| Are you dairy intolerant? Are you vegan or strict vegetarian? Here are some important tips for those of us who can’t use milk and whey protein powder or eat any dairy and/or meat for our protein sources. Protein for Bodybuilding- These days it is super easy to get enough vegetarian protein sources in a balanced plant-based diet to sustain an athletic lifestyle. There are also tons of gluten-free ancient grains like quinoa, teff, spirulina powder are healthy and great sources of complete protein.
Protein Powder Shakes- Cut out the meat and then add in some super-nutritious protein powder shakes. Pretty much every protein powder on the market still fits into a diet that is limited to vegetarian protein sources. Whether you choose whey or plant-based protein powder shakes you can have a much healthier start to your morning than bacon and eggs.
Protein Bar Recipes- I recommend trying out some easy protein bar recipes on your own. This will save you a lot of money and give you a high protein snack to take with you if your lunch or dinner out consists of nothing more satisfying than a salad. Learning to make homemade protein bars is an easy skill that will make you healthier and save you tons over the long haul, just remember to have fun with it. You don’t have to make the perfect pure protein bar every time. High protein bars can still have fruit like raisins or blueberries in them. You can even make your dessert bars more nutritious.
The Best Source of Protein- Many of the best sources of protein are not animal-based. There are vegetarian complete proteins that are much healthier and don’t have the saturated fat or cholesterol, but will actually give you a better mix of complex carbohydrates and protein that will sustain you better during the day than meat alone. Quinoa, teff, buckwheat, and amaranth are just a few that I prefer when I am thinking about the best protein sources.
High Protein Snacks- Even if you are not ready to start tackling some basic protein bar recipes, remember that there are tons of high protein snacks ready available wherever you are. How about mixed nuts?
How to Take Protein Shakes- I recommend taking your protein shakes in the morning using a blender. This method will allow you to add in fruit and veggies, as well as help to mix some of the cheap protein powders that do not really mix well with a fork or spoon. As a to-go back up, try use an airtight container and add the water and vegetable protein powder, shaking vigorously. This method will work for many brands of high protein powders, but some cheap protein powders and vegetarian meal replacement supplements may still clump or rise to the surface unmixed.
Hemp Protein Powder- One of the best vegetarian protein sources is hemp. Not only is it another complete protein, but it is also readily available as a high protein powder. There are also organic hemp protein hot breakfast meals and hempseed toppings and snacks available on the market. There are good raw protein powder options made from hemp, as well. The hemp protein shake has been a mainstay of mine for a couple of years now. Moreover, if you are a strict vegetarian or dairy intolerant, hemp milk is a great addition to just about any of the healthy protein shakes that you could dream up.
The Problem with Dairy-free CheesesIf you are dairy intolerant or vegan and have not dived into the world of dairy-free cheese you are missing out. Finding the best vegan cheese on the market was the single biggest element that made my gluten-free and dairy-free lifestyle feel somewhat normal. It stopped being a medical necessity for casein, lactose, and gluten intolerance and became a diet that I started to customize and become more and more creative with. Dairy-free Cheese & Health IssuesLactose Intolerance TreatmentIf all you are looking for is basic lactose intolerance treatment then you may have already found the multitude of lactose-free real cheeses like Allegra, as well as tried some of the best soy cheeses and other non-dairy cheese products out there today. Some of you may categorize yourselves as suffering from “milk intolerance” since that is what gives you problems, while cheese and yogurt, for example, are more tolerable. The amount of lactose sugar in the dairy product, and the speed at which it is digested can both factors in the determining what lactose intolerance treatment is the right one for you based upon the symptoms you experience such as stomach pain and bloating, gas and heartburn symptoms. Often, a lactase supplement life Lactaid, taken before consuming anything with lactose in it can be a sufficient step to minimize lactose intolerance symptoms to the point that you may not need any extreme dairy-free diet plan like the rest of us who must observe strictly vegan dairy alternatives or gluten-free and soy-free dairy alternatives. Soy Cheese and Soy Allergy SymptomsMany people who suffer from an intolerance to certain types of protein life gluten (a wheat, rye, and bar and barley protein) and/or casein (a milk protein) may also develop a food sensitivity or protein intolerance to soy. When people refer to “soy allergy symptoms” some of them will really be talking about soy protein intolerance. If your gluten or dairy intolerance resolved itself when you went on a proper elimination diet and then transitioned into a healthy dairy free diet plan, but now you are getting IBS or other digestive symptoms returning and you do not know why, it could be the soy protein. Soy protein can contain molecules that are difficult to digest for some people who have other auto-immune responses to certain types of protein. Just keep in mind that if your reaction is to soy cheese only, then there is a better chance that it is not the soy, but another dairy intolerance issue. When Symptom-free Means Casein-FreeMany people who suffer from dairy intolerance are not lactose intolerant, but casein intolerant. Moreover, the soy cheeses you will find of the market that often advertise as “milk-free” and “non-dairy” usually do contain this dairy protein. This can and will make you very sick, even in trace amounts if you are casein intolerant. So beware of even well-meaning but tricky labels like “organic non-dairy cheese.” You should even be vigilant with products like “vegan soy-free cheese” since you should watch out for contaminated factory equipment and trace amounts of dairy protein. Much of how well you need to screen these vegan dairy alternatives will depend upon the degree of your dairy intolerance. If it is merely a dairy sensitivity, perhaps you can contemplate a more inclusive approach to your diet. Beware of future changes to your health, however. Sometimes protein intolerance is like a set of dominoes. Over the years more and more can fall. Dairy-free Cheese Nutritional IssuesDairy-free and Vegan Protein Supplements?When we eliminate both dairy and soy from our diet, we put ourselves at risk of serious nutritional imbalance. A lot of the protein in our diet may be removed when we switch to vegan soy-free cheese and other vegan dairy alternatives. My casein-free, vegan soy-free cheese of choice is Daiya. I feel it is far superior to others such as Sheese vegan cheese. I am still looking to compare Galaxy vegan cheese, so drop me a line if you have any feedback about how you like them, and how these two brands compare for you. In any event, I generally recommend adding a vegan supplement like Vega whole food supplement first thing in the morning. I try to follow the 30/30 rule, which means that I try to consume 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. Half of that is a shake, and half I will eat in a whole grain and veggie mix. A vegan protein supplement smoothie will also help solve the other problem of removing dairy from your diet. Getting your daily calcium. You should find that taking your calcium in veggies like broccoli, as well as in shake form gives you a much better and easier to digest, more bio-available form of calcium than in dairy products, particularly for people with problem/damaged digestion from dairy sensitivity, gluten intolerance or casein and soy intolerance. Dairy-free Cheese Recipe IssuesThere are lots of other practical issues with vegan dairy substitutes and vegan food products that we add to our dairy-free diet plans such as texture, taste, and “meltability” but I will leave most of those issues (many of which I have covered a lot already in the past) for specific product review and recipe articles that call or dairy-free cheese. Yea or Nay on the Vegan Protein PowderA dairy-free protein drink does not always have to come out of a plastic tub. I like to drink a dairy-free protein powder shake every day, but try not to break the bank. There are dozens of good vegan supplements on the market today that can give you a big protein and complete amino acids boost, while also fulfilling your daily requirement for vitamin B12, vitamin D, and calcium that may be lacking in your diet if your are dairy intolerant or GFCF. Looking for vegan products really saves time when you suffer from dairy intolerance, since you will not have to screen every ingredient and research the factory conditions and practices if you know that the company is dedicated to vegan products. If you are also gluten-free and/ soy-free, for example, you will still have to be ultra vigilant when researching protein powder supplements, even if they are dairy-free or vegan, since wheat and barley are used in more health food products than you would expect. The Foundation of Homemade Protein ShakesThis article focused on dairy intolerance, whether it is a casein intolerance or lactose intolerance. Thankfully, there are more dairy-free protein powder brands and products than I can really do justice to in one article, and more are coming out every day. One thing that I want to focus on is the idea that using a vegan protein powder or a vegan meal replacement product can be part of the basis for your daily homemade protein shakes. I use brown rice protein, hemp protein powder, and Vega brand vegan meal replacement, as the foundation of my vegan protein shakes. Incidentally, it is worth noting that I use “dairy-free smoothies” and “vegan smoothies” interchangeably, throughout these articles because virtually all of the products and ingredients that I am using are vegan. I don’t ever use eggs to get my “Eye of the Tiger” on, or honey, for example. The eggs can pose a slight salmonella risk if consumed raw, and there are plenty of great ways to sweeten your vegan protein smoothie without adding sugar to it. The Best Protein Shakes Have More to OfferMove past pure vegan protein powder shakes and think more about raw vegan smoothies that provide complete protein, including live enzymes, dairy-free probiotics, nutrients, and fibre. It really is not hard to put all of these factors together in a homemade protein shake whether you use organic fruits and vegetables, or legumes and ancient grain starches. Although you could use this protein shake diet plan as part of a vegan bodybuilding diet, I think of this as a balanced vegan diet that easily improves your health and energy. Vegan Supplements and Your BodyMaking the best protein shakes that you can every morning takes hardly any time and can work wonders in improving your wellness, not only each day that you have one, but over the long-term. A morning vegetable protein powder shake will provide your body with nutrients at a critical time of day in an easily digestible format. If you suffer from gluten and/ or dairy-intolerance, your gut may need all the help it can get to absorb nutrients. Not only might it be less co-ordinated in terms of peristalsis, but you may have increased inflammation in your stomach and/ or intestinal lining, damaged villi, and a higher than normal gut mucus layer that can reduce the efficiency of your body in digesting vitamins and nutrients from whole foods. In addition, a good vegan supplement that is added to a dairy-free homemade protein shake can provide you with vegan probiotics and fibre that will help to restore and maintain your gut function. A couple of days ago one my articles was selected as a front page feature for an article marketing site that I have just started to write for named Seekyt: How to Go Dairy-Free: Knowing Your Dairy Intolerance Types. So far I have been impressed with Seekyt as an article site. The have a good selection of revenue options, Here’s my referral link if you’d like to write for them, too! Some say that there is not a proven connection between dairy and heartburn and acid reflux symptoms. In fact, a traditional natural treatment for heartburn is a glass of milk. Foods that cause heartburn do not cause it for everyone in every circumstance. There are many situations where people suffering from what they believe is chronic heartburn or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) may be linked to dairy. There are even multiple reasons that the signs and symptoms of heartburn can be caused my milk or dairy. Heartburn that Can Hit Anyone When people take a glass of milk to ease stomach pains or too much acid in the stomach, it actually does provide relief, since milk is a natural antacid. Unfortunately, the relief it offers is short lived. It can also be one of the causes of indigestion. Since it is an antacid that is really intended to slow digestion when babies drink it on an empty stomach, when we take it with grains and meat, all sorts of dyspepsia symptoms rear their heads. All that food that is not left in the stomach when digestions slows down has a chance to ferment and cause gas and bloating, as well as the abdominal swelling that is the key to acid reflux and heartburn symptoms. This isn’t a long article on the science of the heartburn and bloated stomach after eating relationship but here is the rule of thumb: anything that increases the pressure in the stomach or leads of abdominal swelling overall can relax or weaken the “lower esophageal sphincter” or LES and allow painful gastric acid to move up into the esophagus causing acid reflux pain and heartburn, as well as other nasty symptoms such as throat burn, bad breath, and dry cough symptoms. The Bigger Dairy Picture There is another big reason that dairy products can cause heartburn and acid reflux symptoms in otherwise healthy individuals. Keep in mind that this is part one of this series so we haven’t even got to conditions such as lactose intolerance. Essentially, after the initial relief from the milk there are three parts of the milk that can cause problems. Keep in mind that these three components of milk could come from many sources of dairy, not just a tall glass of milk. All three of these components can lead to heartburn and serious stomach pain that stems from the relaxing of the LES or the effect of consuming the fatty dairy products. If you are eating fatty milk, ice cream, regular cottage cheese, sour cream, or other full or high-fat dairy products, you may be at increased risk of heartburn pain and acid reflux symptoms, even if you are otherwise healthy and not lactose intolerant. While this is a dairy-free site, I recommend that even if you surfed here for the tips on how to get rid of heartburn in general, limiting the amount of fatty dairy products you consume, especially on a full stomach, will often help reduce heartburn, even if you do nothing else. Receive the “Heartburn No More” package Instantly! Here is a video with a bit more detail. Feel free to read about it more here.
Today is the last day of the first month of the year so I think this might be my last change to squeeze in some goals for the New Year that is already one 12th past. I am going to keep this site growing into a well-rounded dairy-free living site. Here are some bullets for how I hope things will shake down this year: - Continue to offer no strings attached email and IM dairy free and food intolerance coaching and consultation, as much as my schedule permits.
- Listen and express my gratitude to every I can.
- Grow my visitors by about 400% and then remove about half or two thirds of the Adsense ads, replacing them with paid advertisements in the sidebar.
- Finish my food intolerance e-book.
- Start building a subscriber base
- Make my content stickier and reduce my bounce rate while increasing my return viewers.
I have more concrete thoughts on how to deliver these ideas, but I’ll not bore you with the nitty gritty. As always feel free to email question, requests or comments. GFCF (gluten-free and casein-free) and soy-free chocolate icing recipe is actually one of the easiest chocolate recipes to convert from a butter and milk, etc, regular version. This recipe post is part one of at least three. I will be covering the holy trifecta of chocolate icing, chocolate frosting, and chocolate ganache. I already have some articles that you can apply this GF and dairy-free wisdom to such as a chocolate chip cookies recipe, an almond cookie recipe, and a dipped choc chip cookie recipe. Later I plan to add a GFCF and soy-free brownies recipe, as well as GFCF eggless cookies, and perhaps one on chocolate chip muffins or cupcakes. You can feel free to msg me or tweet me additional requests if there are any recipes that you are dying to create but do not have a conversion that suits your food intolerance. You can file this series of articles away, or bookmark them, and use them in a whole horde of your gluten-free and dairy-free baking projects, adding a huge amount of flavour to the easy desserts you already love. One of the first difficulties if you are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, or suffer from several food intolerances is where to find the best dark chocolate brands that will not make you sick. Many of us cannot even by the dark chocolate made with traces of dairy or made on shared equipment that has traces of dairy protein on it. The good news is that in the age of the internet, even if you life in a small and isolated community where you do not have access to a specialty or vegan market that will carry a good dairy-free chocolate, you certainly can order it. I use several chocolate brands, but most often I use Enjoy Life chocolate chunks and/ or chocolate chips. Sometimes I use E. Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate (possible dairy warning), although it is a bit harder to find. One additional tip, you may want to check out your kosher section. If you find some kosher dark chocolate, you can contact the company and inquire about their cleaning practices, and in some cases this will be a safe alternative where you cannot easily obtain dairy-free chocolate otherwise. Depending upon the particular chocolate icing recipe, I may add some Fry’s cocoa. In a pinch, you can do a lot with Vegan margarine, cocoa powder, brown or golden sugar and coconut cream. Feel free to experiment. For all of the “sauce style” recipes EXCEPT the chocolate icing recipe that we are working on today we want to actually use chocolate. If you are making a brownies recipe, for example, you will have much more flexibility in terms of how you create the chocolate flavour. Chocolate Icing RecipeIngredients
½ cup of icing sugar 1/4 cup of GFCF cocoa 25 grams of vegan margarine or vegetable shortening Method: Add the cocoa and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the vegan margarine or shortening to the bowl. Add a tablespoon of hot water, then mix all the ingredients until the consistency is nice and even and glossy. As you can see, this is a very quick chocolate icing recipe that you can add to all sorts of brownies, cupcakes and other creations as your chocolate icing filled belly sees fit. I found myself mowing down on the perfected gluten and dairy free chocolate chip cookies recipe, and for a while that was enough. Then the hunger for more arose again and the spirit of culinary and pastry exploration arose like a flame lit Oregon Trail in my body. More chocolate. There cannot be enough chocolate for those of you who are very dairy intolerant, as I am. The hunt for pure and safe chocolate has been five years in the making and has culminated in these baking experiences that I share with you in this series of GFCF baking articles. Before you start to worry, I will unveil my recipe at the end of this soy-free GFCF chocolate chip cookies recipe. To lead off, though, I will leave you with a few tips. First, I recommend hunting for the perfect chocolate chips and chunks no matter how long it takes you. I have three or four brands and types that I have collected over the years, but I prefer the Enjoy Life chocolate chunks. The Soy-free gluten-free and dairy-free ganache drenched chocolate chip cookies recipe:COOKIES: Ingredients 1 cup vegetable shortening 1 cup white sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract 1 cup brown rice flour 1 cup tapioca flour 1 cup quinoa or millet flour 1 teaspoon xanthan gum 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons hot water Pinch of sea salt 2 cups gluten free, soy-free, dairy-free chocolate chips or chunks Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cream together the shortening, white sugar, and brown sugar until very smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and then stir in the real vanilla extract. Dissolve baking soda in the very hot water in a little cup. Add to the cookie dough along with a pinch of sea salt salt. Stir in your gluten-free flours mix, chocolate chunks, and any other flavourings you would like to add. Drop by large spoonfuls or balls onto parchment covered baking sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are browned. Do not leave in too long or they will end up hard. Let the baked cookies cool for a half hour to an hour. Towards the end of this time, you can prepare your ganache. GANACHE: Ingredients 9 ounces GF SF dairy-free chocolate chunks or chips one half cup coconut cream (see directions below for how to get this) one half cup vegetable shortening 1 tablespoon dark rum (optional) Directions Place the chocolate into a bowl and heat it all in a small pot over low heat stirring occasionally. Do not boil or you might burn the chocolate. You don’t even need to let it simmer since it will all melt on low. Allow the ganache to cool for a couple of minutes then use a fork to place a cookie into the pot. Flip to cover the other side (if desired). Hold it against the wall of the pot for a moment to let the excess chocolate drain off. Place the dipped cookie on a parchment covered plate. Repeat. When finished, place the plate in the refrigerator and leave to chill for at least a half hour to an hour. Coconut cream directions: this is an easy trick I use almost every day for baking, ice creams, coffee cream, etc. Just place some regular (not light) cans of coconut milk in the fridge. I am not sure of the minimum time required but I would leave them in overnight at least. Open a can and you will find beautiful coconut cream on the top. You can scoop some out for this recipe. If you like you can carefully drain out the coconut water into one container and then remove the rest of the coconut cream with a spatula into another container for later use. Put it in the fridge to maintain the creamy consistency. One of the things that might be overlooked when we are adjusting to a gluten-free lifestyle, or a more restrictive, such as my GFCF and low soy diet, healthy coffee recipes that actually taste good. I like the taste of black coffee, but there are tons of dessert, holiday, and gourmet coffee drinks that I do not want to completely give up. For some of us, we may want to save our stomachs, while also avoiding some of the calories in coffee drinks made with milk or cream. In this article, I cover a number of different tips and recipes to help you conquer the bland coffee that dairy intolerance or gluten and dairy intolerance often leads to. To recap, this article is going to offer suggestions and tips, along with bonus recipes for making GFCF and soy free coffee recipes, including cheap coffee and gourmet coffee options. First, I want to cover some of the coffee facts I like to use to concoct better coffee beverages. If you cannot have dairy or even soy, how can you make the coffee recipes creamyThere are several ways to cream up a healthy coffee now that we are forced to scoop out one of the biggest calorie dumps, the dairy. The easiest and most numerous options are for adding cream or dairy-like products to your black coffee. Most of these options will result in a slimming coffee, even if all you do is cut out a regular coffee and cream and add one of the following substitutes: - almond milk
- rice milk (make sure it is gluten-free)
- hemp milk
- coconut milk
- GFCF coffee whitener
As you can see from the list above it will be easier to have a healthy coffee, as well as a slimming coffee given the use of one of these substitutes. Gourmet Coffee Recipes:My favourite option in the above list is canned coconut milk. Use the full fat version and refrigerate it. I like to leave it there for a few days. Then open it and voila, you can scoop out some of the coconut cream, which should have separated from the coconut water due to the colder temperatures. You should note that you cannot use coconut oil or coconut water, or even whole raw coconut to achieve the desired effect here; you really want to have the stuff in the cans. The light coconut milk also will be less pleasing in terms of the result. You will find that the hot coffee is really nice if you stir in a tablespoon of this thick coconut cream. One of the big added benefits of using this coconut milk, especially if you suffer from gastritis, or if you have a food intolerance such as lactose intolerance is that the coconut milk is a great stomach soother. I personally find it much easier to drink coffee, with less frequent heartburn since I stopped drinking it black. In addition, the fat in the cream is much better for you than the dairy would, or the hydrogenated coffee whitener some of you may be using. It is fine to have some fat, especially knowing that it has good cholesterol in place of bad and is a great anti-inflammatory with antifungal properties. You can find my latest GFCF and soy-free coffee recipes here. The first reason that I recommend for people to start and maintain a log or journal if you have any kind of food intolerance is to track what you eat and any symptoms you are experiencing that may be associated with food intolerance. You cannot make good progress in beating a food intolerance unless it is a mild case of lactose intolerance, for example, unless you know what you are eating, and how you feel. Very soon, if you build the habit of writing down what you eat and how you feel at certain points in the day, certain things will start to become clearer for you. First you may start to see patterns of how you are feeling and when symptoms occur and thereby discover hitherto unknown items that you are intolerant to. For myself, I am dairy intolerant and suffer from gluten intolerance. The gluten hits me pretty much right away, but the dairy takes six to eight hours before symptoms to my type of casein intolerance appear. Having a journal made beating that time bomb so much easier. The next way that I found a log to be extremely helpful in making like with a food intolerance easier was the fact that I always knew the type and the brand of everything that I ate. I constantly discover products and am able to find them again every time since I log them in my journal. Not only do I know if they are safe for me at the end of the day, but I know where to find them and I do not have to rely on my memory or a sticky note. I think that it is essential to make a note of cool products when you find them if you have a serious or very restrictive food intolerance since that one product might make a big difference, or it might be very hard to find, or just having a list of items and where to procure them makes your life so much easier. After these basics of reducing your pain and symptoms relating to food intolerance, as well as keeping track of new products, you will also find that keeping a log has very useful research implications. You now will always be able to look up found items at your convenience and you can even have a colour coding system if you are not sure if a product is safe. Yellow means you think you did not react but are not ready to certify it safe and can then research it on your own time. You can contact the company, look it up on the web, and do whatever you need to, secure in the knowledge that you have a great reference tool. Now if the company tells you that the item suits your needs, you can recolour code the name of that product to green. You can see that very quickly you will have long list of dairy free desserts, lunch recipes, soy yogurt or lactose free yogurt, and what have you all colour coded to let you know what is safe, versus what you had a reaction to, as well as the company info and the shops at which you can procure that item. Your life will be easier and your food intolerance should be more manageable! | Where to BeginResearch how to completely eliminate dairy from your diet and lifestyle (if necessary).
Next, start making a list of excellent dairy-free foods based upon recommendations of those who have been on the dairy-free journey for a while.
My top picks are Daiya "cheese" and Go Max Go candy bars. Read up.
Ask Questions.
Plus, below is a list of some great dairy-free living articles. |
