Confessions of a Dairy Addict...

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Confessions of a Dairy Addict...
17
Wed, 09-28-2005 - 7:38pm

Well, I'm on Day 5 of my non-dairy experiment. I haven't cheated except once that wasn't really my fault - DH put a tiny bit of parmesan on a roasted tomato chicken dish he made. Other than that, I have completely avoided dairy. I made oatmeal raisin cookies for "the gay couple" tonight and didn't eat any because there's butter in them.

It's really not so bad, except for a few things...

Cheeseburgers are just NOT the same with soy cheese. If I stay dairy free, I'm going to have to find new ways to eat my beef.

I don't know that I'll ever get used to soymilk. I find it's not really noticeable in junky cereal (like Cinnamon Toast Crunch) but it's pretty noticeable in healthier cereals (like Kashi GoLean Crunch). My protein shake has a cementy flavor to it thanks to the soy milk and soy protein. (The soy protein I bought has fabulous macros and it has no added sugar so you can add exactly what you want.) I have been drinking my shakes, but can't truly say I'm enjoying them. (That is a WWGRD moment where you think "this is fuel, this is fuel" :P) Also - because I know someone will ask - the soymilk I'm drinking is homemade. DH makes it. It's healthier and cheaper than store-bought. I have had store-bought before and it has the same bean-y flavor that our homemade does. I probably just need to work on seasoning it a little better.

All in all, so far so good. I am planning to cheat on Saturday as it's our supper club, but aside from that, I'm going to extend this to two weeks.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-23-2003
Thu, 09-29-2005 - 8:00pm

I just bought vanilla-flavored soy milk from Trader Joe's, and it tastes pretty good; not as beany as others that I've tried. Maybe you could give that one a shot?

I just read back over old threads to see why you were giving up dairy and I saw that your reason was primarily for weight loss. Have you heard of the study published in Obesity Research, where one group was put on a low-calcium diet, the second on the same diet with 1200 mg calcium supplements, and the third group on a high-dairy diet that provided 1100 mg calcium? The third group lost the most weight and fat. Just something to think about, I guess.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2004
Thu, 09-29-2005 - 11:12pm

Thanks for the tip on the TJ's milk. Perhaps I'll check that out.

I am actually doing this more as an experiment about how I feel versus actual weight loss. I've heard quite a few people claiming they feel so much better without dairy that I got curious and thought I'd give it a shot.

Interesting study you mentioned. I am so, so skeptical of anything that is published on obesity these days though. As a psych major in college, I'm very familiar with the ins and outs of research and know there are 100 ways to massage the data to highlight the data they want to market - and ways to lose weight are highly marketable.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2004
Sat, 10-01-2005 - 2:48pm

I'm delurking to say that one of my instructors lost 20 lbs by giving up dairy.

Avatar for soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 10-01-2005 - 4:19pm

OK, I'm going to tell you that when I gave up dairy, fat practically melted off of me, BUT but its important to know that I'm extremely lactose intolerant AND as a lacto-ovo vegetarian I was highly dependent on dairy as a protein source. I consumed a lot of dairy, mostly cheese and yoghurt. So, I most likely lost the weight because: a) my digestion was was vastly improved; b) the ratio of fat in my diet plummeted (not to mention dairy fat is the most highly saturated animal fat); and c) I began to eat a greater variety of foods when I became vegan.

Also bear in mind that any drastic change to one's diet ALMOST invariably (but not always) results in dramatic weight loss. However, unless one is eating a healthy, well balanced diet this weight loss is unlikely to be maintained.

As most adults are some degree lactose intolerant (and knowing all that I know about dairy and dairy farming) I can't neccessarily agree she was better off eating cheese, but she's couldn't be any worse off than she is eating red meat and teddy grahams (there's a fine example to be setting).

Soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2004
Sat, 10-01-2005 - 5:38pm
thanks for that information, it definitely is something to ponder.
Avatar for soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sat, 10-01-2005 - 6:03pm

Dairy in Europe isn't usually as contaminated w/ toxins, chemicals & hormones as in North America. (Did you know there are no regulations for the amount of chemicals sprayed on feed crops anywhere but Europe & that those toxins are stored in an animal's fat? Believe it or not most of the herbicides/pesticides/etc. that end up in a human's body are from animal fat they've ingested not the residue on produce.) As well, diary tends to part of a more balanced diet, that includes more fibre & less saturated & trans fats, in Europe. And if you look closely at how much dairy is consumed in all its forms I think you'd likely find that Europeans still use less than North Americans, despite it being a larger percentage of their diet. (The average North American eats approx. 1.5 X the RDA for protein, an RDA which is higher than many in the nutrition field believe is neccessary. As well we consume approx. 2-3X as much animal protein as we did only 50 years ago when meat was a balanced part of one's meal, not the centrepiece of it.) There are a whole host of other differences between the North American and European diet as well, so the differences in health, longevity & BF% can't be attributed to just the difference in consumption of animal products.

Soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2004
Sat, 10-01-2005 - 7:22pm
Well that might be the mystery solved soleil..."my people" made the cheese themselves, it wasn't processed and the goats used to make the cheese were allowed to roam freely and eat what they wanted....yogurt was also homemade and not processed in a factory.

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