Milk and alternatives for QOL, lifestyle, and spellwork purposes

General Discussion
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Two things first. 1) not sure which category to put this in so if it needs to go somewhere specific throw it where it goes please. 2) this is my first real contribution to BALG so yay I no longer feel like a burden

Let me give a bit of background. Hello, its me, Haplo. I havent shared too much about my life but I had a topic that was in my mind and it needed some information I believe. My entire life Ive been lactose intolerant which has been extremely not fun. Of course I am heavily plagued by gluttony(body size is skinny incase people are curious) and I inflict suffering on myself by consuming A LOT of dairy products. A few months ago I ran into a ritual involving Artemis and Athena that required a bowl of milk and consumption of said milk. Without hesitation I did in fact correctly do the ritual, but my body did not agree with it. The intended results did not come and it got me thinking if it was because my body “rejected” the milk thus making the consumption part null and void.

Im not particularly into healthy living in any way shape or form so I havent done too much dabbling in alternatives for milk in general, especially because I love to inflict suffering on myself. Recently there was a sale on almond milk at the store so I got some and rather enjoyed it as well as having no consequences. This got me thinking “since the ritual I did before said just ‘milk’ could using an alternative have made it work?”. So here I am making this topic.

How does milk and milk alternatives vary in casts and/or rituals for how the results come out, as well as which ones give better results when weighed against each other. Are there specific types or brands that will show more? And how do the various types such as soy or almond influence people with lactose intolerance? Would love to hear everyones thoughts, opinions, and experiences

Edited for being less of a pain in the ass to read

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I think that could be correct, and maybe there’s some deeper symbolism there to unpack for you about things in your life that look good, but don’t agree with you “on a gut level” and therefore cause problems?

For example, you write “I love to inflict suffering on myself” - however serious or not you may be about that, trying to accomplish success while loving suffering creates a values clash, so you need to find ways to handle that positively and/or compartmentalise, and draw out another aspect of your psyche in the temple, I mean when doing active magick.

And if you keep consuming something your body reacts badly to, you could be contributing to systematic inflammation, and that can lead into cardio-vascular diasease and cancer, so perhaps there was a reason this was shown to you.

In general, as to whether you can or should use cow’s milk: if it was me, I am gluten intolerant and would not use gluten-containing foods unless there was an exceptionally good reason, but if a general offering of cake (for example) is called for, there are so many workarounds that I would simply choose one of those.

Almond milk is also reasonably traditional as a food, and while spirits often like new things, if you want to keep a somewhat-classical feel that may be better.

I’d stay the hell away from soy milk, and soy products in general, they’re frankenfood.

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Completely serious about that. I know I have a rather shitty personality and opinion of self, Im working every day to improve it and its a long process.

What kind of examples do you think work best? Im probably going to adjust my baking and etc to reflect the fact that Im changing my milk choices and this might be beneficial to me to have thoughts on where to begin with this

Did not know that at all which makes me feel like the ladies would have probably reacted favorably to using it instead and now Im slightly kicking myself.

I also noticed I didnt mention rice milk, but to be fair I hadnt even heard of it until someone just mentioned it to me a few minutes ago

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Thinking @Anassa might have solid input for this since I know she used to be a Veggielord in the past and this could have been something she looked into

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We all have our “demons” (not the helpful kind either), I had a lot of stuff to work through when I was younger and I’ll send you some links that might be helpful.

There are paleo recipes based on eggs and finely-ground nuts, and cakes you can make with fruit like bananas, or root veg like beets and carrots as the main starchy kind of base, it’s a big topic really, because there are so many gluten-free and dairy-free recipes.

There is gluten-free rice flour (rice doesn’t have gluten protein but can get contaiminated in processing and packaging) and plantain flour as well, that’s commonly used in commercially-produced gluten-free foods.

There is also milk sold, at least in the UK, called Lacto-Free, it has a weird bitter aftertaste but is (as the name suggests) lactose-free, if you can get something like that it may work in recipes, if you add a little sugar to make up for the lactose.

This hands down is my favourite site for nutrition info:

http://marksdailyapple.com/

If you need specifics, like gluten-free or dairy-free cake with cinnamon and ginger for Solar rites for example, or dairy-free versions of anything, search engines are your best bet, there are millions of recipes for things like that. :+1:

Neither did I until recently, but never kick yourself for not knowing, congratulate yourself for finding it out. :wink:

I’ve not had much experience with that so can’t comment. :smiley:

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I feel like diet restrictions and food allergies in the meta world dont really get as much attention as they should so Im hoping we get a lot of discussion in here. Really think it will have a lot of benefit for people.

Gonna have to start experiments myself I guess and see what kind of results I end up getting. Might have to start a journal thread soon if I get that interested

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In Greek tradition, when we say “milk” (when talking about rituals involving ancient Gods), we mean goat milk, which is the traditional milk they used to consume humans and Gods alike (a she-goat, Amaltheia, was nursing baby Zeus with her milk). That still falls under the “lactose” category, so definitely not an option for lactose intolerant person.

No, it wasn’t that your body rejected the milk, the reason is this:

You really think they want you to inflict suffering on yourself? Take this as a lesson to improve.

As I said, it’s not the type of milk that didn’t made it work, but your mentality.

I’m pretty sure the Gods are pretty understandable when you can’t consume something. I don’t know the type of ritual you performed, but red wine is even more popular to use in rituals. Next is water.
But if it’s absolutely nesecarry to use milk, then as @Lady_Eva said, almond milk is the best option, as the tree is native to the Mediterranean climate, and its seeds (among others) are also used in rituals as offerings.

I’m not lactose intolerant, but I’ve heard great comments from the people with the same issue.
I was reading somewhere that most Asians (Japanese,Chinese etc) are lactose intolerant, so they consume alternatives for milk/yogurt.

I was consuming dairy as I’ve said before :stuck_out_tongue: But I’ve tried all the alternates. I prefer almond, pistachio and coconut milk. You could find yogurt from coconut milk too. For almond and pistachio you can make them yourself as well.
I prefer almond milk for your coffee/tea while pistachio and coconut give an extra flavour in smoothies and ice cream.
And they’re absolutely safe.

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Thank you for the inputs. The ritual was very specific for requiring milk which is why I did it that way. If I had known about how my body reacts to it and my mentality towards it being an issue, I would have made the necessary adjustment

I didnt even know milk came in this variety. What the hell have I been missing from life.

Glad that youve tried various alternatives and I will have to work on making these changes.

Im loving the info youve provided and Im thankful for it. If I try another Greek ritual that doesnt expressly state milk I will definitely try the wine or water as alternatives. If it does say milk then Ill go with the almond milk for sure.

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Another question comes to mind. Does it have to be regular milk per say? I have some chocolate almond milk in my fridge as well and Im wondering if that would change outcomes on rituals. Ive also seen banana milk in the store as well

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I’d say if the ritual says milk, then use something as close to regular milk… I wouldn’t go with chocolate milk at all. Banana milk I wouldn’t use for Greek Gods as bananas are not native to the country.
But both the above could be used as offerings.

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Will make sure to keep to that kind of thought. Making different types if milks as offerings seems a good idea

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I am a well-documented vegan and a qualified with knowledge of endocrinology so I think I will be capable of helping you giving you good reliable advice.
Please do avoid foods that cause you intolerance. It is an inherited and genetic condition, and trying to push yourself is not good.
I would swap the cow’s milk with any other dairy free alternative.
I use soy and oat milk as a nice alternative. Each one of the dairy free “milks” have their benefits and handicaps (nil of the following milks will give you intolerance):

-Soy milk is the most similar to cow’s milk nutritionally speaking (similar amount of proteins, carbs and fats) with the advantage of not having saturated fat.

-Oat milk has got more carbohydrates than cow’s milk, but it has got beta-glucans, which are great for cardiovascular health due to their ability to lower LDL(“bad”) cholesterol, it promotes digestion, and it has been found great for immunomodulation (hence the oat use in dermatological creams for eczema).

-Almond milk (or any other nut milk, as cashew, hazelnut, etc.) is great due to its low carbohydrates, but it has the handicap (for some, an advantage) of being very low in calories, fat an protein, making its nutritional profile poorer than the rest of the milks (unless you want to lose weight and want something to put on your tea instead of cow’s milk).

-Coconut milk has a high lipidic profile (high in fats) that are beneficial for the body when taken with moderation. It is very low in carbohydrates and protein, which is good if you have kidney problems (high protein diets can damage the kidneys of people with kidney injury).
The handicap is that, if you drink a lot, it increases your daily consumption of fat, which is not great.

-Rice milk is great if you have a sweet tooth, but is VERY high in carbohydrates, and low in protein and fat, so drinking too much is a very easy way of increasing your daily sugar intake, which is not great neither.

So… as you can see, my best recommendation due to their nutritional profile would be soy milk or oat milk (or even coconut milk if you want to increase your fat consumption), but regardless of what you choose (you could even have different types at home) make sure that they have been reinforced with vitamins and minerals like calcium (if it also has got vitamin D or vitamin B12, even better).

I hope that this has brought more light about the subject.

Dark kisses.

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