When I was younger, I never really thought about what I ate. I thought I ate healthy and avoided fried food and too many sweet things. Of course there was always a treat such as a cream cake on the way home from school. I kept it quiet, however, so my mother wouldn’t find out and I always ate my dinner. She could never tell, I was as skinny as a rake and had such a huge appetite.
My mother was a home economics teacher and my father worked for local government, they consumed food on a budget were very conscientious and loving parents. They raised my brother and I on a well balanced diet and they did a phenomenal job.
Its only recently that I think about what I eat and drink. This change in me was partly due to a Tony Robbins seminar I attended, where I met my husband, Matthew. On the last day TR posed some interesting facts on milk, such as the cholesterol, calories, saturated fats and sugars found in dairy. He was fairly radical in his suggestion that humans were never intended to consume animal milk. Now, wether you believe this or not, it started me thinking and seeking out new information on the subject.
I discovered there is a relation to allergies such as asthma and cows milk. There are also studies which suggest that there is a link between the consumption of animal protein and high animal calcium protein with major degenerative diseases. Even cancer sufferers are advised to eat mostly foods from plant sources. Naturally the dairy companies have reason to contest these findings and its true milk contains essential nutrients but these nutrients can also be found in other foods, with none of the fats and pasteurization process.
I had grown up believing milk was good for you. I was told that cows milk was essential for your weaned baby. I became pregnant soon after meeting my husband and now I found myself forced to think about the dairy I consumed. My husband didn’t drink milk, he’s Californian and a peppermint tea drinker. For me it was much harder, I am a Scottish lass and my beverage of choice is a builders tea with full fat milk and sugar!
When Gracie came into my life I changed the way I approached dairy. It was a struggle and I clung on to my beliefs, I wanted to prove my husband wrong. Partly because I loved the taste of dairy products. Yet, I noticed that my babies behavior would change according to the foods I put in my body. Not only did Gracie feel a difference, I did too.
I cut out the full fat cheese I was craving and my heartburn stopped. Gracie would start squirming happily again., I cut out the de-caff latte with half fat milk, Gracie’s colic would disappear and she slept happily. There was no coincidence, it was as plain as day. Milk was a factor and Gracie was telling me so.
It was a struggle to cut out dairy while Gracie was so young, this was only because I wasn’t aware of the alternatives to both nutrition and taste. I wished there was a website dedicated to raising your baby dairy free. It would have cut out the trawling through books and searching various sites on the internet to find a healthy, delicious, dairy free lifestyle for my baby.
This gave me inspiration for a website and a recipe book of which I am working on. I am thrilled about what I have discovered about foods and the delicious alternatives to dairy products. There are literally thousands of products and its easy. It excites me when I discover more and more delicious recipes. Gracie is a very happy and slightly tubby baby, which makes me more happy than I can say. She is my dairy free baby. She is vibrant, healthy and rich in all the essential nutrients she needs and more! I want to share my recipes and knowledge with you. So welcome to mydairyfreebaby blog soon to go live as a website. I will keep you posted.
http://graciedays.typepad.com/mydairyfreebaby/
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