Good News And Bad News And Need Some Help

[Googles]

The good news: The biopsy of my small intestine and blood work show no sign of celiac. Yay for the gluten free diet working and all my careful eating. Yes I will continue to eat gluten free, but nice to know the hard work is paying off.  

 

The bad news: They don't know what is causing the inflammation in my colon (which apparently .is in the exact same place it was when I was diagnosed).   They also don't know why I was passing and throwing up blood, except they said that it might be stress. Good luck getting that to go away with my job.

 

What I really need help for. The doctor wants me to go diary free to check and see  if that helps with my D that I have been having. I'm really sad about having to give it up. I eat a lot of dairy. The help I need is finding replacements for the dairy I eat. I don't even know where to check for dairy in my diet except for obvious places (milk, cheese etc). Any advice from people who are diary and gluten free would be really helpful. I'm not that good of a cook, so I need help. I also use dairy for protein, but don't like beans and don't eat a lot of meat. So help there would be appreciated. 

[mamaw]

Daiya cheese is good....I love cheese. They also make pizzas .....site: godairyfree is a good site.

are you taking digestive enzymes & probiotics? if not start..... I also find STRESS is a killer in many ways to the body.....check for parasites ( I know that sounds gross) it is truly amazing what creepy things can live in bodies....& we never know they are there.....until illness strikes....

Hope they find answers soon....

[nvsmom]

I use Daiya cheese in my cooking.  I don't like it raw, but melted into casseroles, pizzas, and even mac and cheeese, it's pretty good.

 

I use So Delicious coconut milk drink, or real coconut milk, in my cooking and baking.  Often I'll just use water.

 

Earth's Balance makes a nice butter substitute without trans fats.  It comes soy free as well.

 

For parmesan, I'll sometimes substitute nutritional yeast flakes.  They have a cheesy, nutty flavour that can be nice.

 

I loke coconut yogurt, but my boys don't.  I don't buy the soy or rice ones.  Plain coconut yogurt is a great substitute for sour cream, plain, in baking or cooking.

 

For added protein, I put a protein powder to ALL of my baking.  I like the Vega protein powders.  We usually use vanilla and then add some chocolate powder too otherwise the vegetarian vanilla powder turns your food green. LOL  They are good to add to smoothies too.  Vega even has a Chai powder which is nice in coffee.

 

Enjoy Life has many products that are dairy, agg, and gluten-free.  LOVE their mini chocolate chips.

 

It takes some getting used to but giving up dairy isn't any harder than going gluten-free.  Cheese slices was the one thing I missed the most, but I found that after two years gluten-free, I was able to reintroduce hard cheese and other lactose free dairy products without problems. 

 

Best wishes.

[Googles]

Thank you both. My doctor wants me to be really strict at first. Ugh. So much stuff has dairy in it. I feel like I'm back to the figuring out what is gluten free again. I'm just trying to figure out what for now I can have for meals. As all my easy go tos have diary. 

[cyclinglady]

You can do it! Hugs!

[nvsmom]

Yeah... The first month will be tricky, but I think you can do it too!  Best wishes!

[Googles]

My digestive tract is much happier now that I am dairy free. But I'm definitely feeling some depression about it. I tried some Silk milk, but didn't like the thickness of it. So I will be trying something else soon. I was happy to find out that my donuts don't have dairy. Does anyone know what I can substitute for butter in baking? Thanks. 

[kareng]

You could sub in Palm shortening or maybe Crisco plain or butter flavor? I don't know if the butter flavor has dairy or not.

[cyclinglady]

Coconut oil. Too bad about the Silk. I love thick creamy things. Have you tried other brands -- most are runny! Like eliminatiing gluten, it takes a while to forget old favorite foods!

[StephanieL]

Earth Balance has a great butter sub (I use the soy free one).  We have a dairy allergy and I know my way around subs! lol  Also, Flishmans Margarin  NO SALT is dairy free if you don't care about soy.  It also depends what you are using it for sometimes.

[ezgoindude]

evening googles!

 

If you dont mind I had a question about your story.....

 

I see a few years back you were on this  forum with a diagnosis of celiac.  So there was also inflammation in your colon at the time of your diagnosis?  Have you every taken medications to reduce inflammation?  I only ask as reference to my own struggles, I've been undiagnosed for two years.... over the next few months between two different GIs they plan to throw steroids and antibiotics ( not at the same time, different times to verify their theories....)  If you can tolerate sugars, I also recommend so delicious coconut products.  Their coconut milk and especially various ice creams are really good, I just can't have much because it can cause D  =(

[Googles]

I didn't actually know about the inflammation in the colon from the first time until my new GI was looking at my records. My new GI mentioned that it was in the same place this time as the first time I got scoped. I moved right after my initial dx so this is really the first time I've done much to follow up medically except for being gluten free as the first GI I was referred to after I moved was awful. And since I was in school didn't have the time or money to deal with trying to find another doctor. Long story short, I haven't taken anything for the inflammation. The GI wasn't sure what was causing it. But I see her again in a couple of weeks. 

 

Thanks everyone for the food advice. I will be putting them to use. I did find the earth's balance and have been using it for butter. It has been going well. I also tried the Daiya cheese, but didn't like it very well on pizza more than just a sprinkling. 

[StephanieL]

Daiya is best served hot and after you haven't had the real think in some time  Just getting off diary, NOTHING is going to be like the real thing.  TRUST me.  I've nursed 3 babies for a total of 7 years while each one had to be off all dairy (and other assorted goodies).  It takes some time to forget it!

[Googles]

This giving up dairy thing is ending up being so much harder emotionally than giving up gluten was. I'm sure if I was just giving up dairy and could still have gluten it wouldn't be this hard. It is really both of them on top of each other. One of my clients was talking about pizza today and it made me so sad. When I was first diagnosed with celiac I reminded myself it could have been worse, I could have had to give up dairy too as a lot of people do. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but this just SUCKS. Dairy has always been part of my favorite foods. 

[squirmingitch]

Aw hon, I feel for you. I was/am a dairy hound too. Seems like most of my comfort foods involve dairy. I had to give up dairy for over a year & I know what you're going through but hang in there. You can do it! 

 

{{{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[cyclinglady]

Hang in there! Get to Trader Joe's and have some cherry chocolate chip Soymilk ice cream! And think of me. I am diabetic and am on a low carb high fat diet now. Talk about depravation! I am one year into this new diet and my blood sugar is doing well. The only good news is that I can cheat occasionally. Can never do that with gluten!

I have not had that ice cream in over a year and a half!

Hugs!

[janpell]

You can make a cream sauce with soaked cashews - for pasta.   I made a macaroni and cheese sauce and didn't mind it unfortunately, the cashews didn't agree with me so it's off limits also. I use nutritional yeast for a parmesan-like taste for something like garlic noodles.  I really miss dairy but can't have so I don't let myself dwell over it. I make a creamy caesar dressing with homemade mayo, a bit of vinegar (lol, can't have citrus either but you can use lemon or lime for a twist), cracked pepper and a shredded clove of garlic - you can thin it with a bit of olive oil. You can use the same base to make a creamy dressing also - tex mex, add chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, oregano, etc. There are a lot of options. Coconut milk gives you some options for cream sauces. I buy a 7 lb bucket of coconut oil for cooking. You can use it on popcorn too with s&p. For coffee creamer I use a tsp of coconut oil in my coffee and blend it with my magic bullet and it is just as creamy as a regular cup of coffee.