A good friend's daughter is embarking on a medically advised dairy free diet for her son and my friend asked me for some substitution tips. It occurred to me that recent posts have focussed more on those on very restricted diets, and whilst that is our reality there are many out there catering for single excursion diets - which can be just as daunting and stressful at the outset!
I wrote some suggestions down and decided it would be a good idea to publish them on the Recipe Resource!
First of all, the usual disclaimer! Children have complex nutritional needs and dairy products fulfilling many essential requirements. The vast majority of children outgrow dairy allergy, and those who are dairy intolerant are usually only temporarily so. Whilst nothing can stop an adult imposing restrictions on their own diet, you must take advice before taking such steps in a child's diet. Calcium, Vitamin D and other minerals - plus essential fats and low sugar make cow's milk a perfect food and drink for most children.
Getting Started
I have a "Basic Substitutions" page here with some information, but this article focusses on purely Dairy Free diets.
First, try not to substitute all dairy with soya products. Soya is high in oestrogens, and also highly allergenic in itself. It's not uncommon to develop an allergy to soya protein, and you increase that risk in an allergic child by substituting wholesale with soya. That said, if you are allowed soya it should mean you can more easily achieve a balanced diet without dairy products, without some of the sugar that is put in all free from foods.
When you take out food proteins, you remove flavour, so manufacturers replace it with sugar…. a concern which I have written about before. Most free-from biscuits and cakes are full of cheap fillers and “non-foods” so I always bake myself wherever possible.
A few things to remember
*ALL animal milks contain the same proteins (casein and whey) as cows’ milk, and lactose, just in different ratios. So you need to avoid ALL animal milks.
*“Lactose free” is not dairy free, and it’s almost always the proteins which people react to, so lactose free products are only for lactose intolerant individuals. These are almost never Caucasian people, and if so usually only after a bout of gastroenteritis and therefore only temporarily.
* Milk comes in many forms in processsed food. Processed meat usually has dairy products in. Anything which says casein, whey, lactose etc and powdered milk, condensed milk, buttermilk etc are all dairy products.
Cheese substitutes
- Violife is the most versatile, and behaves the most like cheese, there are many varieties. The downside is that there is no protein in it, so it’s not a nutritional substitution. https://violifefoods.com most of the supermarkets now sell this.
- Vegusto make vegan cheese which is nut based and therefore contains protein. Their No-Moo cheese sauce is fab! it’s currently mail order only but I by in bulk and freeze. https://vegusto.co.uk
- Sainsbury’s make their own dairy free products, including cheese which is soya based.
Milk Substitutes
- See my "Got Milk?" article for a full comparison of milk alternatives
- Always go for fortified to get the calcium etc
- For cooking avoid soya, it’s not heat stable and curdles. If we could have anything I would go for oatly or soya on cereal - UNsweetened is best, almond in cooking and rice milk occasionally as it’s v sweet.
- New on the market is oat milk powder, like these from UnHerd or Might Oat. This is life-changing for travellers who cannot be certain they can purchase safe milk alternatives at their destination, since with the water removed the produce is SO much easier to transport!
- New on the market is oat milk powder, like these from UnHerd or Might Oat. This is life-changing for travellers who cannot be certain they can purchase safe milk alternatives at their destination, since with the water removed the produce is SO much easier to transport!
Butter substitutes
- By far the nicest is “Pure” Margarine, either Pure Sunflower or Pure Olive. The Olive is better for baking.
- I use the Stork gold wrapped blocks for baking
- Flora’s new free from spread is nice tasting but not great for baking.
Custard
- You can make custard with any milk substitute but rice milk makes a thin, translucent custard which isn’t very nice. Soya curdles as it isn't heat stable so oat or almond are best.
- Oatly make a delicious custard but it needs whipping first, or Alpro soya do one.
- Alpro do a set custard too in different flavours, soya based.
Ice Cream
LOADS!
- The Coconut Collaborative
- Booja Booja - expensive but tasty
- Ben and Jerry’s now do dairy free!
- Alpro do a dairy and soya free almond based choc ice cream which is fabulous.
- Sainsbury's allegedly now offer a new free from ice cream but I've not managed to get hold of any yet!
- Sainsbury's allegedly now offer a new free from ice cream but I've not managed to get hold of any yet!
Yoghurts
- Previously you had to stick with soya or introduce coconut. However the lovely people at Oatly have now introduced a wonderful range of oat based alternatives. Their Greek yoghurt is fantastic, their crème fraîche very versatile in cooking too.
- The Coconut Collaborative make some delicious chocolate mousse pots, very rich but mine love them as a treat. Available in all supermarkets! There are lemon ones also.
- Redwood “Wot no Dairy” comes in a few flavours, but we often buy plain and add a teaspoon of jam or chocolate spread!
Chocolate
A word of advice - always taste new chocolate items yourself because some are just gritty with sugar and have little taste at all! Beware though as not all dark chocolate is dairy free.
- Hotel Chocolat make some yummy celebration chocolate!
- Moo Free chocolate make Easter eggs, advent calendars etc and bars of chocolate.
- Plamil make delicious dairy free chocolate which has soya in but is a more genuine "dairy" taste.
- Celtic chocolates in supermarkets and H&B
- “Nomo” from Kinnerton
- This is THE best chocolate spread usually available in Sainsbury’s but I haven't sourced it recently. I now buy the "Nature's Store" spread which is almost as good!
Biscuits
-So many available now, a word of warning though because "free-from" doesn't mean free from all allergens, and very often a brand name like M&S' "Made Without" is switched around to be missing wheat or dairy, rarely both.
Labelling
The main thing is to check, check check ingredients! Something might also be ok one week and not the next… meat products often have dairy in, it crops up in unexpected places. Another issue is the increasing popularity of vegan choices, which are being confused with dairy free. They might be ok if you are dairy intolerant, or not avoiding traces, but they are not always safe for dairy allergic people.
Some online supermarkets, like Ocado, let you select a dietary need eg dairy free and then browse their whole shop which contains safe foods. Tesco dairy free products are all listed here and currently they seem to to be the best for supplying a wide variety of free from products.
Lastly "Lactose free" is NOT "dairy free". Lactose is the sugar (simple carbohydrate) in dairy products. It needs the enzyme lactase to break it down - and many people of asian origin are lactose intolerant, lacking lactase to digest it. This is very rare in caucasian people, although transient lactose intolerance can follow a gastrointestinal bug. If you are dairy ALLERGIC you are reacting to the proteins, casein and whey. These are present in ALL animal milks, in different ratios. So goat's milk and sheep's cheese are not safe, neither is lactose free milk.
Good luck!
Twinnings also do a dairy free hot chocolate powder
ReplyDeleteCurrently Tesco's dark choc digestives are also dairy free
:)