Why we created NELATAR

Daria's experience

My wife had struggled with skin blemishes and acne since her teenage years. The issue stayed with her well into adulthood.

Only after the age of 30 did she notice what, for her personally, appeared to be a clear connection between consuming dairy products and her skin. When she stopped consuming dairy, she noticed changes in her skin. When she ate foods containing dairy again, she observed blemishes returning.

For her, this personal observation became the main reason to largely remove animal milk from her diet in the long term.

My experience

My experience was completely different.

During my school years, I repeatedly struggled with strong bad breath. At that time, breakfast cereals with milk were part of my daily routine.

Later, I also began experiencing frequent and, for me, unusually unpleasant bloating and gas.

At some point, I started removing individual foods from my diet and paying much closer attention to what changed.

For me, a very clear pattern emerged: when I avoided dairy products, these symptoms largely subsided. When I consumed dairy again, I sometimes noticed the same reactions returning within a relatively short period of time.

I therefore also chose to largely remove animal milk from my everyday diet.

What began as avoidance became normality

We have now lived largely without animal milk for more than ten years.

What initially sounded restrictive has long since become normal for us.

We even make many alternatives ourselves today, including cashew, almond and oat drinks.

In doing so, we have found that living without animal milk can be surprisingly simple for us.

But another problem remained whenever we went shopping or ate out.

When “no milk” still means butter

Over time, we noticed another recurring problem: even when we ask specifically about milk, misunderstandings can still happen.

In a café or restaurant, we may ask: “Does this dish contain milk?” The initial answer may be: “No.”

But when we ask more precisely whether butter, cream or other milk-derived ingredients were used, we sometimes discover that they were.

For many people, the word “milk” seems to refer primarily to liquid milk itself.

For the question we are trying to answer, however, the scope is broader: Was animal milk or anything derived from it intentionally used?

Butter is not simply “no milk”. Cream is not simply “no milk”. For NELATAR, substances derived from animal milk remain part of the same fundamental question.

That is why NELATAR is also intended to help make the language clearer.

Not to criticise restaurants, manufacturers or staff, but to reduce misunderstandings.

If something is described as nelatarian, the meaning should be as unambiguous as possible.

But what do you actually call it?

We are not necessarily vegan.

A food containing egg can be perfectly acceptable for us. A product in which animal milk or substances derived from animal milk were intentionally used is not.

“Lactose-free” does not answer that question. A lactose-free food may still be made from animal milk.

“Vegan” answers a much broader question because it also excludes other animal-derived ingredients.

What we were missing was a simple term for one specific question:

Was animal milk or something derived from it intentionally used in this food?

We could not find an established consumer term that expressed exactly that distinction clearly.

So NELATAR was created.

NELATAR.

And from it: nelatarian.

NELATAR is bigger than our personal experience

Our personal experiences were the starting point for NELATAR. They are not medical advice and should not be understood as a general claim about the effects of milk on other people.

People avoid animal milk for many different reasons, including personal experiences, dietary preferences and lifestyle choices.

We do not want to tell people why they should avoid animal milk.

We want to make it easier to see where animal milk was intentionally not used.

From a personal question to a standard

A new word alone is not enough.

If NELATAR is to appear on products in the future, it must be clear what the term means and under which conditions it may be used.

That is why we are developing a structured assessment and certification standard alongside the consumer term.

The goal is to turn an understandable concept into a trustworthy sign over time.