About To Go Dairy Free And Depressed As All Get Out About It

[kirbymom]

Where do you all get your coconut milk and how expensive is it? We are going dairy free in the near future and I am trying to find out as much as possible now. We are also planning on trying dari-free with my 2 year old. The 6 year old will drink PC organics Rice milk (cheaper than Rice Dream and no gluten!). The 2 year old does not like Rice milk and is still nursing along with the 5 mos old baby.

[georgie]

I am mourning this and understand that I'm right smack dab in the middle of the anger/depression stages of grief about restricting the favorite part of my diet.

elawrie, I know you feel. I am getting so stressed by this. My Dr is sure I have a problem and wants me to do the diet challenge and I KNOW I will fail it ! I can't imagine a world without cheese. I am Insulin Resistant and cheese has been a great snack for me. We love gourmet French Cheeses - goats milk and sheeps milk cheeses.

But ..I have had severe headaches for as long as I can remember. I wonder if casein is the cause??

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

Where do you all get your coconut milk and how expensive is it?

I've seen coconut milk at Whole Foods, regular supermarkets, nutrition/health food stores... shouldn't be too hard to find, just ask someone working there if you don't see it

I've been trying to find coconut milk with just coconuts and water (not any preservatives or guar gum) but I haven't been able to yet

[Looking for answers]

I've seen coconut milk at Whole Foods, regular supermarkets, nutrition/health food stores... shouldn't be too hard to find, just ask someone working there if you don't see it

I've been trying to find coconut milk with just coconuts and water (not any preservatives or guar gum) but I haven't been able to yet

I get coconut milk at Trader Joes and it's reasonably priced. My husband and I are both dairy-free. We find the mediterranean hummus sold at Costco is a must-have for us now. We mix it in rice, use it to stuff mushrooms, add salsa to it for amazing dip, etc. The rich, creamy texture it has is a great substitute.

[jujubee]

I am the opposite from you. I have been dairy-free for about 5 years now (I was as a child too), and am just going gluten-free due to my doctor's suggestion.

I can assure you that it does get easier, and contrary to what some people say, very enjoyable and tasty! I have zero cravings for anything remotely milk.

In terms of my favorites at the moment: Almond Breeze (for milk); Coconut milk/cream (for cooking & baking); Earth Balance Shortening & Buttery Sticks (for baking); Extra-light olive oil (for cooking & baking); Any "ice cream" by Turtle Mountain; Good Karma's Rice based Ice cream; "Creamy" soups from Trader Joes; Whole Soy & Co. yogurt

I rarely have any dairy-free cheese-like items. I found it easier to eliminate cheese stuff altogether to get rid of any cravings more quickly. Especially since there are so few good alternatives. Though, I have heard wonderful things about Sheese lately - sold on veganessentials.com.

The one thing that makes gluten-free / dairy-free difficult is Asian food. So many sauces use soy with wheat in it. I am finding this part tricky. But cooking asia at home with San-J's wheat free Tamari and dabbling in Thai food has made all the difference!

If you have any dairy-free questions, feel free to email me directly via the website.

[shai76]

I was diagnosed allergic to milk when I was in college. I ate pizza and ended up in the emergency room on breathing treatments. It was scary. After testing and eliminating it from my diet a lot of my skin problems and asthma cleared up. I've been dairy free for almost 10 years.

It was hell at first. I loved cheese....macaroni and cheese, cheesy piza, jalapenos stuffed with cheese....it was my favorite food. I'm so used to it now that the smell of cheese is digusting to me. It smells like something rotting. I also have air born milk allergies. To cook stuff with milk in it around me makes me have breathing problems and hives.

I guess you have more alternatives though, because I am anaphylectic allergic to soy as well.

[hathor]

shai76, what do you do for bread and crackers?

I recently found out I am intolerant to gluten, dairy, egg, soy, and yeast. I've ordered a mix from Breads from Anna that lack these things; I'm hoping it's good. I haven't found any crackers yet. The ones without yeast have soy and the ones without soy have yeast. I haven't had time for a complete job researching everything out there, though.

Just thought you might have some suggestions

One thing I'm unclear on is how to cope with this yeast intolerance. I've never noticed a reaction, so I can't go by that (obviously far short of an allergy). Do you react to baked goods made with yeast -- or simply those foods that have things like nutritional yeast or yeast extract added to them? Can you handle gluten-free beer? Wine? (I read one site saying that allergic reactions to the yeast in wine are rare.) I also have an antibody score just over the threshold so I'm really uncertain how important this is to me.

I've also read about how many celiacs also have antibodies to yeast. I see very few avoiding it, probably because they haven't been tested

Any information you have on yeast would be appreciated. The research I've done mostly talks about what people on anti-Candida diets should not eat, which is obviously different.

About soy -- do you react to soy lecithin? Soybean oil?

[jnclelland]

I recently found out I am intolerant to gluten, dairy, egg, soy, and yeast. I've ordered a mix from Breads from Anna that lack these things; I'm hoping it's good.

Fear not - it's yummy! I first ordered it when I was having a problem with yeast; after a few months I stopped reacting to vinegar and other yeasty things, but I liked the bread so much that I kept ordering it. It's a little bit crumbly, and definitely best when it's fresh, but the taste and texture are really nice! One tip: at first I found that it got too brown on the top when I baked it, so now I bake it for 75 minutes at 350 (rather than 70 minutes at 375 as the directions say), and I cover it with foil for the last half hour or so.

I've also read about how many celiacs also have antibodies to yeast. I see very few avoiding it, probably because they haven't been tested

Any information you have on yeast would be appreciated. The research I've done mostly talks about what people on anti-Candida diets should not eat, which is obviously different.

About soy -- do you react to soy lecithin? Soybean oil?

I haven't had any testing, but when I first went gluten-free, I realized that I would also react (with a rash) to vinegar and other fermented-type things. I started taking acidopholus regularly, and after a few months, this got better. I think I probably have a low-level Candida problem, but taking acidopholus seems to keep it mostly in check.

As for soy, I react to soy everything, including lecithin.

Jeanne

[hathor]

I can hardly wait to get the bread now. Thanks for the baking tip. I imagine things can vary depending on your oven too.

I also ordered the banana and pumpkin bread mixes.

Maybe at some point I will try to bake from scratch. But trying to find a recipe that lacks all these things is proving difficult. One has to start making substitutions and gluten-free baking is apparently tricky to begin with. I have no experience baking regular bread, either.

When I asked Enterolab about what products I needed to avoid, they just told me to skip anything with yeast or soy on the label, except that soy lecithin "seems to be OK as far as we can tell." When I don't notice a reaction it is hard to know what to do. All the searching I've done for "yeast-free" diets seems to come up with anti-Candida lists, which end up having lots of things other than just ones that say yeast.

What bothered me the most about the results is that I thought this meant I was supposed to give up wine. But wine doesn't say "yeast" on the label, does it? That's why I was doing all this research (or trying to) about yeast sensitivity. Hard to find much on it, though.

My soy score is much higher so I guess I do need to avoid it. But eliminating soy sauce is hard -- it seems like this cuts out entire cuisines. I suppose I can get plain steamed veggies at the Chinese restaurant, but that hardly seems worth leaving home for. I also had just found a gluten-free pasta I like better than any other I've tried, and it has soy flour in it. Sigh ... I think I jinxed myself by posting various places about how good the pasta was

[jnclelland]

I can hardly wait to get the bread now. Thanks for the baking tip. I imagine things can vary depending on your oven too.

I also ordered the banana and pumpkin bread mixes.

Oh good - those are yummy too! Even my non-gluten-free kids liked them.

What bothered me the most about the results is that I thought this meant I was supposed to give up wine. But wine doesn't say "yeast" on the label, does it? That's why I was doing all this research (or trying to) about yeast sensitivity. Hard to find much on it, though.

Well, I was kind of making it up as I went along, but it seemed for me that the yeast problem was basically anything fermented: vinegar, wine, soy sauce, etc. (This was before I realized I had a soy intolerance too.)

My soy score is much higher so I guess I do need to avoid it. But eliminating soy sauce is hard -- it seems like this cuts out entire cuisines. I suppose I can get plain steamed veggies at the Chinese restaurant, but that hardly seems worth leaving home for. I also had just found a gluten-free pasta I like better than any other I've tried, and it has soy flour in it. Sigh ... I think I jinxed myself by posting various places about how good the pasta was

Tell me about it! I was gluten/casein-free for a year before I realized I had a soy problem, and I think soy is by far the hardest of the three. Gluten can mostly be faked, and dairy can be faked except for cheese, but with soy, whole categories of food are just GONE. I REALLY miss Chinese food!!! But I also like not having itchy hands all the time. -sigh-

Jeanne

[eLaurie]

Update to say thanks to those who encouraged me early on. I'm still casein free and feeling better. Not sure if some of that can be attributed to outdoors and sunshine, but I'm not going to challenge with casein anytime soon. And thankfully, I'm feeling better though I'm taking in a good bit of soy, so that doesn't seem to be yet another needed restriction.

Some subs I love: coconut milk bread pudding with a cinnamon topping, Toffuti sour cream, Follow Your Heart soy cheese (I don't use much, because it's ...well, not cheese... but using it sparingly and broiling to melt and brown it as their website suggests makes me feel happy.

I just learned today that Amy's Kitchen Spinach pizza is now available gluten free, casein free!

Open Original Shared Link

[Mango04]

I just learned today that Amy's Kitchen Spinach pizza is now available gluten free, casein free!

Open Original Shared Link

I almost want to cheat on my soy-free diet just to try that! Glad dairy-free is working well for you