I briefly mentioned last week in my main section that we were changing up our diet a little in January.
One of my daughters and I are going dairy free this month. Yes, we will be dairy, gluten, nut, sesame, and peanut free. Oh how I am going to miss Tillamook cheese……
And I will totally admit the thought of it is a bit overwhelming. I have several Ask the Readers type posts coming up to get some tips from readers that are dairy free, because I think I will need plenty of helpful tips, especially if we end up doing this long term.
Now you may be wondering why we are giving dairy free a try. My thirteen year old has been having some health issues that we think dairy may be causing or at least making worse. The problem is mainly digestive issues. She has always been prone to digestive problems. She was only a few months old when she saw a specialist for the first time and the issues have continued on and off since.
Going gluten free has helped her so much. I would say it has made her 90% better. It is the 10% that is annoying and that we want to get figure out.
For the last two or so years, she has taken lactaid when she had a large amount of dairy. It worked and she avoided a lot of the problems she had been having. It seemed like she could tolerate small amounts, but anytime she had very much dairy she would take a lactaid.
Over the last few months though lactaid has not been enough and she started considering giving dairy free a try. She also has severe asthma and we know that some say going dairy free can help asthma, so that is another reason to give it a try.
We started talking about going dairy free awhile ago, but knew it would be really hard for her during the holidays. So, she decided a few weeks ago to give it a try starting, January 1st.
Now you may be wondering why I am going dairy free for the month as well. The number one reason is to support her. We already have so many limitations to our diet that I knew it would be really hard for her to add dairy free, even if it was just for a month. So, I volunteered to go dairy free with her.
I have gone dairy free before. I tried it once about ten years ago for four months. It made no difference in my health, so I went back to eating dairy. I am not having any health issues that I think dairy may be causing, but I am interested to see if I notice a difference this time in how I feel when I eliminate it from my diet.
For now we are taking a wait and see approach to it. Our goal is to go the whole month of January dairy free and then we will decide what to do.
And I will be totally honest and say dairy free long term is something I don’t really want to think about. Slightly overwhelming to say the least. I think I could do the whole gluten free and dairy free. I know a lot of people do that, but adding in the whole having to be nut, peanut, and sesame free would make long term dairy free hard.
I will keep you updated on how it goes. And watch for some ask the readers type posts coming up on this subject. I can’t wait to hear what tips and thoughts you all have on the subject.
I’ll be watching for the Ask The Readers posts. I’ve been a reader here for a long time, and I’ll help wherever I can. My daughter is dairy-free but can tolerate small amounts of dairy — very small amounts. One big thing I learned is to use chicken stock for savory things. There is no good replacement for cheese, she says, so she goes without.
That is what I figured on the cheese. There are a few things I have given up replacing in the gluten free version because it will never quite be the same. I figured cheese would be the same. I am thinking my daughter can tolerate small amounts like what would be in baked goods, but cheese, milk, yogurt, etc is what bothers her. Hopefully this month will help us figure it all out. Thanks for your help!
That’s great! Most of our family is off dairy because it no only causes stomach problems, but it also causes internal lesions/mucus infections such as sinus and bronchial infections for us. My Harvard grad nutritionist gave us some advice….to go off beef because those who are sensitive to cow’s milk is usually sensitive to a protein in beef as well. I found that pork causes lesions in both my daughter and my bladder lining too. We both make over 5 trips to the restroom at night after consuming too much pork…never fails.
I substitute coconut milk for cow’s milk. Our favorite is the Trader Joe’s brand in the vanilla flavor unless I’m baking with it. Almond milk taste good to, especially Blue Diamond brand in the vanilla flavor, if it weren’t for nut allergies. Soy can be toxic…known by the Chinese for centuries and you can find article online if you do a search on “soy toxic.” I alternate between chicken stock and veggie stock as well. I haven’t found a substitute for cheese that I like, so I stick to hummus and avocado for dips. Of course, everyone is different. So, I’d be interested in hearing your own discoveries as well.
My kids will only eat the tomato basil hummus from Trader Joes in case your daughter is a picky eater.
I’m in a similar position! Will you post menu plans tailore to the gluten and dairy free diet? I get so much inspiration from your menu plan but the options are limited now that my family is dairy free.
If my daughter has to stay dairy free I will definitely be sharing more dairy free recipes and probably even some menu plans. And I will be sharing the recipes I make this month, so I should have at least a few more dairy free recipes in the next few weeks to share.
Dear Sue,
I found that most Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai, India, Korean, etc… dishes do not contain dairy or wheat. It is amazing how so many people in those countries which do not consume dairy and wheat have such super long lifespans. There is so much variety that I am having a lot of fun learning new recipes. One of my favorites are rice noodles recipes.
We also eat Italian such as spaghetti with gluten free pasta. I learned to make an great Minestrone soup at a culinary art school. We still grill steak, bbq pork, hambugers, hotdogs, and make breakfast/lunch sandwiches using gluten free methods.
Hope this helps! Enjoy your kitchen adventures!
Julie
Hi, Lynn. I am supposed to be gluten free, dairy free and egg free. All three together are really hard. Some tips for going dairy free – I have found a substitute for sour cream called Better Than Sour Cream. I have also been approved to have Manchego Cheese which is from sheep. I get this at Costco for a much better price than at a grocery store. I also use almond milk which I love – but I’m not sure if you can have this. I buy it from Aldi and love it. I also use coconut milk. Thanks for your posts!
Thanks for the tips!
Thank you so much for this information! I also am GF DF and egg free, this is all new to me and I sometimes struggle to find food to fix for my family… We eat a lot of meat and rice/potatoes with vegies, which is okay but I miss bread and cheese and eggs. How do you know if the Manchego cheese is okay? I never heard of it before. I had goat milk as a child but am not sure that helped at all since I was still on wheat. Didn’t discover where all my problems were till November of last year (almost 50 years old) so have a lot of learning still. Also my son is off wheat and soy and is allergic to nuts. Many challenges. We are learning. I look forward to finding Better than Sour Cream. I recently found a replacement for Cream cheese: Daiya (sp?).
Thanks again
Hi Lynn,
My husband, daughter and son are in a similar situation to your daughter. My husband and son have no milk in their diets, but can tolerate a small amount of hard cheese on pizza or similar. It seems that the higher the fat content, the lower the lactose content.
My coffee-addicted-daughter uses low lactose milk in her coffee and can tolerate some cottage cheese, yogurt and hard cheese. If she drinks more than 2 cups of coffee with milk, she feels the difference.
Both of my children (now 16 and 22) drank a lot of goats’ milk when they were little without any problems. At these ages, however, the’re turned off by it.
But if you like goats’ cheese or sheeps’ cheese, like my husband and I do, it may be another possibility for you.
Wishing you luck and good health in this month’s experiment.
Debbie
Thanks for letting me know about the higher the fat the lower the lactose. I had heard that somewhere else, but had not really done much researching into it. I am hoping that is the case and that we find out that she can tolerate at least some dairy. Thanks for your thoughts!