Dairy-Free Vegetarians and Vegans Help!!!

Question

okay im 18 and ive been a pescetarian for about 8 years due to mistreatment of animals. ive become a bit more strict about what kinds of seafood i eat and i only buy certain types depending on how the animal was slaughtered, if theres a threat of it becoming an endangered species, if the company is certified by well known organizations that stand for humane treatment of animals, etc. and then theres cage free eggs and such things.

but heres my problem. i kind of thought id research about how dairy cows are treated since im a huge milk/cheese addict. ive been to the dairy farm tour things when i was about 8-10 and it may have been naive and somewhat stupid on my part but i never considered the fact that they are deliberately impregnated multiple times just so we can drink milk. : \ i was horrified to find out that the babies are often thrown into the veal industry! thats ******* disgusting. i cut out pudding, yogurt, etc. years ago when i found out that they have gelatin in them. now im going to have to give up my yummy organic milk. well it wont be difficult considering the horror behind it all buti was wondering what are some good soymilk brands?!

i do love almond breeze soymilk (try it!) but it doesnt come in a full half gallon. andi drink a lot of milk! healthy bones and what not : )

has anyone tried 8th continent? is it good?

any good soycheese brands ?? (i might just have to cut cheese out in general if they taste like c**p)

what are some other sacrifices im going to have to make? it seems like milk is in everything! some pasta sauces, ice cream!...jesus christ : \

Answer 1

Wal-Mart and Kroger have good store brands of soy milk. I recently realized that Kroger has two store brand-- Naturally Preferred and Private Selection. (My husband was buying the Private Selection for me as it's been on sale for $1.99. I wasn't paying attention to the name, but noticed that the packaging was different. Then my husband bought th Naturally Preferred brand and I realized that Kroger has two store brands.)

I don't care for 8th Continent. It doesn't taste as good as the organic brands and might have genitically modified soy, which almost defeats the purpose of soy milk.

Also, there are some yummy brands of soy ice cream as well. I have bought the Soy Delicious brand a couple of times. We also get the Trader Joe's brand which is also yummy. (We use the vanilla soy cream with all natural root beer for floats.)

As for cheese and yogurt, I don't miss them. Yes, yogurt commercials claim that if one eats the products one will be thin and regular. Interesting. I'm thin and eat plenty of whole grains, fruits and veggies and I have no problem with being regular, even when I have a stressful day. (I read between the lines of commercials.)

My husband (an omni) has even tried some of this and likes it. Go figure. We buy premade whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's and he makes it for both of us with out cheese. We make it with tomato sauce and frozen pineapple. Interesting combinations, but yummy.

Answer 2

Congrats on cutting so much stuff out! It's actually easier that you'd think.  :)

I'll start with soy milk. I personally use Silk for cooking, but I don't like the taste of it to drink straight. Some people love it! I just started getting almond milk to drink, and that's not bad at all. And I did used to drink 8th Continent and liked it a lot! I think it might have some kind of milk protein in it, though, I'd have to double check.

Soy cheese is next! I used to loooooove regular cheese, but as soon as I found out what happened to the cows, I gave it up cold turkey (cold tofu? lol). Now I use Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet block cheeses.  Here's the website: http://www.followyourheart.com/ (with a bunch of other cool vegan stuff on there, too!). They have Mozzarella, Cheddar, Montery Jack, and Nacho. I use it for EVERYTHING!

For Parmesan cheese, I use a brand that's simply called Vegan. It's a little purple cheese shaker that has great flavor. The brand Vegan also has sliced cheeses in American and Mozzarella. Maybe other flavors, too, but those are the only ones I've seen.

And ice cream? Tofutti! (http://www.tofutti.com/) They have amaaaaazing ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, cream cheese, sliced cheese, the works! I'm in love with anything Tofutti makes. They're the best non-dairy brand, hands down!

Butter is also a milk product! That's easy, too, though. There's a brand called Earth Balance that makes butter and shortening that tastes like the real thing.

Hope that helped!  :)  If you need anything else, just click on my profile and send me an e-mail. See ya!

Answer 3

If you want strong bones then you actually need to eat a lot of greens like kale, chard, turnips, collards.  Nuts and grains, broccoli and tofu are also  good sources of calcium that your body can absorb and use easily.  The hidden dairy by-products that you have discovered may end up leeching the bones of calcium and eventually contribute to osteoporosis according  to  recent medical studies.

As far as plant milks go I would try and diversify the types you use and make sure that they are fortified with vitamins like d, and  b12. Rice dream comes in a family sized container in some health food stores and supermarkets.  Almond breeze comes in a carton.  You can also find dairy free desserts made by Soy Delicious and Rice Dream.  If you have a Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Earth fare, Natural Foods store or a grocer who carries a lot of organic items you should be able to find these things.   The main thing though is don't believe all that hype about cow's milk producing strong bones.  Read the articles that have been linked.  

http://www.babyreference.com/MilkingYour...

http://www.epicureandigest.com/v2i1/inde...

Edit-  One more thing.  There's a link below this to an online store that ships alternatives to goods that usually contain dairy or gelatin. You can order from it or use it to familiarize yourself with the brand names that come dairy or gelatin free and look for them in srores around you.

http://store.nexternal.com/shared/StoreF...

Answer 4

You're right, milk, cream, and butter are found in a lot of our favorite dishes. Personally I like the brand SILK. The thing about soy cheese is you have to be careful because many products are made with CASEIN, which is dairy protein; even Trader Joe's puts casein in their soy cheese, which technically defeats the purpose.  

I don't think these companies have to state their product is derived from cows as long as it's below a certain percentage, that's how a lot of the regulations are for natural and organic foods.

You also have to be careful with soy, because there was a study that linked a diet containing a high amount of soy to thyroid problems, but you can research that if you're concerned.

Answer 5

There are pretty suitable substitutes for all kinds of dairy products, though I've been the least satisfied with cheeses.

I was never a milk drinker, so I don't recognize a lot of differences between the various plant milks because I don't drink them.  I've used soy, almond and rice milks in cooking and baking.  I have recently tried unsweetened calcium-fortified chocolate almond milk and I like that for drinking.  You'll just have to try lots until you find what you like best.  Make sure to get a fortified one; fortified soy milk has as much calcium and vitamin D as cow milk, but unfortified doesn't.

As for cheeses, Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet is decent for melting on pizzas, etc.  But the texture is too spongy to slice and eat.  Teese vegan mozzarella is pretty good; it tastes better to nibble on than the FYH, but it's still not ideal for that.  I have heard good things about Cheezly.  I guess they have an "aged white cheddar" variety that's actually good enough to slice and put on crackers.

For butter, Earth Balance non-hydrogenated vegan spread is REALLY good.  My mom turned me on to it even before I gave up dairy.  It passes the "buttered toast test" and bakes/cooks well, too.

There are soy yogurts, but I've only cooked and baked with them, so I don't know which are good.

Tofutti makes vegan cream cheese and sour cream, both of which are pretty decent, but not fabulous.

You've got a fair amount to choose from with ice cream these days.  Turtle Mountain Purely Decadent has soy-based flavors, some of which are really great (peanut butter zigzag... omg!)  And they've recently come out with coconut milk-based flavors, which are really rich and creamy.  Coconut Bliss is another coconut milk-based brand.  Their vanilla bean flavor is really nice, providing you like coconut because the flavor does come through quite strongly.

I used to be a big cheese lover and I always thought going vegan would be really hard because of that.  But, I've found going cheeseless (except for the occasional bit of vegan cheese pizza) has been pretty easy.  In Mexican food, for example, guacamole gives you enough richness and flavor that you really don't even miss the cheese.  The hardest part, really, has been weeding out all the products with whey in them - they put that stuff everywhere!  But, once you find some products you like and can stick with, that gets a whole lot easier.