Sustainability and Oat Milk: Making the World A Better Place (Part 2)
What does it take to get a nice cup of coffee or a bowl of environmentally-friendly, delicious milk for breakfast? Not a lot, actually! If you’ve read our first blog post on sustainability and oat milk, then you know how closely linked the environment and food are.
Contents
- How to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle
- What You Should Know About Oat Milk Processing
- What We Do (Two Bears’ Methods)
- The Bottom Line
In this post, we want to take the second step by introducing you to myriad ways for transforming your life into one that screams, “I’m an environmentally conscious person and I live for it!”
Too much? We don’t think so.
We want you to feel 100% awesome about your drink!
How to Live a Sustainable Lifestyle
Sometimes it can be difficult to leave our comfort zone, despite the knowledge that it only takes little to make a great impact. We at Two Bears love oat milk as much as the next guy, but there is so much more we can do — and so should you. We want to foster mindfulness and reconnection to the natural world around you.
Reduce carbon emission
There is a lot you can do to prevent mass pollution of the environment. To keep things simple, you can try to save energy. There are different sources of energy emitting CO2, the main source stemming from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.
A simple and effective way to aid the environment is to keep a tab on how much energy you waste in your own quarters — and you might be surprised to learn how much you actually use.
- Do you overuse your heater and air conditioner?
- Do you leave the lights on for longer than necessary?
- Do you preheat your oven or use a dryer everytime?
Another action to be mindful of is your consumption. Agriculture is a major contributor of methane emission, under which the production of meat falls under. This does not mean you have to stop eating meat until the end of time, but you can space out your eating habit. It may help to make a monthly schedule for optimal organization and support bio-products!
Use Reusable and Organic Products
There’s also more eco-friendly alternatives for non-food products which are ideal if you want to use less plastic products. Let’s be real, plastic is nasty — buy, use, repeat, and over time it piles up. Worst of all, it ends up where it’s not supposed to be: namely, in the ocean, where it becomes microplastic which hurts the thousands of organisms residing in. This includes animals we eat like fish, which is how plastic makes it back into your food — not recommended!
Instead, single-use items can be a great alternative. Bamboo, for example, is a popular material which you can find in the form of straws or toothbrushes and more.
Slow Food Movement
If there ever was an incentive for pursuing sustainability, the established Slow Food Movement brings this message across to people worldwide. Dating back to Italy in 1989, a group of food aficionados formed three key principles, which involve good, clean, and fair food. Placing locality, sustainability, and fair trade as top priority, this group eventually amassed into a full-blown movement.
In today’s rapidly globalized and ever-changing world, this movement wants people to slow down and reconnect with their environment, a sentiment we at Two Bears fully endorse.
What You Should Know About Oat Milk Processing
So where does oat milk fall into this?
As you know by now, out of the available non-dairy food products, oat milk is everyone’s favourite because of how easy it is.
Its texture is similar to that of cow milk with the added bonus that oat milk contains less sugar and no preservatives, so that you don’t have to make any sacrifices. One of the biggest advantages of oat milk is that it requires much less water than other non-dairy products. Because oats grow on plants, there is no need to ‘make’ something new.
Essentially, producing oat milk involves harvesting what’s already there and mixing all the components together, which entail many vitamins and other beneficial properties such as Vitamins B and D and calcium. Two important steps are the removal of the non-edible husk and the weakening of the oat’s enzymes via heat treatment, which prolongs the expiration.
The milk is produced by milling the oats until they take on flour shape and get soaked in hot water for the bonus effect of extracting all the healthy components. A necessary intermediate step revolves around ensuring the oat milk’s liquid form. This is done by adding a different set of enzymes that break up the starches in the oat which are responsible for its initial thickness. Eventually, this process leaves us with new molecules, among them malt sugar, and newly extracted proteins as well. Leftover fibers that are insoluble may be removed by the manufacturers and the oat milk might be pepped up with a few additional ingredients like vitamins and minerals.
What We Do (Two Bears’ Methods)
We know best about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are produced yearly and what goes into the production and distribution of food products. In order to be able to offer our customers plant-based and ethically sourced products for guilt-free consumption, we adhere to strict measurements. Our plant-based product means that there is no harmful animal treatment involved and no waste of energy, which would normally be at play with animal-based products. By choosing to cooperate with local farms in Canada, we ensure the eco-friendly background of our product, as the cooler climates in the region do not require deforestation. Our oats are gluten-free (though we are not gluten-free certified and advise celiacs to avoid drinking our oat milk to be safe), but thanks to the ß-glucan in the oat, you’re still able to benefit from its healthy properties.
Next to the usual ingredients, Two Bears uses rapeseed oil, calcium carbonate and tricalcium phosphate in our oat milk. While sunflower oil is more prominent among other oat milk products, rapeseed oil comes with healthy fats and fat-soluble vitamins, constituting for improved heart health. Additionally, its 1:2 omega-3 to omega-6 ratio speaks for its high amount of healthy omega-6 fats. Calcium carbonate and tricalcium phosphate are added for extra nutritional benefits. The higher percentage of fibers and calcium ensures that our product is in your best interest.
The Bottom Line
Are you ready to make the switch to delicious, eco-friendly, and better-for-you oat milk?
At Two Bears, our mission is to energize your mission, your moments. In a world of influence, our hope is to reconnect you with you so that you can make meaningful connections with the world around you. We craft the freshest, frothiest energy for you to sip and turn into whatever you need that day – human connection, motivation, creativity, confidence, slowness... we encourage you to craft your moment with Two Bears, whatever that moment may be.
← Older Post Newer Post →