Dairy Free Diet Guide

One of the first big shifts I made on my health journey was taking on a dairy free diet. When I first realized I had to do this, I thought, what am I going to eat and drink? I started drinking milk when I was a kid. I had milk in cereal, oatmeal, coffee, yogurt, ice cream. Then I started thinking about cheese and butter. I realized dairy was in almost everything I ate.

For me, it wasn’t a choice. Finding out my son had food allergies changed everything. While I was nursing him, I didn’t have any dairy. Now I typically stay away from dairy because of the way it makes me feel with bloating and slowing down my digestion. I also prefer to stay away from the hormones and antibiotics that are found in dairy products.

Dairy Free Diet and Weight loss

After everything I’ve learned about dairy and how it may not be as healthy as I once thought it was, it became much easier to cut it out of my diet. I also want to mention that the rest of my baby weight quickly came off as soon as I cut out dairy. I have several friends who have also lost weight as soon as they removed dairy from their diets.

Why not give it a shot or slowly try to incorporate some dairy-free options into your diet?

Dairy Free Diet Alternatives

Since my family has been dairy free for over four years. I have so many alternatives I want to share with you. From coffee creamer, nut milks, cheese, butter, snacks, and meal ideas. I want to start with vegan cheese. This is typically what people ask me about first. We have tried them all.

I will say, especially if you’re trying vegan cheese for the first time. It does taste better melted. We love the brand Chao, especially the shredded cheese.

We also use Violife and Miyoko’s vegan cheese. I enjoy the cream cheese and sliced cheese. We use all their different shredded cheese options for quesadillas, burritos, enchiladas, sandwiches, and as toppings on top of soups and potatoes.

The vegan cheese we started with and still occasionally use is the Follow Your Heart brand, which is a good option as well.

Dairy Free Milk Options

I will say the easiest dairy-free switch for me was the butter. Miyoko’s is a vegan butter that tastes so good. I have never noticed a big difference. We use Miyoko’s brand for everything: spreads, sauces, cooking, baking.

Dairy free milk options: We always look for the unsweetened versions to avoid the extra sugar. Unsweetened Ripple, oat milk, and hemp milk are our top choices. I find these three options have more protein and nutrients than the cashew and almond nut milks. For coffee creamer I use the brand Silk and like the vanilla unsweetened option. I started with the Silk flavored one, if you’re new to dairy-free creamer, perhaps start with this one.

Dairy-free yogurt: My favorite organic dairy free yogurt is Forager cashew milk yogurt. My favorite is the plain one and I add in organic raw honey.

On my health journey I’ve learned that making some small changes can have a really big impact. You won’t know what works for you until you try out new things. I encourage you to be open and find what works best for you. Thank you for reading. Sending you lots of love and healing.