You Can Eat Exciting Food Without Risking Dairy Consumption

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Want Excitement That's Not from Fear?

If you are like me you went through a very lame period of boring repetitive meals after first cleaning up your diet when you discovered your dairy intolerance or milk protein intolerance (or related condition). Do you still cringe at the thought of how once tasty and exciting stirfry or pasta meals have been been eaten into submission by repetition? Let me tell you, it doesn’t have to be that way. True, I still have a bit more of a repetitive menu now, but that is because I can’t haphazardly gorge on whatever fast-food or junk-food happens to be in the neighborhood or within arms reach. I will tell you how I rehab’d by diet while rehabilitating by body and gastrointestinal track, healing decades of damage when I finally went on a 100% wheat free and dairy free lifestyle. Keep a Log or Note book for eg milk allergy or dairy intolerance symptoms as the case may be for you.

Take Note of the Dairy Intolerance Symptoms and the Circumstances:

Keep a notebook or log for dairy intolerance pain and complete diet

Learn to listen to your body and don’t ‘get used to’ pain or suffering. It is not normal. Make a note when it happens or that day when it is fresh in your mind, noting physical and cognitive dairy intolerance symptoms. For example, if you have stomach cramps, and couldn’t think clearly, make a note.

You should practice making a note about how you felt with as much detail as you can remember. As you become more aware of what is happening in your body whenever you are experiencing any kind of dairy intolerance symptom the notes should become more and more useful without too much irrelevant bits of info.

1. Note the dairy intolerance symptoms
2. Note the type of food
3. Note the brand of food
4. Note who made it

Dairy Intolerance Safety Point 1

Point one was really covered above, so I won’t repeat it, but make sure you learn to not ignore what your body is telling you. Really listening can be a big change if you have been suffering from lactose intolerance symptoms or a condition much worse, such as milk protein intolerance (MPI) or dairy intolerance for many years. Sometimes, just to get by and be productive we do this ‘mind over matter’ self-talk that can help us get though the day but can also help us lose touch with our bodies and our pain. You need all the facts if want to make the best change. It isn’t about being brave anymore, now it is about being well.

Dairy Intolerance Safety Point 2

Point two is the most obvious element eliminating in dairy from your diet and thus minimizing your dairy intolerance symptoms. You have to know what eat and not eat things with dairy. Simple, right? Not so fast. We have three more points that are essential to success. I tried for two years to get by with points one and two and lost 40 pounds, rarely sleeping through the night. I was sick and in pain all the time. In other words, you first need to get the details of your symptoms, so you know when they are gone (and if they ever come back). Next you need to know what types of foods are safe, which also means reading labels and knowing all of the dairy containing items. You also need to read the label to know if there is any cross-contamination. If they label says it “may contain traces of milk” or “this product was produced in a facility that also handles dairy“, I will often get sick. You might as well.

Dairy Intolerance Safety Point 3

Point three  is important because some brands are very reliable and others might have sloppy factory or labelling practices. Many times I have written or called a company and they indicated that their product used shared equipment and could be cross-contaminated with dairy but the label did not have a warning .  Good companies will have a warning in bold at the end of the ingredients for any allergens that may be present, I usually put more faith in the product if I see a may contain nuts, and no dairy in the ingredients. Be very careful and use your judgement though. In general, I never take a chance unless I know the product is safe. That is my recommendation for you as well. Why risk it?

Dairy Intolerance Safety Point 4

Point four is often overlooked and is the single most common reason why people on dairy free living diets experience lactose or dairy intolerance symptoms or get sick after they clean up their diet and finally start feeling better. There are so many ways you can eat food that is cross-contaminated with dairy. At restaurants, I always talk to my servers very carefully. I look at them to ensure they really understand what I am asking and that the cook will too. I can’t count the number of times when I was still learning I would simply ask for a menu item that was gluten and dairy free and the server would assure me it was as I ordered, assure me he or she had spoken carefully to the cook, and assure all was well as I put food into my mouth. I can’t count the number of time I got sick. I have even found out after the fact once that despite the assurances, neither the server nor cook even knew what gluten was. I can only guess that either they didn’t care, or more likely pride got in the way. Now I have a list of safe restaurants with knowledgeable staff and excellent chefs. I make a reservation, as well. Of course, some of these restaurants are pricey, meaning I may not want to eat out all the time, and may friends and family also might want to host.

I regret to admit it, and I always feel guilty when my friends, family and colleagues go out of their way to make special preparations for my dietary needs, but they virtually always get it wrong. I hate making people feel bad if they went out of their way to do something for me, but more than anything I do not want to get sick.

In my experience people will try hard to do a good job, but it is so hard to think of everything. I have multiple university degrees, including a professional doctorate and it literally took me years to learn everything I needed to know to protect myself from getting sick (and I still learn new things all the time). I should note that I live with gluten intolerance and dairy intolerance (GFDF) so there are extra challenges in my case. Just image, though, a bit of cheese, a utensite that was not quite clean, a wooden spoon (that can hide a lot of allergens), a condiment jar that someone put a butter knife in last week (normal people do not have DF and regular condiments like I do). I really can go on and on with this list, but I think you get the idea. Well meaning is not enough. Your wellness matters more.

• A frank discussion in advance of a get together usually works to let people know not to make anything for you. Do not risk suffering dairy intolerance symptoms just to be polite

I suggest pot luck all the time, and I love to bring over my homemade dairy free desserts such as brownies or dairy free cookies. I also suggest pot luck and bring my own items (prepared or not, depending upon the occasion) if I am expected to eat (because sometimes a coffee or drink is all you need, even if others are eating)

• Hosts often enjoy if you arrive early to a function to help out, and also “team cook” so that you can supervise and prepare meal choices that you know are safe for you to eat.

In a future post I will write more about dairy free living recipes themselves and how to create them, as well as how to shop effectively when you have dairy intolerance to deal with. I hope this article was interesting to read for you.  I can tell you that it was the most interesting post for me to write so far for Dairy Intolerance {dot} org and the first time I was up by choice at 4am dealing with dairy intolerance. This post is just the a beginning, even though this post itself is now at an end.

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