Anyone else found they have problems when changing from UK to Canadian cow's milk?

We swopped to soy milk - the kids behaviour improved instantly - they were fine in the UK, little buggers in Canda. If I eat things with traces of some milk products, I get a migraine (Cadbury's chocolate is fine, Tim Hortons cream filled donuts are out).

I spoke to a naturopath who said this was pretty common for people coming from the UK.

Canadian milk is infused with trace hormones from the stuff they feed the cows. Mine also had problems with the switch so I found a local dairy for a while that supplied organic milk. Got too expensive though, as my lot get through four litres a day. I have never got used to the bright white stuff that seems to last for weeks and tastes like no milk I have ever tasted from a cow. Apparently they also add some chemicals when they pasteurize and homogenize, chemicals that are not on the list of ingredients.

Some of the "troubled" youth I work with have been put on dairy free diets after some major spazz attack...the difference is quite shocking.

wow, a bit of shock revelation... anyone know about follow-on milk for toddlers (under 2yo)? no behaviour problems with that i hope!

PS: do you get use to it? or you just avoid canadian milk always?

No idea about follow on milk, sorry. Big sections of the non-european population over here have problems with digesting milk, so there are usually soy based alternatives.

I can tell when my kids have had milk .... we just avoid it like the plague.

Occasionally I'll think I can have a Tim Horton's cream filled donut at a meeting, then the migraine starts and I start to feel nauseous.

You have to watch out for the soy milk - some of the big cartons have almost no extra nutrients added, we got run down really fast on that stuff. So Good is the best brand we've found - they also make really nice ice cream!

We also got into making home made jam when we found the strawberry stuff in the store had tartrazine added - colouring crops up where you least expect it.

how about other dairy products? yogurt, cream even cheese? do they taste alot different, and most importantly they have unnecessary additives?

i guess organic shops will stock "better" dairy stuff... are they really expensive?

I don't touch any of them - we're completely cow's milk free - no products with skimmed milk powder, whey powder, etc.

We tried soy cheese, but it was awful - we have goat's milk mozarella on pizzas.

Soy yogurt is nice, I haven't tasted cream for almost a year now.

A lot of people say Canadian dairy products taste different - I can't remember.

Organic shops do stock "better" stuff and yes, they're more expensive.

I have heard that when we are babies our bodies contain some kind of natural enzyme that can absorb milk, but that after that humans can't digest milk properly so that is why so many people have problems with it.

Most cheddar cheese is horrible. I read a Bill Bryson book where he said something along the lines of - they have 40 cheeses in North America all with different names and they all taste like nothing. All those orangy/white type of waxy looking cheese - Havarti, Monterey Jack, Cheddar etc. etc. - have not much taste. The old more expensive cheddar is better but recently I bought some at IGA and it had a peculiar oily type of consistency.

Its a pain in the arse isnt it? my wifes become allergic to milk products. Hard to shop arround dairy, you just dont realise until you have to do it. Eating out gets tough too. Thanks god we found the soy ice cream, or I may have died a violent death by now. Toughest thing is no pizza.


FWIW I havent noticed a lot of difference between UK and canadian dairy product taste. Cheese may taste a little less sharp, but thats about it.

You might also consider rice milk which, like the soy milk, also comes fortified with vitamins. So much of my diet is soy based I try to use soy-alternatives where there are viable ones.

so basically no decent dairy.... that's awful!!!!

our toddler hates drinking milk (we give it to her, she cries or spits it out) so we have to supplement her calcium intake by giving yogurts (like fromage frais), and cheese (usually chedder), as well as baby (follow-on) milk put into her food... is it we won't be able to get these decent dairy products out in canada, or will have to fork out alot more money for them?

i feel the wallet tightening already...

All that stuff is readily available in canada and not expensive. Our kid is the other way, we have had to strictly limit her milk intake to 15 oz, otherwise she will drink 40+, which is not good for her.

Interesting.

Since living in Canada, I have been having alot of migraines - especially the kind that distorts vision (aura). I assumed the altitude of Calgary might be the culprit, but you think milk is to blame?

I might try avoiding it for a while to see if it's my trigger too.

Try So Good - unfortunately it's more expensive that cow's milk.

Protein & nutrient content vary by brands, read the labels closely.

You could try a naturopath - they'll take you off dairy, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, etc - pretty much anything that's nice to eat!

I have to say that I eat a lot of cheese and drink a reasonable amount of coffee with milk/cream in it and haven't noticed any ill effects. The milk and cream we serve with our coffee at work is organic so that probably helps. On the cheese front I agree that the common cheeses such as black diamond etc is pretty crappy but Canada has a lot of good local cheeses that are farm made just the same as in the UK. In fact if you go to a UK cheese shop you will find imported Canadian Cheddars, usually aged cheddars. Also all grocery stores have deli cheese counters with imported cheese so you can go in a loblaws and get some double gloucster or lancashire or wenslydale(gromit) or you can go to a proper cheese shop and get better quality. One good Canadian cheddar taht is pretty common is Balderson although you will pay more of course than for generic black diamond or cracker barrel etc.

On the dairy free front we sell lots of non dairy beverages. Such as soy milk and rice milk and also almond milk and potato milk. Most come in regular, vanilla and chocolate flavours and also in enriched varieities with lots of vitamins etc and also come in fresh as well as the shelf stable versions. We sell also a lot of soy cheeses and also rice cheeses which while terrible compared to real cheese are popular with those who are lactose intolerant etc.

You find a lot of specialist foods here such as low sodium and sugar free and wheat and gluten free cor celiacs and vegtarian and vegan and dairy free. We sell some dairy free frozen pizzas as well etc.

Drew

Same here, I get breakouts when I drink the ordinary milks in the store here, that is why I just use lactose free milks now, NATREAL being one of them.