Help me do a low dairy/ dairy free meal plan

[donatellasfoot]

I’ve recently gone gluten free following a diagnosis of coeliac. I seem to have an ever present low level pain in my stomach with some bloating. I thought going GF would stop this but it hasn’t (Although I’m only in week 3 so maybe not enough time?)

I’m now wondering if my fairly high dairy intake may be the culprit. I have two-three milky coffees a day (do 1/3 or 1/4 milk). I eat a lot of plain yoghurt with fruit as breakfast and maybe later as a snack. I’m having cottage cheese at lunch with salad to help avoid more calorific dressings / sauces. In the evening I may have cheese in my evening meal though this isn’t every night.

I can drink coffee black, that’s fine. But what can I have as an easy high protein / breakfast and with my lunch that isn’t high calorie or over processed? What do I need to buy in my weekly shop?

Various egg dishes for breakfast - like omelette with vegetables, scrambled eggs with say spinach and mushrooms, shaksuka (sp ?)….?

I used to make DD banana pancakes for breakfast with one egg, a banana, some vanilla flavouring and in her case a tablespoon of flour - but you can use a tablespoon of ground almonds instead of flour!

Chicken or fish or shellfish or nuts with salad and jacket potatoes for lunch?

Have you tried lentil pasta? Tescos sell it. It’s ok - and gluten free? I didn’t like pea pasta myself, but there’s that or chickpea pasta, which iirc are gluten free? A lentil pasta salad for lunch?

Eggs and oat milk are your best options for easy morning protein and a milk substitute

Also give it at least 6 weeks. I don't know that much about coeliac but when I had to go dairy free the GP said it can take 6 weeks for the milk proteins to be fully eliminated from my body.

Can you replace your plain yoghurt with a dairy-free alternative? I quite like Coconut Collab but there are loads of non-dairy yoghurts around.

Alpro do lots of different types of yoghurts, or you could make overnight oats using plant based milk.

Rather than go diary free, I would suggest avoiding ready-made GF breads first. They are ultra-processed foods and contain many ingredients that can cause problems for sensitive people. Until your gut heals, you are sensitive. Possibly even after it heals.

Also avoid GF oats until your gut heals. Some coeliacs cannot tolerate even GF oats.

I barely eat GF bread. I’ve had three slices in the last three weeks. Bread wasn’t a big part of my diet before my diagnosis so it’s not something im
missing, thankfully!

Thanks all. What suggestions would people hand for the least processed high protein non-dairy yoghurt?

Are you wanting to avoid dairy or lactose? It’s often lactose that can be an issue until the coeliac gut heals. Use the lactose free cow’s milk versions of your regular dairy products. I’m lactose intolerant as well as coeliac. My lactose intolerance was symptomatic about 7 years before my coeliac disease was.

Watch out for oats. A small percentage of coeliacs react to them too because their protein is incredibly similar to gluten. My body certainly reacts to oats like they’re gluten.

Sojade yoghurt is a good soya yoghurt thats not full of crap. Not easy to find but I get it at a health food shop in my local city. Oatly organic feom the shelf (not the fridge) is just oats, salt and water. (If you can manage oats of course). There is a soya one that is the same but I can't remember (plenish oerhaps?).
M&S do a seeded bread a bit like pumpernickel which I like. Its like the chia Keto bread you get from H&B but not as expensive.

Unfortunately, lactose intolerance often comes hand in hand with coeliac disease, especially later on so it may well be that you have this. But, it might be worth getting your gut in order first by giving it time to heal from gluten and dairy but you can go back to dairy once it has healed a bit.

i’ am dairy free.

mainly eat Chinese/korean/asian dishes as they are nearly always dairy free. Rice noodles, and tamari instead of soy sauce if you are GF.

stir fries generally. Jacket potatoes with beans, or sweetcorn instead of cottage cheese.

flora instead of butter or dairy based spread. Olive/vegeatable oil.

eggs if you like them.

The collab yoghurts and puddings seem to be best.

cakes and baking are easy- almond flour and flora subs. Although I find GF flour is ok as well.

soup, salads, rice dishes. It’s not as restrictive as you first think.

gf pasta is ok. I prefer rice or rice noodles though.

eating out is the main problem as so many places cook with butter. Again Chinese, and Asian is best if you can find one that will leave the soy sauce off. Greek is good for plain rice/souvlaki etc as the meat isn’t marinated in yoghurt/butter, you just need to avoid the tzatziki. Nando’s is pretty good if you like chicken.

chips used to be a staple but I find increasingly pre-prepared in restaurants are coated- often flour, sometimes using buttermilk as well. So not the go-to it used to be.

shopping -while m&s is good, they tend to be either/or. So dairy free will contain gluten, GF will have dairy. Not much free from both. Co-op and Sainsbury’s are our best options.

I use almond or oat milk in tea and cereals (also drink coffee black).
dairy free spread for toast and cooking with
alpro soya yogurt (both plain and fruit)
i can tolerate small amounts so usually buy lactose free cheddar cheese (arlo or cathedral city). the downside is that it doesn't melt very well. I'm also ok with small amounts of goats or sheeps milk cheese.
i eat a lot of tomato based sauces and oriental food which doesn't tend to use dairy

I don’t really know! As I said, I’m not sure what the cause of the bloating is and wondered if all the dairy I have could be the culprit.

How long did it take to see results when you went lactose free? For me, going dairy free would have much bigger impact on me (at home at least) than going GF has. So I don’t want to do it unless it’s really necessary.

It’ll be lactose that’s affecting you if dairy products are a problem. I’ve been lactose free since I was a teenager. Consuming lactose had me racing for the toilet within a few minutes so going lactose free gave a pretty much instant improvement.

You’ll need to read the labels on foods. It’s amazing how many have milk powder added to them even when you wouldn’t expect it. Some foods even add pure lactose. I’d go lactose free for 4-6 weeks while your gut heals up and then start introducing small amounts of lactose again and see how your body reacts. Hopefully your gut will have healed up enough and you’ll be able to tolerate lactose again.

Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything right now. You’ve only been GF for 3 weeks. As you’re still figuring it out, you’ve almost certainly gotten it wrong a few times and eaten things you shouldn’t. I’d give it a couple months to settle and see how you feel before your start cutting other things out. You don’t want to overly restrict an already restricted diet and miss out on nutrients you need to rebuild your gut.