So Confused! Milk, Dairy, Casein?

[Auntie-Manda]

I definitely have some kind of problem with dairy... Usually after I eat cheese (pizza is the worst), I get a pretty bad stomachache along with some cramping, bloating, and constipation. Some products with milk in them are fine and don't cause problems (like chips with cheese flavor). I just never know until I try it. After a particularily bad experience with pizza, I decided to trial dairy free for a few weeks and see if I felt better. Well, this is day 6, and things are going ok, I guess. I haven't seen any of the symptoms that I see from dairy. But... gluten free + dairy free is no fun at all! I don't really understand the differences between all the milk/dairy/casein problems that people have... Also, since it's likely that I have celiac disease, I hear that my body is maybe just still healing (gluten-free for 3 months only) & having trouble with dairy for now.

 

I take a probiotic daily, and I recently found out that they make a "lactose defense" formula. I'm wondering if this will work for me. But not really knowing exactly what my problem is, and if my body can't handle dairy because it's still healing, I don't know if it's a good idea. I just want to be able to eat food and not blow up like a balloon! Dairy free is for sure a ton more difficult than gluten free for me. So if there's a way to still be able to have cheese & ice cream, I want to know!

 

WWYD?

[Brandiwine]

Only thing I know to suggest is to go two weeks with out dairy, and try a cup of milk but nothing else with dairy for a few days see how you feel. If no symptoms after those few days try cheese but nothing else dairy and see what happens. Some ppl have a dairy intolerance other a casein intolerance which can be found in non dairy items. That's all I know about the casein sorry I'm not more savvy on that, I'm sure some one else on here will know more.

[Brandiwine]

And also it could be something else in the pizza besides the cheese, some on here can't have tomatoes, Im seemingly having a problem with yeast :-/

[Ksee]

Milk has sugars and proteins. Lactose is a milk sugar. Casein is a milk protein. People can react to either or both. The cheese flavor you don't react to might be made of artificial stuff with no actual cow type anything in it. I think it would be much easier to avoid dairy because of the wide variety of products made for people with cow type allergy.

Start with milk, there is soy, rice and almond. None taste exactly like cow but trust me, after you have avoided cow for awhile, it doesn't taste good at all. There are yogurts made from soy and coconut milk and cheeses made from all sorts of things. Many people with allergies to cow can tolerate goat just fine. Goat cheese and milk is easy to find but a bit more expensive. 

There is a wide variety of frozen deserts without any cow in them as well. 

Something I would do is take another look at the pizza. Pizza is mostly other stuff with some cheese on top yes? How does that compare with the amount of cheese you eat in other ways? It seems suspicious to me the pizza causes so much more trouble than anything else.

[Auntie-Manda]

Hmmm, well I eat tons of tomatoes with no issue, and the crust is just gluten free bead-type stuff, and I have other gluten-free bread, crackers, cookies, etc without issues. As far as toppings, I usually have chicken and/or sausage, which are both fine. I guess I figured that pizza was more problematic because there is more cheese than I would otherwise consume in one sitting- like maybe limited dairy is OK, but too much causes problems? I've had problems with other dairy things, too- like frostys from Wendy's and cheese (not on pizza). It seems really sporradic- like the same thing will cause issues one day and not the next. And if I can have dairy sometimes without issue, I want to!

[Brandiwine]

That's understandable. Dairy did the same thing to me before I went vegan. Some times a bowl of ice cream was fine and some times it wasn't, same with cheese. I'm not sure why unless it has something to do with damage done from gluten I read on another thread earlier today that went into depth about why dairy can be an issue for us I will try to find it and post it here.

[Ksee]

Your probably right, I only thought it was worth looking at again because I've heard people say to look at ingredients every so often to make sure there was no change.

I'm not sure what grocers are near you but I've had good luck doing searches online to find what was available at the local grocer. I went to their website and typed in "gluten free" to find out what products they carried. I already know about milk substitutes because at one point I thought that was my problem. Fortunately for me I found out the real problem was gluten but it would of been easier for me to adapt if it had been cows milk. There is so much more available for that problem. 

I hope you have a happy shopping experience.

[Auntie-Manda]

That's understandable. Dairy did the same thing to me before I went vegan. Some times a bowl of ice cream was fine and some times it wasn't, same with cheese. I'm not sure why unless it has something to do with damage done from gluten I read on another thread earlier today that went into depth about why dairy can be an issue for us I will try to find it and post it here.

And now you can handle dairy? Yay, there's hope for me!

[Juliebove]

I have to avoid all forms of dairy.  Seems I can be okay with it for a while but then it starts making me sick.  If I lay off for a really long time, like 3 years, I can eat it again but it's not worth it.  Before long it will sicken me again and I don't like being sick.

[foam]

Pizza is the ultimate killer food for leaky gut people. Not only is it full of grains in the gluten free base. You have tomatoes, probably sun dried with sugar too. Onions, Cheese, yeast. It's the who's who of disaster foods. I started eating cheese again a couple of weeks ago but as of a couple of days ago it's started to mess me up again. Wasn't ready for it it seems. Don't underestimate yeast, it can mess you up hugely if you have antibodies to candida.

[gfreejz]

After I went gluten free, I had to avoid dairy for about a year. Even lactose free milk gave me problems.  Now I can have some dairy like real chedder cheese because it is very low on lactose and gluten free ranch dressing. Also I have found that it takes my body a week to rid itself of dairy, meaning that if I eat a little cheese everyday, by the end of the week, I start to have problems. Also, I can not eat butter in any amount and things with whey ( lots of lactose) like sour cream, ice cream, velveta, and dips. I also avoid greasy foods and spicy foods.

If I had a small cross contamination, I cannot have any dairy for a few weeks after. When I first went gluten free, things that had alot of sugar also did not agree. I have a local ice cream shop that has lactose free soft serve ice cream which is ok for me and I even can eat quite a bit of it. I personally think that until your body settles down, a wide variety of things can irritate your guts and if you can tolerate something iffy, don't eat it everyday.

Also, gluten-free homeade pizza can be troublesome for me if I really pig out. I think it is because of the combo of cheese and grease from pepperoni.

[seraphim]

I tried butter a little while back and had cramping within two hours and my stools looked abnormal for a couple days.