As many of my readers will know, I've got this annoying allergy to milk protein (diagnosed by a proper allergy clinic by skin-prick test things), which means I have to avoid milk, cheese, butter, cream and yoghurt in general, along with other milk-based products. Given that milk appears all over the place (full-fat Hellmans Mayonnaise is milk-free, their low-fat version has cream in it, but the extra low-fat is again free from milk!) I have to spend time looking at product labels, and checking out menus, and asking for additional information in restaurants.
I have to remember to inform almost anyone who serves me food in a restaurant, take away, etc. that I need to avoid any food containing the above products. It's a hard thing, for me; being so demanding and picky - I hate to make a fuss! Mind you, given the choice of avoiding milk-based products or ending up back in A&E with antihistamines and steroids being pumped into me, I know which I'd choose! (that only happened twice, but given that I've felt so much healthier all round since giving up milk, I don't want to go back to having "dodgy tummy" every other day.) The worst recent experience of this was when I was sitting in the Cafe Rouge in the Bullring, Birmingham; I'd specifically told the waiter that I needed to avoid milk, cheese, etc. in whatever I ordered, yet when my meal arrived, one taste of the potato garnish and I knew that it was full of cheese. On complaining, I was told "that's garnish - you don't need to eat that". Excuse me, garnish? I paid a fair whack of money for a meal that consisted of an extremely overcooked duck leg, some soggy beans, and a mount of potato covered in cheese, and that's classed as garnish? I got a bowl of new potatoes in the end, though the waiter didn't receive a single penny in tips from our table.
Since I was diagnosed a couple of years ago now, I've managed to compensate and substitute many different things on my diet so that I can eat healthily and relatively normally. So, I have soya milk (So Good is my favourite brand), dark chocolate (or soya chocolate, but that tends to be a bit too sweet for my tastes), and I seem to get through quite a few jellies from Sainsburys, along with some great Alpro deserts
On a recent trip down to visit James's parents, I was thrilled to hear that my fabulous mother and sister in-law had found the ultimate in non-dairy - non-dairy ice cream! Swedish Glace provide a fantastic range of soya-based ice cream that really tastes like ice cream! Perhaps you can claim that I'm just syaing that because I'm used to the taste of soya these days, and it's true - it's been about two years since I last tasted ice-cream, but I was in heaven! I was offered the choice of the coffee and chocolate varieties, and I devoured plenty of both! Since I got back to Birmingham, I was a little disappointed that my local Sainsburys only stocks the vanilla ice cream, but that tasted fantastic too!
The only thing I'm really missing now is cheese. If I could just find a really good dairy-free alternative to cheese, I'd be happy.