So two days into my no-dairy experiment, and, well, nothing much seems to have changed. I’ll spare you all the details of my exact digestion woes, but my after-eating state of being seems much the same.
So it looks like I may have to move on to wheat. :’( Not for another week though, I need some time to get used to the idea …
On the plus side, I did discover rice milk! One of my neighbors who had her son on a lactose and gluten free diet for awhile tipped me off to it. Apparently, if you suddenly go crazy with the soy, you can really mess up your hormones.
When it comes to milk alternatives on cereal, I vote for vanilla rice milk over vanilla soy. It’s obviously not the real deal (i.e., the cat won’t touch it), but, at least for me, there’s no bitter after taste. And it’s way less sweet than lactose-free milk, so I can eat sugar cereals with it!
Cheddar-flavored rice “cheese” slices - fuhgeddabout it. Might be ok for cooking, in small doses. Not good on sandwiches. Or plain. In retrospect, I should have gone with American-flavored - at least American cheese is barely cheese to begin with …
Vegan parmesan-flavored … bits - ok on pasta with marinara sauce. It’s not the real thing, but with just a dusting, it adds that parmesany essence. More than that, and it becomes obvious that you’ve just covered your food in parmesan-flavored sawdust. Mmmmm, sawdust.
And of course, fresh fruits and veggies! In addition to strawberries, this week I splurged on cherries and sugar snap peas. And some more grapes. For the freezer.
Dairy-free, chocolate soy “ice cream” bars - surprisingly good! Though not wheat-free, so that means I’ll have to eat them all this week. (Such a sacrifice, I know.) They’ve got the texture of ice cream down, and the chocolate ice-cream flavor seems to mask the non-milk aspects of things better than some of the vanilla soy “ice creams” I’ve tried.
So, even if I never go dairy-free, I’ve discovered some new foods! The rice milk and soy ice cream might just stick around.
