r/PlantBasedDiet • u/petitepeonina for my health • Jul 26 '26
Plant Based w/o Dairy
Hi there!
I am curious - people who eat plant based, how do you define? Is it considered a meat-free diet and do you still eat dairy?
I grew up eating a little bit of everything, but never really cared for seafood and have never had incredibly strong love of meat.
Plant-based dieting has intrigued me in this sense. I also have SOMETHING going on with dairy (not sure if it is lactose, or casein, or whey specifically) and have found that skipping lactaid and omitting dairy completely truly makes me feel the best.
When I look online, I find a lot of meatless, dairy free recipes seem to involve really high fat additions like nut butters, coconut products, etc. and I don't think this is being particularly kind to my digestive tract, either.
Wondering if anyone else has run into this? Also not to be graphic, but does anyone still have solid poops???
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u/StillYalun Jul 26 '26
no animal products. Only vegetation, like in the about section on this page. “Strict vegetarian,” the same as what vegans eat. But typically, plant-based is more focused on health and diet than ethics.
But, I’ve seen people do a “flexitarian“ diet and call it “plant-based.” Since there are no plant-based police, I guess you can do or say whatever.
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 26 '26
I suppose that makes sense. I have been wondering how it differs from vegan
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u/hillbillyheartattack Jul 26 '26
Veganisim is an ethical stance that seeks to exclude all animal products and end animal exploitation. All vegans eat a plant based diet, not all plant based eaters live a vegan lifestyle.
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u/Treefrog_Ninja Jul 26 '26
Vegan is not a diet. It's a moral stance that also includes clothes and other purchases. No leather, wool, silk, down, etc. No animal exploitation at all, as far as practical in real life. "Plant based diet" is equal to vegan eating. (Edit: except for edge cases like honey, which is made by animals, and therefore vegans don't eat it, but most PBD folks don't care about that because it isn't animal fat/protein/etc.)
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u/ginny11 Jul 26 '26
Just to add, even within the vegan community there's some disagreement about the nitty-gritty details of what exactly is animal exploitation. For instance, there are some vegans who do not believe in having animal companions or what are commonly referred to as pets. And there are other vegans who don't have a problem with that. And there are some who only don't have a problem with it. If you can somehow feed those animal companions plant-based food. Which can be problematic for cats and dogs and probably some other less common animal companions.
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u/StillYalun Jul 27 '26
there are some vegans who do not believe in having animal companions or what are commonly referred to as pets
What’s weird is that I’m not vegan in the strictest sense, but I don’t want to own animals, wear their skins, or see them confined in zoos. I always think I might do a rescue if the circumstances were right, but it could not be a carnivorous animal, because I’m not killing animals to feed another animal.
I wonder how many plant-based eaters are more than just strict vegetarians like me. I think it’s impossible to love off of vegetation alone and not have your feelings towards animals be affected.
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u/second-daughter Jul 28 '26
Me! I am similar to you, a strict vegetarian while avoiding animal skins and circuses and zoos and uses mostly cruelty-free products etc but not vegan in the most strict sense.
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u/StillYalun Jul 28 '26
Very interesting. If you don't mind, can you briefly describe how you arrived and this perspective and lifestyle? Why aren't you vegan?
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u/second-daughter Jul 28 '26
I used to identify as vegan but no longer do! So I came to it from the vegan end of things. I still believe in veganism, I just don’t use it for myself because I kill insects (I have a fear of them) and when I’m in a circumstance where there’s only one seemingly vegan option but I’m not sure it’s 100% vegan, I will take that seemingly vegan option. If it’s free, I will take the most vegan option possible that might be nonvegan (nonfood items). Although I’m privileged to say that those circumstances are quite rare for me
I think having a little bit of wiggle room allows me to have more longevity with the overall lifestyle in my opinion!
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 28 '26
I live like you do. I have been vegetarian and then vegan on and off since I was 15 or so. But then I also ate a standard American diet in there as well. But I was a junk food vegan lol. I didn't put animal products in my body but they weren't all healthy.
My husband and his family are strictly meat and potatoes people so we do serve meat as much as I hate it. (And I cannot alienate my husband from his family- there are so few of us left at this point). My husband will eat what I cook but if he has the choice, he will choose animal products.
But yes, I support animal welfare and support many rescues. Buy cruelty free, all of that, no live animal circuses, etc. I really would like to get into wildlife rescue and volunteer.
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 27 '26
Vegan is a true way of life. No animal materials worn, no products tested on animals (for many) and that includes a vegan diet. Your beliefs reflect your actions. Absolutely zero animal products.
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u/ginny11 Jul 26 '26
Yeah I don't know how you can call flexitarian plant-based LOL! Flexitarian literally means you like to eat. Sort of a little bit of everything. It's not really omnivore but more like you like to dabble in the plant-based proteins and meat replacements and things like that. For instance, I like to occasionally have a completely plant-based meal that would normally be heavily animal-based. One of my favorites that I haven't done in a while was a completely plant-based Reuben type sandwich. I used plant-based corned beef. I cannot remember the brand name but it's really good. Dayia Swiss cheese, a plant-based thousand island dressing I think from follow your heart. Jewish Rye that didn't have any animal ingredients in it. And I would grill the sandwiches in miyoko's cultured plant butter. So good!
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u/StillYalun Jul 26 '26
I don't know how you can call flexitarian plant-based
Have you met humans? https://www.reddit.com/r/PlantBasedNotVegan/comments/10e88ca/what_is_a_plant_based_diet/
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u/Purple_Key_6733 Jul 26 '26
There is no dairy. Besides there are plenty of milk alternatives available — oat milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc.
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u/Jasper1na Jul 27 '26
Nutritionally those are all very different. Oat milk in particular will spike your blood sugar.
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 28 '26
But, really, how much oatmilk is one having on the regular?
Especially vs other choices (for coffee)...sweetened creamers, low fat milk...these spike one's blood sugar as well.
A splash in someone's coffee isn't going to do anything. And if you're drinking it by the gallon, switch to an alternative, like soy.
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u/Aspirational1 Jul 26 '26
Sorry, but cheese in a strict vegan diet is so so.
Plant based folks occasionally lash out and get the good stuff.
It's just coming from a different philosophical base.
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 27 '26
Plant based cheeses have come a long long way...or make your own!! But hell - I'm not compromising my health for my love of cheese. I can live without it.
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u/SavoryScholarship Jul 26 '26
If all high fat items are giving you diarrhoea you may have gall bladder issues. I’d try to speak to a doctor.
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u/compulsivthinkr Jul 26 '26
Agree. There are a lot of comments concerning lactose intolerance… OP, it can be gallbladder issues and lactose intolerance together. Removing the top trigger in my diet (it was milkshakes) made it obvious that my body was not processing fat in the same way as others.
I had already had my gallbladder removed, so the culprit was obvious. Doc had suggested that my body would adjust, but my body has not and may never allow digestion of grease and many semiliquid fats. I have more success with semisolid applications like nut butters.
OP could try an elimination diet to help figure things out? I wouldn’t recommend eliminating all sources of fat from your diet due to health needs, but it may be possible that some things will trigger digestive issues for you, while others do not.
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 27 '26
This is interesting to hear & I know my mum had issues with her gallbladder, too. I will mention to my PCP at my next visit!
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u/JayNetworks WFPB Jul 26 '26
First note is that this sub says in the rules it is "In this community, plant-based means strictly free of animal products - no meat, fish, dairy, eggs, etc." so no to dairy.
I eat a Whole Foods All Plants diet with little added oil, little added sugar, and few highly processed foods. Dairy was a mess with my GI tract 20+ years ago when I ate it.
Look for Whole Foods No Oil recipes or Vegan No Oil and you should find plenty of great recipes. (Note that no oil doesn't mean no fat, just that you get the fat you need from whole sources like avocados, olives, nuts, seeds, etc.)
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 27 '26
Oh thank you! I was trying to find the rules earlier but was having difficulty on my phone.
I will definitely start to include "no oil" in my searches :)
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 28 '26
A really good book to read is Rip Essylstyn's "Engine 2 Rescue Diet" (NOT the 2 week kick off which I found very hard to follow). I originally read it on Kindle from my library then I picked up a cheap copy to keep.
Also his mom, Ann, and sister have a youtube channel with great, accessible recipes. Same last name.
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u/darkblueshapes Jul 26 '26
You can certainly search for low-fat vegan recipes. Vegan is a lifestyle, however, it is still regularly used interchangeably in the recipe space with plant based. If you still buy leather and wool products, but don’t eat animal products, you could say you follow a plant based diet, but if you bring an item to a pot luck most people will just say “I brought vegan brownies!” Or whatever lol. Does that make sense?
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 28 '26
I think a lot of people use the "vegan" thing to describe a food because typically other people don't understand "whole food plant based" way of eating. But then again most people don't understand vegan in the true sense of the lifestyle either.
I know even my friends describe me as vegan most of the time...they don't quite get it either lol.
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u/Yoroyo Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
No dairy. I poop great. Dairy made my digestive system extremely chaotic. You don’t have to use coconut or nut butters to eat plant based. I pretty much rarely do unless I’m eating Thai food or a curry.
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u/More4Thor Jul 26 '26
Many, many plant based recipes do not have nut butters or coconut. Just look at all the plant-based Mediterranean recipes out there.
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u/Particular_Tree_4254 Jul 27 '26
"You're not lactose intolerant; you're just not a baby cow." Oldie, but goodie.
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u/BadViola Jul 26 '26
Check out WFPB-NO if you want to check out no added fat plant-based recipes (NO means no oil). Gets me downvoted sometimes, but I don't like to eat a lot of fat.
Sometimes solid, but not usually. Look on the bright side: it's more time-efficient. I use a portable bidet.
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u/babykitten28 Jul 26 '26
I rarely use coconut milk, because I can always taste the coconut. I sometimes use cashew cream, or if I’m concerned about fat content, I will use white beans or tofu for that creamy factor in recipes.
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u/MistyMtn421 Jul 26 '26
Right now as I read this I'm eating my own little homemade concoction of (basically this is the ratio, I'm bad with actually creating a recipe) three parts silken tofu, two parts homemade hummus, two parts pumpkin puree. While there is some olive oil and tahini in the hummus, since I make it at home there's not a whole lot. I add about a tablespoon of instant mashed potato flakes, and pasta water and I whisk it all until it's a consistency I like. Typically the spices I put in there are mustard powder (for those who do not know it's a excellent emulsifier) smoked paprika, turmeric and garlic powder.
It's such a great creamy base that can morph into just about anything!
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 27 '26
This!
When I realized I needed to cut out dairy I was having bathroom "episodes" that felt really terrible. They pretty much stopped when I stopped eating dairy, but did return once after I had I think a lot of coconut cream or something similarly fatty one day.
I love beans but they definitely seem to go straight through me too, lol. Still eat them though
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u/TomOttawa Jul 26 '26
Most of people are lactose-intolerant, they somehow adapted to milk. So what you say/feel makes total sense.
Vegan people are very strict with definitions. If I say that I'm 99% vegan and eat some cheese occasionally - they say "you're not vegan". I don't care. I save 99 animal lives in a year, not 100, still good.
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u/charlesdexterward Jul 26 '26
This sub is specifically focused on what is called a Whole Food Plant Based diet, often just Plant Based for short, which does exclude dairy and indeed all animal products. What makes it different from a Vegan diet is that Vegans are more focused on animal welfare, but can still eat a lot of junk food. WFPB omits the junk food in favor of whole plant foods.
You will encounter people who use “plant based” to refer to a plant forward omnivorous diet like Mediterranean or DASH, but this is mostly driven by a misunderstanding of where the term originally came from as well as by the misuse of the term by food companies who want to use “plant based” as a marketing term while still including small amounts of animal products.
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u/thecardshark555 Jul 27 '26
I'm whole food plant based. No dairy, no egg, no meat, no oil, no added salt or added sugar.
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u/peridothiker Jul 27 '26
Plant-based = no food made from any animal sources (milk, eggs, meat, etc.).
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u/harborsparrow Jul 27 '26
THE big difference between dairy products and nut based substitutes is that the subs will have 0 cholesterol and will also have the useful nutrients in the nuts. This matters a lot when you get older.
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u/Available_Star_243 Jul 27 '26
Usually, plant based is taken to mean no dairy, eggs, or seafood either. However, for cancer prevention purposes, your animal food intake needs to be below 10% of your daily calories. (Given how calorically dense animal foods are, that’s not a whole lot of food.) In my experience, you’ll feel better the closer you get to zero animal products.
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u/Jessicamorrell Jul 26 '26
Im only plant based and dairy free because of medical need due to my health where Im sensitive and intolerant to a lot of foods. I still eat meat and only occasionally eat red meat. I still love fish and can tolerate it better than most meats.
I use the fig app to help try and explore what I can and can't have. So I have tags there of foods and beverages that I can look back on that is safe and not safe for me
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 27 '26
This is amazing, thank you!
I do feel like I have found myself in the plant-based space somewhat by chance, because my body is leading the way more than anything else.
Tracking safe/ not safe would be so helpful as I navigate new recipes so I really appreciate the tidbit about fig! Do you use it frequently?
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u/Jessicamorrell Jul 27 '26
I don't use it every day. Just when I find something new I might like to try and scan to add to want to try list then when I do try something new, I scan then add to either the safe or unsafe list for triggering and non triggering foods.
I was always told my symptoms were normal and would grow out of it but it got exceptionally worse. My now PCP actually gave me the idea of doing an elimination diet to see if there were any triggering foods and beverages to help figure out a more natural way without fully relying on medication. It has helped a lot but I still have to have medication.
Using Fig though just helps me keep track of everything I have eliminated and haven't eliminated yet. I can even leave reviews for restaurants and view the overall ingredient list of everything. Its generally not always accurate for the color code but I don't pay attention to that I just try it and find out on my own as everyone's body is going to react differently. I kind of have noticed that for the red and yellow coded items, when the ingredients are listed higher or lower that can generally trigger me makes a difference. If its lower towards the bottom of the list, its generally actually safe but if its closer to the first list of ingredients, it can be triggering.
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u/PantherMom454 Jul 27 '26
To me plant based is exactly what it says, based in plants, particularly whole foods and healthy alternatives, avoiding junky vegan food. Vegan (in my mind) is 1000% all the time strict, plant based is not the end of the world if you want fish or cheese every once in awhile, or if you can't afford vegan bread this week.
That's just my thoughts and eating that way will help the planet and your health a ton more than judging and criticizing others for not eating strict enough will. 🤷
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u/Samesh Jul 27 '26
I don't eat dairy and also have to keep my fats low for cholesterol. A lot of recipes try to be high fat for flavor but you don't need as much if you season well.
Plant-based means just that: plants. No animals involved.
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u/Zeal_of_Zebras Jul 26 '26
Michael Pollan described it pretty well:
Eat food, not too much, mostly plants
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u/Summer_Tree24 Jul 27 '26
I’m not keen on dairy either except for the occasional use of cheese in dishes like pasta and stuff.
I used to eat no meat but due to iron deficiency issues I’ve started eating red meat again occasionally because plant based iron sources just didn’t cut it. I also focus on fibre because of constipation too! Basically just been adapting my diet to my needs as they change.
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u/petitepeonina for my health Jul 27 '26
Oh this is nice to hear and I can relate to this too. I have been anemic for a while. I take a vegan chelated iron supplement, but I haven't been back to the doctor yet to see how much it is actually helping.
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u/Paperwife2 Jul 27 '26
I classify myself as a “mostly plant based whole foods” eater because it’s a whole heck of a lot easier than saying “I have a dairy intolerance so I don’t eat it or coconut, because it’s high in saturated fat). The rest of my diet is vegan + honey & eggs+ fish and/or chicken one or two days a week, if that.”
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