I met with a friend the other day, who is quite obese, and has turned around her eating habits (Yeah!!). She said she went to a nutrition lecture, and learned to eat better. She's lost 14 lbs in nearly 7 weeks, and feels a whole lot better. The one thing she said was that they recommend dairy-free (the lecturer was also vegan, but didn't necessarily recommend that).

I guess I'm curious about the whole dairy free thing. I agree, you don't see humans necessarily nursing off a cow, so were we really *meant* to eat dairy, and we simply adapted to it? (and that many didn't, they're lactose intolerant) Is it easy enough to get calcium from leafy greens, etc.?

I'm curious if there's anyone here that is dairy free, why they did it, do they do better on it, etc. I'd also be interested if someone tried it and didn't like it.

I think another thing too...isn't almond, soy, etc. milk processed? People eating these kind of diets strike me as more of a 'whole foods' diet type, but almonds and soy beans obviously don't produce milk, so are these necessarily "good" for us? Or just sparingly so they can adapt 'regular' recipes to their diets?

The main reason I like south beach is that it really seems to be how our body was meant to eat....heavy on veggies, lite on meats/proteins, lite on fruit, whole grains, blah, blah, blah. So this dairy free thing has peaked my curiosity .

Thanks!

Twynn, I'm pretty much dairy free. I started years ago after dealing with lots of congestion/mucus issues. Going dairy free really helped. I think that I could now have smaller amounts and do just fine, but after 20 years not drinking milk, it just tastes sour to me.

I do like yogurt, and like it plain, as a snack, but don't have it every day. I was adding soy milk into my morning smoothie and stopped that figuring it was just added calories. I take a calcium supplement and figure I get additional from my fresh veggies.

I know there is lots of evidence that dairy promotes weight loss, but I think in my situation, where I'm lactose intolerant, it would do just the opposite. I think congestion would in effect, hinder weight loss. I know there are milks that don't have lactose, but I figure what's the point. My serious congestion issues are long gone.

I will say that any time I do use dairy products, I go organic. I feel there is alot of information out there that supports that....and BTW, it does make sense to me that it wasn't a natural choice and that we've adapted to it, but it's pretty much just my opinion.

It sounds like Debbie's food choices are a lot like ours. I do love yogurt but rarely have cheese and never milk or ice cream. Calcium isn't a problem because of all the greens and beans we eat and my doctor does keep an eye on that. I keep hemp milk around for the occasional chai or smoothie. I think the alternative milks were developed more to deal with our habit of eating things that are connected to milk (like cereal) than for any nutrition based reason I will add we made those same choices when we were both very overweight so I don't think that, for us, it made any difference in that area. Ditto on the organic hormone free dairy option.

I like dairy. I drink milk daily whether in my smoothie (1/2 cup fat free milk, 1/2 greek yogurt, and blueberries) I also drink a cup of milk when I get home from work. I drink it to keep me from snacking before dinner. I usualy have 3 servings of dairy a day. For me I feel the milk helps wiht my weight loss. If I want something sweet I can drink a small glass of milk sugar free choc and be satisfied.

Tammie

I've been dairy free for a few months now because of my allergies-really bad post nasal drip that wasn't responding to medication. As a last resort the dr suggested I give up wheat and dairy and see if that helped.

And it has substantially. That's why I came back to the beach after straying for several years. I really was much more healthy when I was eating this way and thinner.

I've been drinking TJ enriched soy milk, it has some added calcium and other nutrients. Real soy milk is basically soy beans that have been soaked overnight, drained, ground and boiled. Here's a link showing how:
http://video.about.com/dairyfreecook...e-Soy-Milk.htm




Sarah in MD