Dairy Free April

(Jacquie) #1

I’m going dairy-free for April. Been keto for over 2.5 years and came to keto, dairy and AS (artificial sweetener) free but kept butter and a small amount of hard Parmesan and Romano cheeses with no problem, and stayed that way for a year. Was pre-diabetic and at goal weight when I started keto. Introduced dairy and AS after a year, as so many keto folk have no problem with them but found I never felt as good as I did that first year. I tend to feel bloated and sometimes my BG is higher probably because I’m eating too much cheese (mainly the soft cheeses like Brie) and that may have increased my protein grams. I think it’s time to reassess.

My 23andMe results from several years ago showed that I’m probably lactose intolerant but the report can’t say for sure. My ancestral composition from 23andMe shows that I’m 100% European - 95.3% Ashkenazi Jew with a small percentage of Iberian and Broadly Southern European. A high percentage of Ashkenazi Jews are lactose intolerant, so I think this is an important point. Here’s an interesting link.
http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000661

Would anyone else like to join me? Also, I’m curious to hear from anyone who is or has been dairy free in the past. What’s been your experience?

English double cream
#2

I recently reduced my HWC since it seemed to be growing from once a week, to much more often and with it came headaches, so I put the carton in the freezer and only had butter and hard cheddar cheese and felt much better.

If you’re talking 100% dairy-free, I don’t think I’m ready for that, but if the list specifically includes butter, ghee, and hard cheeses in limited quantities, say less than 1 oz of hard cheese per day, I’m totally with you. :smile:

I even have my non-dairy alternatives lined-up and ready to go!

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(Jacquie) #3

@BillJay I think each person should define their own dairy free experiment, so I’m hoping you’re in. :slight_smile: I’m including butter and a small amount of hard cheese (Parmesan and Roman) that I mainly use in salads.

#4

I’m in! :wink:

Butter and ghee with very occasional hard cheeses like cheddar will be my boundaries. For me, the biggest exclusion are HWC and sour cream in any form, including it as an ingredient in my Keto Blue Cheese recipe. That also means no ranch dressings, etc.

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #5

I appear to do better if I avoid dairy. However, I regard butter as a special case, and I never want to exclude it. (Well, perhaps one day as an experiment, but not this month). It has some good nutrients, such as vitamin A, and is low in carbs and protein. It also seems to go well with the various meats I eat, and also with eggs.

I do miss cheese when I exclude it, but I can (just about) live without it.
I’d find it hard to live without butter though.

(Jacquie) #6

I feel the same as you regarding butter. :slight_smile: I have no problem eating it alone if it’s salted but I can’t seem to do that with unsalted butter. I have both on hand but keep the unsalted in the freezer.

I thought it would be very hard to give up cheese because I do love the different flavours and textures. It seemed to have become my sugar/sweet substitute. I knew there was a problem a few years ago when I started craving a white Stilton with mango and ginger (approx. 30g had 8g carbs). Certainly, there was the sugar but I can eat a bit too much Brie, Cambozola and other soft cheeses and then regret it.

(Michael Wallace Ellwood) #7

I can understand that. Some things just seem to need some salt to be palatable.

Perhaps true of me as well. But cream also seems to have that role for me, even more than cheese; cream, and anything creamy like Greek Yoghurt or creme freche/ sour cream. And therefore I have to be careful with it. I could eat a ton. Not in one go, but I could go back later and have some more. And more later. In that respect, it’s very much like a pseudo carb. (OK, well it has carbs, but not that much, so you wouldn’t think it would have that effect, but it seems to).

(Georgia) #8

I’m in. I didn’t do well with the ZC March. I fell off the wagon early. I just dumped my cream cheese, sour cream and Cheddar into the trash (pick up day is tomorrow). I have macadamia milk, but I think I will even forego that. I got Omega Power Creamer from Amazon and I think now’s the perfect time to use that in my coffee.

(Jacquie) #9

Glad you’re joining us! :slight_smile: I still keep HWC and different cheeses in the house for hubby. I did this the year I was dairy free and it wasn’t a problem. Hope it won’t be now either.

#10

I have been dairy free for about 5 years, although I eat (and love) my Kerrygold butter.

I initially gave up dairy because an ‘elimination diet’ showed me that hard cheese was the cause of my frequent heartburn/reflux. I decided to eliminate all dairy (except) butter, and I believe that I feel much better without it.

I have Hashimoto’s (thyroid disease), and there are some ‘experts’ who say we do better without dairy, so that may be why I feel better without it.

(Kathy L) #11

Me either (stomping foot)! I can give up milk, HWC, sour cream, cream & hard cheese (:cry:) but not butter. I really should do this for a good month (or week :slight_smile: ) to see if it helps but I may cry!

I actually had some blood tests recently for food sensitivities-have not had follow up appointment for results yet. Was GOING to wait for those results (& praying that dairy & nuts don’t show up as a problem) but I will join you all tomorrow-and PRAY the darn scale moves!!

(Kathy L) #12

No ranch??

#13

Most ranch dressing recipes I look at contain either buttermilk, sour cream, or both - same with blue cheese which contains sour cream, so no ranch or blue cheese for me. :frowning2:

Even this keto ranch dressing contains sour cream.

I can’t decide if I’ll exclude things that contain HWC as an ingredient, usually about 1-2 tablespoons or less, but my intention is to look for an alternative and use it instead.

My intuition tells me that from personal experience, I’ll eventually be able to add sour cream and things using it as a ingredient, but I’ll only be able to use HWC when it’s an ingredient and not be able to use it in coffee, keto mousse, or drink it from the carton. :laughing:

(Jodi) #14

I’m gonna follow along.
Interested because I’m also cutting out dairy for my own challenge. I’ll be using small amounts of butter until I get around to making some ghee.:blush:

(Jacquie) #15

Sounds good. I’m following your challenge, too. :slight_smile: Lots to learns from everyone’s experiments.

(Jacquie) #16

I started my challenge a couple of days ago to get in the groove and I already notice my throat is clearer. My Asian friend could never eat dairy and she would always say that mucous would build up in her throat. I never really understood what she meant until I cut dairy the first time.

It’s great having others do their own version of the challenge with me. I’ve kept butter as it doesn’t seem to be a problem. Still keep dairy in the house for hubby - HWC for whipped cream with his berries (he’s lc/keto) with no sugar and no AS’s. Funny how HWC doesn’t appeal to me at all when it’s not sweetened. :wink: Bacon, eggs and espresso were great this morning. I was never a coffee drinker as a teen but my good friend introduced me to cappuccino in my early twenties which I loved, then I included good coffee with cream, then good coffee w/o cream and now espresso. I usually have 1-2 espresso a day.

Just because I cut dairy, I don’t plan on consuming lower calories. I won’t be tracking anything but I’ll probably include nuts, now and then. I like toasted pecans in salted butter, macadamias and pistachios.

(Jacquie) #17

Today went well. A bit of freshly grated Parmesan (no problem with it) on a salad of baby greens and avocado and blade roast cooked in the crock pot with spices, tomato sauce and wine and some toasted pecans. The meat was like buttah. :slight_smile: Bacon, eggs and espresso earlier in the day.

Went romping on our trails with Karma, our standard poodle. Then tried our new VirZOOM with hubby’s Oculus Rift. That turned out to be a lot of fun and I was totally immersed. Hubby’s the techie and set it all up for me. I had a ball and got a bit of a workout. It was exhilarating! :joy:

#18

Weekend went well eliminating dairy with exceptions noted earlier - only thing I had was butter.

Breakfast on Saturday was bacon, ham and sausage omelette instead of my usual bacon cheddar.

I made some keto cake that required HWC, but came out just fine with the coconut creamer.

Using coconut/almond milk/oil creamers is working well to replace Heavy Whipping Cream (HWC), but I find that I could more easily drink coffee or tea with no sweeteners and HWC, but when using the non-dairy replacements I want alternative/artificial sweeteners (AS) such as stevia, etc.

Normally I’ve been using the HWC below, so there’s no flavoring or anything other than trace amounts of lactose to sweeten anything it is added to. I hope that eliminating HWC doesn’t encourage using more sweeteners.

Total Fat 6g
Saturated Fat 3.5g
Trans Fat 0g
Total Carbohydrates 0g
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 0g

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#19

I’m in.

Though with ghee and some hard cheese.

Actually, not a huge change for me. Love almond milk and nut butters. :heart:

#20

I’m in. I’m aware it’s day 3 already, but after having a bit of cheese and feeling rough afterward on Friday, I have gone back to being dairy free, including butter.