Eliminating dairy

[Anonymous]

DD (AuDHD) needs to eliminate dairy due to acid reflux. She’s 17, and she’s decided to do this. But she also has severe sensory issues and cheese is a serious safe food. She eats it at almost every meal. Has anyone found any good alternatives? She says vegan cheese is notoriously bad (although she hasn’t tried it yet). She’s starting this today, so any pointers would be great.

[Anonymous]

Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

[Anonymous]

Tofu?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

Good thing OP is posting about a 17 year old girl then

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

NP. I am no-dairy for the same reason as your DD. The good news is that going no-dairy has almost completely eliminated my digestive issues. I have been shocked at the difference as I was skeptical going into it.

The bad news is that the cheese alternatives are highly processed, likely carcinogenic IMO, and usually very salty. I have tried almost every cheese substitute that exists and they often have a faint metallic under-taste which really stands out if you are used to eating whole foods and fresh veggies, fruit, meat etc. I don’t touch them any more and think they are really gross.

And I was like your DD, with cheese at every meal. So, it was an adjustment for sure.

Here are my suggestions:

Buy various very high quality olive oils. Use this instead of butter. My salad dressing is just oil and a little salt now, and I like it better.

Keep high quality fresh bread around. Fresh bread with olive oil and a little salt/spice can actually replace the mouth feel of a slice of cheese pretty well.

Stock up on good spices if you don’t use them, like the various Penzey’s blends such as Fox Point. I also live on tajin.

Buy fresh hummus or learn to make it. It’s a good substitute for spreads.

She’ll learn to live around the edges a bit. I make deliberate choices to periodically consume a little dairy at times, provided I will be home that evening and it is early in the day to give time for the digestive impact to work its way through. Usually it’s not worth it but it is occasionally for a very high quality cheddar or something.

By the way, when I visit family in Europe I can tolerate their dairy a lot more. We poison our dairy here, IMO. I’m not sure I am reacting to the dairy or something in it. So, she may be able to eat more dairy outside the US.

[Anonymous]

I make cashew milk cheese. It’s not hard like slices of cheese, but good as a spread, dip, topping…

https://nourishingamy.com/2021/06/08/easy-vegan-homemade-cashew-cheese-gluten-free/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

Good thing OP is posting about a 17 year old girl then

I know who OP is asking about, I'm giving a general warning for parents. Soy is linked to delayed puberty for boys.

[Anonymous]

Raw cheese

[Anonymous]

My DD also has acid reflux and a very limited diet. She did not accept any dairy alternatives when we tried. What has worked is small amounts earlier in the day. We don’t do fatty meats anymore either aside from an occasional hot dog well before bedtime. I would experiment if cutting back and being very careful with timing helps enough. For my daughter eating early and paying attention to portions and sleeping upright made a big difference. Obviously this is not the advice you would give a family with a typical eater but we are just trying to survive and not making eating more of a burden than it is already. There are other triggers too you might not be aware of, it turns out mint really aggravates my daughter. It’s very helpful to keep a food journal if you haven’t yet.

[Anonymous]

Just wondering inappropriately. Is the gastric trouble really from dairy as opposed to lactose intolerance?

I have bad GERD and because I have lactose intolerance use lactose reduced dairy. Cheese isn't a problem unless it's high fat. Fat opens the sphincter.

I avoid alliums, mint, acidic things, ketchup, fatty foods, chile, hot sauce. Etc.

[Anonymous]

Go to whole foods. They have a whole case of non-dairy cheeses. When I was diagnosed with a dairy allergy I tried one of each until I found ones I thought were tolerable.

They aren't the same as real cheese, and if she goes into it trying to find something that matches she will be disappointed. They are good for what they are though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

Good thing OP is posting about a 17 year old girl then

I know who OP is asking about, I'm giving a general warning for parents. Soy is linked to delayed puberty for boys.

You aren’t wrong. A lot of the commercial vegan substitute food is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

NP. I am no-dairy for the same reason as your DD. The good news is that going no-dairy has almost completely eliminated my digestive issues. I have been shocked at the difference as I was skeptical going into it.

The bad news is that the cheese alternatives are highly processed, likely carcinogenic IMO, and usually very salty. I have tried almost every cheese substitute that exists and they often have a faint metallic under-taste which really stands out if you are used to eating whole foods and fresh veggies, fruit, meat etc. I don’t touch them any more and think they are really gross.

And I was like your DD, with cheese at every meal. So, it was an adjustment for sure.

Here are my suggestions:

Buy various very high quality olive oils. Use this instead of butter. My salad dressing is just oil and a little salt now, and I like it better.

Keep high quality fresh bread around. Fresh bread with olive oil and a little salt/spice can actually replace the mouth feel of a slice of cheese pretty well.

Stock up on good spices if you don’t use them, like the various Penzey’s blends such as Fox Point. I also live on tajin.

Buy fresh hummus or learn to make it. It’s a good substitute for spreads.

She’ll learn to live around the edges a bit. I make deliberate choices to periodically consume a little dairy at times, provided I will be home that evening and it is early in the day to give time for the digestive impact to work its way through. Usually it’s not worth it but it is occasionally for a very high quality cheddar or something.

By the way, when I visit family in Europe I can tolerate their dairy a lot more. We poison our dairy here, IMO. I’m not sure I am reacting to the dairy or something in it. So, she may be able to eat more dairy outside the US.

Thanks, this is helpful! I can't tell one Olive Oil from the other and I'm not a big bread eater. But she loves bread, so the bread and olive oil idea is a good one (she loves this in restaurants). Can you suggest specifics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vegan cheese is really good now. Miyako, vio life, chao slices, and for shreds Walmart Trader Joe’s and Aldi have good ones (only Trader Joe’s has the parm).

What is vegan cheese made out of? I would be very wary of introducing a lot of soy, especially for a prepubescent boy.

NP. I am no-dairy for the same reason as your DD. The good news is that going no-dairy has almost completely eliminated my digestive issues. I have been shocked at the difference as I was skeptical going into it.

The bad news is that the cheese alternatives are highly processed, likely carcinogenic IMO, and usually very salty. I have tried almost every cheese substitute that exists and they often have a faint metallic under-taste which really stands out if you are used to eating whole foods and fresh veggies, fruit, meat etc. I don’t touch them any more and think they are really gross.

And I was like your DD, with cheese at every meal. So, it was an adjustment for sure.

Here are my suggestions:

Buy various very high quality olive oils. Use this instead of butter. My salad dressing is just oil and a little salt now, and I like it better.

Keep high quality fresh bread around. Fresh bread with olive oil and a little salt/spice can actually replace the mouth feel of a slice of cheese pretty well.

Stock up on good spices if you don’t use them, like the various Penzey’s blends such as Fox Point. I also live on tajin.

Buy fresh hummus or learn to make it. It’s a good substitute for spreads.

She’ll learn to live around the edges a bit. I make deliberate choices to periodically consume a little dairy at times, provided I will be home that evening and it is early in the day to give time for the digestive impact to work its way through. Usually it’s not worth it but it is occasionally for a very high quality cheddar or something.

By the way, when I visit family in Europe I can tolerate their dairy a lot more. We poison our dairy here, IMO. I’m not sure I am reacting to the dairy or something in it. So, she may be able to eat more dairy outside the US.

Thanks, this is helpful! I can't tell one Olive Oil from the other and I'm not a big bread eater. But she loves bread, so the bread and olive oil idea is a good one (she loves this in restaurants). Can you suggest specifics?

Oh gosh, there are so many good ones! But my favorites are bottles I get in my local farmers market (I live in California) so probably not helpful.

There are places where I live that do olive oil tastings. Maybe you can find one for a mother-daughter excursion, to get her on board? I’ve found some awesome oils that way too.

This list looks good to me too:
https://www.foodandwine.com/best-olive-oils-7507374

If she likes bread and olive oil, there are so many great variations, especially on fresh toasted bread:

- oil, sea salt
- fresh tomatoes, fox point seasoning, oil
- avocado, tajin, oil
- prosciutto, light oil
- oil, roasted garlic

I found that experimenting with fresh breads and olive oil have largely removed the wish for cheese with food. I have also become a connoisseur of farmers market salamis, though you have to watch for dairy in some.

The kind of bread can vary. Where I live there are really good sourdoughs available so I often get that. But just plain fresh white works too. The only issue with fresh bread is that it goes bad fast, but usually what I do is eat it for two days, then toast the rest and turn it into homemade croutons. Honestly I don’t care if some is wasted, it’s worth it to have fresh bread.