Seem to be reacting to Dairy now!

[SugarSpike]

Hi Guys,

Just after a bit of support. I've been doing alright on a low carb diet, still have my good days and bad. Over recent months I have been waking up in the night very congested and sometimes find it hard to get back to sleep. I also just get randomly bunged up and think I'm coming down with a cold but I'm fine within a few hours. I also didn't noticed before but I'm always sniffly to the point where I get asked if I'm coming down with a cold!
Anyway I've been keeping a food log and figured out this is happening a few hours after eating dairy! A quick google suggests this isn't an unknown problem and a lot of people get flemy and congested after eating it.

My problem is my diet is already so restricted. I'm obvs very low carb and I am also intolerant to gluten. I try and avoid any grain at all and don't eat processed food really, which is very hard in itself.

I want to try cutting dairy for a month or so to see if this congestion improves, but I really don't know how I'm gonna do that!
Its lunch and snacks which will be the main problem I think as breakfast and dinner are usually the same, Breakfast is always scrambled eggs with either bacon or salmon and dinner is usually meat and veg.

I struggle with lunch and snacks now, but they usually consist of cheese, greek yog, cream cheese etc. What can I eat?!? Help

 

[Bluetit1802]

When trying to find a food that is upsetting your system in some way, it is really best to eliminate one at a time. So, for example cheese first. If that doesn't help, try yogurt, or butter, and so forth. Cutting out all dairy at once may just confuse matters, be unnecessary, , and restrict your diet too much.

 

[Brunneria]

I have problems with quite a lot of dairy, but not all.

The things that cause yawning, bunged upness and a bit of wheezing:
milk
soft cheese like cottage cheese
whey powder
yoghurt

The things that I am fine with:
Hard cheese,
cream (the less milk the better, so I tolerate double and extra thick much better than single cream)
butter
cream cheese
All goat and sheep milk, cheese, butters and yoghurts

It has taken me YEARS of trials and experiments to work this out.
So if I were you, I would do the same. Take a bit of time off all dairy (a few weeks), then slowly introduce things one at a time.

It was a huge relief to discover that I am ok with goats milk and butter and cream. And life without cheese would be very hard.

 

[zand]

You could try switching to goats' dairy. My naturopath tested me with goat's milk, cheese and butter and I was fine on that. I can now manage a small amount of cow's cheese and milk again.

Edit: oops just seen @Brunneria s post - sorry for the duplication.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

And should goat/sheep be a problem, there's coconut yoghurt and milk... Not exactly the same, but needs must.

 

[Brunneria]

ooh yes! I LOVE coconut yog. Delicious!
And you can even make it at home, which is much cheaper than buying it.

 

[DCUKMod]

In UK, we even have the fabulous CoYo, although it is pricey. If you can't find a suitable commercial coconut yoghurt, you can make it at home easily.

 

[LooperCat]

I developed an allergy to cow dairy last year, I get very tight chested and short of breath - measuring using a peak flow meter shows that my lung capacity halves. I have to take ventolin to open up the passageways and feel very congested and fatigued for 6-8 hours afterwards. I have the same reaction to meat and poultry.

Like @Brunneria I can handle sheep and goat dairy, as well as buffalo mozzarella. Waitrose sell double goat’s cream, but if you can’t handle that, Alpro soya cream is a good alternative. All the supermarkets do a few different types of sheep and goat cheese these days - a soft Philadelphia equivalent; chèvre, which is like Brie; Manchego makes a good cheddar/Parmesan substitute. I’ve even found blue goat cheese in a farm shop. Vegan cheeses are so much better than they used to be too, and as that’s an increasingly popular lifestyle, becoming more readily available.

I’ve not found a non-cow Greek yogurt but Alpro Simply Plain works well, and doesn’t split when you cook with it. The coconut version is amazing in curries. Decent sized supermarkets sell goat butter too.

 

[Lamont D]

As a fellow RH er, I have an intolerance to dairy, it is the lactose, regardless of where the dairy comes from, it is the glucose derived from the lactose that is causing your symptoms. As others have said it is trial and error.
The lactose is so much lower in full fat dairy and I can manage a few teaspoons of Greek yogurt, but that is it! No cheese, milk, and so on.
Because I have always had an intolerance, this doesn't seem to bother me as much.
Getting used to intolerance, particularly dairy, wheat, grains is hard, but having an intolerance to spuds (and chips!) Is a lot worse!
Imagine if I also had an intolerance to gluten?
Do you know what they put in place of the gluten?

Potato starch! (Aaaaaaagggggh!)

You seem to be doing ok, at the moment, despite these little issues, be patient, be kind to yourself, you will get there. I have found that I don't miss the food that is making me ill, you have to keep telling yourself, it is your health, you want to look after, you don't want to be ill, or have those awful symptoms. You want to get your energy levels back, feeling like you did years ago and of course be as healthy as you can be.
It is worth it!

Best wishes

 

[JimH]

The A1 β-casein protein found in most cow's milk is very similar to gluten and can have same effect if you are sensitive to it. As others have already suggested, try goat's, ewe's, buffalo etc milk products as those animals only have the A2 β-casein variant (as do humans). I haven't tried it, but an Australian company has bred cows that only have the A2 variant - and supply "A2 Milk" to most supermarkets.

 

[62Rose]

Have you tried A2 milk available now in the UK. It may help? A Professor somewhere in my journey suggested it but sadly it doesn’t suit everyone.