Dairy Free

The Protein Myth

We have been led to believe that we need dairy and other animal products for protein but in fact all protein is initially made by plants, and it is not necessary to eat animal products in order to get protein. If you get protein from an animal it is simply recycled plant protein. A whole food plant based diet has all the protein you need and as Dr Colin Campbell says that level of protein is actually optimum for us. As long as we are getting calories from whole food plant based diet then we will be getting enough protein. Most Americans eat almost double the amount of protein they need which places a big strain on some of their internal organs.  Unless you are malnourished, protein deficiency is unheard of.

The Organic Myth

Many people when they hear about the poor treatment of cows in the dairy industry just say ‘so I will buy organic in the future’ thinking that this label means green pastures and idyllic lives that the advertising wants us to believe. The reality is that organic dairy simply means cows have not been given hormones or antibiotics and must be fed organic feed, it does not mean cows have been grazing on pastures outside or benefit from any higher welfare living conditions. Organic dairy can actually mean more suffering for the cows. Primarily as dairy cows have such huge milk burdens painful mastitis is commonplace and organic dairy farmers are reluctant to give antibiotics to suffering dairy cows for fear of being stripped of their organic status. In turn cows with mastitis can have ongoing suffering and be in desperate need of antibiotics. Organic is a label to ease the consciences of consumers and can be very misleading in regard to improved animal welfare, much the same as the free range branding.

Plant Based Cooking

I now say that being vegan is both exciting and excruciating at the same time. Learning to cook and eat without dairy and other animal products has been the exciting part.

Since moving to a plant based diet I can honestly say that within a week I was starting to become the chef I had always wanted to be. I had this new drive and inspiration, a sense of oneness, intrigue and a whole new community and world.

The recipes that seemed gobbledygook to me at first with so many ingredients I had never even heard of. These new ingredients are now my staples and its rare I don’t have an ingredient for a new recipe. I was afraid and thought that plant-based recipes were for geeks and I would just stick to simple swaps and processed foods.

As soon as I bought nutritional yeast (only vegans seem to know this wonder product) I was more hopeful but still fumbling in the dark, however I wanted to cook, read recipes and plan, something I couldn’t be bothered with before. I bought a Bosh cookery book, and they used nutritional yeast in many recipes along with garlic powder, mushrooms, lentils, marmite, cashews stock,  the picture slowly started to come together.  Plant based cooking was all about flavour and taste. I made a few dishes and even swayed from the original recipe with my growing confidence.  I read magazines and cookery books, joined Facebook vegan cooking groups, trialled new products from supermarkets and going to the health food shop was my new excitement. I started to make my own pizzas, home-made cashew mozzarella and dough, I’d watched the Buddhist Chef make one and was inspired.  I had never made a pizza before or even wanted one at home before, but now I was becoming a chef, the one with the apron on that always has something on the go and feeds people.

Tofu, I would never even consider tofu as an option when there was meat to be had, what a waste of money I would think.  My goodness, there was a whole world of tofu that I was missing out on, I now think tofu is a miracle food and when you learn to cook it well you wake up craving it.  We have it for breakfast most days, fried in a teeny bit of oil and sometimes coated in cornflour and salt and pepper but always with a soya sauce, sriracha and sweet chilli dip. Tofu scramble I resisted and thought it was hype but one Sunday I made it with Kalanamak salt and herbs and spices, and we loved it.  I joined the tofu appreciation society on Facebook for more ideas and when we discovered Tofu bacon, it was so good, we ate it every day for two months.

A few months into no dairy we bought some crackers from the supermarket.  We ate some in the car on the way home from shopping, but they tasted very strange. We looked at the ingredients, and they contained cow’s milk. We tasted it, even in tiny amounts and rejected it. Give dairy free two weeks, and I’m sure you will do the same.