Plant milks are full of additives and aren't even real milk.
Short answer: The gums and emulsifiers are recognised as safe, and fortified soy matches cow's milk closely enough for official dietary guidelines to count it as dairy.
Fortification is deliberate nutritional design, and fortified soy is the one plant drink US dietary guidelines count within the dairy group, because the nutrition lines up.
Plant Based Health Professionals UK; Nutrients (2022)
The objection
“Have you read the ingredients? Gums, emulsifiers, added vitamins, it’s a chemistry set. Cow’s milk is just milk.”
The answer
Take both halves in turn.
The additives. Plant milks use thickeners and emulsifiers (xanthan, guar, gellan and locust-bean gums) to stop the drink separating. These are recognised as safe by food regulators and appear across the ordinary food supply. The genuine caveat: some people with IBS or IBD find certain gums aggravate symptoms, so if that’s you, pick a simpler formulation, and many brands now make additive-light versions. For everyone else, “I can’t pronounce it” isn’t the same as “it’s harmful.” Xanthan gum is fermented sugar.
The fortification. Critics frame added calcium, B12, iodine and vitamin D as a confession that the product is “fake.” Read it the other way: it’s deliberate nutritional design. Fortified plant milks typically carry calcium at around 120mg/100ml, the same as cow’s milk, and soy milk matches cow’s milk closely on protein and energy. Fortified soy is the one plant drink official US dietary guidelines count within the dairy group, precisely because the nutrition lines up.
One point worth conceding: unfortified plant milks are nutritionally thin, and not every variety matches dairy, with almond and rice milk low in protein. So read the carton, choose fortified, and pick soy or pea if protein matters.
As for “real milk”, cow’s milk is a mammary secretion fortified with vitamin D by the same food industry. Both are processed. One required a cow to be kept pregnant and parted from her calf. That’s the difference worth arguing about.