I hated milk as a kid, loved cheese as an adult, and blamed everything except dairy for my digestive issues.
It took me 37 years to connect the dots.
I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska drinking 3 glasses of milk a day. We ate canned and frozen vegetables and discount meat. The kind that has the fluorescent ‘deal’ sticker on it and is brown compared to the fresher, full-priced red flesh available a couple bins over. My parents were educators with good intentions and the food on our table reflected that income reality. We were limited to one soda when dining out (once per month) and we didn’t have any processed sugary items in the house – because it couldn’t be afforded, nor was it deemed ‘healthy’. If we had dessert, it was baked either from scratch or from a box, but this was not a daily thing for sure.
I always hated drinking milk and three glasses a day was a challenge. Amplifying that distaste was my family’s lack of money. My early childhood, we drank powdered milk because it was more affordable. For those of you who don’t know, milk can be dehydrated into powder form. It was typically used in baked goods but could also be rehydrated to become liquid milk again. My mom would sometimes forget to make the powdered milk ahead of time, so in a quick effort to prevent us all withering away from early onset osteoporosis, we were given a watery, lumpy powdered milk with some ice cubes mixed in to chill the disgusting concoction.
I knew inherently that milk was ‘not right’ for me – but being young and unable to fully articulate why milk just doesn’t make you feel good versus why I hated drinking lumpy, room temperature powdered milk is a losing battle with a parent who believes they are saving you from a certain future of brittle bones and early death.
While I never drank dairy milk as a beverage again as an adult, I still ironically loved cheese. My sister suffers from the same dairy intolerance. The frequency with which we needed to race to the closest restaurant restroom mid-way through indulging on a meal laced with cheese became a family joke. We would signal that we had to leave quickly because ‘Uncle ED was stopping by’ and we needed to find a bathroom as quickly as possible. “Uncle ED” was code for ‘Explosive Diarrhea’. Rather than ruling out food, as would have been logical – we ruled out restaurants. ‘Ohh, we can’t eat there anymore – they obviously do something to their food.’ It couldn’t have been my actual physical being pleading for help.
I’m a reasonably intelligent person that had never linked my explosive diarrhea, constipation, bloating, etc. to dairy. The fact that I typically had to sprint to the restroom after a few bites of food should have been an indication of an imbalance. Although when you’re fed regular BS about how necessary dairy is for you for healthy bones, why would you ever suspect it to be the culprit? It HAD to be something else; preservatives, MSG, or artificial flavors – never did it cross my mind it was dairy.
Here are some facts about dairy that I learned after changing to a plant-based lifestyle:
1) Approximately 70% of the world population is dairy intolerant
2) Dairy is linked to multiple types of cancer (The China Study, by T. Collin Campbell)
3) Dairy products are the top source of saturated fat, contributing to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease
I’ve never done any allergy testing, nor do I care to because I know my body. When I stopped eating all dairy and the digestive issues immediately stopped, I needed no more evidence than that. It was simple math:
Eat dairy = have digestive issues
There’s a reason why cheese was still a craveable food for me, even though milk was abhorrent to me. Cheese contains casein. Basically, this dairy protein has opiate molecules built in. When consumed, these fragments attach to the same brain receptors that heroin and other narcotics attach.
Some researchers believe this occurs as a way to ensure babies (humans, cows, etc.) continue to nurse during infancy, which helps the survival of the species. That helps explain why we look so happy when nursing and also why it feels so good to eat cheese. For perspective, a cup of milk contains 7.7 grams of protein, 80% of which is casein. When converted to cheddar, for example, the protein content multiplies 7-fold, to 56 grams. It’s the most concentrated form of casein in any food in the grocery store. Basically, if milk is cocaine, then cheese is crack.
Fortunately, when you stop eating dairy cheese, the cravings do start to diminish. There are so many amazing dairy alternatives out there now that are extremely satisfying. There are also some pretty crappy ones that are nothing but oil.
I took my time and did A LOT of taste testing (small yogurt cups are perfect for this exercise). I found out which brands I liked and then I also started experimenting with making my own yogurts and cheeses (all varieties). I found some quick cheeses that were very satisfying to make and found that was my sweet spot – I preferred the instant gratification. I do absolutely appreciate the time and effort that goes into the aged vegan cheeses and the yogurt selection that is available. I figured if I was going to need to find substitutes for cheeses that I really enjoyed in the past, it was worth the effort.
I tried a variety of alternative ‘milks’ as well. My go-to turned out to be oat milk. It’s fast and easy to make in a high-powered blender. Oat milk is relatively inexpensive compared to nut based options. You can make it thick or thin based on your need – coffee, tea or any number of recipes. This is the same with the the nut milks as well. There is no magic or mystery, just experimentation with ingredients to find a texture and flavor that makes you happy!
It took me 37 years to figure out that dairy was the source of many issues for me. Better late than never!
(Our lasagna pictured below, features our house-made cashew ricotta and cashew mozzarella)
