I'm kind of hooked on strong iced coffee mixed w/ a lot of whole milk (no sugar), guzzling a half gal of milk every 10days or so. It makes a great drink, and the milk doesn't bother my system in any way, but in the interests of long term health, I started wondering about a dairy-free alternative that might do the trick.

I tried it with unsweetened cocoanut milk today -Yuk. Watery and just about tasteless. (I went for the unsweetened because I usually dislike most "sweeteners", and shuddered at the thought of any vanilla flavoring, etc.)

For me, the whole milk has the perfect amount of natural sweetness when mixed w/ expresso-strength undiluted toddy concentrate. ~4:1 milk to coffee makes a fantastic "coffee shake".

Instead of me running through every variety of soy, hemp, cocoanut, and who-knows-what-else- milk, I was hoping some aficionado here could give me the scoop...

I don't know why you think whole milk is somehow bad for you. My dairy farmer grandfather drank whole raw milk almost every day of his life, and died at 94.

My sister did teach me a trick when I was diagnosed with diabetes and stopped putting sugar in my coffee... microwave the 1/4 cup of milk for 30 seconds before adding coffee to it. Releases the milk sugars a bit and makes it sweeter.

the whole milk your grandfather drank was probably less tainted than modern-day whole milk.

also, you said RAW. big difference there, too.

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Unless you have a medical counter-indication, milk is fine.

I stick to grass-fed milk--much better quality fats.

Have you tried 1% milk? I switched to that years ago. Much better taste than skim milk; fewer calories than whole milk. Drinking 1/2 gallon in ten days isn't even close to "guzzling". I use one gallon of 1% every five days.

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Psurfer
a dairy-free alternative

ah, I see. Because my first thought was

I find heavy cream is a good substitute ;)

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-mj

Nothing wrong with dairy with the exception of hormones. But it is easy to find BGH free milks.

we've been using Hood Simply Smart and even the fat free isn't too bad - doesn't taste thin and watery.
Plus it keeps longer.

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Try Smart Balance brand fat-free milk. It is close to the consistency of whole milk, but with out the high fat content. The lactose-free variety is sweet-tasting. And because it is ultra-pasteurized, it has a long refrigerator life.

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thermarest

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Psurfer
a dairy-free alternative

ah, I see. Because my first thought was

I do 1/2 and 1/2 in my iced coffee.

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- Jack D.




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i've had some good skim with non-fat solids added back that is pretty good.

[www.rosenbergers.com]

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I use half and half. Nothing better in iced coffee. No sugar added.

As above, why do you feel that the small amount you are drinking is unhealthy? I like pasteurized but un-homogenized whole milk from a local dairy, grass-fed cows. It's delicious and worth the calories!

Agreed. Whatever ends up ending you, 1/20 gallon a day is not going to be it.

I don't actually know if there's really anything bad about drinking milk all the time or not. In the back of my mind is the little nagging voice of some health-foody assertion I once read, that regular cow's milk consumption was not optimal for adults, but that may simply be the common increase in lactose intolerance that often comes with age. Unfortunately, it seems that given enough time, all the crackpot health-foody assertions I've read over the years warning against this or that, turned out to be mostly proven true.

Not that this one would make me give up milk ...w/coffee, w/cookies...
Unless some great product I haven't tried required little/no taste sacrifice! -Like when I discovered plain whole milk greek yogurt as the perfect guilt-free sour cream replacement. (I can knock off a pint of Fage on the side without batting an eye.)

Btw, the way I make my iced coffee, 4:1 milk to Very strong coffee concentrate, works better with whole milk than half&half, which gets a little Too heavy if chugging 8oz at a time. And pure cream is way too rich for that quantity, and separates when mixed cold in most any amount, so forget that.

Something tells me the right coconut blend still Could work; I've become a fan of coconut oil as a pretty convincing butter replacement...

I'll see if I can find/try/countenance a reduced fat milk worth bothering with.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2014 01:27AM by Psurfer.

You can try coconut/almond milk mix, it is also unsweetened, but you can always add a bit of natural sugar. All non-dairy "milks" will be either not sweet or sweetened with something (usually plain sugar).

But I agree that there is nothing wrong with plain dairy milk - the idea (championed by Dr A. Weil among others) is that milk is only food for infants and there is no biological reason for adults to drink it, but I think that centuries of human experience would argue otherwise. And most food scares/recommendations have actually proven not to be true if really studied, at least as far as natural foods have been concerned.

i'm a big fan of a similar concoction using very vanilla silk.

yes, i read the last sentence of the op. i'm an aficionado of said blend.