New(ish) dairy free

[Lisa M]

Just thought I'd do an intro post, I'm still fairly new to the dairy free thing. I have never been able to eat/drink milk straight on its own it always used to make me feel really sicky but last year I was finding that I was feeling ill from other things with dairy in. On Sunday 6th September 2009 I had a bit of cheesecake and spent half the night in the bathroom feeling incredibly ill.

I decided I should really seek medical help and guidance for cutting such a big portion of my diet out but all I have found is that my doctor is totally incompetent, I spoke to them and told them the symptoms etc and they asked me to come back in few days for a blood test. (It was the first time I have ever needed blood tests and this experience put me off so much) I saw a different doctor and he was so rough with my arms and he jabbed me about 4/5 times with the needle until finally declaring “well I can’t find a vein and get any blood out of you, you will have to go to the hospital to get it done”. I was left with BIG BIG bruises on my arms for the next week or so and I don't bruse easily, I work with the public and I felt very conscious of these wondering what people would think so wore long sleeves the whole time regardless of the fact that I was baking hot in the office all day! Well I found out I have a health centre a couple of towns over that has the district nurse in to do tests, phoned and got an appointment, turned up and the doctor hadn’t given me all the paperwork they needed to actually do the test so off I went again to get those and back to the nurse the following day. She got the needle in straight away and although she had trouble getting enough blood out of me she was very good about it. One week later the doctors called to say I needed an appointment to discuss the results, I was there for 5 mins max and the doctor just said, “you have no food allergies or intolerances, however you are allergic to dust and dogs” .....I have had a dog for 6 years, never had any problems with her so the test was useless in my opinion and I have had no help from the doctors even though I asked to see a nutritionist, I have tried dairy once since these results came back and I was ill again so since then I have eaten no dairy and have been searching the web and buying vegan/dairy free cookbooks, I have actually been really enjoying it, it's made me think more about what I eat and I now make time to cook nice food whereas before I had got into the bad habit of just ready meals.

I now feel much better than I have done in years and although it's tricky to eat out it is not impossible with a little advance planning and overall I am still enjoying discovering all the new things I can have, it's amazing how excited I get when I find out little things like I can still eat most brands of bourbons as they are made with no egg or dairy products!

Well that is my story of how I ended up becoming dairy free, if any one has any advice on any good places to shop, recipes, calcium intake etc it would be highly appreciated.

Lisa

[Copper]

Welcome to the site.

Your symptoms sound much like mine. I have had this problem on and off since birth. I am now totally lactose intolerant.

I shop in Tesco and use the health food shop for the odd thing. Life was easier when all I had to think about was dairy free food as I have now developed an intolerance to soya, sigh.

I use my old recipes and substitute oat milk, for milk, oat cream for cream, Vitalite or Stork block margarine for butter or margarine. When my daughter comes home with her collection of intolerances I use an egg replacer instead of eggs.

Before the soya intolerance I used to eat "cheese" made with soya and Swedish Glace ice cream also made with soya. These were in a local health food shop. I have seen some pretend cheese in Tesco and they sell the vanilla flavour Swedish Glace too.

[Lisa M]

Thank you for the welcome! It's nice to find somewhere that I can talk to people about intolerances and improve my limited knowledge.

I had no idea you could get oat cream I may have to hunt this down! Is it like squirty/runny and can you whip it to have with pancakes as I have just found a lovely simple pancake recipe :) that I'm going to play with to see what works best!

I haven't tried any of the soya cheese, I did buy some and it's still sitting in the fridge unopened!

I also had no idea that stork butter was dairy free!! That's brilliant to know so thank you for that too!!

[Copper]

The oat cream is Oatly H healthy dairy free alternative to cream.

It is in one of the big Tesco stores here and is with the Oatly milk, soya milk and Lactolite milk. All of these items are in cartons.

The Oatly cream is like single cream but if you put it in the fridge for a few days is goes thick. I have whipped it to double the volume in order to make an egg and dairy free chocolate mousse. When whipped it goes very runny.

If you want to use it on pancakes, desserts etc it sounds like you need to store it in the fridge for a few days, then when you open it (scissors will be needed) you will be able to squeeze the cream out onto the pancake/dessert.

[jill]

Hi Lisa, you have found out like the rest of us that alot of the medical profession have little knowledge or sympathy for our problems. At least you are feeling better which is the main thing, you will find out yourself what you can and can't have without feeling ill and it does get easier.

[Lisa M]

Thank you Jill! I'm glad that there are other people to talk to as none of my friends/family/collegues have any intolerances that they know of and thats been the hardest thing-not having somebody who understands what you are trying to do.

Most of my friends have been supportive and learnt a bit more about intolerances and my parents have been good but not bothered to find anything out and my mum with her constant, "just have a couple of yorkshire puddings" or "just a small pizza won't hurt" shows that she doesn't really understand just how ill I feel after eating things with dairy in.

I haven't found it too difficult to be honest the only things I miss are cheesecake( I have still to try making a dairy free one) and pavlovas, also I miss the parmesan cheese for pasta, but I do have the soy alternative which has proved useful. I also miss big macs lol! Other than these few bits I have found that with a bit of hunting I can find a dairy free alternative to most things I like!


One thing I am slightly worried about is my calcium intake, I have noticed that my nails are weaker than before-has anybody got any advice on calcium enriched foods? I have just brought some calcium tablets but I am dreadful at remebering to take tablets and unsure how effective they are!?

[Copper]

I try to take a calcium tablet a day which is not 100% of the RDA but over doing it is not a good idea. Sadly like you I forget to take them for weeks on end.

If you go to this site they list foods rich in calcium - you do have to scroll down through the dairy items to get to things we can eat.

http://www.osteoporosistreatment.co.uk/calcium-levels-foods.php

[daddys fault]

i have read that parmesan cheese is often ok for people who have dairy intolerance as its a different structure to other cheeses. i don't know if this is true or not as too scared to test it on my kids. could be worth a try though if you really miss it.

[Copper]

This site is interesting as it gives an idea of which cheeses should be ok for lactose intolerant sufferers

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/ekende/lactose.htm

The Lactolite milk still made me ill although it took a few weeks to realise that. I guess I might be protein intolerant too.

[Lisa M]

Thank you for your recent email.

We do have a wide range of products and are unable to send you a list of
products that are dairy free. We recommend that you check the allergen
information on each Birds Eye product before buying.

Alternatively, you can call us on 0800 332277 Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm
if you require information on any particular Birds Eye product.

I do hope this information helps you and thank you for taking the time to
contact us.

[Copper]

Hmm not that helpful. I don't want to ring a company up from the middle of my supermarket.

I do read labels though and Birds Eye labelling is usually clear.

I find it amusing that places like Tesco will send you a list of their dairy free products, which is mostly a list of fresh fruit and vegetables! Insulting to those of us with some intelligence.

[Lisa M]

Yeah not really ideal as I usually don't have a signal in my supermarkets. I have brought a couple of things and fair enough they are well labelled but I was hoping that I may be able to get the whole list and not have to keep messing around reading in depth what is in everything and maybe just have a quick glance!

[Copper]

Yes a proper list would be good.