Your Guide to Clean Dairy (and Dairy-Free) Swaps
Think your almond milk or Greek yogurt is a healthy choice? Let’s take a closer look—and find better options.
Welcome back to the Wellness Guide series, where we’re exposing the “health” foods that aren’t actually helping you feel your best—and showing you what to buy instead.
Didn’t catch Part One? It’s all about how to decode food labels and spot fake “healthy” foods—catch up here.
🧠 Quick Label-Reading Refresher (LFG-Style)
Before we dive into dairy, a quick reminder: the front of the package is marketing. The back—that’s where the truth lives.
If you’re buying something in a package, flip it over and scan the ingredient list, not just the nutrition facts.
Ask yourself:
Can I buy all of these ingredients at the grocery store?
Do I recognize everything on the list?
Does it sound like a real whole food—or a science experiment?
When it comes to wellness, simplicity wins.
The most nourishing choices aren’t usually the loudest ones on the shelf.
✨ Real food doesn’t need a marketing team—it’s benefits are built-in.
Now let’s dive into dairy🥛
🐄 DAIRY & NON-DAIRY SWAPS
Conventional dairy products can be loaded with more than just milk—many contain hormones, antibiotics, emulsifiers, and additives that may work against your health goals.
Here’s why it’s worth paying attention to the details—and the common ingredients in conventional dairy and dairy-free alternatives you’ll want to avoid:
🚫 Antibiotics & Synthetic Hormones (like rBST)
These substances are used in conventional dairy to boost milk production and prevent disease in crowded conditions.
But traces can end up in your milk, and long-term exposure may disrupt your own hormonal balance and contribute to antibiotic resistance—a growing public health concern.
Hormonal additives like rBST have been banned in many countries due to health concerns, but are still allowed in the U.S. unless labeled otherwise.
🍬 Added Sugars
Sweetened yogurts, creamers, and milks can sneak in more sugar than a dessert—which contributes to blood sugar spikes, inflammation, and gut imbalance.
Even products labeled “low fat” often replace the fat with sugar to make them taste better.
🍦 Natural & Artificial Flavors
“Natural flavor” might sound harmless, but it’s often a catch-all term for lab-made additives.
These ingredients offer no nutritional value and are often added to mask low-quality ingredients or enhance taste artificially.
🧪 Gums & Emulsifiers (like carrageenan, gellan gum, lecithin)
Common in dairy-free alternatives, these additives help thicken and stabilize products—but they can also irritate your gut, disrupt your digestion, and contribute to bloating or inflammation.
⚠️ Synthetic Ingredients & Unnecessary Additives
Conventional dairy products often include preservatives, stabilizers, and colorings that don’t belong in real food.
These can tax your liver, mess with your microbiome, and leave you feeling worse—even if the product looks “healthy” on the surface.
✅ What to Look For Instead
Certified Organic: Ensures no hormones, antibiotics, GMOs, or pesticide-laced feed.
Ingredient Lists You Can Read: You should recognize every ingredient—and ideally, there should only be a few. Don’t buy the products that have gums, emulsifiers and natural flavorings.
No Added Sweeteners or Flavorings: Opt for unsweetened, plain, and full-fat varieties when possible.
Cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and full-fat milk are making a comeback—and if you’re not sensitive to dairy, they can be a fantastic source of protein.
But here’s the catch: quality matters.
Getting 30 grams of protein in your yogurt bowl doesn’t do much for your body if it’s served with a side of growth hormones, cane sugar, and “natural flavors” (aka a chemical cocktail in disguise).
And if it’s not organic, it likely comes from cows treated with antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones (like rBST), and fed pesticide-laced grains.
If your goal is to boost your protein intake or add more nutrient-dense, whole-food options to your routine, choose dairy that supports your health—not sabotages it.
We’re going to dive into what not to buy (and why), and share LFG-approved, clean alternatives.
YOGURT
Siggi’s contains cane sugar and isn’t organic—making it a no-go if you're aiming for high-quality, additive-free dairy.
Chobani Flip is packed with cane sugar, natural flavors, and gums—not organic, and not supportive of true nourishment despite the high-protein label.
Oatly may be trendy, but it’s made with inflammatory seed oils, added sugars, processed gums, and synthetic minerals—far from a clean, whole-food choice.
So Delicious Coconut Yogurt includes organic cane sugar, natural flavors, starches, gums, and synthetic vitamins. Even with it’s organic label, it’s full of processed ingredients your body doesn’t need.
So now we know why these aren’t the best options for our health, what should we buy?
Maple Hill Creamery, 100% Grass Fed Organic Greek Yogurt- Ingredients include organic whole milk and live & active cultures.
Alexandre 100% Grass-Fed A2/A2 Organic Plain Yogurt - Ingredients include organic 100% grass-fed milk and live and active cultures.
Cocojune Organic Cultured Coconut Yogurt - Ingredients include organic coconuts, spring water, organic cassava root, vegan probiotic cultures.
The Coconut Cult Organic Coconut Yogurt - Ingredients include organic coconut meat, organic coconut cream, organic coconut water concentrate, organic coconut water, and a custom probiotic blend.
COTTAGE CHEESE
The key here is to make sure it’s organic. We want our high-protein snacks to come from cows that aren’t treated with artificial growth hormones or antibiotics. Choosing organic also helps us avoid the harmful pesticides used in conventional farming practices.
Here are our top LFG-approved picks!
Good Culture Organic Classic Cottage Cheese - Ingredients include organic skim milk, organic whole milk, organic cream, sea salt, live and active cultures.
Good Culture Cottage Cheese Organic 2% Low-Fat Classic - Ingredients include skim milk, whole milk, cream, Celtic sea salt, and live and active cultures.
MILKS & NUT
Silk Protein Almond Milk — Ingredients include cane sugar, soy lecithin, gellan gum, sodium ascorbate, and natural flavors. The extra protein doesn’t mean much when it comes with a side of chemicals!
Planet Oat Oatmilk — Ingredients include calcium carbonate, dipotassium phosphate, gellan gum, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, riboflavin (vitamin B2), and vitamin B12. Plus, the oats in this product are not organic. When it comes to oats, always choose organic—non-organic oats are often loaded with chemical pesticides!
Any whole milk that isn’t organic — We love whole milk. It’s high in protein and full of essential vitamins and minerals. But when it’s not organic, it can do more harm than good. The protein and nutrients don’t mean much if you’re also ingesting antibiotics, growth hormones, and pesticides.
365 by Whole Foods Market, Organic Unsweetened Almond Milk — It’s unsweetened and organic, which might lure you in! But follow the LFG Gut Check and read the back. When you flip it over, you’ll find: tricalcium phosphate, gellan gum, organic locust bean gum, vitamin A palmitate, ergocalciferol (vitamin D2), dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate (vitamin E), and cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). Not so clean after all….
LFG approved milks & nut milks!
Elmhurst 1925 Unsweetened Almond Milk - Ingredients include filtered water and almonds. Doesn’t get much cleaner than that!
Three Trees Organic Oil Free Oat Milk - Ingredients include filtered water, organic oats, organic almonds, organic chicory root fiber, and French grey salt.
Maple Hill Creamery Organic Whole Milk - Ingredients include organic whole milk.
Alexandre Eco Dairy Organic A2/A2 Whole Milk - Ingredients include organic whole milk and vitamin D3. A2 milk may be easier to digest than regular (A1) milk.
Once you start making these swaps, you’ll feel the difference!
And the best part is, we don’t need to give up the foods we love—we just need to choose healthier options.
Quick reminder- This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. I’m simply sharing my personal experience—please consult with your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health or wellness routine ❤️
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Any thoughts on raw milk??