Cut It Out

30 Days Dairy Free: Was it Worth it?

Ya’ll I did it.

I decided to do a thing but didn’t tell the internet I was doing it before hand. It was rough going but I made it happen and now that it’s over I’ve gotta talk about it.

For the month of September I cut dairy out of my diet. This wasn’t about losing weight or anything like that but because dairy is so damn unkind to me and my gut.

Dairy wasn’t always the worst thing in the world for my digestive system but I swear to God the second I entered my 20s if I even breathed in something with heavy cream in it I’d get stomach cramps and have to live in the bathroom for the rest of the night. After years of experiencing regular issues surrounding dairy I finally was like, oh hey bitch…dairy might not be working for you. And then a FEW MORE YEARS later I said, oh hey bitch…maybe we should try cutting it out of our life a little bit, huh? So here we are.

I can’t be the only one who lives like this…in fact I know I’m not cause according to experts, 68% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. With so many of us suffering from the effect of lactose intolerance, the questions begs to be asked….is cutting dairy from your diet really worth it? Let’s find out together.

So what did we cut out for the month? Fucking everything you probably like. Butter, milk, cream (heavy and sour), yogurt, and cheese. We realized we’d need to find some kind of alternatives but ya know what? Kind of a bust. I don’t really like the taste of coconut at all which made finding the alternatives almost impossible because for some reason coconut is the main dairy alternative that exists. Dairy alternative selections also seem to be pretty skimpy at average stores and when you do find them they are insanely overpriced.

We got some plant based butter made with avocado oil which did what we needed it to do when recipes called for butter to be added. I don’t think it was that great by itself on toast but I’m sure it could be gotten used to over time. We usually drink almond milk but opted to pick up oat milk for this month and forgo any of the dairy milk we’d usually use in cooking. The oat milk didn’t taste like much but Jonathan did make rice pudding with it and the oaty flavor was very prominent even with the other flavors which wasn’t for me but also not the worst thing in the world. Oat milk in tea was pretty fine but it did separate some toward the bottom of the cup which didn’t actually change anything in the taste but was a little gross to notice. Lastly, we gave two different types of yogurt a go, one using coconut milk the other with almond milk. No. Thank you. Neither of us enjoyed either of them and to top it off they were expensive which made us feel like we HAD to finish them but I just couldn’t.

Other than the swaps above we mostly just didn’t use dairy at all. No dashes of cream to make our jarred tikka masala taste better, no sour cream on our tacos, and no cheese on our breakfast sandwiches. I’ma be real…it kinda sucked. You don’t realize just how much stuff has dairy and just how helpful dairy is to even non-dairy dishes until you can’t use it anymore. We’ve lamented more than a few times over how not that great our food was with those key dairy components missing.

But did I feel better? Honestly yeah. My stomach hasn’t really hurt all month, my skin looks a little better (which could also be attributed to the new birth control but lets say dairy had something to do with it too,) and I overall feel less gross than I have in the last few months.

So was going dairy free worth it?

For me…absolutely.

I like the way I’ve felt without dairy way better than when I’m eating it regularly. I loved not spending all night in the bathroom praying to the baby Jesus to put me out of my suffering. I don’t love the lack of (inexpensive) dairy alternatives but I’m willing to put in the research moving forward to see what I can find to make up for the things we’re missing….especially that sweet sweet heavy cream alternative (I miss you heavy cream!) As we move beyond this 30 day experiment I fully intend to stay as free from dairy as I feasibly can but won’t begrudge myself a “dairy day” now and again cause sometimes a bitch just wants a piece of pizza or a grilled cheese and needs to be reminded why she gave it up in the first place.

Is going dairy free right for you?

Maybe! If you’ve noticed a lot of gut problems that all seem to surround when you eat cheese or ice cream take a couple of weeks off that dairy wagon and see how you feel. It might make a world of difference OR help you realize that there’s a different, non-dairy related issue at hand. Of course consult with your doctor before making any big dietary leaps to make sure it’s the healthiest option for you!

Who else has cut dairy from their lives? How long? Has it been worth it for you? How have you felt in the time since you’ve taken it out of your diet? I wanna know these things! So fill me in in the comments below!