Vegan Challenge #2: No more Dairy! + My Weekend in Zurich

The inspiration to write this blog came from my visit to Zurich, where dairy is really a big deal.  It was an interesting opportunity to observe how even something that is considered a staple can be avoided completely if you have the drive and the knowledge necessary.

Now, I am no expert on travel in Zurich.  The language is insanely difficult for me to grasp, the economic inflation hard for me to accept, and I had little knowledge about the culture before arriving.  This made it a little difficult to me to be as carefree in my eating as I would have liked to be, but I had an amazing time, and also got to eat some delicious food.

Unlike in Zurich, though, I have very little trouble living without dairy in America.  There are so many resources out there, and I was reminded of this when they were taken away from me.  So I thought I would give you a few guidelines on how to live without dairy.  If you have already decided to eliminate dairy from your diet and would just like to know how, keep reading.  If you'd like to know why I think experimenting with your dairy intake is important, click here.

Vegan Challenge #2: 14 Days Without Dairy
How much dairy do you consume in fourteen days?  From your morning coffee to your midnight snack, it might be a staple to your standard diet.  Fortunately for us, it is so easy to replace and eliminate!  Here are the rules:

1. Eliminate the dairy products that aren't necessary.  For the next two weeks, avoid pizza, ice cream, and other foods that are inherently high in dairy.  Try some healthier options based on whole foods wherever you can.  Remember that getting rid of dairy means including something else; often people fail to achieve their health goals because they get rid of one thing and don't find something else to eat instead.  Your body needs food, and I will never suggest calorie restriction as a way to go.  I only suggest the things that I can do, and there's just no way to get me to stop eating. 
2. Break down your cravings.  But Katherine, I just can't live without cheese.  Wrong.  You can and you will.  :)  Dairy products are among the foods we often crave, for many reasons.  Firstly, they are convenient, nicely packaged, well-advertised and flavorful products that we are accustomed to.  They are also often calorie dense and high in simple carbs, so they make us feel satisfied quickly.  As with any food group, I think it's important to break down your dairy cravings and decide whether they are legitimate instinctual desires for fuel, or if they are motivated by other things.  Try to be more specific about what you are craving: instead of craving cheese, you may be craving something salty, creamy, and warm.  The good news is you can have things that are salty, creamy, and warm without consuming dairy products. 
3. Where you can't remove, replace.  I ask you to do this only where the first two steps were insufficient, because often the things we use to replace dairy and meat are just as unhealthy as the original.  However, there are so many options out there that as long as you continue to focus on whole foods and variation, I don't think they will do a huge amount of harm to your body.  Read up and decide what your nutritional needs are, and make your choices accordingly.

This chart can be used as a basic guideline in how to replace dairy in your diet, based on your culinary, craving, and nutritional needs.  The main time to implement the rules of the challenge are at the grocery store, so consider the following before you hit the aisles. 

You want:	You actually want:	You can have:
Milk	Something creamy and refreshing.   Something to add liquid to a recipe.   Calcium and Vitamin D.	Rice Milk, Nut Milk, Coconut Milk, and Soy Milk are found in many normal grocery stores and your local health food store, and will blend seamlessly with many recipes.  They’re also good on their own.  I will be writing about the different options in more detail soon. Get your calcium and Vitamin D right from the sources, and eat your leafy greens and get out in the sun.
Cheese	Something salty, creamy, and warm.   Another layer of flavor in a recipe.   Protein and Calcium.	There are many brands of vegan cheese that taste very similar.  They are often nut-based or soy-based, and will melt, grate, and spread just like the cow stuff.  And again, go to the sources for Calcium and Vitamin D.
Butter	Something salty. A means of cooking another food. Fat.	Earth Balance makes a very convincing vegan butter and can be found at Trader Joe’s and other health food stores.  Wherever you can, though, try to use fats that are plant-based for cooking, or avoid using fats altogether by steaming, boiling, and baking.
Cream	Something really creamy. Liquid and fat to bring form to a recipe. Fat.	Coconut milk and soy milk seem to be the thickest of the milk replacements, in my opinion, so try those if you need to.  Also, refrigerated coconut milk will whip up just like cream does, and you’ll need less added sugar.*

*Trader Joe's also sells this amazing coconut-based ice cream that will really help you out.  Give it to your friends and don't tell them it's dairy free - they'll never notice.

And that's it!  Take advantage of the resources available to you and add some variety to your diet.  Even eliminating the smallest things can have an impact on the health of your body, some cute little farm animals, and the planet.  Remember that planning ahead and keeping the calorie count up will keep you from caving in, whenever you're dealing with dietary restrictions, and that the best diet is one based on whole foods.

Let me know your thoughts on this idea.  How difficult would it be for you to get rid of dairy?  Do you think this would be the hardest part of going vegan, or would it be something else?  What kind of meals do you make without dairy?

* * * * * 

For those of you interested in my travels, my weekend in Zurich was amazing!  I had very few expectations and few plans, but I had a really good time there.  It was a very interesting change of pace, and contrasted the culture of Florence pretty drastically.

Being in that city felt like visiting an amusement park for three days: everything was clean, every person fit, happy, and beautiful, and every location easily accessible.  I felt extremely safe there, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a place to travel to alone.

With that said, I can barely afford to breathe there.  There was no spontaneous spending, but I managed to have a nice time in an affordable manner.  I had packed many of my meals ahead and then visited the grocery store for food so that I could splurge on a really good meal once or twice.  I paid for a Zurich Card, which gave me unlimited access to public transportation and many museums and attractions in the city.  At twenty four francs for twenty four hours, it was definitely a good investment.

I hiked on Mount Uetliberg, did a boat tour of the lake, visited many of the parks, saw the university, and went into a lot of posh clothing and furniture stores.  It was such a beautiful place and had so much to offer to travelers; I'm quite happy with my first out-of-Italy destination.  Check back next week for what happens to me in London.

Dairy Facts

If you've read my blog or been updated on my current life in any other form, you know that dairy is not my friend.  I used to consume it daily without any immediate negative side effects, but my tolerance for it has plummeted to a point where even small quantities have me feeling sick.  No matter how much I wanted it to be, dairy is not good for me.  But I have a secret: dairy isn't really that good for you either.

I always try to make it clear that while I believe that a vegan diet is the healthiest for my body, other choices are acceptable too.  I didn't create this blog to publicize why I have made my choices or rope other people into a vegan diet.  With that said, I feel pretty strongly that the amount of dairy consumed in the standard American diet is not good for us.  If you're interested in the nutrition facts about dairy, I encourage you to do your own research and to click here for my opinions on it.  But for now, I'll just give you my two cents.

1. Consuming dairy is weird.  When you get to the end of The Grapes of Wrath, nobody is sitting there thinking, "yeah that would really hit the spot right now."  So we agree that drinking human breast milk after infancy is strange, right? But it's okay, because we get it not from our mothers, but from other people's mothers.  Nope, still weird.  Well, the mothers we get it from are animal mothers.  Yeah, that's cool, right? That's definitely not weird.
   
   I think that many people are very detached from the primary sources of their food, so that argument may not really get you on board.  Even though you know where dairy comes from, when you see it packaged up all nicely in a bottle of low fat milk or a block of cheese, it doesn't really bother you.  But what really got me thinking was when I learned that the human body naturally stops producing lactate, the enzyme that digests lactose, after infancy (because that's when we're supposed to be done with it).  When someone develops lactose intolerance, their body is just functioning naturally.  The abnormality is actually the lactate persistence that many people develop by continuing to consume dairy through adulthood (Patrick-Goudreau).  Fascinating.  So it's weird to consume dairy, but people do a lot of other weird things.  There's a lot more going against dairy, though.
2. Diary consumption is linked to a variety of health issues, like mine.
   Migraines, acne, and asthma are three health issues that I did not have to research to link to dairy consumption; in my own body, these three things nearly disappeared after I stopped consuming dairy.  However, in eliminating dairy from my diet, according to the Physician's Committee of Responsible Medicine, I have also lowered my risk of Osteoporosis, Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and types of cancer, and eliminated sources of contaminants (Understanding the Problems with Dairy Products).  Other side effects people have claimed to be related to dairy include constipation, arthritis, and insomnia, but I have no sources that provide scientific proof.
   
   So unless you sleep like a baby, have beautiful clear skin, poop twice a day, and don't get any of the other health issues I've mentioned, it might be fun to try out a dairy-free diet.  I am a firm believer that the best way to find out if something works is to try it yourself.
3. The benefits do not outweigh the risks.  What are the benefits of dairy products?  The one that they are most known for is Calcium.  Let's break that down: Calcium is a mineral that comes from the ground.  When cows eat grass that is grown on calcium-rich soil, the calcium is processed and excreted in their milk, along with whatever else they have consumed.  Some argue that our bodies cannot process the calcium once it has been processed by the cow.  But when cows don't eat grass, their feed must be artificially supplemented with calcium (Patrick-Goudreau).  Therefore, most of the calcium consumed in dairy products is hard to digest and unnatural.
    
4. It's really easy to stop consuming dairy.  Nutritionally, there are many other sources from which to get the benefits of dairy products.  Beyond that, there are so many substitutes and resources out there for you.  Just try it, and you will surprise yourself.  

Works Cited

Patrick-Goudreau, Colleen. "From Excuse-itarian to Vegan." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Oct. 2011. Web.        1 Mar. 2014. 
"Understanding the Problems with Dairy Products." NutritionMD.org ::. Physician's Committee for              Responsible Medicine, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.