What in Blue Diamond Almond Milk makes it not "ok" page

[candy corn]

ingredients for the unsweetened variety:

Ingredients: almondmilk (filtered water, almonds), calcium carbonate, tapioca starch, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor, vitamin a palmitate, vitamin d2 and d-alpha-tocopherol (natural vitamin e).

nothing there seems to outlandish. I see people saying not consume this but for someone who doesn't have the means to make homemade nut milk why isn't this a good option.

[primalsun]

ingredients for the unsweetened variety:

Ingredients: almondmilk (filtered water, almonds), calcium carbonate, tapioca starch, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor, vitamin a palmitate, vitamin d2 and d-alpha-tocopherol (natural vitamin e).

nothing there seems to outlandish. I see people saying not consume this but for someone who doesn't have the means to make homemade nut milk why isn't this a good option.

Tapioca starch, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor. Tapioca isn't primal. Carrageenan is a thickener that while I believe is plant-derived still goes under chemical restructuring. It is believed to coat stomach lining and intestines and "may" result in nutrient malabsorption; its in almost all processed foods. Sunflower lecithin is I believe added as a thickener and to give the milk a better texture. This too goes under chemical processing and probably isn't something you want to eat in abundance. Finally, "natural flavor" could be any slew of harmful additives, thanks to the FDA's regulation on what constitutes as a natural flavoring.
Honestly, I wouldn't be afraid to drink this almond milk a few times a week, but I wouldn't make it a daily habit.

[BestBetter]

I personally have no problem with tapioca, but my main issues are with carrageenan (a thickener that has causes IBS flares for some people, which makes me suspect that it's processed in a really bad way, but this concern may not apply to other people) and natural flavor (which is usually anything but 'natural', often a chemical cocktail.

I personally think it's probably not so bad that a person would have to avoid it if there were no other alternatives. It's certainly much better than drinking soda made from HFCS.

I tend to use coconut milk over almond milk, because I prefer the fatty acid profile, but that also tends to have the added thickener problem.

[Jamie Madrox]

Tapioca starch, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, natural flavor. Tapioca isn't primal. Carrageenan is a thickener that while I believe is plant-derived still goes under chemical restructuring. It is believed to coat stomach lining and intestines and "may" result in nutrient malabsorption; its in almost all processed foods. Sunflower lecithin is I believe added as a thickener and to give the milk a better texture. This too goes under chemical processing and probably isn't something you want to eat in abundance. Finally, "natural flavor" could be any slew of harmful additives, thanks to the FDA's regulation on what constitutes as a natural flavoring.
Honestly, I wouldn't be afraid to drink this almond milk a few times a week, but I wouldn't make it a daily habit.

Tapioca is primal. And if soy lecithin is OK in chocolate according to mark I don't see why sunflower lecithin would be bad.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

Almond milk is not an optimal choice. It's considered frankenfood... but that doesn't stop some of us from drinking it.

Tapioca is primal because it is a root (I think). Last I checked roots were on the ok list.

[Damiana]

The long list of ingredients that sounds more suited to a list of multivitamins than to a food. It's not terrible, but as others have called it, frankenfood.

[GoJenGo]

As far as I'm concerned, the carrageenan is the biggest culprit on the ingredient list. I've seen it equated with MSG and as far as my now once-in-a-blue-moon migraines go (for which MSG is the number one trigger), it may as well be MSG. I've read sources which state that it either contains MSG or that MSG is created during the processing of it. Not sure how reliable those sources are and don't really care - I steer clear of it regardless, considering my n=1. Unfortunately, it's in all kinds of "foods".

[sbhikes]

The difference between mass-produced almond milk and almond milk you make yourself ought to be a good object lesson. I think to make it you just grind up some almonds in a blender and add water, let it soak a while and strain. (This is from memory from something I read about 20 years ago, so maybe look up the correct process.) The end result will not look or taste the same as the stuff you buy. This ought to tell you that the long list of additives are quite significant to the product.

Try going without any milk or milk-like substance. There is no gaping hole left when you can't drink a glass of milky stuff.