Damn. Help Me Go Dairy-Free Too.

[danaf617]

Grrr. Stupid food.

Okay, I've been gluten-free for a little over 2 weeks. I am feeling a little better but still have an all-day stomach ache, every day. I haven't had but 1 day of D and have been taking Fibercon to combat the C. (Prior to be gluten-free, I was on a cycle of 3 to 4 days of C, then 1 day of D, and so on and so on.) I've weaned completely off the Librax, too. (My GI says I have post-infectious IBS. )

I know that feeling better can be a slow process but it seems from reading here that dairy-free is a pretty common companion to gluten-free. As much as I love my dairy, I'd give it up to feel better. I feel like at least a trial is a good idea.

I feel like I've got a great handle on where gluten hides and how to avoid it, etc. Now I need to tackle that with dairy. Help, please?

I bought almond milk to eat with my morning cereal. Obviously I will stay away from cheese, ice cream, etc. Are there any cheese substitutes?

What about butter? Is that considered a no no? Eggs?

I'm really going to miss my butter, sour cream, and cheddar cheese loaded baked potatoes. It quickly became a regular in my gluten-free diet.

[i-geek]

Eggs are fine. I had to give up all dairy, including butter, for a couple of months to let my gut heal. Casein is a hard protein to digest, and that plus lactose often means disaster for a damaged gut. If it makes you feel better, this might be temporary for you. My dairy-intolerance was. I'm 7 months gluten-free and can once again eat regular cheese, yogurt and butter with no problems, milk and ice cream with just a Lactaid pill (I was mildly lactose intolerant before the celiac disease hit, so I'm used to it).

[jststric]

I was dairy-intolerant for years prior to my gluten issues showed up. I can do Lactaid milk and have just discovered I can do mozz. cheese sticks....or least SOME occasionally. The subsitute cheeses arent' great. I hear Daiya is pretty good but it, also, is based from rice, which is another issue food for me. My best advice would be to read the ingredients of EVERYTHING, even things that you wouldn't think has anything to do with gluten OR dairy! THey show up in the STRANGEST places!!

[missceliac2010]

Grrr. Stupid food.

First off, I LOVE this quote! This is exactly how I feel right now too! LOL! Stupid food.

I'm about 4 weeks off gluten, and I too was not feeling 100%, so I also took out dairy. They make soy cheese substitute, "fake" sour cream and lactose free butter! You have to look, but it's out there. I live in Cali, and we have a grocery store called "Whole Foods." Normally I hate that place, because it's overpriced and all nose in the air, hoighty-toighty...if ya know what I mean! But... I find everything I need there. However, even in my regular hometown grocery store they have a small vegetarian section where I found the cheese "product" and soy yogurt. The sour cream was a little tougher, but it's out there! Also, lactaid makes a cottage cheese (I got hooked on cottage cheese and fruit at the beginning of my gluten-free diet and was sad to see it go). They even make soy milk ice cream and/or coconut milk ice cream (and it's yum!). And of course you already figured out the soy milk or almond milk. I love vanilla almond milk. I drink it like dessert! For times that I just can't avoid dairy, I bought myself a giant generic thing of Lactaid chewables at Target and I just chew 2 before I ingest anything. I just couldn't handle the soy-cheese-product, so I am using real cheese in my quesidillas, etc and just using 2 lactaid's. Although I have noticed I feel pretty cruddy after, so I probably shouldn't even do that...but I'm stubborn! Thank goodness I'm not soy intolerant too. I might have to scream! I know it's possible to not do soy either, and of course should the day come that soy bugs me too, I'll go soy-free, but until then, I'm enjoyin' my soy!

So good luck to you. I am in the same boat, and I all keep thinking is "be temporary, be temporary", because dang this soy substitute stuff is getting expensive! I love yogurt, and I can get the cheap stuff on sale for $.50, but soy yogurt is never less than a buck a pop! And that's just one example. UGH!

((hugs))

[precious831]

Grrr. Stupid food.

Okay, I've been gluten-free for a little over 2 weeks. I am feeling a little better but still have an all-day stomach ache, every day. I haven't had but 1 day of D and have been taking Fibercon to combat the C. (Prior to be gluten-free, I was on a cycle of 3 to 4 days of C, then 1 day of D, and so on and so on.) I've weaned completely off the Librax, too. (My GI says I have post-infectious IBS. )

I know that feeling better can be a slow process but it seems from reading here that dairy-free is a pretty common companion to gluten-free. As much as I love my dairy, I'd give it up to feel better. I feel like at least a trial is a good idea.

I feel like I've got a great handle on where gluten hides and how to avoid it, etc. Now I need to tackle that with dairy. Help, please?

I bought almond milk to eat with my morning cereal. Obviously I will stay away from cheese, ice cream, etc. Are there any cheese substitutes?

What about butter? Is that considered a no no? Eggs?

I'm really going to miss my butter, sour cream, and cheddar cheese loaded baked potatoes. It quickly became a regular in my gluten-free diet.

I can't have dairy either and after a while you really don't miss it anymore since there's so many alternatives. To replace butter I use coconut oil(extra virgin) use it on toast, baked potato, baking, etc. I also use Spectrum shortening on some recipes.

I drink hemp milk and rice milk.

For cheese, if I have to have a subst. I eat rice cheese or soy cheese.

I'm hoping my belly will be ok soon so I can have at least some cheese, like goat cheese at least.

Hth. Feel free to PM, I have tons of gluten-free/DF recipes.

[Skylark]

Butter is a no-no, but you can have margarine. Eggs are fine. I had to give up cow dairy for about a year, but I tolerated goat and sheep dairy fine. Maybe try some goat cheese?

[danaf617]

Thanks for all of your replies! This forum is quickly becoming one of my favorite places on the net because the knowledge, suggestions, and help are great.

I was really hoping that cutting out gluten would make me feel tons better. I'm starting to get discouraged and upset that maybe my doc is right and I really do just have IBS-PI. I had just refused to believe that it could leave me uncomfortable or in pain every day, all day for this many months. I've never had a solitary dietary or digestive problem during 27 years of life and suddenly all I want to do is lay around.

[kayo]

I'm dairy free and have lots of sub ideas for you.

If you can have soy:

soy milk (try the chocolate Silk - to die for)

soy yogurt (Silk is really good)

soy cheese (never found one I liked)

soy ice cream (So Delicious is awesome, as are Toffuti Cutie ice cream sandwiches)

soy cream cheese and sour cream (Toffuti - awesome)

butter subs with soy: Earth Balance, Smart Balance (both are excellent)

If you can't have soy:

rice, hemp, almond milk

coconut yogurt (So Delicious - very good)

coconut icecream (Coconut Bliss - to die for)

Daiya cheese (very good, great on pizza)

for a cream cheese sub I make a cashew spread using this recipe as a baseline: Open Original Shared Link

butter sub without soy: Soy Free Earth Balance (can be hard to find)

Amy's makes a frozen 'mac and cheeze' with rice pasta and daiya cheese that is to die for!! There is also one with rice pasta and soy cheese.

* edited to day: most margarines have dairy.

Also: Labeling for dairy is awful. Some products may say 'dairy free' when in fact they mean only 'lactose free' and it will actually have whey or casseine (milk protein) in it.

If you can tolerate casseine you may be able to have some International Delight coffee creamer and Cool Whip.

[Simona19]

I found one webside where you can find the hidden sources of gluten and milk. It's for the people with autism, but it's also relevant to us.

google:Hiden sources of gluten and check the webside: TACA talk about the autism....

They are telling people where to look to avoid Gluten and Casein(milk)

It might help you!

[sa1937]

Surprisingly I found Soy Free Earth Balance at my local Wal-Mart in Waynesboro, PA. I had looked for it previously at several grocery stores, including Giant where I felt for sure I'd find it but they didn't have it.

[Skylark]

* edited to day: most margarines have dairy.

Good catch. You do have to read labels carefully on the margarine. When I was dairy-free I think I found a whipped one from Smart Balance that was OK.

The thing that was hardest for me was coffee creamer. I never did find one without casein and I don't much like goat's milk in coffee. I finally settled on soy milk.

For ice cream, I was eating sorbet. Haagen-Dazs makes good sorbet, and I think maybe it was Safeway brand that had a really good dairy-free (and gluten-free) chocolate sorbet.

[danaf617]

thanks again for all of the suggestions! kayo, thank you for taking the time to type that all out.

i did not show a reaction to casein on my enterolab tests. should i go for lactose free or dairy free?

[T.H.]

I think it's actually easier to go dairy free at first. A few friends of mine who are lactose intolerant tend to simply avoid dairy for the most part, just to be safe. I know a few of them have had foods that were low in lactose and made 'em pretty sick.

We've had to be dairy free for a while, too (my son), and I'd definitely second the toffuti suggestion. They have some nice stuff, especially the deserts and cream cheese. We liked the Coconut based Ice cream as well, the one made by Turtle mountain. The texture was amazing, and the coconut taste mild. They had a chocolate covered coconut ice cream on a stick that was grand. They also just came out with a coconut based Kefir type drink that looks good, too, although I'm not positive that one's gluten-free.

The soy ice creams and milk have the strongest 'non-milk' taste, I think. The rice milks tended to have the least flavor, but their ice cream was definitely different than the sory ones. If anyone ever made almond milk, I think I'd go for that in a minute - almond milk is one I find the tastiest, although we're still looking for one that doesn't make us react, sigh.

The one thing I really liked about Earth Balance 'butter' is it seemed to melt better than the other 'fake' butters, and it tended to do better in baked goods, as well.

A couple warnings--

1. I would be careful to thoroughly check soy and rice cheeses. SO many of them seem to be adding in casein or other dairy these days. Which, to me, kind of defeats the purpose of having a dairy free cheese in the first place, eh?

2. I'd also be careful about some of the almond, soy, and rice milks. Some of them claim to be gluten free, but sensitive enough celiacs have reacted, like Rice Dream, for example. I've been googling the ones I'm interested in, to see if people have been reporting reactions.

Some snack ideas:

--One quick, odd, but surprisingly tasty thing you can do with the toffuti cream cheese is spread it on a brown rice cake - it's very good. Normal rice cakes are too soft, and the flavor doesn't go well, but the brown rice cakes go with it nicely. Even my picky kids liked this one. We just take it on car trips all the time.

--if you find some gluten-free lasagna noodles (Tinkyada makes some), a cheese substitute that goes well is silken tofu. Make sure the sauce is spicy, so there is a nice flavor. Then mash up the tofu with a fork and season it with some herbs, oregano, basil, salt, etc... Put it in like you would the cheese. The texture is very similar to ricotta, the silken tofu will melt a bit, and if the sauce flavor is strong, the taste is pretty similar, too.

--we've done baked potatoes with chili over them, sauteed mushrooms, or roasted veggies as an alternative to the dairy ingredients.

--soups and stews are a nice quick non-dairy food that might work, too. The tofutti sour cream goes pretty nicely in soups if it's added after they have cooked.

--Salsas have also been a big staple. Rather than chicken with a cream sauce, for example, we would do a mexican version with salsa and corn, instead.

--nut butters and hummus have been great, too. For veggie and fruit dips, for gluten-free breads or or rice pita chips. Nice for snacking, big time, and they tend to be pretty filling, thankfully.

[sahm-i-am]

Thank you, thank you for everyone who replied to Dana. I am in the same boat, too and the posts have lots of great information. I have a question though. While on this food journey I have been trying to stay 'whole foods' and not use stuff with lots of chemicals and such. Is the diary alternatives usually free from those? I know nothing about tofu and daiya.

Thanks.

Wendi

[hazeleyez682]

Grrr. Stupid food.

Okay, I've been gluten-free for a little over 2 weeks. I am feeling a little better but still have an all-day stomach ache, every day. I haven't had but 1 day of D and have been taking Fibercon to combat the C. (Prior to be gluten-free, I was on a cycle of 3 to 4 days of C, then 1 day of D, and so on and so on.) I've weaned completely off the Librax, too. (My GI says I have post-infectious IBS. )

I know that feeling better can be a slow process but it seems from reading here that dairy-free is a pretty common companion to gluten-free. As much as I love my dairy, I'd give it up to feel better. I feel like at least a trial is a good idea.

I feel like I've got a great handle on where gluten hides and how to avoid it, etc. Now I need to tackle that with dairy. Help, please?

I bought almond milk to eat with my morning cereal. Obviously I will stay away from cheese, ice cream, etc. Are there any cheese substitutes?

What about butter? Is that considered a no no? Eggs?

I to cannot have dairy or eggs. Trust me dairy was harder to give up then gluten! But there is some good stuff out there. Almond and soy milk was an easy transition I now prefer it. Butter wasnt so bad either. I found a great vegan butter and its gluten-free. Earth Balance, it's got a good taste and isnt bad for you at all. Low cholersertol and all. Ice cream was tough but try a brand called purely decidant by a company called Turtle mountain. They have great soy icecream in awesome flavors like pomegranit chip, and gluten-free cookie dough!! Also they have a brand called SO Delicious and thats good to it's made by the same company SO Delicious is the cheaper of their brands. Cheese is a battle all it's own. I have been using Veggi cheese brand its not great but not terrible.

Good Luck with going DF it's something you get used to!!!!

I'm really going to miss my butter, sour cream, and cheddar cheese loaded baked potatoes. It quickly became a regular in my gluten-free diet.

[RiceGuy]

The coconut ice creams are very good. I think the same company makes coconut yogurt too. Coconut milk is also good. And coconut oil is great in place of butter/margarine and shortening. But I'd only recommend centrifuged coconut oil, as all others are completely inferior, though most people don't know until they try the truly good stuff.

Some items do have artificial junk in them, but not all. So you don't have to settle for unhealthy non-dairy items.

I make my own dairy-free stuff, including milk, yogurt, spreads, etc. That way I know exactly what's in them, and it costs less too. But a cheese that melts well hasn't been too easy. I'm not out of ideas yet though

[Kelly&Mom]

We feel your pain. My daughter was diagnosed, then I was. She did start to gain weight and look better but her stomach pain symptoms persisted so after 6 mos., the diagnosis of IBS was added and one of my daughter's triggers is dairy. I feel like such a mean mom continually having to remind her of what she can and cannot eat. This is a kid who used to snag the margerine out of the fridge as a toddler and hide, scooping out handfuls, loves extra butter on her popcorn, etc........ She loves the almond milk, not such a fan of soy milk except the chocolate. Soy ice cream is OK, just got her the coconut milk kind and havent' tried it yet. We use Country Crock margerine-it's non-dairy and I buy the pre-packaged slices of soy cheese so she can do grilled cheese, works out pretty well. They also sell a veggie-version of the grated kind. Didn't buy any but saw dairy-free cream cheese at my local organic store. Will have to try that. The soy and coconut yogurts are OK, especially with some granola sprinkled in.

Eating out is a pain, I'll admit and traveling. We were just up in Yosemite and they don't carry most of the stuff she can eat at their grocery stores.......

Hang in there!