When it comes to losing weight, we seem to love a good rule. Whether it’s “don’t touch carbs” or “only drink papaya juice for a week”, give us something simple to follow and, for at least 45 minutes, we can manage it before we move on to the next “simple” rule! Recently, there’s been a big trend in cutting out dairy, and with more and more dairy-free alternatives appearing on supermarket shelves, doing it is easier that ever before. But does cutting dairy do anything for your wellness, and does it help you to lose weight?
If you avoid all things creamy and cheesy because of food sensitivities, the first thing you need to remember is that lactose intolerance does not equal a need to avoid all dairy. Unfortunately, you will find lactose in most of the dairy products out there, but there are a few which don’t contain the high levels of lactose that affect your wellbeing with digestive troubles – and some don’t contain any lactose at all. There are many cheeses that have almost negligible amounts of lactose in them, while live active cultures help yoghurt to break down some of the lactose that is present, which further enhances digestion. You may even be able to tolerate some full fat milk, as the fat causes the lactose to break down.
So that’s good for people who have a lactose intolerance, but will eating all that extra dairy now suddenly make you fat? You might want to stick with rice milk as you believe it’s healthier than cow’s, but this isn’t the case. Rice based milk is very low in protein and does not contain all the micro-nutrients you find in cow’s milk, but, aside from this, it is not ideal for anyone who wants to lose weight. Instead, go for lactose-free cow’s milk (Liddells), A2 milk, soy milk and almond milk, as all of these have a low GI and are richer in some form of beneficial nutrient, like almond milk is rich in vitamin E and lactose free milk can provide calcium, phosphorous, vitamin B-complex and potassium.