What Going Dairy Free Did for My Health and My Skin

It’s been one whole entire year since I officially signed off on being totally dairy free. 

Where it all started

It started last summer as a 4 week no-dairy test to see what impact it would make for me to remove dairy and within about 48 hours there was zero disputing it, my body did NOT like dairy and I was way better with it gone. Which was bad news for me as a passionate lover of all things rich and creamy (think whole fat cream in my coffee and cheese on everything level of enthusiast). 

I won’t get into the details, but all the classic signs of lactose intolerance had been there for years, memories from when I was a teen having stomach aches after consuming dairy heavy foods. But as I got older the problems being caused by dairy just continued to mount. But, when you’ve just lived with something forever it is your normal, you don’t know anything different. That was 100% my situation with dairy, I was mostly oblivious to the havoc it was causing, because that’s just how things always were. Plus I’ll admit there was a healthy dose of pure denial sprinkled in there, I did not want to give up my favourite foods. 

Slowly I acknowledged I could no longer eat sweet ice cream, then it was back to back daily milky lattes that hit the chopping block. One by one the dairy dominos fell. Finally I decided to just cut it all together and see what happened. 

The Results

The impact was nearly immediate on my gut health, within less than 48 hours it was a calm happy tummy. And because everything settled down so much I was quickly able to tell when I would eat something else that triggered gut issues. It didn’t take me very long before I started realizing how quickly my digestion reacted to many of the standard preservatives that are used in modern foods. This wasn’t particularly surprising to me as I’ve always been sensitive. The top trouble makers I was able to isolate was made possible because I removed the distracting noise of dairy from the picture, these include phosphate salts (very common preservatives), and most artificial sweeteners. 

How My Skin Reacted

As for beauty impacts, at the beginning this truly wasn’t even on my radar of reasons to drop dairy, which is funny because you don’t have to do much reading to hear that dairy is a common source of inflamed skin. But it was probably somewhere around Christmas time, so maybe four or so months of not consuming any dairy that it suddenly occurred to me how clear my skin had become. Where had the mild but reasonably steady breakouts gone? Where was the congested skin? The changes to my skin were subtle but undeniable, it looked better, it looked a lot better. 

The removal of dairy was the only meaningful change I had made over that time period. I had kept up with my regular facials with my aesthetician at my studio Prete, I hadn’t made any changes to my makeup or skincare, I was doing the same kinds of exercise. The only difference was the dietary change.  Now, with the passage of more time, I’m also aware that overall my sugar consumption has also naturally decreased without dairy in my life. An unexpected consequence of being dairy free, it turns out, has helped me cut way down on the sweet treats I used to covet with a passion. It’s simply harder to find dairy free sweets. Most baked goods and desserts, unless made at home or found at vegan friendly cafes, almost always contain dairy. So, when I consider the changes to my skin looking so much better, it’s probably some mixture of consuming zero dairy and consuming reduced but definitely not eliminated sugars.

What I've Learned

This past 12 months has been a roller coaster of learning, frustration, complaining, and ultimately in the long run, substantial, meaningful improvements in my health and beauty. At the beginning I didn’t know what to eat because so much of my diet centered around cheese (partly in an effort to consume less meat). The first two or so months were rocky as I slowly found my substitutes and started to shift my diet around. 

Here’s a quick run down of some of my preferred dairy free substitutes that I have found work for my tastebuds and my lifestyle after 12 months of hard research:

Recommend Dairy Free Swaps

• 6 pack cartons of the boxed Kirkland brand organic oat milk from Costco. I must have tried 20 different options for what to put into my coffee and this was the clear winner. It doesn’t have added sugars, it doesn’t have the preservatives I react to, and it steams up well and tastes good in my lattes or just poured into an Americano (top priority!). I don’t cook with it very much otherwise, I’ve mostly given up on any kind of ‘creamy dairy free sauces’ but it does result in a decent white sauce. 

• Full fat canned coconut milk brand Cha’s Premium Organic, it contains no preservatives unlike most other canned coconut milks. I buy flats from Costco (yayy for Costco!). This is a quick easy alternative option for creamy coffee if oatmilk isn’t around and it works great stirred into morning oatmeal and fruit. 

• Melt Organic - cold pressed plant butter. It melts reasonably similarly to butter for pan frying, it tastes good on toast etc and you can also bake with it. 

• Olive oil / coconut oil as a substitute for butter in virtually all baking. No it’s not going to be exactly the same but it works well and tastes great. 

• Millsie Cheese Alternative - these are fermented cashew spreads that are completely delicious, put them on a cracker or in a sandwich, they are divine. I find them at Blush Lane and Safeway. But to this day I have not found a single dairy free cheese that comes anywhere close to replicating a classic melty cheddar/mozza etc. So sadly I no longer eat traditional cheesy pizzas. Eventually someone will make something good but I haven’t found it yet. 

• So Delicious Dairy Free Ice cream - these are amazing. At this point my brain truly believes we’re eating dairy ice cream when I have this. I especially recommend it alongside a warm scoop of homemade fruit crumble (made with coconut or olive oil instead of butter!)

• Cocojune Dairy Free Yogurt - completely delicious, it’s also incredibly rich, a small scoop is all you’ll end up wanting. This one I’ve only found at Costco but it’s probably at some of the other specialty markets, it’s well worth trying out. 

Not everyone has a bad relationship with dairy, but for some of us it can make a real difference. If you’re contemplating making a change with dairy for the sake of your digestion be patient with yourself and the process. It takes time but you’ll get there! If you've got questions I'm happy to answer them, this has been an important change in my life with good results, it's something I'll be sticking with for the long haul.