Hi everyone, I'm new

[Victoria]

First, this is the first forum I've ever visited where members converse intelligently and really seem to help each other. (mind you I'm still fairly new to forums so maybe I've been looking in the wrong places.) It's so encouraging.

I'm trying to go dairy free after reading about Dr Jane Plant and how she linked dairy intake to the occurence of breast cancer. I've just ordered her book from Amazon where the customer reviews were outstanding. For me this would be purely preventative, but the evidence that she presents does seem overwhelming. Has anyone else read it already?

FIrst question as a new member is, how do I quietly keep dairy free with a husband and daughter who are quite happy as they are with the "standard" family diet (which I prepare)? Advantages are, I shop and cook, so I can make the choices. Disadvantages are, hubby likes traditional food, meat veg potatoes (actually I notice there's not much dairy there!) and kiddie just likes what kids like. So any suggestions as to how to steer a family in a different direction without imposing too much on them at once, would be gratefully received.

Thanks

[matt]

hi, firstly welcome to the group.

the easiest way to avoid dairy is to not buy any processed foods and make stuff from scratch. then you can replace the dairy element with whatever you need to ie dairy free marg instead of butter etc. treats are the downfall ie crisps and cakes. but all you have to do is buy them the normal stuff and have your own supply in a seperate cupboard so it doesn't get raided.

buy from the value ranges!!! by being value they often don't have dairy products in them. learn to read labels and identify all the various dairy names. there's a list on the site.

then any other questions you have fire away.

[Pam]

There are 5 in my family and myself and my daughter are both dairy free (she gets terrible stomach cramps if she has milk, I get hives). For a long time I found that I was cooking 2 completely different sets of meals but most of the time now the rest of them will eat non-dairy ingredients or we have a dairy free meal anyway. I don't inflict dairy free cheese on the others so if I make lasagne I still make two versions and I make 2 jugs of custard for desserts. We generally avoid foods which contain milk if we are all eating together.

If you are doing baking or cooking from scratch you can use soya milk instead of cows milk, dairy free margarine (eg. Pure) etc in the recipe and nobody will be any wiser (NB, Yorkshire pudding does not work with oat milk but is ok with soya). Pastry and cakes all come out fine with non dairy alternatives, in the breadmaker I miss out powdered milk and use oil instead of butter (much easier to measure).

Cheese recipes are the ones that you really cannot replicate as dairy free cheese does not act or taste like normal cheese.

If your husband is anything like mine he'll refuse to eat "that soya rubbish" but will eventually come around to it. Mine now makes parsley sauce with soya milk and actually likes the taste of Swedish Glace (dairy free ice cream) better than most dairy brands.

As for kids foods - lots of chicken products contain milk in some shape or form and you have to search hard for chicken nuggets that don't (Asda value ones are ok and sainsburys do some, virtually all Bernard Matthews products are out), sausages can be hit and miss, as can fishfingers and most ready meals contain some sort of milk. Anything cheesy is definitely off, lots of crisps contain milk, some biscuits/cakes/bread products do and a lot of processed meats do (read the labels on packets of boiled ham, processed chicken etc).

If you go to the home page on this site and click on the Dairy Free Articles button you will find a list of milk derivatives which should help you in your label reading.

Good luck with the new diet, and as Matt said, you only need to ask if you want to know anything. I'll look forward to hearing what the book has to say when you've finished reading it.

[Pam]

Just noticed Victoria, you're in West Yorkshire - so am I (near Huddersfield) so if you need to know where to buy stuff let me know. The Green Health Food shop in Cleckheaton is excellent (the lady there will order anything in that she doesn't stock) and Half Moon Wholefoods in Huddersfield are pretty good too. If you're nearer Leeds then you could try some of the jewish shops who sell a lot of dairy free products as it fits in with their kosher diet.

[Victoria]

Thanks for your help, I just did our first dairy-free shop yesterday. Highlights were the swedish glace - why didn't I buy it before? Also things from the Tesco Free from range. We're all cereal bar addicts too so I switched brands there.

Good news Pam - my husband hates cheese. So what has been a nuisance for 12 years is now a benefit. We all liked the Provamel chocolate puds previously anyway, so maybe this is not going to be so tricky. I've got a meal out on Wednesday at an Italian and feel quite organised for it, I think. I'll let you know as I imagine that's the sort of thing that takes a bit of practice.

Also there's a little girl over the road who has to be dairy-free, so I'm going to ask her Mum how she deals with family meals.

Can't wait for this book to arrive - apparently there's a further cookbook by the same woman, but not published until Dec 9th, so I've gone for her original book.

thanks again, see you all later.
V

[Pam]

Which cereal bars have you found? I haven't looked that hard but the Alpen, Kelloggs and Nestle ones all contain milk, I've only found Jordans ones that are dairy free. I try not to buy special free from food, most of it is sold at highly inflated prices when you can usually find something off the normal shelves that will be just as good. The only things I regularly buy that are labelled dairy free are Pure, Yofu, soya milk, Swedish Glace and free from chocolate (the milk chocolate type) and my daughter has Provamel desserts and Allergycare Whizzers (chocolate eggs or smarties).

[matt]

i can answer that one for you pam. tesco free from range. they have blueberry ones and choc ones. breakfast bars i think they call them.

tesco's are quite good at the moment, wonder how long this'll last?

[Pam]

Thanks Matt, I suppose they'll be double the price if they're on the free from shelf. I usually only buy cereal bars when they are on offer - I think £1 for 6 is quite enough to pay. Morrisons are doing Weetos bars at £2 for 2 boxes at the moment and Alpen have 50% extra so the boys are well stocked up, Jordans were cheap the other week. I like porridge for my breakfast, made with soya milk and piled high with sugar of course.

[Victoria]

It was the Jordan's cereal bars I got. But I've got my daughter a cereal bar maker for Xmas (she's 9 and likes baking) so once it's unwrapped we can make our own, hopefully a lot cheaper and more interesting too.

She liked the choc soya milk yesterday, and I thought the plain soya on my cereal was OK (ish.)

Getting there!

[matt]

on a seperate note knorrs beef bouillon. it comes in little bottles is free from anything we can't have. i can even have it as it doesn't have any wheat in. not a major event but makes gravy easier to make!

[Pam]

Thick question here Matt, how do you make gravy with the bouillon? Do you add some cornflour to thicken it? I'm a bisto and oxo user here.

[ellsie]

Hi Victoria. I have heard of this theory before about a link between milk and breast cancer. I think it was connected to research on chinese peeps who do not cook with milk so I will be interested to hear what you think of this book. Remember, as I am sure you have, to provide calcium in your diet esp if you have children. I take a supplement to be sure. No point in swapping breast cancer for osteoprosis.:D

[matt]

i think the idea of the bouillon is you add it at the beginning to stews or mince and so on to increase the flavour instead of adding a oxo cube etc. but i can't see why you couldn't just dilute it (as it comes very concentrated) then as you say add some corn flour and heat gently which should thicken it nicely.


re. breast cancer. i think i've heard something similar but that it's far from proved. i also heard underarm deodourants cause it.....there's lots of speculation i think the only thing they are fairly sure of is that soya is very good for you so soya milk worth having instead of cows milk.