been wondering if I should switch over to them too. A lot of people say they're better for your gut, but is that actually true or is it just marketing? And can you taste the difference compared to regular H-milk?
I wouldn't switch based on "better for your gut" if you don't have a lactose problem - that's mostly marketing for people with intolerances. Regular milk has calcium and protein, and oat drinks often have to be fortified to match that, plus the taste is just a different thing altogether, some people find it grassy, others like it. If you're doing fine with regular milk, I'd save the money and only switch if you actually enjoy it or have other reasons (environment, taste) to want to.
The "better for your gut" argument is actually pretty marketing-heavy if you don't have any lactose issues - regular milk probably digests just fine for you. Oat drinks do taste quite different though, more nutty and slightly sweet, while UHT milk is creamier and more neutral, so it really depends on whether you like the taste. The bigger difference is actually that a lot of plant-based milks have less protein than real milk and often contain more sugar - if that's not a problem for you, you can obviously switch, but "healthier" isn't automatically the case.
If you don't have any digestive issues with regular milk, there's no need to switch - it's really only relevant for people with lactose intolerance. The taste is actually different though: oat drinks taste sweeter and creamier, while regular UHT milk is more neutral. Here's a practical tip that barely anyone tries: just test both in your coffee or cereal instead of drinking them straight - that way you'll much faster figure out whether the switch actually makes a difference for you personally, or if it's just about the feeling of being healthier.
Oat drinks have significantly less protein than regular milk - that's the first thing you should check if you're just switching over casually. With Oatly and similar products, it's typically around 2g per 100ml, whereas with regular milk it's double or more. So if you don't actually have lactose problems and your digestion works fine, you're basically breaking something that was working well before. The "better for your gut" marketing only really works on people with actual issues - for everyone else it's just a different product, not automatically better.
As for taste, yeah, you'd notice the difference. Oat drinks taste sweet and kind of different, some people think that's great, others see it as artificial. Here you should only care about: what do *you* like? If you normally drink milk and it tastes good to you, there's no reason to switch just because it's sitting on the shelf at Rewe. Stay critical about these trends - just because a product gets fancy advertising doesn't mean it's better for your situation.
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