I am really confused by soy products, cheese and yogurt in particular. Let me explain.
Isaac has a milk allergy that we've known about for approximately six weeks. He's had eczema most of his life, but over the past several months it has spread and worsened, at times being so bad that he would scratch himself bloody in places. We had to cover large portions of his skin in hydrocortisone cream every night to prevent all of that scratching overnight, and all that topical steroid isn't good every night. He never complained about it because I think it's just always what he'd known. After doing some research, I learned that eczema in children is almost always the result of a food allergy, and dairy is the most common food allergy for children. We decided to eliminate dairy from his diet (which is at the same time both easier and harder than it sounds) and six weeks later, he's been eczema free for 3-4 weeks.
The boy loves dairy products. I have often said my children could survive on fruit and dairy. Isaac was drinking milk at least twice a day and most lunches had some form of cheese or yogurt. Though he has taken the explanation as to why he can't have dairy very well and his response has been more mature than I was expecting, I've still wanted to have a few of his favorites in non-dairy form. For butter we use (sparingly) margarine and for yogurt I've found a coconut milk yogurt.
And here presents my frustration: there are so many soy products on the market that are supposed to be copying their dairy counterparts, but they have dairy in them! I bought soy yogurt one time and didn't even bother reading the label because why would soy yogurt have dairy in it? Well, we get it home and sure enough, it's not dairy-free. (My friend explained to me that the cultures don't grow in soy milk so they must grow the cultures in cow's milk, strain them out, and then put them in the soy milk to create the yogurt.) Thankfully we found the coconut milk yogurt that is truly dairy free.
Today, at Isaac's request, I was looking for a cheese alternative. I saw two types of soy cheese but they both also had dairy in them (casein, the milk protein). Once again I'm left wondering WHAT'S THE POINT??? The only thing I can come up with is that people who are lactose intolerant might be able to eat these soy versions of dairy favorites, but I know that for a milk allergy they don't work. (But let me do say that if the answer is that they work for people who are lactose intolerant, then obviously it makes sense.)
Anyway, if you know the answer to my question--what's the point of a soy alternative, especially given the amount of estrogen in soy which I don't want in my boys' bodies--or you know a good, dairy-free cheese alternative, I would appreciate it :)
3 comments:
I blogged about the same thing 2 years ago. We never found a cheese alternative. They all made my mackerdoodle gag, none of them melted and they were just a big waste of money.
Sorry.
http://lifemoreabundant.wordpress.com/2009/02/02/is-it-just-me/
I only have a guess at your conundrum and that is that many milk issues (allergies or intolerance) are dose-based. So reducing intake may be all that's necessary for most people. I know that's why they recommend holding off on introducing straight cow's milk to babies until they're one year old, but you can do cheese and yogurt sooner. Cheese and yogurt have less of the cow's milk protein that makes little babies sick. Ideally, the older they get, the better their little bodies can handle it, since the intake dose for each dairy serving becomes smaller as their weight increases.
Sorry for your trouble! I'm glad Isaac is feeling better and hope you find a cheese substitute soon (can you use non-cow's milk cheeses like goat cheese and feta, which is made with sheep's milk?). Poor kiddo (and mama)!
Hey Beth,
We haven't tried goat's milk or feta just yet. What I have read regarding goat's milk says that though the casein (milk protein) and some other problematic part of cow's milk are both found in lesser quantities in goat's milk, they're still there. One of the websites/books we've relied on (godairyfree.org) basically says that they probably will still cause problems.
Since this is relatively new to us and we really feel like we've just got it under control, we haven't started experimenting much. After another few weeks we'll probably start to introduce trace amounts of dairy in things like baked goods, just to see what his tolerance is, and if that's good, we might try goat's milk cheese.
Thanks for the suggestions! :)
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