The Love That Didn’t Last…With Milk

Once, many years ago, Milk and I were friends. Good friends. I loved Milk. Milk loved me.

Back in high school, I easily drank three large glasses a day. Milk went well with cookies and peanut butter sandwiches, was refreshing, and was easily my favorite drink.

Around when I turned 17 though, Milk betrayed me. Every time we got together I got a horrible stomachache. Eventually, I learned that I needed to move on. I was heartbroken. My drink of choice for the past 17 years was no longer a match, so I had to start searching for a new one.

And not long after, I found my new Milk of choice:

Rice Milk, I love you.

(I don’t necessarily drink Rice Dream (which is great but often out of my price range), but rice milk in general. Our local supermarket Stop and Shop carries a great one that’s organic and tastes good. I stick to rice milk because of my soy allergy and my almond allergy, but when it’s on sale, I like to buy coconut milk too.)

So, I’m not going to use as strong a word as hate when it comes to Milk, but often, we don’t get along.

Trying out different kinds of dairy in my last year of high school, I came to one conclusion: lactose intolerance. Everything disagreed with me back then, even yogurt and cheddar cheese, which are usually fine for people who can’t digest milk. Rather than use Lactaid pills and deal with finding lactose-free options, I decided to quit cold turkey – I stopped eating all dairy for the next five years, which is part of what influenced me to become vegan back in the day.

Strangely, once I quit veganism and slowly added dairy back into my life, I found a lot of it was okay again, especially cheese and yogurt. But Milk was still not my friend. Milk still upset my stomach, and ice cream did too, sadly.

Through the years, I experiment with how much I can tolerate Milk. Have a whole glass of the stuff? No way. I’d be ill for at least a day. Plus, now I find it kind of gross. Ice cream every day? It also doesn’t agree with me, but I can eat ice cream every few days and feel okay, thank goodness.

I do like to add a splash of Milk in my coffee or black tea, which I use with caution (and sometimes just stick to coconut milk, if I have it around), but again, I can’t have it too often. Maybe once a day.

And so, the long saga with Milk continues. I never seem to know what will happen when I want Milk back in my life. I really ought to give it up and just stick to my Rice Milk and Coconut Milk loves, but Milk just always seems to be around. At coffee shops. In restaurants. At friends’ houses.

So Milk, I still like you. But I don’t love you like I love Rice Milk. We’ll be together for a long, long time.