What are the best replacements for dairy products?

Many people started replacing dairy products such as milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream and ice cream from their menu for both health reasons and also impact on the planet could be a good reason.

People happen to be the only species in this world who drink and eat the milk of another animal, and continue doing that until they are old…

When replacing dairy products we must be very cautious! Dairy products are a source of important nutrients like protein, calcium and other important vitamins and minerals.

Let’s take a look at below alternatives who might perfectly replace dairy products.

Beware we do not take lactose free dairy products into consideration since these are still ingredients that are chemically processed adding chemicals to cow milk.

Let us focus at protein rich alternatives and calcium rich alternatives.

1. Nutrients of a glass of cow milk, butter, cheese and yogurt
2. Protein rich alternatives for a glass of cow milk
3. Calcium rich alternatives for a glass of cow milk
4. Protein rich alternatives for cow butter
5. Calcium rich alternatives for cow butter
6. Protein low and calcium low alternatives for cow butter
7. Protein rich alternatives for cow cheese
8. Calcium rich alternatives for cow cheese
9. Protein rich alternatives for cow yogurt
10. Calcium rich alternatives for cow yogurt
11. Protein rich ingredients in general to compensate
12. Calcium rich ingredients in general to compensate

Further to the WHO people require 500 mg calcium and the UK sets the standard to 700 mg each day. If we take a close look at the top ranking of all foods containing Calcium, it is clear that it will be hard to replace cheese, milk and yogurt. However if we drink every day one or two glasses of oat milk, soya milk, hemp milk or almond milk and add poppy seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, almond nuts, hazelnuts, sardines, canned salmon, soya yogurt, tofu, kale, collard greens, chick peas, soya beans or whole wheat bread, then you can achieve the 700mg of calcium.

Ingredients	Calcium per 100 g
Poppy seeds	1152 mg !!!
Sesame seeds	780 mg
Cheese***	707 mg
Chia seeds	504 mg
Sardines	382 mg
Canned salmon	283 mg
Almonds	269 mg
Kale	254 mg
Collard greens	232 mg
Yogurt***	183 mg
Whole wheat Bread	163 mg
Rucola	160 mg
Oat milk	146 mg
Soya milk	140 mg
Hemp seeds	139 mg
Soya yogurt	132 mg
Hemp milk	125 mg
Tofu	125 mg
Soya pudding	120 mg
Almond milk	120 mg
Watercress	120 mg
Milk***	120 mg
Spirulina	120 mg
Hazelnuts	114 mg
Chick peas	105 mg
Soya beans (cooked)	102 mg
Spinach (cooked!)	99 mg
Edamame	82 mg
Soy cheese	71 mg
Egg	56 mg
Whole wheat pasta	50 mg
Broccoli	47 mg
Quinoa (cooked)	47 mg
Hummus	38 mg
Figs	35 mg
Chinese cabbage	29 mg
Mussels (including shell!)	13 mg
Apricot	13 mg

Health institutes indicate that people have to gather 1,2 – 1,7 g protein per kg body weight. Someone who weighs 75 kg easily has a required daily intake of 100 g proteins. If we would like to replace dairy products (and red meat) we have many tasty alternatives if we look at below overview. Once again a combination of nuts, seeds, soya, tofu, whole grain bread and pasta, sardines and canned salmon could be the solution 😇. Add also other fishes and sea food, chick peas, quinoa, beans, lentils, chicken and hummus.

Ingredients	Protein per 100 g
Spirulina	57 g
Hemp seeds	37 g
Sardines	25 g
Tuna	23 g
Canned salmon	23 g
Cheese***	23 g
Trout	21 g
Seitan	21 g
Almonds	21 g
Salmon	20 g
Mackerel	20 g
Canned tuna	19 g
Chick peas	19 g
Sea brass (dorade)	18 g
Sea bass	18 g
Cod	18 g
Crab meat	18 g
Sesame seeds	18 g
Poppy seeds	18 g
Soya beans (cooked)	17 g
Octopus	15 g
Hazelnuts	15 g
Chia seeds	17 g
Whole wheat pasta	15 g
Anchovies	14 g
Quinoa (cooked)	14 g
Egg	13 g
Chicken	13 g
Winged beans	12 g
Whole wheat Bread	12 g
Scallops	12 g
Edamame	9 g
Tofu	9 g
Lentils	9 g
Yogurt***	8 g
Hummus	8 g
Milk***	7 g
Mussels (including shell!)	6 g
Soya milk	6 g
Soy cheese	4 g
Avocado	4 g
Kale	3 g
Rucola	3 g
Oat milk	3 g
Spinach (cooked!)	3 g
Soya yogurt	3 g
Hemp milk	3 g
Broccoli	3 g
Soya pudding	2 g
Watercress	2 g
Almond milk	1 g
Figs	1 g
Chinese cabbage	1 g
Apricot	1 g

Nutrients of a glass of cow milk, butter, cheese and yogurt:

There are a lot of healthy alternatives available. Regarding protein content, soya milk scores slightly lower (6g) than milk (7g) and coconut milk scores 4g and hemp milk scores 3g and also oat milk scores 3g. Regarding calcium content oat milk scores higher (292mg) than milk (240g), also soya milk scores higher (280mg), hemp milk scores higher (250mg) and almond milk is even (240mg) while coconut milk is rather low (36mg). Rice milk has too low values to be considered as a replacement.

So the combination of Soya milk, oat milk, hemp milk and almond milk form great replacements for cow milk.

Olive oil is the most obvious replacement for butter to cook delicious meals. However it lacks protein and calcium. Soya oil is also a possible replacement in addition to peanut oil and sunflower oil, all lacking calcium and protein.

So we need to compensate the calcium and protein need via other food sources.

Soy cheese is a great replacement even though the protein content is far lower (4g) than in cheese (23g), same applies to the calcium content (71g) vs the calcium in cheese (707g). An even better replacement kan be found in the Tofu topping recipe with 9g protein and 126g calcium. You could also try the avocado spread that has quite some calcium content (52g).

In any case we need to compensate with other calcium and protein rich ingredients.

If looking for good replacement of yogurt made with cow milk, there are many good soya alternatives. 200g Alpro soya Protein pudding even contains 20g protein, which is much higher than cow yoghurt (8g), while soya yogurt on average contains 3g and soya pudding on average 5g protein. The calcium content in the same Alpro soya Protein pudding contains 240mg calcium, which is slightly lower than yogurt, just like soya yoghurt containing 198mg and soy pudding on average containing 180mg.

So for the yogurts there exist perfect replacements in soya.

Protein rich alternatives vs a glass of cow milk:

Calcium rich alternatives vs vs a glass of cow milk:

Protein rich alternatives for cow butter:

No alternatives found.

Calcium rich alternatives for cow butter:

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Calcium low and protein low alternatives for cow butter:

Protein rich alternatives for cow cheese:

Calcium rich alternatives for cow cheese:

Protein rich alternatives for cow yogurt:

Calcium rich alternatives for cow yogurt:

Protein rich ingredients in general to compensate:

Calcium rich ingredients in general to compensate: