Dairy Free - Is "obvious" Enough?

[crimsonviolet]

I've been gluten-free for almost 3 weeks. I do feel better, but not much, and now I'm having some GI issues I didn't have before. So next step for me is to give up dairy.

Do I need to eliminate all sources of milk, like casein etc. or since it's generally a lactose intolerance, will eliminating obvious dairy suffice?

[mushroom]

I've been gluten-free for almost 3 weeks. I do feel better, but not much, and now I'm having some GI issues I didn't have before. So next step for me is to give up dairy.

Do I need to eliminate all sources of milk, like casein etc. or since it's generally a lactose intolerance, will eliminating obvious dairy suffice?

Milk is comprised mainly of sugar (lactose) and protein (casein). You can be intolerant of lactose and not casein, because the part of your gut that digests the lactose is one of the first areas to be destroyed by gluten and takes a while to grow back.

To test whether you are lactose or casein intolerant, try (on different days) having some butter or hard cheese only (mostly casein, very low lactose) or a glass of millk or some ice cream (high lactose). If you are intolerant only of lactose, then milk, cream, ice cream, frozen yogurt would need to be definitely eliminated. Yogurt and sour cream, because they are cultured and the culture "digests" the lactose, also some cheeses may well be tolerated along with butter. It is a trial and error process.

[GlutenFreeManna]

I would try eliminating all sources for at least two weeks then try to re-introduce something like yogurt. Yogurt is low in lactose. You should get your answer with that. If you have a lot of damage you may not be able to tolerate lactose for several months or years. I'm not sure how you figure out if it's casein, I was pretty sure my problem was lactose. I was dairy free for about 5 months before I tried some yogurt. It's been almost 7 months now and I can eat yogurt, butter and low-lactose cheeses, however cow's milk and ice cream still do me in and I can't tolerate things with powdered cheese or milk flavoring hidden in them. I have been using goat's milk and almond milk for cooking and eating coconut milk ice cream when the mood strikes.

[Skylark]

For me, it was cow casein. I had to avoid all cow dairy, and even skip the nondairy creamers and butter or I got a stomach-ache. I could eat goat and sheep dairy, so I was able to get my cheese fix that way.