Go Dairy Free

This is another excellent dairy-free guide from Alisa Fleming. Having suffered from stomach issues for the past six years, I have decided it's time to try altering my lifestyle bit-by-bit alongside my permanent medication, hoping that I will feel some benefit. It is sometimes difficult to know whether you have a food allergy such as lactose intolerance but if this is contributing to my health, using this book to remove dairy from my diet, will help.

I had been issued a FODMAP guide by my doctor a while back, which is a list of foods and food groups to avoid in my circumstances. FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols, which are short chain carbohydrates and sugar alcohols that are poorly absorbed by the body, they include dairy products. After considering FODMAP carefully and getting two books from Alisa Fleming, I have started removing the offending products from my fridge and replacing them with non-dairy alternatives.

I don't feel I eat all that many products in the dairy class but I guess you don't realise just how many foods do contain dairy. I don't think I will miss it all that much so I will probably think about going dairy-free for the foreseeable future rather than as an experimental treatment for my stomach symptoms, from what I have read lately, dairy really isn't that great for us anyway.

This book gives me so much more confidence to change my diet. It is a huge thing, after all, I have eaten dairy for 30 years now! The recipes all sound delicious, use easily obtainable ingredients, and aren't too fiddly. There are recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks accompanied with full colour pictures.

I would like to thank Alisa Fleming, BenBella and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This has a lot of great information in the beginning, from medical and health issues of consuming dairy to nutritional information on staying healthy when not consuming dairy. There's a section on how to best grocery shop and how to handle special events with family and children at school. I thought all of this information alone made a good book. It really was anything I could have thought to ask about going dairy free. The recipes look great, with ideas for dairy free staples along with mains, sides, and desserts you'd expect to see. I do think this would be better as an actual book, instead of as an eBook. The formatting lends itself to print more. Thank you to BenBella books for a chance to check out this ARC!

Found this book to be more informative than Fleming's other book Eat Dairy Free. Learned a lot about what foods may contain hidden dairy and the dairy alternative recipes seem promising though I am still skeptical about the mock cheese ones.

This one is fascinating! This book provides so much useful information about all the different types of dairy and the effects it has on our bodies. I appreciate how well this book is organized with the information and then all of the inspiring recipes. My family has been Dairy free for about six years now because my son was diaognosed with a milk allergy when he was four months old. Since he was first diaognosed, being dairy free was a struggle at first and it was so eye opening to read about all the different allergies and intolerances that occur with children and adults. I also deeply appreciate how the author walks through the information about the public school system that has the NSLP and how this affects not only my child but all the children and families of this country. There are also so many helpful suggestions for eating out, walking through situations with you child as they incounter different situations at school and the many many recipes.

This book is AWESOME!

I am so excited to try out the recipes! There are so many options for dairy free milk, sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, etc. I have IBS and suffer from terrible abdominal pains when I eat cheese , but I try to stay away from all dairy when I can since all dairy seems to affect it to some degree. I am so happy that I have this book to spice up my food again and to have the ability to eat a greater variety of foods. These recipes are not only free of dairy, but are also much healthier than the foods they are replacing. I would recommend this book not only to those who need to go dairy free, but also to those who are trying to make healthier food choices!

This is a great guide for people that are new to being dairy free and or people that have been dairy free. I found it interesting and helpful with a dining out guide, what foods to avoid and how to go completely dairy free. As a vegan I found it a helpful reference guide and liked the recipes. I would like to read it in a book form and may purchase it for people that want to go dairy free. Thank you for the ARC. My opinion is my own. Dairy is a evil industry based on rape, murder of baby calves and torture. The dairy products we ate as kids we were not informed about. Now we have far to much education to touch dairy and no one should support such evil farmers and put such poison in their body.

BenBella Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Go Dairy Free. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The first edition of this cookbook was released a decade ago, but changes on the dairy-free front has necessitated a whole new look. With more recipes for different types of dairy issues, as well as updated research and resources, Go Dairy Free is a comprehensive guide for those seeking a big dietary change. The author wrote this book out of necessity for her health, so readers who are suffering from dairy related issues can be certain that the recipes within have been tested on a person not unlike themselves.

Before the recipes even begin, the author takes the time to describe different proponents of nutrition that promote a healthy lifestyle. She discusses the benefits and drawbacks to different types of milk and the medical necessity for certain life changes. Go Dairy Free contains an interesting look at alternatives for calcium, needed for healthy bones, as well as a hard look at infant and childhood milk allergies. I particularly liked the section regarding eating out, with its tips and hints for ordering off the menu in restaurants. With sections regarding traveling, stocking your kitchen, shopping tips, and dairy alternatives, the author touches upon many subjects that dairy sufferers may find interesting.

The part of the book that I was most interested in did not arrive until Section 5, over 1/3rd of the way into the cookbook. The author includes a coding system for different dietary types, such as Vegan (V), Soy Free (SF), and Gluten Free (GF). Unfortunately, the index is presented in full before any of the recipes, making it more difficult to follow.

There are recipes for making alternative milks, as well as cream substitutes. The homemade butters are very interesting and are worth exploring further. With cheese alternative recipes, readers will be able to make more components as building blocks for other recipes. As evident by the sheer number of recipes designed in this fashion, readers should be aware that Go Dairy Free is to be used more as a reference for all things dairy free. From beverages to breakfast, baked items, breads, snacks, dips and spreads, soups, pizza, pasta, mains, and desserts, no aspect of good eating is left unexplored. Go Dairy Free can be enjoyed by many different types of eaters and I recommend it as a reference as well as a great cookbook.

There are many reasons to forgo dairy products: you may suffer from an intolerance or a full-blown allergy, you may have other health concerns or ethical reservations, or you’re simply not interested (some of us aren’t). Alisa Fleming was born with a severe milk allergy which she never outgrew. Ten years ago, when the first edition of “Go Dairy Free” was released, there were far fewer non-dairy food options than there are today, and of course research has advanced, as well, so now seemed like a good time for an updated version.

Sure enough, whether you actually want or have to skip out on dairy, or whether you’re merely curious, this book is filled to the margins with interesting information. In part one, you’ll learn the difference between an intolerance and an allergy, what the latest medical findings are, what dairy really is and which bits the body needs for what, how you may substitute these important bits, and much more. In part two, you will find more than 250 recipes to accommodate the dairy-free lifestyle, from simple staples like non-dairy mylks and butter replacements to breakfast favorites like muffins, breads, and even French toast sticks, soups, entrees, and desserts, and again: MUCH more. All recipes are vegan-friendly, as well, listing modifications where required to replace eggs (which are not in fact dairy products, no matter how cuddly they get with milk at the grocery store).

I found the information presented interesting and written in a very accessible format. The recipes span a huge variety. For people wanting even more, Ms Fleming also operates a webzine called Go Dairy Free, in which you could easily get lost for days.

There are two caveats I noticed: one, Ms Fleming mentions borage oil in the section of butter replacements. In recent years, experts have warned people away from the frequent use of borage (the plant) because it contains parts that act as carcinogens. I do not know if this also applies to the oil, but do exercise caution, if you can even find borage oil for a price that will not send you to the poor house. Secondly, red palm oil is gaining in popularity, but I for one am not buying into the claims made by virtually every company on the planet these days that their palm oil is sourced sustainably. The two biggest palm oil producing countries still destroy swaths of precious wildlife habitat every single day to accommodate the market. The trees from which red palm oil is made naturally grow in Africa, so if you can find oil sourced from there vs. Latin America or Southeast Asia, you’re better off using that. And then, of course, the debate is ongoing whether the saturated fats in palm oil are any better than those found in animal-derived products. You can do your own research on that.

“Go Dairy Free” is published by BenBella Books. I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

I was interested in this book because I have to follow a fairly dairy free diet, not by choice but because of lactose intolerance. I found this book to be great guide book, in addition to a cookbook for anyone who is interested in omitting dairy from their diets. I am always looking for substitutions and this book is a good resource for that, in addition to many links to helpful websites. Go Dairy Free is definitely worth reading for that information alone!

We have friends who are dairy-free, so this book helped me understand how to make food that makes both of us happy!