Dairy Alternatives!

This week Gareth Edwards, our Alkaline Diet Expert and highly qualified nutritionist, is writing about healthy and alkalising alternatives to dairy products.

He explains why dairy products have an acidifying effect on our bodies, what the healthy and alkalising alternatives are and where we can get calcium from instead.

Dairy Alternatives!

“I’ve given up wheat and dairy”.

For a lot of people this seems like the most logical (and in some cases effective) starting point for taking responsibility for their own health.

So why would it be that this super food that can make a little calf turn into a big cow, be bad for us?

The reality is that a lot of the problem is down to what we humans do to it. The image of a grown human being sucking on a lactating cows teat should however be enough to remind us that it’s probably not totally what nature intended us to drink (or eat) certainly in any quantity.

What’s Good About Milk?

Why does ice cream taste good and what is it about a café late that makes some of my clients acquire a middle distance stare when I start to talk about giving it up? Well it’s partly the high fat content which gives it flavour combined with sugars. There certainly are a lot of nutrients in milk (minerals, vitamins, essential fatty acids, protein and carbohydrate) but the package is designed for baby cows rather than us. The proportions are very different to that of human milk.

The biggest challenges with dairy products actually come when we start getting involved. Pasteurising, industrial production (including anti-biotics and lactating prolonging formulas) and the making of cheeses and yoghurts are what really turns milk into an acidifying product. Research showed that children with known dairy allergies actually experienced a reduction in their symptoms when drinking un-pasteurised milk.

(Very!) occasional use of some organically produced (or ideally un-pasteurised) milk is unlikely to be nutritional Armageddon, but for all the reasons I’ve stated you would want to have some alternatives up your sleeve. After all what are you going to put on your Frosties in the morning …….?! Hang on a minute, sprouted buckwheat with blueberries (as occasional alternative to your green smoothy or breakfast salad!).

The Alternatives

Cartons of commercially produced dairy replacements have their nutritional downsides too. They are all heat treated in order to give them shelf life and can have sweeteners added to remove the bland taste of liquids with little nutritional “life force” remaining. The one that is probably best steered clear of is actually rice milk. Like rice cakes it has a very high glaecemic index (it’s sweet and the sugars are quickly released).

Commercially produced nut and seed milks aren’t great for consuming in large quantities either, because they all have sweeteners such as malt, dextrin or agave syrup added.

So what about soya? There’s a lot of debate about whether soya is actually the best solution to the world’s growing population problems, but in reality studies relating increased consumption to infertility are inconclusive. (If you’re already taking great care with your diet and hydration reducing soya intake to increase fertility might be worth considering – I guess). The isoflavone content has however been shown to have protective effects against some cancers and be beneficial for cardio-vascular health.

If you are going to use commercially produced soya milk as a diary alternative then make sure you pick an unsweetened variety.

What To Do…

As soon as you’ve finished weaning, green plant foods combined with salt and healthy fats can provide you with vast majority of nutrition that you need. It is however healthy and enjoyable (even essential!) to maintain variety and breadth in your diet and hydration choices.

Making your own plant based dairy alternatives is a healthy and nutritious way to get healthy fats, vitamins and protein in an alkaline package. Soaking almonds overnight and then grinding them up with water (and a little cinnamon, if desired) is relatively straightforward. You need to push the mixture through a nut milk bag or sieve before drinking.

As ever your lovely friends at Energise have scoured the planet to make life for the health seeker easier. Their non-dairy milk machines (such as the Magic Bean AP – 302 Soy Milk Maker) should help you make nutritious drinks from natural and nutritious ingredients.

Where To Get Your Calcium From

People worry that if they give up dairy products, their bones and teeth may start to crumble. While cow’s (and other animal) milk does have high levels of calcium, there are other, more nutritionally balanced ways for non-breast feeding humans to obtain this essential alkalising mineral. Highly alkalising green plant foods are packed with it. So too are sprouted seeds and nuts.

Remember though, as hopefully the sun in Europe starts to peak its head around the corner of the volcanic ash cloud, that getting sun exposure is absolutely the best way to make sure that you absorb (even the smallest quantity) of calcium from your diet. Remember that pHour salts contain calcium too.