Aibu to want a calcium fortified vegan cheese (child with dairy allergy)

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Just wondering why all the plant milks are fortified but the cheeses are basically just fat and carbs without any of the nutritional benefits of cheese like protein and calcium? Am I missing something?

I agree it would be helpful if they added vitamins. Maybe ask one of the brands/ the vegan groups on social media if they can consider it/ push for it?

Good idea. I don’t do social media though so i might have to email them/send a pigeon.

Koko dairy-free cheese is fortified with calcium and vitamins. Tesco's own brand vegan cheese spread also says it's a source of calcium.

Vegan cheese is the devil's own smegma. Just feed him other things.

Koko is.

But you’re better off with Tofu which often contains more calcium than normal cheese. I don’t like the idea of so much chemically processed stuff and will stay away from vegan cheese.

Vegan cheese tastes like vomit

Some do. But to be honest it's not a necessity. Loads of normal foods have more calcium than cows milk. It's easy to substitute calcium in a normal diet once you get used to it.

Yes I should have said we tried koko - it is inedible. It tastes like coconut mixed with paper. The ones like violife are less vile (my daughter happily eats) but nutritionally useless. We simply removed cheese from her diet now, but she misses it in things like omelettes, pasta dishes etc. And because we are not Vegan (and nor is she) we want her ingredients to fit easily into our current healthy diet, rather than having to move everyone onto chickpea salads with tahini (this is just not how we eat).

Replacing calcium is really really tricky absent dairy. All the things that contain it - broccoli, almonds, fortified bread, tahini etc do not deliver the same 1/4 RDA that dairy does. The yogurts are fortified as are the milks, just wondering why in general not the cheeses? It would make meeting calcium levels for kids so much easier.

And none of us like tofu! Plus making a meal with tofu would mean changing the entire basis of how the family eats, which we don’t want to do.

For reference we eat:
Chicken/salmon with potatoes/rice/grains and veg
Lots of pasta
Roasts
Family faves like fresh made fish goujons, lasagne, shepherds pie etc.
Tray bakes with meat/fish
Jacket spuds
Adults eat nice grain salads in summer but kids don’t like

Have you tried nutritional yeast if you're mainly looking for something cheesy to flavour meals with? I sprinkle it on everything I can get away with, pasta, pizza, salad, soup.

Nutritional yeast is a good alternative to cheese for pasta dishes, it's kind of like parmesan and has nutritional value but not calcium. As the weather turns a bit colder, hot chocolate (the original Cadbury one in the purple tub is vegan) made with the fortified milk, plus cereal and milk provides a good dose of calcium. My husband just uses the vegan cheese on burgers, it doesn't really work for anything else and seems expensive for something that doesn't taste good and doesn't do him good!

The BDA have some good fact sheets about nutrition this one has a downloadable sheet with a table of foods containing calcium and portion sizes and translates it into "stars". So, for example, a child needs 9 calcium stars, 200mls of fortified plant milk contains 4 stars, an orange contains 1 star and so on. I find them really helpful.

NannyR that’s fab, thank you, I’ll take a look.

Not heard of nitritional yeast but sounds perfect for flavour - where do I get, Holland and barrett ?

My local Morrison's sell nutritional yeast, in the whole foods/healthy foods section. It's in a tub that looks a bit like bouillon powder and it's marigold brand. You can get it with or without b12, if she's still eating meat and eggs you probably don't need the fortified version.

Will he eat tinned fish? Tinned sardines or tinned salmon (with the bones in) are high in calcium. Tahini is also high in calcium so or marinades with that or homemade hummus would be good.

Osteocare do a liquid calcium supplement that my DC always loved. And you can get chewy sweet like calcium things from Boot's.

I you get some calcium citrate powder you can easily add tiny amounts to fruit juice, cereals etc. It doesn't taste of anything.

Tesco own brand vegan cheese has calcium in.

You will get it in Holland and Barrett, but its starting to appear in more places I can get it in my Asda and morrisons now too! The assortment for allergies is really improving, it's so nice to be able to offer them new things to try.

Oh thanks so much everyone, am going to look into all these things. Brilliant.