No! No! No! Sodium Caseinate...

[Cadence]

I think I already know what the answer to this will be...but I'll ask anyway. I was so excited to find coconut milk at a local grocery store that wasn't chalk full of gunk. Ingredients: 99.9% pure coconut milk, sodium caseinate. I didn't even THINK about the second ingredient until I got home with my four cartons (different packaging then I've seen before...). Now I've got a bowl of sliced bananas with coconut milk poured over them waiting for me in the fridge and I don't know what to do! I'm trying to rationalize it by telling myself that it's only .1% of the total ingredients. I was just so excited to find it because so many other Whole30 compliant foods are nearly impossible to find here or outrageously expensive. We have a couple of very small health food stores, but nothing like a Whole Foods or Trader Joes and so far I haven't seen any other "good" coconut milk. So someone please just tell me what I already know so I can hide the rest of it in some deep dark corner of my pantry...

[Johnny M]

I don't like to be the bearer of bad news so I'll let wikipedia do the talking here:

Casein has a molecular structure quite similar to that of gluten. Thus, some gluten-free diets are combined with casein-free diets and referred to as a gluten-free, casein-free diet. Casein is often listed as sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate or milk protein. These are often found in energy bars, drinks, and packaged goods. A small fraction of the population is allergic to casein

[Cadence]

Yeah, I found that too I ALSO found something saying that the FDA claims that it's so processed that they don't even consider it a lactose protein. But we also know how reliable their health guidelines are...

And I guess it could be considered a blessing in disguise since I wasn't hungry and didn't really NEED to eat. I was just looking for my traditional "kids are in bed" snack. So I brewed up some Chamomile tea instead!