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I thought this former cheese lover would never get over it, but six months on I was able to sit in a French restaurant last week-end and not be tempted in the slightest by an oozing slice of camembert! The restaurant manager was extremely irritated when I asked to have my white asparagus served without his Hollandaise sauce. He was absolutely angry! Finally I just told him I was lactose intolerant and he stormed off (no kidding). On the way out I couldn't resist telling him how much I had enjoyed it with fresh lemon and dill, and that it didn't need any sauce

p.s. My husband had some cheese and cream, even though I warned him about McDougall's revenge, and wound up spending the night in the smallest room in the house...

Been just over 5 months and I'll admit I still miss the cheese. Many dishes I make and I say to myself, "wow, cheese would be great with this!" Then again, I might miss out on some of the flavors of the dish if it were slathered in cheese. The cheese sauces I make are fine, but by no means a real replacement. Yet, I am happy to say I haven't cheated with cheese since starting this WOE back in Oct, 2011.

Good going, hun. Who wants all that crap covering up those beautiful asparagus anyway???

Cheese was always my downfall and the reason for me not to commit to a vegan lifestyle. After many failed attempts over the years, this is the first time that I do not miss cheese even one bit. My wife still eats it on occasion and it doesn't even bother me to keep it in the house. The last bit that she had in the house had to get tossed because it got moldy.

High five to us for kicking the cheese addiction!!

That's great - I feel the same way, lost my dairy cravings. Dairy was pretty hard for me to give up and took years, while giving up meat was an overnight change for me.

Your restaurant experience makes me feel very fortunate. I have not had too many problems with special requests. I can remember one time I was charged more for my steamed veggies in a Chinese restaurant than my friend who ordered a shrimp dish. And the manager did seem put off. I know in other countries it can be a challenge to have things made special.

Cheese was the last to go for me as well. I was surprised how easy it was to give it up. But once I gave it up my arthritis in my thumbs went away in 1 week. I'll never eat it again as it's not worth it. I do think for me it may have been a habit to eat cheese. I still have cheese in the house for my husband and found myself just yesterday reaching for a piece of cheese!!! What am I doing??? and snapped out of it before I acutally touched the cheese.....for me a mindless habit. I won!

Cheese was the only thing I missed when I made the switch to this WOE. I am pretty sure I was addicted. That first week I really craved it and my stomach was cramping for two days. Once that ended, I never looked back.

Now when I think of cheese, I envision having to clean up greasy cheesy pots and pans. I used to hate getting cheese gunk on the back of my dish sponges. Eating like this is worth it just in the improved ease of clean up!

(Confession: Sometimes I don't even use soap. I can rinse clean many dishes in plain hot water.)

Good for you all. I still have a small amount of homemade cheese perhaps once a month... huge improvement over my cheese laden lasagna or enchiladas...

congrats to all former cheese users! this keeps me away from them--
"Natural calf rennet is extracted from the inner mucosa of the fourth stomach chamber (the abomasum) of slaughtered young, unweaned calves. These stomachs are a by-product of veal production. If rennet is extracted from older calves (grass-fed or grain-fed) the rennet contains less or no chymosin but a high level of pepsin and can only be used for special types of milk and cheeses."

What worked even better for me was seeing the movie 'vegucated' and for the first time understanding the horror of modern dairy farming - cows repeatedly impregnanted and their babies taken away at 2 days old so that their milk can go to humans instead. And the calves being shipped off to veal farms or raised to be human milk machines burned out at an early age, then off to the hamburger factory. Not surprisingly, I lost my taste for dairy products in a big hurry! I can confidently say that I will never touch anything containing even one drop of cow's milk ever again.

I'd also recommend seeing the film 'earthlings' if you have a strong stomach as a quick cure to cheese addiction. Otherwise stick to vegucated, which can also be shown safely to children over the age of 10, unlike earthlings which is available on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce4DJh-L7Ys. Vegucated is available on DVD or iTunes. After seeing both films, my teenagers have stopped moaning about wanting some 'real milk'.

And if you really, really have to have some cheese, for goodness sakes get some Daiya! I'd rather eat some plant oil than stolen milk any day.

Hah! McDougalls revenge. DW decided 2 weeks ago that she was going to have a treat and settled for a Domino's Hawaiian pizza.
I sulked and ate beans on toast instead.
3 hours later she started the first of many trips to the small room. She is now a reformed cheezeaholic.

That'll do it every time.

Cheese was the hardest thing to give up for me too. I have 4 pounds of Daiya in my freezer from before I changed my WOE, and it's too expensive to waste, so I'm using it up a little at a time.

Cheese was such a large part of my pre-McDougall diet even though I was not a milk drinker. I cannot imagine the quanity of cheese I consumed every year at wine events and at meals where everything, it seems, was coated in cheese or cheese sauces. I am uterly convinced it was probably the number one contributor to my poor health (mega amounts of meat didn't help either!)
What I have learned since then is that there are some substitutions that are a bit cheesy but no real replacement for cheese. So I don't try. Much of the cheese "replacements are very high fat and remind me of a chemistry textbook. I wouldn't put that stuff on anything going in my body now. I thoroughly believe Dr. Bernards explanations about the addictive properties of cheese. For someone like me with high BP, high cholesterol, and overweight, cheese was probably the perfect food to kill me. If you haven't done it, lose the dairy. For many it's the best, most obvious thing to better our health.
I have watched my three young nieces all grow up battling issues such as tonsil and adenoid removal, tubes in the ears, and just about every other issue all while refusing to try cutting out dairy. They went through a lot of misery for NOTHING.
f1jim

I did try Daiya out of curiosity, and I'm glad to say I can't stand it. It really does taste as oily as it is.

I think nutritional yeast and cashew cream has a better flavor to me. Maybe because it has its own flavor and doesn't try to taste like cheese but has a great flavor similar to it.

I'm not fond of Daiya either, soliver. I think the cheddar flavor is better than the mozzarella, but neither one is that good. I agree with you about nutritional yeast. I think it has a better flavor.