Lactose intolerance
Allergy to dairy
Milk sensitivity
Whatever it's called, it turns whatever dairy I eat into lava in my belly plunging it's rage mercilessly through my body...but that's more information than you signed up for. When I was 16, I discovered that ice cream (as delicious as it is) was not my friend. So as any normal teenager I would occasionally indulge in the sin of mint chocolate chip heaven and suffer the consequences. My father used to joke saying “Ange, why do you bother? You only rent ice cream!”
The symptoms of lactose intolerance are unpleasant and if you don’t know what they are you can google it because as much as I do love to share the tales of my bowels, my mother would be mortified that I was sharing too much information on the interwebs.
So the years go on in the recent months my body presents new and obnoxious symptoms that I would have blamed on a change in fabric detergent had that been the case. Little pink itchy rashy looking bumps started appearing on the tops on my hands, the fleshy soft underside of my arms, my belly and upper thigh area…needless to say it was dreadful. Then the bloating started to get obscenely noticeable, and my tongue always had those little swollen sore taste buds hanging out making my life miserable. So as any paranoid person plagued with bizarre symptoms does, I searched the world wide web looking for the cause of my ailments. For a good 20 minutes I had convinced myself that I had scabies. (It is a real thing, and is not limited to pirates.) I soon realized I was overacting and not infested with mites, and moved on to other plausible explanations like a reaction to an allergen of some sort. Some browsing and a revelation later I self diagnosed an allergy to dairy.
Here’s the thing. Most of the time milk allergies are self diagnosed because of the low severity of reactions the skin test comes up inconclusive and your doctor will tell you, “If it doesn’t make you feel good, then don’t eat it.” I did a 10 day dairy free challenge, and for the first 3 days it sucked. I was itchier, I was gassier, I was cranky and funny enough going through withdrawal. By day 5 I was a new woman. It was really really hard let me tell you. Did you know that milk based ingredients are in a ton of stuff…like the breading on chicken fingers or onion rings, the binding agent that keeps it all together is milk based. Foods infused with protein…modified milk ingredient. Margarine contains whey protein, and whey is the other half of a curd which is dairy. Lactose is one of the ingredients Lays potato chips uses to keep the seasoning on their chips. My diet was extremely limited because as part of my dairy detox I could not have anything that even came into contact with milk products.
(*Side note, I read the ingredients on everything and you’d be surprised to learn that soy is an ingredient in pretty much EVERYTHING. Kind of makes you think because too much soy isn’t good for you because of all the estrogen it’s got in it. So I decided instead of a soy milk replacement, I drink almond milk…it’s delicious.)
It’s been over a month, and my body is reaping the benefits of my decision to stay dairy free. I’m finding great alternatives to milk, but I am having a terrible time finding a replacement for cheese…the last attempt tasted like butter and feet.
I will follow with my delicious vegan cupcake recipes that I’ve been raving about over facebook. They have no eggs or butter in them so that means they’re good for me right? ;)
NOM, NOM, NOM <3
