Short answer: almond milk and oat milk are both mildly alkaline-forming, and neither is on Dr. Sebi's guide — because almonds aren't and oats aren't.
This is one of the most disruptive exclusions on the whole list, because almond milk has become the default plant milk and oat milk the default coffee milk. Between them they cover most of what people pour on cereal, blend into smoothies and stir into a hot drink.
The good news is that there are approved options, they are better than the cartons, and they take about four minutes to make.
Where each one stands
Almond milk
Almonds are not on the approved nut list. The guide names raw sesame seeds, raw tahini butter, walnuts, Brazil nuts and hemp seeds. Almonds, cashews, peanuts, pistachios, sunflower seeds and chia are all outside it.
So almond milk is out on its ingredient, not on its nutrition. Commercial almond milk is also mostly water — typically two to four percent almonds — with the rest made up of added oil, gums and fortification.
Oat milk
Oats are not among the approved grains. The guide names amaranth, fonio, kamut, quinoa, rye, spelt, teff and wild rice. Oats are outside that list, so oat milk is too.
Oat milk carries a further wrinkle worth knowing on its own terms: most commercial versions use enzymes to break the oat starch into sugars, which is what makes them taste sweet without added sugar and why they foam so well. It is a more sugar-forward drink than its reputation suggests.
The rest of the shelf
- Soy milk — not on the guide.
- Rice milk — not on the guide; rice itself isn't, other than wild rice, which isn't really rice.
- Cashew, pistachio, macadamia — none of those nuts are on the list.
- Coconut milk — the guide names soft jelly coconuts and coconut oil. Tinned or cartoned coconut milk is a processed product built from mature coconut and is not named.
- Dairy — not on the guide, and named among the mucus-forming foods in the framework.
The approved plant milks
Four ingredients on the list make good milk. You make these yourself, and that is the whole method.
Hemp milk — the everyday one
The easiest by a distance, because hemp seeds are soft and need no soaking and no straining.
Method: 4 tablespoons hemp seeds, 3 cups spring water, a pinch of sea salt, one or two dates. Blend on high for 60 seconds. Drink it. That is the entire process — no bag, no squeezing, nothing to throw away.
Creamy, faintly grassy, greenish-white. It is the closest thing on the list to a daily pour-over-everything milk, and it is high in protein and omega-3, which matters on a list where both are worth watching.
Walnut milk — the rich one
Method: soak 1 cup walnuts in water for 4 hours or overnight, drain and rinse. Blend with 3 cups fresh spring water, a pinch of sea salt and two dates. Strain through a nut milk bag or a clean tea towel.
Richer and more buttery than hemp, slightly tannic. Good in smoothies and over grains. Soaking matters here — it softens the bitterness noticeably.
Brazil nut milk — the creamiest
Method: same as walnut, 1 cup to 3 cups water, soaked 4 hours, blended and strained.
The silkiest of the three and the one that most resembles dairy in body. One caution: Brazil nuts are extremely high in selenium, and a handful a day can exceed the upper intake level. Treat this as an occasional milk rather than a daily one, and don't eat Brazil nuts alongside it.
Sesame milk — the traditional one
Method: blend 3 tablespoons raw tahini into 3 cups warm spring water with a pinch of sea salt and a date. No soaking, no straining.
Distinctive, nutty and slightly bitter. It is a calcium-dense option, which is worth something on a list with no dairy.
Making them work in practice
- Storage. Homemade milk keeps three to four days in a sealed jar in the fridge. It separates — that is normal, shake it.
- Sweetening. One or two dates blended in is enough. Date sugar and pure agave are the approved sweeteners if you want more.
- Thickness. Less water for a cream to go on fruit, more for a drinking milk. The ratios above sit in the middle.
- In hot drinks. Hemp holds up best in warm tea. None of these will microfoam like oat milk — that behaviour is what the enzymes and added oils are for.
- Cost. Hemp seeds are the cheapest per litre by some distance, and a bag lasts weeks.
- Leftover pulp from walnut or Brazil nut milk goes into porridge made with quinoa flakes or teff, or dries out as a coarse flour.
Reading a carton, if you're buying one
If you are following the list, none of the commercial cartons qualify on their base ingredient. If you are working out how close something is anyway, three things are worth checking:
- Added oils. Rapeseed or sunflower oil is in most barista versions to help them foam.
- Gums and emulsifiers. Gellan gum, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin. Not on the guide.
- Percentage of the actual nut or grain. Usually printed, usually low.
Common questions
Are almonds alkaline?
Almonds are mildly alkaline-forming by PRAL. They are still not on the approved nut list, which names sesame, tahini, walnuts, Brazil nuts and hemp seeds.
Is oat milk alkaline?
Mildly alkaline-forming as a drink, though oats themselves are acid-forming at PRAL +10.7. Either way oats are not among the approved grains.
What about homemade almond milk?
Same answer — the exclusion is the almond, not the processing.
Can I use hemp milk in smoothies?
It is the best option for them. Blend the seeds straight into the smoothie with the fruit and skip making the milk separately.
Is hemp milk the same as CBD?
No. Hemp seeds contain no meaningful cannabinoids; they are a food seed, sold in any health food shop.
What do I put on cereal?
Hemp milk over quinoa flakes, teff or amaranth porridge is the standard answer, with fruit and a little date sugar.
Related
- Is oatmeal alkaline, and what to eat instead
- The alkaline grocery list, aisle by aisle
- The mucus-forming foods and what to eat instead
- The complete approved food list
Checking a carton in the aisle? The Ackaline app scans any product and tells you whether it's approved and why — faster than reading an ingredients list. Free to start. The full system, including the first week of swaps, is in The Alkaline Healing Blueprint.
For education, not medical advice. Restrictive lists can leave gaps — vitamin B12, iron, calcium and omega-3 are worth attention. Talk to your doctor or a dietitian before following one long-term.
