Cow’s, Sheep’s and Goat’s Milk is Gluten-Free in its natural state unless these animals have been fed with Gluten loaded food. Plain Milk available in the market is Gluten-Free in its Skim, Low-Fat and Whole-Milk forms. However, look out for the ingredients label on the other Milk products available like flavored Milk, Malt-Milk and Milk-shakes as they may not be Gluten-Free. Also some products have thickeners, hydrolyzed vegetable Protein, vegetable gum or additives added to the Milk which may contain Gluten.
Nutrition Facts
Milk is about 87% water, 4.9% Carbohydrate (as Lactose), 3.4% Fat, 3.3% Protein, Vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, C, D, E, K, Folate, Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Selenium, Sodium, and Zinc. It also has some biological Proteins and enzymes like Lactoferrin, Lactoperoxidase, Lipases and Lactase.
Benefits of Milk
The various rich nutrition components of Milk contribute to healthy teeth & bones, reduced blood pressure, and help hydrate the body. Studies also show that Milk helps reduce the risk of colon cancer, breast cancer and type 2 diabetes.
Celiac Disease and Milk
If you have Celiac disease and are not experiencing a full recovery on a gluten free diet, then casein, a protein in cow’s milk may be the culprit. Many of you have already figured this out and are already on a gluten free, casein free diet, or at least a casein-reduced diet. For those of you who haven’t eliminated dairy products, it’s probably worth trying.
Thankfully, it’s not at all difficult to use non-dairy substitutes in baking. We had a cow-milk free house for 4 years, and I often use non-dairy substitutes when I’m baking, In fact, I rarely notice now when a recipe calls for a dairy product; I automatically reach for the non-dairy substitute without even thinking about it. Recent reader emails and comments have reminded me that I haven’t ever written a post about how to make dairy substitutions in gluten free recipes, so here goes:
Part 1: Non-Dairy Substitutions for Cow’s Milk:
As a nation, our cow milk consumption starts with breakfast – milk in the cereal bowl. Non-dairy milk alternatives are becoming much more readily available, even in rural areas. We try to rotate through the non-dairy milks since our kids drink a lot of “milk” and we want to avoid creating new allergies through overuse of a single ingredients. Some of the “milks” that we like are: almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, and rice milk. I’ve also seen hemp milk and flax milk in Walmart lately, but we haven’t tried them.
If you have access to different brands of a particular non-dairy milk, then I highly suggest that you try them all before deciding that you do or do not like them. We loved Silk products but detest 8th Continent. The Publix and Walmart private label non-dairymilks are both good, but each has a discernibly different taste. Different milks have different textures too. Almond milk is often thick, while rice milk is very thin and watery (it tastes better than it looks).
Many non-dairy milks come in Vanilla, Original, and Unsweetened Flavors. The vanilla flavor may be a good stepping stone if your palate needs some help adjusting to the flavor of a non-dairy milk. However, you will probably find that Vanilla becomes cloyingly sweet after awhile and you can then transition to the Original Flavor. Unsweetened is best saved for cooking and baking.
As with any processed food, be sure to read the label to make sure that the non-dairy milks do not contain wheat, barley or rye. Most do not….but some do.
Non-dairy milks are often priced higher than cow milk, but that price differential can often be overcome with coupons if you are willing to use whichever brand is currently on sale and/or offering a coupon. When I lived in Birmingham and could shop at Publix I was usually able to get non-dary milks for $2 for a half-gallon by combining coupons and sales. Unfortunately prices are much higher in the rural grocery stores that I now frequent, and the non-dairy milks never go on sale. Ugh!
Substituting Milk in Baking:
When you see milk in a recipe, you generally have two options. Substitute a non-dairy milk for the cow milk, or replace the cow milk with water. The main function of milk in a recipe is to provide liquid. Milk makes a recipe more rich and flavorful, so if that is an important aspect of the recipe then you would want to replace the cow milk with a non-dairy milk. A good example of this is Easter Bread. The usual liquid in bread is water, but Easter Bread uses milk instead and as a result the bread is sweeter, more tender, and much more special. Milk also tenderizes, which is why it’s usually used in biscuits.
In other recipes, the milk can easily be replaced with water. When I first started making homemade gluten free pizza crusts I used milk as the liquid. One night when I was out of milk I used water instead and realized that the pizza was just as good with water. Since water is much less expensive than milk, I always use water in that recipe now.
I like unsweetened non-dairy milks for most baking, but Original flavored milk is usually an acceptable alternative. Avoid the Vanilla flavor for baking – it has too much sugar and vanilla flavoring to work as a 1:1 substitute for cow milk.
If you’re not sure whether you should use water or a non-dairy milk in a particular recipe, just make a choice and see what happens. Since they are both liquids, you’re not likely to end up with a failure either way. Seriously, for four years I had a veritable revolving door of soy milk, rice milk, and almond milk in my refrigerator. When I needed milk for a recipe, I grabbed whichever container was the nearest and used it. I cannot remember any recipes turning out badly as a result, except when I used a milk that I didn’t like (8th Continent soymilk- yuck!) in a pizza recipe. So, use whatever you have, except for nasty soy milk in pizza crust recipes.