Giving up all dairy - what are good substitutes?

[Pennies]

For health reasons (breast cancer) I am looking into giving up all dairy products.

I can easily do without cheese & yoghurts, but I do love my cuppa in the morning and want to find a good alternative milk to go in it! I'm wary of soya milk as there is conflicting evidence as to whether soya's a good thing or not with the type of cancer I have, so for now I'm steering clear. I am currently using oat milk on my cereal which is good, but's it's rubbish in tea.

What else do I need to look out for on food packaging to keep dairy (in all its forms) out of my diet?

Look out for caesin, whey and lactose. But by law, any food in this contry has to be clearly labelled if it contains milk products. It really does get quite easy to get in the habit of checking :-)

We've just discovered Kara dairy-free pressed coconut milk, which is pretty close taste-wise to cows' milk (and doesn't make your tea taste of coconuts, either!)Not sure yet how it works in cooking, we use oat milk, but it does tend to split.

Pure Sunflower speread is good instead of butter, avaliable in most supermarkets now. There are some cheese substitures, but they are mainly soya based, and to be honest taste fairly rubbish.

Wishing you all the very best, and good health.

Thanks you both - very helpful. Will get some of both those milks and have a try in my tea!

So sorry about your cancer .

DS is dairy and soya free.

Booja Booja is a great ice cream that is dairy and soya free. They do a chocolate one that is great. Montezuma Blue is a dark chocolate also dairy and soya free. (Waitrose).

Agree that Kara is a good milk alternative. Oatly cream is good with porridge and thickening sauces.

Also keep in mind coconut milk is good and blended with fruit and frozen is a good 'ice cream.'

Hope this helps.

Also look out for anything that says 'caseinate' - just in case you miss that one on the labels!

Another thing to be aware of with hormone-related health conditions is (in case you don't know this yet) that a diet rich in beans, pulses and dark green leafy veggies will help your body to balance out the hormones. All the better if you can take a supplement containing wheatgrass juice, as this is a whopping kick of the greeny goodstuff (that's my technical jargon ). Also you should avoid non-organic meat products as the animals are injected with hormones to make them grow.

One more thing - avoid warming food in plastic. This has been shown to leach micro-droplets into the food, which contain a substance that mimics hormones.

I learned all of this from a nutritionist when I went to her with fibroids.

Oh, and since you're cutting out dairy it's important to make sure you don't miss out on your calcium. Don't rely on supplements as you can easily overdose and cause yourself more health problems. Dark green veggies/ pulses are good here, as are sardines (top source - with bones/ skin), the fortified Oatly, molasses...can't recall what else but you can find loads of info on the web.

Re soya, keep an eye on food labels for this as it is apparently present in up to 70% of manufactured foods. If you can be aware of how much you're taking in (i.e. eating mostly freshly-cooked foods), you should be fine. And the long-fermented soya, from Eastern products (tofu, miso, etc) is not full of phyto-oestrogens, and therefore not harmful. It's the Western products (soya milk, soya mince), which are only fermented for a short period, which retain the full whack of phyto-oestrogens. These are thought to be potentially harmful to our hormone levels.

Finally (this really is it, now!) take a look at cryingoverspiltmilk.nz - it's a website about reflux, but there's a page about how to avoid all types of dairy, with an extensive listing of the different forms of dairy in our diet.

Hope your health is improving, Pennies. What a huge weight you've had to deal with. The very best of luck.

Ilove.. - will def look out for Booja Booja and Montezuma. A lie withuut chocolate is a bleak thing to contemplate!

SG,thank you so much for your long response.

As being vegan without soya / tofu is quite hard work, how can I tell if it is the long fermented stuff for the Western stuff that has had quick fix fermentation?