Friday, July 12, 2013

Why I Went Dairy-Free


When I first met my husband, I learned that he had a milk allergy-no, not lactose intolerant. A REAL MILK ALLERGY! Meaning, if he had anything with milk, whey, or lactose in it, he would break out, his throat could swell shut, and it could cause mega GI distress-so much that he carries an Epi-pen around with him just in case. So this meant he couldnt have cows milk, butter, whey, yogurt, most white breads, milk chocolate, you name it.

Before we started dating my first thought about his milk allergy was, "Oh no! How on Earth would I cook for this guy?? Would this mean I would have to go dairy-free too? I cant do that!!"
But I married him anyway :)



Naturally, since we started dating and got married, I limited my dairy intake. I did not want to keep dairy in the house because I could not cook with it nor did I want to risk it being in any of my husband's foods. As time went on, I started trying new dairy free options such as coconut milk (my favorite!), almond milk, soy milk, and even rice milk (my least favorite). I even tried chocolate coconut milk ice cream from So Delicious brand and it tastes amazing! I started to think, "Wow, I can really do this!" 

Before, I was so uneducated on dairy free options so I didnt know that anything out there like this existed. Im happy to say that to this day I am pretty much dairy free. I cook with "I Cant Believe Its Not Butter," coconut oil, or olive oil. If we want to eat cheese, we eat goat cheese (my husband is not allergic.) or Daiya cheese (a tofu/veggie based cheese.) When we order pizza, we ask them to not put cheese on it-surprisingly it tastes a lot better and is better the next day when reheated! For pastas, I use marina and wheat noodles, though i hear there is a dairy free cauliflower based "alfredo" sauce that I could make. For dessert, we eat dairy free ice cream brands or dark chocolate. He can have brownies that dont contain milk chocolate so that is a plus!

I was very surprised (and still am) at how EASY the dairy free life and cooking really is. I actually enjoy it! But once I learned how GOOD it is for you to go dairy-free, I started to enjoy it even more. 

To start off, dairy is usually high in fat and is linked to heart disease. It also aggravates the digestive system because, well, humans were not meant to drink it because it was designed for baby cows. Studies show that cow's milk actually DEPLETES calcium from your bones because we barely absorb cows milk which leads to fractures. Did you know that almond milk has at least 30% MORE calcium than cows milk anyway? During pasteurization and homogenization, most of the calcium and nutrients are DESTROYED-not to mention the chemicals and toxins they add. Also, if you are trying to lose weight, dairy free is the way to go. 

Below are some very informative links to why you should go dairy free.



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