Anyone else not able to eat milk based products? any tips on how to 'manage'?

Looking into the cause of my migraines, and it seems i have a sensitivity to milk products in general so im going to go 3 weeks without..then have another meeting to see where i am..

just wondering if anyone else has this and how do you manage without the cheese choc etc? but also the more hidden variety??

I can’t digest lactose, which is similar. There’s no easy way around it, you just have to get used to reading ingredients lists all the time, telling people who are cooking for you not to feed you certain things, asking the waiter what the chef puts into the food you’re thinking of ordering, and not eating stuff you’d really love to eat.

It’s a bit of a pain in the neck, but compared to the alternative (you don’t want to know) it’s worth the bother.

Hey, I don’t get on with cows milk but i find goats milk OK. Not sure if you’ve tried goats milk, but a lot of people are allergic to the hormones in cows milk, that they use to keep them producing milk all year.

I would be interested to hear about how you get on!

There is a Lactose free milk, I’ve used it as an ex had issues with lactose (and other things) you can also get tablets from a popular health food shop, can’t remember the name. which will let you eat milk products without problems

Found out, pretty much by accident, a few weeks ago that dairy was a contributor to my daily asthma problems. Cut out dairy products on a regular basis, but still have some cheese at the weekend.

I find the benefit of being able to breathe and exercise without asthma far outweighs any inconvenience of dietary changes.

I don’t eat chocolate, so no problem.
I used to make cheese for a living, so giving that up was a bit harder, but no problem.
Milk and yoghurt have been changed to soy based products.

The main problem is forgetting when out not to order white coffee in restaurants, which is strange because I drink it black at home.
I don’t eat desserts.

I’m sure that unless you are very sensitive then occasional slip up won’t be a problem.

Hope it works out for you.

Might be worth getting some testing done, just self diagnosis of food intolerance & allergy often means problems as you highlight above.

Go & see GP, explain concerns, ask if you can be tested. I test comes back showing issues with milk, then you can ask for referral to dietitian who can advise on the needed dietary changes.

well im actually in switzerland so its a little harder to find things (health shops not so popular as in the uk) but i went to the doctor and he did these tests on me hence the stopping for 3 weeks to see what changes that makes.

i cant have any sort of milk, no animal milk anyway. Soya has been tried and passed the taste test suprisingly.

i’ll need to see if i can survive a winter without fondue!

My GF can’t tolerate dairy. It’s not lactose that’s the problem but an allergy to a protein (well probably a protein). She can eat very dark chocolate, goats or sheeps cheeses. At first she was very cautious and cut it out completely but then symptoms eased and now she doesn’t have to worry about the minor contents of packaged foods.

Easiest thing to do is cook yourself and only eat “proper” food. That way there are no hidden ingredients. It’s made easier by the fact here mum specialises in teaching people with food allergies how to cook and eat healthily.

I have an American friend who is lactose intolerant. However, she takes a couple of lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose) tablets before every meal and is fine.

Not sure how much help that is for you, mind…

my gf used to take lactase pills, but they make her skin very sensitive. She comes from the home of lactose-free dairy products, so if in doubt move to Finland. She has noticed that if she eats a small amount of dairy regularly, the effects aren’t as bad as if she went tee-total. So my advice, despite different problems it may not be so wise to cut dairy from your diet entirely

However, she takes a couple of lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose) tablets before every meal and is fine.

Having spent three years tied to medicines I can say that a slight change in diet, in my opinion, is much better than daily doses of controlling medicines and carrying ventoline everywhere.

As you said, Scotia, the soya substitute isn’t too bad.

if you need protein supplements friend of mine uses pea protein and calcium tablets.I wouldn’t eat soya milk as it raises your eostogron ( female hormone) ( sp) levels and your may put on some weight or it may affect your cycling ( although it may affect nothing) and tastes ok if sweetened.

Easiest thing to do is cook yourself and only eat “proper” food. That way there are no hidden ingredients. It’s made easier by the fact here mum specialises in teaching people with food allergies how to cook and eat healthily.

That is what i do…but still the list of things not to use is scary!

Juiced – really? I didnt know that. I have just yesterday bought some soya to try but it was really so that i could kick off the 21 days..this wknd i will go to the one health shop that i know of and see what they have in the way of others.

Yeah i really dont want to take any pills…..kind of the aim of seeing this doc re: migraines…..really fed up being medic dependant.

Thanks for the tips tho people.

any more?!

Are you lactose intolerant or allergic to cows’ milk? If the latter you can have sheep, goat, buffalo etc stuff, whilst with the former you’re more restricted but you can still have mature hard cheeses (as the lactose turns into something else as the cheese matures). Low fat / healthy living food tends to have no dairy stuff in it.

I know a young lad who has Cystic Fibrosis and though he’s not lactose intolerant, as such, he has found that no dairy = less phlegm so without the dairy he has better respiratory function which is v.important to him. He treats himself to soya milk & cream as a substitute, but does so sparingly because the problem with alternatives is cost. If you’re intolerant I’d suggest a life without dairy and its alternatives if possible.

The less dairy we consume the better for the animals too. I come from a farming background; despite what the industry might tell you dairy cattle have a hard, hard life.

My son was diagnosed with a milk allergy when he was two, after he had serious eczema that just wouldn’t go away. Given that he _loved_ cheese it took a bit of adjustment to his diet, but I don’t think he really misses out on much – except for birthday cakes at children’s parties made with butter icing etc. He drinks oat milk (enriched with calcium – which is important) after the allergist suggested that soy milk is not great for toddlers. Rice milk was fine too, though if you drink 500+mL of this a day you have to start worrying about inorganic arsenic that is naturally concentrated by the rice plant. We tried goat and sheep milk, but he was just as allergic to these.

Out of interest, my parents decided to try a gluten free diet mainly for my father’s benefit, as he comes from a family of coeliacs (gluten intolerance). However, my mum, who was on the diet purely for convenience, found that her severe spring hay fever totally disappeared and that her mild sinus congestion caused by dairy products vanished. My father is sick of the gluten free diet, but my mum is not going back as the benefits are so obvious.

Wife is dairy intolerant. Only really got it under control last summer after going for proper tests, but she really did suffer for ages before then. Again, it’s cows milk that’s the problem, so she’s switched to soy milk and yogurt and goats cheese with no ‘side effects’. She comes from a family with sensitive stomachs, and her father is the same but will rufuse to do anything about it. Stubborn old sod.

The problem is now reading the labels on packets in the supermarket, as so many things have milk powder in. Eating out is no where near as bad as it used to be. Lots of restaurants are much more used to people with food intolerances, so they don’t blink an eye when you say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t eat X’.

Lots of good cookbooks out there that tell you how to still cook good, healthy food, without really missing out. Not a fan of Tescos, but it’s been a lifeline for the wife, as she can find lots on the shelf she CAN have, so she never feels she’s doing without.

As mentioned above, my wife also used the lactase tablets (available at H&B) and they worked a treat for her.

She became intolerant after a bout of food poisoning and, oddly, the intolerance has gone some 14 years later, after childbirth.

scotia; consider yourself lucky.

lots of people make their way through life without a clue that their migraines/asthma/eczema/ibs/whatever would be easily fixed if they stopped eating ‘X’.

it sounds like you’ve found your ‘thing’ and never need feel unwell again.

i’m lactose retarded/intolerant/allergic/etc. to dairy stuff too, but it seems i can get away with sheep/goat milk cheese, i use soya on my cereal, and have found a liking for a soy-latte – i recommend it!

ahwiles: of course – im not complaining, just asking for suggestions from you lot.

I dont actually know if it is this that is causing my migraines, but it is a exploratory test. The doc said there is a mechanical problem in my back that is also not helping.

It seems that it is the Casine protein that i am trying to avoid at the moment not just cows milk.

It seems that it is the Casine protein that i am trying to avoid at the moment not just cows milk.

It’s the casein that I have a problem with, too, which is why I’m on the soya route. I tried the lactose free milk and it did nothing.

If milk isn’t the problem, keep on trying as the feeling of liberation from your problem will be worth the time spent looking.

hmm, here’s my list of migraine triggers:

blue cheese, reading without me specs, skipping a meal, hitting my head on things.

other things for other people include red wine, chocolate, etc…

avoiding things (like milk, whatever) can be inconvenient, but you get used to it.

you’ll quickly get past the stage where you need to read the ingredients list on everything – you’ll just remember what you can and can’t eat.

I had to stop dairy about two years ago. and the key to it in the end was just to stop. Don’t go looking for substitutes (soya/lactofree/tablets) just don’t eat dairy.

Give it a complete swerve and do that by eating and drinking very differently. Dairy generally blunts the flavour of things and is used to pad them out so go in the opposite direction – so swap big mugs milky tea for small strong expressos. In otherwords go for big changes rather than a small shift. Try making those changes across the board too regardless of dairy, swap big water pints of bear for little vicious whiskys. Make an adventure of it, it actually can be quite a culinary adventure. If theres something that just doesn’t work for you without milk then cut that out too for a little while, then try it again after a few weeks. I didn’t have too much trouble switching to black coffee, but tea without milk was really not doing it for me, so I stopped drinking tea completely for a few weeks then went back to it and black tea was fine.

The tough bit to start with is more the shopping than the eating, you can be such a creature of habit in the aisle that if you cut something out you get the checkout with hardly anything in your basket, so find some good recipies and shop with those in mind for a while so you get a better balance of ingredients in your basket. The recipes don’t need to be all that different either, the dairy is only there to pad things out usually, cut it out a things usually taste better.

If you take it in small steps and rely on subsitutes then its difficult to make the changes stick, stuff like soya milk can be tricky to get hold of and when you can’t (or when you are eating out or whatever) its easy to laps back to milk. But cut it out and you’re palette changes quite quickly, and on the occasions where you do end up eating dairy you wonder why you ever bothered, it just makes things bloated and bland