4 November 2007
Dairy Free No More!
Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: dairy detox; dairy free diet; food; nutrition; respiratory congestion.
This weekend I decided to test out my Dairy free diet by shocking my system with an over dose of dairy. It started innocently enough… I had a cracker at a school parents party on Friday night that turned out to have “butter milk” in it. I thought I maybe seemed a little more congested on Saturday morning, but it was only a small cracker… could I really be that sensitive to dairy?
I ended up chatting with my Mom a little, who’s a Registered Nurse, and therefore a reasonable practical expert to discuss such things with. She also lived through the experience of my brother who apparently had a severe dairy allergy as a baby. Her take was that since I hadn’t seen dramatic improvement in 4 weeks, it was unlikely that dairy was really the issue… Moreover if one small bite of a cracker made with a little buttermilk was going to set off a reaction, then she’d expect to see a more dramatic reaction if I ate a lot of dairy.
Ah… it sounds to me like the doctor just told me I should sneak off to the alley and score some nice Roquefort to snort down my gullet! So home made mac&cheese it is! Loaded with Cheese… three servings! Then in the morning… pancakes! For lunch, more Mac&Cheese, and for dinner tonight… Nachos! Covered with cheese cheese cheese!
So… the result… a little congested… but not worse than before my cheese binge. I’ll give it a couple days with just normal dairy intake… but if things don’t turn for the worse, then I’m tempted to say, Dairy ain’t really the biggest contributor to my congestion.
For what it’s worth, after chatting with my Mom some more about my symptoms, I got the feeling that a professional probably wouldn’t consider my status to be very noteworthy. In all likelihood I could end up getting a “you exercise too much! that’s your problem!” response.
7 Comments so far...
Hobbes Says:
I think you gave it a pretty fair crack of the whip - four weeks of reading the ingredients on every product you eat or drink is a long time.
So welcome back to the Dark Side. Or given that milk products tend to make things paler, and it’s traditionally collected in buckets, should that be [warning: bad pun alert] the Pail Side?
Phil Says:
This is great news. When are you going to make your famous mac and cheese for the Sweat365 team?
Isaac Says:
It sounds like you gave it a pretty good test. I’ve found that a month is usually a pretty good amount of time to test removing a food when I’m working with clients. It’s long enough so that you should see some legit effects (if any) and increase sensitization but not so long as to be impossible.
gardenmentor Says:
Good going. Isn’t it amazing what you learn when you really start reading ingredient lists consistently. Well, now that you’re back to cheese, perhaps a nice fall apple pie with a huge scoop of ice cream AND a wedge of sharp cheddar? 
Hobbes Says:
Apple pie with cheddar?! What on earth are you thinking of? It’s a short step from that kind of craziness to Wife’s favourite - bacon & marmalade sandwiches.
Lisa Sabin Says:
I’m with Phil. I want some of this Mac n’ Cheese you keep talking about!
