One of the things that changed my awareness about the kinds of “food” we eat was a book called “Sugar, Salt, Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked US by Michael Moss.

It’s an eye opening read.

One of the things that shocked me the most, was the cray cray truth about the recommendations made by the government concerning what constitutes a healthy balanced diet.  Making a long and somewhat complex story short for the purpose of the blog (but seriously, read the book for the long more complex version, it’s totally incredible – and not in the good sense), the dairy industry has long been subsidized by the US government.  Because at one time milk was considered a necessary food for the American population, the government took the dairy industry under its wing. The dairy business is not subject to the same laws of supply and demand as other markets: whatever isn’t bought by the consumer is bought by the government.  At one point there was such a surplus of dairy, the US government stored nearly 1.9 BILLION pounds of it in underground bunkers in Kansas City.  WTF?!  And these numbers are from NINETEEN EIGHTY ONE!

So then the government tried to figure out ways to better MARKET dairy so that people would consomme more.  For example: Got Milk?  Those milk mustache ads with a slew of easily recognizable celebrities and athletes.   Extra cheese everything : double stuffed crust pizza anyone?  It really was a double whammy marketing ploy,  one part of the campaign appealed to our taste-buds and sense of gustative adventure.  The other more insidious strategy was geared toward encouraging people to eat dairy in all its forms: milk, cheese, yogurt, etc for its nutritional benefits.  (And this despite the fact that these are major sources of fat in the American diet.  Which as we all know, is a problem.)

Which brings us to the question of dairy and nutrition.  Is dairy really necessary?  The tide sure is changing on what experts say about including dairy as an integral part of our diets.

Here’s what some smarty pants people at Harvard say about milk…

Again, making a long story short, many experts agree that dairy isn’t necessarily bad in small quantities, but it isn’t really necessary for our diets either.  Even though it remains very ingrained in our culture.

I remember being really surprised when my second baby, Mister Mister, weaned, his pediatrician who I mostly like was pressuring me to give him what in French is called “lait de croissance”.  This essentially means growth milk, and it’s a type of vitamin fortified milk that is for children under the age of 3.  I explained that I wasn’t totally sold on the idea of cow’s milk, but what really bothered me about the “lait de croissance” were all the sugar additives.  And she said, “oh yes that’s normal, the iron fortification gives the milk a terrible metallic taste, so they add chocolate or vanilla to cover that up.”  Wait, really ?!  I’m giving my kid extra sugar so he can drink milk to help his IRON intake??  Cow’s milk is THAT omnipresent it the lives of babies and young children.

I’m not sure where I first heard/read this, I think it might have been in the documentary Forks Over Knives.  But someone said, “what other species do you know other than humans, that consume a MAJOR amount of milk and derivative products from ANOTHER species”.  And I couldn’t think of any.  And then of course there is the famous: cow’s milk is nature’s perfect food… for baby calves.  And something about that makes perfect, logical sense.  We humans probably really don’t NEED dairy all that much.  We CERTAINLY don’t need it in the quantities with which it is being produced, which has brought on a whole host of other issues that figure into the question: the health of the animals producing the milk (hello hormones and antibiotics), the humane treatment of said animals (nothing humane about it in fact), the economic and ecologic consequences of the dairy industry, to name the big ones.  But more, lots more, on this “host of other issues” at a later time.

I f’ing LOVE cheese.  A creamy bleu, a soft chèvre, or perhaps an aged comté, or all three together, paired with a glass of red wine might be one of my favorite things in the entire universe.  I still use dairy when I cook, but I also use quite a few alternatives: almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk,  olive oil, etc.  To “substitute” for cheese it all its umami, creamy goodness, I use a variety of cashew cheese/dip recipes.  Totally multifunctional, they are lovely aperitif dips for veggies, lovely spreads for breads, yummy fillers rolled up in collard greens or lettuce, thinned out with a bit of rice milk or water they can be used as sauces in pasta, rice or quinoa.   Here is one of our favorites!

Spice Cashew Cheese

I cup of cashews

1/4 cup plus a couple glugs of olive oil

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

Juice from about two large juicy limes

Pinch of sea salt

Pepper to taste

For full disclosure I first ran into this recipe in Gwyneth’s cookbook (don’t judge!) It’s All Good which I’ve found to be helpful for plant-based recipe ideas (I SAID, don’t judge).

Glug the olive oil into a pan and heat to medium heat.  Dump the cashews in the heated oil in the pan and stir around a bit so the cashews get a nice coating of the olive oil.  The idea here is to roast the cashews a bit, but not too much.  While they are goldening up (it should take five minutes or so) add the spices (cumin, turmeric, smoked paprika) and mix in with the cashews.  I mix everything a lot during this stage so the spices don’t get burnt.  When they are roasted to your liking, remove from heat.

Transfer the spice-covered cashews to the food processor.  Add the lime (I don’t give exact measurements for the lime, we like it tangy, others prefer it less acidic so you really have to adapt to your personal taste), 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 water and mix everything together.  I usually let it mix for about a full minute and a half so that some of the cashew oils are released, this helps the creaminess of the texture…

It has a tendency to explode at the beginning, so after it’s been mixing for a full minute or so scrape down the sides of the processor.  This is when I add a pinch of sea salt and grind some pepper in.

The texture should start looking quite creamy.  You can adjust the thickness by adding more water (or rice milk) to thin the mixture out.

Stick a fourchette in it, ’cause you’re done!