Tastiest dairy free alternatives

[NoDairyNoProblem]

As my username suggests I’m trying to embrace going dairy free but I am sat here doing my first online shop and it’s so overwhelming.

Dairy/lactose seems to leave me feeling awful so looking for the tastiest alternatives you can suggest for milk, yogurt, butter, cheese, cream etc

IMHO the best df milk for tea is the Aldi Oat Milk, which is unsweetened. The Alpro Unsweetened Oat is good too, but Aldi is cheaper.

The Coconut Collaborative (Collective?) desserts are delicious - the salted caramel ones are my favourite, but I haven't found a bad one.

All the df cheeses I've tried have been dreadful apart from the Tesco's coconut cream cheese with herbs, which just tasted of herbs and was ok. Interested to try the Nush camembert one!

Agree with others - why not cut out lactose first. Arla do lactose free milk, yogurts, cream that whips, butter, cheese and soft cheese. It would give you way way more options going forward- especially cooking and baking at home. Would be daft not to work this out and restrict yourself (fresh cream cakes for example !)

Best milk chocolate is Nomo. All vegan Ice cream is pretty good or great.
Get to know to accidently vegan things ( Oreos, hobnobs, soreen, jusrol breakfast pastries etc) so you aren't limted to the expensive free from aisle.

I find Sainsburys and Asda to be the best by a long long way for choice - and Tesco by far the worst. Look at everything - lots of things are actually dairy free that you might think have dairy in them. Oil is used more often than butter.

Babybel original and light are lactose free naturally ( ive checked 100% are) , as is Leerdamer.

I second Naturli spread.
DP says it taste like lurpac spreadable.

If you are cutting dairy it is good to take calcium supplements www.boots.com/boots-calcium-and-vitamin-d-food-supplement---30-tablets-10259703 If it turns out that dairy is making you ill, ask to see a dietician.

In adults lactose is the most common irritant , then milk protein (CMPA). Soy is a very similar protein shape to milk, so the allergies can go together.

Reading glasses are very important on shopping trips.

Stuff labelled VEGAN can be expensive, Lidl oat milk is great as PP said. Bargain biscuits are generally milk free, beware of whey at the bottom of ingredient lists.

Whatever you do - lactose or dairy free- you need to give it at least a week before you decide if it is making a difference, not just a few days.

Don't bother with cheese alternatives, they are just not nice!

I like the Alpro Greek style soya yogurt, and agree on the Swedish Glacé ice cream if that's the one in the hexagonal (?) tub.

Oat milk porridge is delicious. Coconut milk is good on cereal or for sweet things like custard (assuming you like the taste of coconut!).

I don't think you should have a problem with normal bread, wraps, pittas etc but check the labels. Crumpets are sometimes ok and the own brand hot cross buns but the more luxurious ones are out.

You'd be surprised how many bog-standard biscuits are dairy free.

You can have peanut butter and Biscoff spread but not Nutella.

At the beginning I'd advise to check literally every label no matter how sure you are there shouldn't be any dairy as you'll find it in places you never dreamed. Conversely if you go out, it's worth asking when you're told you can't have a dish if it's because of the ingredients of the main component or something you could easily swap out, like a burger with no cheese, for example.

Sorry that got long, hope you find some of it useful! Good luck!

Should have also said like pp my DD was told to cut out all lactose (by gastro consultant) as a first step and that thankfully was the answer for her. Within a week it was like she had a new body. Consultant was keen that we try minimise any restrictions to reduce the nutrition impact- so lactose only as first step.

I really appreciate everyone’s insight, thank you.

The symptoms coincided with going from peri to menopausal and starting HRT so I put it down to yet another issue. Now the HRT is helping most of the other ‘symptoms’ I raised it with my consultant (early menopause) and the suggestion was to keep a food diary and cut dairy for a fortnight. The flare ups after eating certain things (chocolate, milk in cereal, cheese) feel like gallbladder attacks only I had my gallbladder removed over a decade ago.

I enjoy cooking but like to make entire family meals so hopefully with a few substitutes I can continue to do this.

My dc and dh have a dairy intolerance ie not an allergy but cows milk doesn't agree with them. For some reason they can have goats milk and not have any of the associated problems with cows milk. That's what they have now. Obviously not dairy free though.

My starter kit from Sainsburys this morning. Will report back on any gems I find - please do too!