Casein Intolerances

[Katie618]

can any one help explain to me what a casein intolerance is...symptoms, what needs to be avoided, etc? thanks!!!

[gadgetgirl]

Casein is one of the proteins found in milk. Thus most everything derived from milk with have casein protein in it - sour cream, butter, cheese, etc.

I am also intolerant of casein - originally thought lactose was my real problem with dairy but even with the lactose-free milk I was still having some gas and bloating - just not as bad as with the regular milk. Over the years, I hadn't been consuming much dairy - except for my daily ice cream binge in the summer but once I got diagnosed both with Enterolabs and ELISA testing, I've stayed away from all forms of dairy and feel much better.

Hope this helps!

[ArtGirl]

Hi Katie

I dragged out the results of an Lame Advertisement food sensitivity test from several years ago and here's the list of things to avoid acording to them:

all milk products (obviously)

all cheeses (of course)

imitation milk products

lactaid milk

chocolate*

guar gum**

*chocolate: that's because most candy bars and chocolate chips are a milk chocolate. I have found a sweet dark chocolate bar that is very good and has no milk (or corn) - Newman's Own brand - have only seen it in health-food stores. It's really good chocolate, too.

**guar gum: I was puzzled by this and did a google search on it - here's the article from wickipedia

Open Original Shared Link

It does mention that it can be mixed with casein, so that's probably the reason. I have some NOW guar gum that lists all the things it doesn't have, and dairy/milk is not on this list, so will probably email them to find out if casein is in this product. Although, my milk sensitivity is not at all severe so will probably use it now and then anyway.

[dlp252]

I also have a casein intolerance. I think my main symptoms are nasal/sinus issues. I used to get sinus infections about every six weeks, and until last week, hadn't had a single one in a year! (I went gluten/casein free last December.) If I cheat with casein (which I don't do frequently, but have on ocassion), I feel the sinus issues worsening almost immediately. I've been glutened twice in the last year, and my symptoms from that seem to be more digestive in nature, so I'm fairly positive the casein was responsible for my infections.

[RiceGuy]

Hi Katie

I dragged out the results of an Lame Advertisement food sensitivity test from several years ago and here's the list of things to avoid acording to them:

all milk products (obviously)

all cheeses (of course)

imitation milk products

lactaid milk

chocolate*

guar gum**

*chocolate: that's because most candy bars and chocolate chips are a milk chocolate. I have found a sweet dark chocolate bar that is very good and has no milk (or corn) - Newman's Own brand - have only seen it in health-food stores. It's really good chocolate, too.

**guar gum: I was puzzled by this and did a google search on it - here's the article from wickipedia

Open Original Shared Link

It does mention that it can be mixed with casein, so that's probably the reason. I have some NOW guar gum that lists all the things it doesn't have, and dairy/milk is not on this list, so will probably email them to find out if casein is in this product. Although, my milk sensitivity is not at all severe so will probably use it now and then anyway.

Thanks for pointing this out. I just got that same brand of guar gum, never imagining it might be mixed with other stuff. To me, when a product is also a specific substance, it shouldn't be labeled as that substance if it contains other things. I keep finding this concept doesn't seem to hold true very often I will also email them and ask, and perhaps at least one of us will receive a response. Although the trouble I was seeing might have been caused by other stuff, I am still avoiding casein for awhile just in case. I figure better safe than sorry.

[RiceGuy]

I emailed Now Foods about the guar gum, and they actually answered in an incredibly short time, like they are right there taking messages!

Anyway, here's what they said:

"This product is 100% pure guar gum. It has no other added ingredients."

The product description on their site does say "Derived entirely from guar beans.", so perhaps this is meant to indicate no other ingredients. I hope they update the Free Of list though, just to make it clear.