To switch cows milk for soy or almond milk?

[Finemjen]

Want to go dairy - free - any one know any cons of switching to soy or almond milk? What cheese alternatives are there? Think I can manage not having milk, but cheese may be harder to give up unless there’s a really good alternative out there?!

Dairy is important especially for women who are at risk of Osteoporosis when they age, so look into that first

I've been looking for a palatable dairy free cheese for nearly 20 years for my son who is dairy allergic. I'm yet to find one I'm afraid. I am told that there are cashew based ones which are ok but unfortunately he is also allergic to nuts so that's no help for us, but if I were you I'd look for something like that. As a general rule he has soya based alternatives for things like yoghurt, ice cream etc but all the cheeses we have tried have been pretty horrid in terms of flavour, texture or both. And they tend to resemble melted plastic when heated. I was dairy free for several years when I was breastfeeding him and cheese was the one thing I really missed.

I have unsweetened almond milk as I don't always tolerate soya very well. I can't help with cheese though. I just stick with ordinary cheese.

Don't bother with non dairy cheese, its mostly vile and doesn't behave like cheese.

I use soy milk all the time. My preferred brand is Alpro no sugar but supermarkets do great own brand options. Check packaging, most are supplemented with calcium and sometimes vit D too.

Calcium is important, but dairy is not.
If you can safely consume dairy products and wish to do so they are indeed a good, easy source of calcium but there is nothing useful in cows' milk and it's derivatives that cannot be obtained elsewhere - you just need to think about your calcium intake a bit more as the Western diet does tend to rely on dairy produce as the main source.
There are millions of perfectly healthy people in the world who don't consume dairy due to allergy or intolerance, for ethical reasons, because it's not the cultural norm where they're from or simply because they don't like it.

I lost 6lbs after giving up soy in favour of (lactose-free) cow's milk. I have 1-2c a day for cafe lattes. It's the only change I made. I did it after years of drinking soy because I'm lactose intolerant.

I have Alpro no sugar for my breakfast cereal too. I like it, but then I've never liked cow's milk. I also agree that vegan cheese is the devils work!

Oatly barista milk is the best for tea/coffee IME. All supermarkets seem to sell it.

Vegan cheese - avoid the horrible stuff in most supermarkets. Violife and similar are awful. I’m guessing this is what PPs have tried and not enjoyed.

There are loads of good smaller brands like I am Nut Ok, Mouses Favouite, La Fauxmagerie, Palace Culture. You might need to go to a vegan friendly health store, or order online, although Waitrose stock a smallish range.

I like cows milk and oat milk. Most oat milks are full of rapeseed oil which is disgusting. Marks and Spencer sell fresh oat milk which is only made with oats and water.

I sometimes buy Kinda cheese which is available online and is nut-based. Surprisingly tasty on crackers.

Soya milk is the highest in protein.

There are issues around the cultivation of almonds in the US (huge areas of monoculture, vast amounts of water, appalling treatment of bees to pollinate) so you may want to look at the source of the almonds.

I tend to use oat milk which has less nutritional value but I only use it to make my porridge wet so jot a huge part of my diet.

All vegan cheese is vile. Like pp I have a child with cmpa. I've been through all the cheeses. The only people who say they are nice are people who have clearly never had a good farmhouse extra mature cheddar.

As there are so many varieties it’s really down to personal preference. I like sweetened soya in tea and for cereal etc., and barista oat in coffee. That’s just me though. Almond milk uses a lot of water to make so it’s not the most environmentally friendly choice, but it’s still way less than the impact of dairy.

The vegan Cathedral City is the best vegan cheese on the market but most people agree you need to stop eating dairy cheese for a while first to forget what it tastes like.

I also opt for oat milk. Oatly Barista is the one I use in my coffee and tea. There is some rapeseed oil in it but it's not full of it. Rapeseed oil is also high in omega 3 and these days it's made better and it's low in erucic acid if that is a concern.

I wouldn't choose almond milk because of the negative environmental issues, and I have chosen oat over soy because soy production is eating away at the Amazon rainforest.

Cheese, nope none. Although I do remember eating a vegan feta cheese that I though was quite nice, but I haven't been able to find it again.

I’ve been off dairy milk for a couple of months now. I don’t like cheese at all, so that’s fortunate. I do however love yogurt, but dislike Alpro and the other non-dairy ones. So I do have normal yogurt.
Looking at the branded non-dairy milks, many seemed to have oil this and filler that. So I plumped for the cheapest soya milks, which actually seemed the most natural in terms of ingredients. So Tesco and Lidl unsweetened basic soya milk, at 50p a carton.

I use soya milk for tea (get the organic, sugar free Alpro) but it often curdles in coffee so I use the barista oat milk for coffee.

We stopped using cows milk a few years ago, and find oat milk best. Almond milk is terrible for the environment so I wouldn't use that.

Cheese is more tricky! My son and his gf are vegan so we always eat vegan when they're around and have tried a lot of non-dairy cheeses. We've never found one we like or would use on a regular basis.

I have oat milk and cream but still have cheese / it’s a compromise position because you don’t need to be perfect

oat milks do vary a lot so you may have to try several brands and types

Not sure why I quoted the poster !

Not dairy free but we do use soy milk and have come to prefer it over time. We occasionally have oat milk. We try to use organic/unsweetened and European-grown soy products where possible (brands like Plenish, European brands etc). All the barista versions have oil and thickeners in I think, so we wouldn't use those.

(never found an edible non-dairy cheese!)

Non-dairy cheese is absolutely revolting. I prefer unsweetened soya milk, because it's the most neutral and non-sweet one to have in tea (which is what I mostly use it for). I don't havd sugar in my tea and hate it to taste sweetened! Almond milk or oat milk are better for using in baking etc imo.

It's worth pointing out that pretty much all non-dairy milks are highly processed and most are not great for the environment. I only use them as I've become intolerant to dairy products.

Fake milks are ultra processed and full of emulsifiers and preservatives. Real milk is natural. Any reason for cutting it out? Have you tried milk that’s not been homogenised or goats milk?

I have the plant cathedral city cheese and it’s so far been the only one that’s worth buying for me
I drink alpro oat milk and use almond milk for smoohie mixes
you can buy the barista oat milk/ almond milks for coffee to make them a bit nicer

I did a thread recently about non milk milks as I was trying (and have now failed) to look at the Acid Watcher diet

I was told about Plenish which is much more natural. I havent tried it yet.

Ive sort of given up for now, I'll try it again when the mood takes me. The oat milk was awful in tea and coffee, was only Alpro brand but both almond and oat did well in sort of 'milk shake' drinks, couldnt tell the difference. But then I dont drink milk shakes so that was a bit of a dead loss.