Part I
Going Dairy-Free: A Quick Overview
In this part . . .
Lifestyle change isnât easy, especially when food is involved. Changing the way you eat requires you to change your mind-set about food. Thatâs the challenge of it, but thatâs the fun of it, too.
In this part, I introduce you to the basics of living dairy-free. I start with a summary of what dairy-free is all about. I also discuss the health, environmental, and ethical reasons that compel some people to cut dairy products out of their diets. I include a chapter on lactose intolerance â the most common reason people skip bovine beverages and products.
Some of you may be anxious to get answers about the nutrients in dairy products and how to get them on a dairy-free diet. I explain what you need to know in this part.
Finally, I finish up with some practical guidance for avoiding dairy products, including how to stay away from hidden sources of dairy and dairy byproducts and how to spot dairy products on ingredient labels.
Chapter 1
Living Dairy-Free: Beginning with the Basics
In This Chapter
Understanding what it means to be dairy-free
Seeing whoâs avoiding dairy and why
Being well-nourished without milk and dairy products
Planning and preparing satisfying nondairy meals
Making a dairy-free lifestyle work for you
If youâve picked up this book, you or someone you know may be thinking about making a major lifestyle change: going dairy-free. Itâs a big step that may take some getting used to. After all, milk â that bovine beverage that many folks drink with cookies and pour over cereal â is about as all-American as apple pie and corn on the cob. In fact, for most people in North America (and much of Europe, too), milk and foods made from it have been an integral part of everyday life for generations. And tradition is tough to change.
Still, you may be considering doing just that. Why? And how can you make do without a food that was deemed an entire food group in the governmentâs dietary guidelines? I cover these questions and more in this chapter.
In this chapter, I also review what going dairy-free is all about. I explain who may be interested in cutting out dairy and why, discuss how going dairy-free affects your nutritional needs, provide tips for planning and preparing dairy-free meals, and show you how to get started after youâve decided to make the switch.
Dairy-Free for You and Me: What Itâs All About
After infancy, you donât need milk. Itâs a simple fact. Milk is a substance produced by mammals to nourish their newborn babies. Baby mammals â including humans â depend on milk until their digestive systems have had enough time to mature and allow them to eat solid food. (You can read more about natureâs first food and its link to lactose intolerance in Chapter 3.)
After they begin eating solid food, the animals donât go back to drinking milk. That is, of course, unless theyâre human. Some human adults â a minority of the worldâs population â drink milk from cows, goats, and other large mammals. Although this practice of milk drinking isnât natural, it goes back to ancient times. Many people like the taste of milk, and it has nutritional value. However, it also has drawbacks â a greater number for some people than for others. The following sections take a closer look the dairy dilemma â why people place importance on milk and why itâs a problem for some folks.
Moo juice: Getting the skinny on why milk matters
Milk is a concentrated source of certain nutrients, such as protein, calcium, and the B vitamin riboflavin. Its nutritional value isnât surprising, given that cowâs milk is created to help calves grow and develop in a short time into large animals with massive skeletons and musculature. Milk from goats, water buffaloes, and other herd animals is nutritionally similar to cowâs milk.
When humans drink milk from one of these large creatures, they get a big dose of protein, vitamins, and minerals in a few gulps. In fact, milk is much more nutritious than many other beverages, including the following:
Fruit juice: This beverage contains no protein or riboflavin. It also contains no calcium, unless itâs fortified with the mineral. Depending on the type of juice, it may contain vitamin C, potassium, and other nutrients, though.
Soft drinks: These drinks contain no essential nutrients. Theyâre empty calorie drinks, meaning they contain calories but have no nutritional value in exchange for those calories. In other words, soft drinks are junk.
Coffee, tea, and water: These beverages are in a different category. They contain no calories or essential nutrients (unless you add sugar and creamer, of course). Theyâre simply fluids, and generally theyâre beneficial because they hydrate you. Caffeinated drinks, such as coffee and tea, contain substances that cause you to lose some fluid, but you gain far more fluid than you lose.
As compared with other beverages, milk is nutritious. That doesnât mean you need it, though. And along with the benefits, drinking cowâs milk has some significant drawbacks. Depending on the type of milk or dairy products you eat, some dairy foods may be better or worse for you than others. As a matter of fact, some people canât drink milk at all. Why? Keep reading. Understanding when a âgood thingâ is the wrong thing
Sure, drinking milk has its benefits (see the preceding section), but as soon as you were eating apples and oatmeal as a child, you didnât need your motherâs milk any more. You certainly didnât need milk from a cow when you were a baby, and that hasnât changed in adulthood.
In fact, most people lose their ability to digest milk. If they drink milk or eat dairy products, these folks experience a variety of unpleasant symptoms. Those symptoms, which may range from bloating and abdominal pain to cramps and diarrhea, are signs that their bodies are no longer equipped to handle milk. I cover this issue of lactose intolerance in detail in Chapter 3. In the long term, including milk in your diet may affect you in other ways, too, regardless of whether you can digest milk. (See the later section âWhy do you do it? Looking at the many reasons for living dairy-free.â)
Being a dairy detective
Dairy products are widespread, so if youâre considering going dairy-free, you need to be aware of where dairy rears its ugly head in everyday foods. Doing without dairy requires being conscious of the varied places milk and milk products are u...
