Lactose intolerance
 

Most people with Crohn's disease are somewhat lactose intolerant. But I have progressed to way beyond 'somewhat'.

So I could use some advice on the best tasting milk substitute. The best ice-cream substitute. And I would also like to know if there is a cream cheese substitute.

Thanks.

Don't be fooled by Almond milk! I've seen Almonds, I've eaten Almonds, and I'm convinced they don't have tits. :headshake

I don't really care for milk and almost never drink it but I've tried other alternative beverages. First off, if you drank milk would you be a whole milk, half and half drinker (in terms of mouth feel and taste) or are you of the school of remorse? (0%, 1%, 2%)

The thing they all have a hard time with is hitting the rich, fatty mouth feel.

Lately, my favorite has been Tempt Hemp milk. The Vanilla is pretty good, the Chocolate rocks. Not sure if you can do Chocolate.

There is also a pretty good Coconut drink called Coconut Dream

And http://coconutbliss.com/ is amazing ice cream. Rice milk Chocolate ice cream is also great. I used to like Tofutti ice cream but it always leaves this thick film in my throat that persists for hours. I'm sure it's some sort of crazy chemical crap.

I also like Oat milk which has a nice mouth feel to it as well.

Vanilla Rice Dream is pretty thin, much better ice cold, and may appeal to you if you like 2% milk. The Chocolate (again) is better. With all these products make sure you don't buy short dated stock. It settles and the precipitate can't be shaken back up, it looks like curdled milk. Aesthetically not so pleasant.


I'm guessing the chocolate, which in every case is the better flavor, adds the richness that milk has. The unsweetened versions of all these are serious school of remorse. Unless you are trained in unsweetened and unsalted lifestyle I wouldn't even go near them. Even Spartans would find them spare.

What I did was go to the store and buy one of every flavor/style and compared them.

Almond, rice, soy, coconut, hemp, oat.

To me, Tempt Hemp milk is far and away the best. Coconut Dream (or So Delicious) are a close second. Oat, Rice, and Almond pretty much tie for Third, and Soy is DNF.

I'd be curious to hear what you end up with and your thoughts on tastes.

:smack:

Is it lactose only for you, or are you allergic to the milk proteins (I think? there's something else that gets people in milk, can't recall now)?

In the UK and Scandinavia there is a brand of dairy products called Lactofree. Cows milk with the lactose completely removed. It's not currently available as a brand, but the company announced a couple of years ago that they were to start selling their expertise and patented lactose removal technique to overseas companies.

Now, I'm sure, but I think the 'RealGoodness' brand over there may be using their technique. From the product description it sounds very similar.

I was experimenting with removing or at least reducing the lactose in my diet, so I bought Lactofree products for a while. The milk tastes almost exactly like fresh dairy milk, with the just the very slightest hint of a 'long life' UHT taste when drunk in coffee or tea. Works great on cereal, and is available as semi-skimmed (2%)and full fat (4%).

The soft cheese spread and the margerine taste absolutely no different to ordinary dairy spreads. The hard cheese I wasn't keen on, but only because it tastes too processed. I generally prefer a crumbly mature cheddar. That said, it toasts just fine and grated onto a baked potato tastes like any other processed cheddar.

As I say, I don't know for sure if Real Goodness is the same.

[eta] Damnit. Just found a discussion on a board that says the brand has been discontinued in the USA.

Mum occasionally buys Lactofree.
As above - milk with lactose removed.

But recently she's been just buying what I always used to drink - Cravendale filtered. It lasts a lot longer than normal milk.
The bottom line is the only time she has milk is on her one bowl of cereal in the morning, so all the self-diagnosis emails helpfully forwarded by her friends were not really appropriate. As I told her at the time.

Ditto gluten, ditto underarm anti-perspirant etc etc. When cutting out one thing doesn't get the results she wants, she goes back to it after a while and sees no difference. That's because there was no problem in the first place, save over-indulging. And I know plenty about that.

I'm not suggesting you aren't really intolerant Pete, I'm sure you are.
Sorry I can't help with any American products.

Lactaid is an American lactose free product. Its commonly available so Pete is probably familiar with it.

MY guess it is the casein as well as the lactose.

The casein isn't good for anybody, really - it stimulates insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), which promotes tumor growth and other bad things. And North American milk has pretty high estrogen levels, since dairy cattle here are milked right through pregnancy (unlike European cattle, who get a rest for most of their pregnancies). The low- and nonfat versions of dairy products have less estrogen, since it's a steroid hormone (fat-soluble).

Also, the lactose-free products usually have a little lactose left - okay for most but still too much for some. My two oldest sons were extremely lactose-intolerant and couldn't use any of the Lactaid products.

I like almond milk - no, I love it. The unsweetened 30 cal/8 oz stuff floats my boat. Soy can be high-fat but there are so many products, flavors, fat levels out there - it takes some research to see what you like. I still have to try hemp milk. The coconut products have a lot of saturated fat, although I hear they're tasty.

Taste is changeable. You get used to what you eat (or drink); it takes about three weeks. I'm a low fat/low salt person and now I find many things that I used to think were delicious almost inedible.

I like unsweetened almond milk the best, myself. But even different brands of almond milk vary widely in flavor. The only thing you can do is taste-test them yourself, really. Also, what ortho said: stick with one and your preferences really will change. Real milk tastes weird to me now.

There is only one cream cheese substitute to my knowledge, and it's made by Tofutti. It's soy-based so I hate it, but some people like it.

The best heavy cream substitute is Healthy Top, made by a company called Mimicreme. It's hard to find and you'd probably have to order it online, but it comes in sealed boxes that are shelf-stable until opened.

I bet you could make a Greek Yogurt with one of these milks and hang it in a muslin bag to really drain it until it had a cream cheese texture. Didn't you have a coconut milk yogurt on your blog?

Ya might be thinking of "Mounds".

I often do.

It takes many hours, but yeah, you can drip a homemade yogurt until it's as thick as a soft cream cheese. But Pete doesn't strike me as a "ferment your own milk substitute and then drip it for half a day" kind of guy. :)

chorlte. Yeah, I think you're right.

I had the Coconut Milk from Trader Joe's, the plain variety.

Now, normally, I like water, I drink it all the time and enjoy it. This experience was different. I'm sure it's because of the disconnect between my expectation and my experience, but I found the stuff the very definition of disappointment. Avoid.

eta: as a frame of reference, I'm a whole milk drinker (160 cal / cup), and a happy dropout from the school of remorse.