Thinking to try going dairy free.

[Hectorsmum2]

A few people on here said they had been helped by being dairy free on a post recently and i am thinking to try it but I dont want to eat anything artificial, love quiche, try to avoid vegatable oils and dont eat sugar. Any advice re products I can try and any general encouragement.

[JumpJiving]

Where to start… not quite a quiche, but Spanish Spinach Tortilla from unearthed is good. There are a number of similar products. Crosta & mollica sourdough pizza is easy, although we often add a few more veg on top. For microwave meals, if you have a shop called Cook (cookfood.net) near you, they do some good (if small) dairy-free meals. Japanese, Chinese and Thai food should normally be dairy-free. TBH, most of the time we prepare food from scratch these days, but the number of dairy-free products is steadily growing (I have been dairy-free for about 25 years or so)

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to JumpJiving]

Thank you. I tend to also cook from scratch. Spinach tortilla sounds nice.

[Beachwalk in reply to JumpJiving]

I do agree with you on all you say. Spanish Spinach Tortilla from unearthed is good. Crosta & mollica pizza. Both I had yesterday for breakfast and dinner

[helvella Administrator]

Hectorsmum2,

The first step would appear, to me, to be absolutely clear what you are trying to do.

Many things contain a highly purified lactose - things like many levothyroxine tablets and numerous other medicines.

Many thing contain dairy proteins, Substances which are potential allergens. (Even then you have issues like the difference between A1 and A2 dairy. )

And are you including all forms of dairy, bovine, caprine, ovine, etc.? Or just bovine?

Obviously some foods contain dairy proteins and lactose!

A clear definition seems important. Because if you are trying to be free of dairy protein, you might make like easier by allowing lactose. And if you are trying to avoid lactose and dairy proteins, you probably need to put in more preparation and research into what you will allow - or not. And some apparent dairy products contain extremely low levels of lactose and might be acceptable even if you are trying to avoid lactose.

It might look negative but it isn't meant to be. I'm saying that establishing what you want to do might make it easier to achieve. I'm encouraging thought now rather than nasty surprises when you fall across unanticipated issues later.

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to helvella]

I think I am just try to avoid dairy proteins for now to see if it helps with my compulsive eating ( especially of dairy products) and incontience. I will be thinking about it for the next week or so and gathering information. Thank you for your reply.

[JumpJiving in reply to Hectorsmum2]

Hectorsmum2 I have found that since going seriously Mediterranean that my compulsive eating has largely stopped. Just not hungry anymore, which for somebody on steroids (for adrenal insufficiency) is a big thing! Have stopped (nearly) all UPFs, almost all refined carbohydrates, almost all animal-based saturated fats, and have replaced unhealthy snacks by mixed seeds & nuts. I assume it’s the increase in fibre from going much more plant-based that has killed my appetite and need to snack late into the night

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to JumpJiving]

Thank you. It is something to consider.

[helvella Administrator]

Do you drink tea and coffee with milk?

If so, it might be worth thinking about changing the precise tea or coffee you are drinking.

I find, for example, that a gentler tea such as some of the Sri Lanka (Ceylon) ones are much more pleasant without milk than, say, PG Tips.

No recommendations for coffee, but you can have a look at what might be easier for you.

(I have not had milk in my drinks for many years now. By choice because I prefer without milk. But I do remember changing over.)

[JumpJiving in reply to helvella]

I switched to Yorkshire Tea and Douwe Egberts instant coffee, finding that those were fine without milk. However, to cut out sugar as well, I found switching to tea bought online from Teabox worked better for me. If the marketing is accurate, it’s probably healthier too. I still need to explore non-instant coffee options for no milk and no sugar

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to helvella]

Thank you. I am extremely intolerant of caffeine so have redbush and a blend of chickory instead of coffee. Its fine with coconut milk or oat milk.

[Regenallotment Ambassador]

hi there, I’m a home cooker and dairy free.

For quite some time I just haven’t used milk, cream, cheese or yoghurt in any cooking. It’s surprisingly easy.

Eggs scramble without milk/cream. Omelettes with mushrooms work great without cheese.

Those Marigold B12 Yeast flakes have a slight cheesiness if needed.

Egg with gram flour makes a good protein packed tortilla.

Recently we discovered Flora have a new range of ‘plant butter’ and ‘plant cream’ these are fab. A bit processed so not something I’d have every week but they make recipes work, are heat stable etc.

at a push vegan cheeses are a maybe, least worst are cathedral city plant based cheddar and applewood smoked and violife feta but if you have recently eaten cheese they taste disgusting and nothing like cheese. If you haven’t eaten cheese for a year the smell and texture are about right, but they don’t melt very well and go a bit watery, the vegan Brie and blue cheese are like illusion cheeses, look right but may as well be cake inside, nothing remotely like cheese-I avoid 🤣

Yoghurt - I made my own for ages from a recipe in Dr William Davies Supergut, using BioGaia L reuteri tablets and coconut milk (finding an organic one without emulsifiers was a challenge, Grapetree do one called Puro) eventually I killed/ contaminated my mixture somehow and gave myself an upset tummy (I noticed I was well when away from home 🤦🏽‍♀️) and I binned it. I tried all the ones on all the supermarket shelves and they are all awful or overpriced. Deliciously Ella is my favourite but it’s about a kidney ££££ a pot!

milks - personal favourite is almond, the barista versions don’t curdle. Dire environmental/water usage associated with almond production if you delve into it. I avoid soy (Liothyronine contraindicated) and oat (gluten and non organic pesticides issue), coconut is ok but generally to sweet, nice for summer smoothies, I have a ninja blender and soak almonds overnight and make my own when I can. Plenish is the nicest, they do almond and a gluten free organic oat, Aldi is OK, many of the others have potassium iodide which is iodised salt so not ideal if monitoring iodine levels. I haven’t noticed any ill effects so will take Alpro almond where all else fails. Taught myself to drink a black long espresso coffee and herbal tea or as H says weaker teas are less bitter.

Pancakes - we used almond or coconut milk fine in those with buckwheat flour. Or just an egg whizzed in the blender with a banana.

Custard- coconut milk works well.

Potato gratin - Flora single cream ‘plant cream’ a complete game changer 🙏

Have fun!

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to Regenallotment]

Thank you for a really comprehesive and helpful reply. Glad to hear there is some organic coconut milk.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Hectorsmum2]

Oh and…. Vegan mini Magnums a rare treat but Sainsbury’s Freezer section 👏

[Obsdian]

I am dairy free and loved everything dairy before. I find it easier to focus on eating different things rather than substituting things that used to be dairy with other things.

The only substitutes I use is flora instead of butter (I wasn't big into having butter on things so it's more in baking or the occasional bagel) and I use almond milk (I only use milk on cereal and rarely eat cereal so again occasional).

The harder bit was all the foods people want to share with me that I can't eat. It seems to frustrate people and cause a disconnect even though they understand why I don't eat dairy.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Obsdian]

I agree it has completely bamboozled my Mum and friends, Mum gets all nervous and asks if I can have things like olive oil 🤷🏽‍♀️ my Dad seems to be better at it but gleefully lists things I couldn’t have … this week it was pastel de nata Portuguese tarts and some cruffin he’d discovered with crème pat in 🤣hubby occasionally fails too.

[Obsdian in reply to Regenallotment]

I used to get asked a lot "can you eat this it's gluten free", then they are confused I am fine with gluten and surprised about dairy again.

[Regenallotment Ambassador in reply to Obsdian]

That one is hilarious, restaurant staff sometimes do this. 🤣

[elaar]

A problem with living without Dairy is that you need to think seriously about where you're going to get your Calcium intake from, it's pretty hard work reaching the RDA levels. Having said that, dairy intake and osteoporosis has conflicting research results.

[Obsdian in reply to elaar]

I have zero understanding of why but... I have taken cal/mag for years and been borderline on the low side for calcium. But after going dairy free it has increased rather than declined.

I assume maybey digestion is that bit better for supplements but I don't actually know why this happened.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

I am gluten and dairy free

There’s loads of good alternatives

Milk - I prefer Plenish Oat (not the barista version)

Butter replacement - “Pure” is good.

Just discovered

Naturali

naturli-foods.com/products/...

Occasional need for “cheese”

Cathedral city plant cheeese is good on Shep pie or spaghetti Bol

Philadelphia plant based is great

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to SlowDragon]

Thank you.

[AKatieD]

Good sheeps cheese in supermarkets too - Ossau Iraty

[Wwwdot]

Hi Hectorsmum

I wound echo what has already been said about identifying which aspect of “dairy” you want to avoid.

My husband and I avoid A1-casein dairy (primarily British and US cheese and milk products) and are much better for it but we do consume lactose and A2-casein which is Swiss, French and Italien cheese generally.

It is harder to exclude all three! Buffalo is A2-casein protein.

I have a recipe for meltable vegan cheddar which actually works if you decide to go all out and exclude all dairy elements.

Best of luck and I hope you do get to feel better.

🤗🤗🤗

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to Wwwdot]

Thank you for some helpful info.

[Mazes]

hi,

I’d echo the recommendations for plenish oat milk and flora vegan butter - both are good.

I’ve been dairy free for quite a while now and found that changing what I ate rather than finding substitutes has worked well. A lot of recipes are based around cheese and finding a good cheese substitute that’s not highly processed was impossible.

And also, so many things will work with the plant milks and creams, tofu or gram flour - mousses, quiches, tortillas etc. If you eat eggs and cook from scratch, I don’t think you’ll have any problems - it could be fun trying out different recipes.

If I fancy making something in particular, I’ll either google vegan recipes or just the standard, then adapt it - there is so much information about how to change things - you won’t be the first. For example, I wanted to replace buttermilk in a recipe and there were pages and pages of information about experiments people had done to make a dairy free version. Isn’t the internet wonderful 😂

Early on I was vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, egg free and sugar free and finding it hard. I found a series of recipe books - Cooking Without by Barbara Cousins - they are not necessarily the most adventurous (although they do have some lovely things) but it was fabulous to hold a whole book of recipes for things I could eat.

Good luck 😊

[Hectorsmum2 in reply to Mazes]

Thank you.