Best/worst gluten and dairy substitutes?

[OakLeaf]

Try a challenge diet.

The tough part is that I think you have to eliminate ALL common food allergens, not just one, because you may be sensitive to more than one, and just a decrease in the allergic load might not noticeably decrease your symptoms. And if you've never tried to live without wheat, corn, rye, oats, soy, dairy, eggs, yeasts or molds for four days (let alone long term) ... it's not as easy as it may sound. Make sure you have a good reference, which will help with recipes as well as identifying foods (e.g., any processed fruit product, and certain fresh fruits, is likely to contain yeasts or molds; corn products can be found just about everywhere).

I'm honestly not sure that gluten is even the protein that sets off people who are allergic to wheat but who are not celiac. Or why it should matter ...

Anyway, start by keeping a food and symptom diary for a week. Everything you eat, when you eat it, every symptom you have (fatigue, edema, palpitations, itching, asthma, hives, grogginess, poor sleep, digestive issues ...) with the time of onset and the time it goes away, if any.

Then eliminate the potential triggers for four days and see if you feel any better (keeping up with your symptom diary so you can compare it to what you had before). If so, then reintroduce the foods one at a time. If you get a "positive" on anything but the last food you try, you'll have to do it over again to test for the remaining foods (but on a repeat test, you don't have to eliminate foods that you reintroduced without a reaction).

[shootingstar]

There was a point in my life, my body couldn't handle much milk, but strangely before I grew up as a child drinking several glasses of milk per day. I think all of us benefitted as growing children on milk. My parents did want us to drink milk even though they seldom drank it except my mother when she was pregnant.

Probably from low exposure, I can handle milk up to a certain point. I put myself back onto milk slowly.

This is my dairy intake and I think it's healthy for me ..for naturally occurring sources of calcium and other nutrients. I do not take supplements at this time yet.

Skim milk- 2 litres every 3-4 days. I take in my tea, coffee and oatmeal. I rarely drink a whole glass of milk. I know for me to have 2 large lattes is not good: diarahea

Butter- we only have butter in fridge 1-2 times per yr. Otherwise my butter intake is at restaurants on rollls, with butter sauces if small amounts. Again my body seems to only like abit. My body does not respond well to an overtly buttery sauce, etc.

Cheese- a few thin slices of goat cheese or other types of cheeses on a day. But that happens only several times per month or less. I do eat soy cheese from time to time.

Seeing really cheesy, greasy dishes in restaurants is not a turn-on for me. Cheese to me, is meant to garnish/melting abit for flavour in restaurant dishes. We rarely cook with cheese. Only make cheese based sandwiches with basil, tomato, etc. Or feta on salads. So a real cheesy pizza is less attractive to me vs. lighter with other multiple toppings.

Yogurt- have it only several times per month. Tend to prefer low-fat if available. My partner is the yogurt inhaler. Or he makes salad dressings with yogurt or puts into soups as a garnish..I will have all this gladly.

Cottage cheese- only several times per yr. I guess we tend to forget about it. Sour cream tends to be only several times per yr. also.

I haven't cut out dairy completely because if I have it in the amounts that I've listed above, it works for me and I think for me, it has naturally occurring nutrients which are good for my body and I don't worry about weight gain, etc.

[badger]

I had a slice of pizza and some Annie's mac & cheese last night. Oh. My. G*d. I was so uncomfortable last night, even with taking digestive enzyme beforehand.

I can't stomach milk, literally and figuratively. It grosses me out to think I'm drinking breast milk from another animal.

A friend of mine has rheumatoid arthritis and she's cut out dairy from her diet. She reports that her flare ups are fewer and less painful now. I know I could do better without dairy, but sometimes it's just not the same eating soy ice cream.

[shootingstar]

I didn't know about overdosing on lattes for me..until I was on a 5 hr. bus ride. I learned my lesson.

I can imagine the problem for you badger for that mac 'n cheese...which actually I haven't had any mac 'n cheese ...um..for last 10 yrs.?? Kraft doesn't turn me on unless I'm really desperate in the wilderness or making it from scratch sounds like too much work (for me).

Each person's body is different, that's for sure!

[OakLeaf]

sometimes it's just not the same eating soy ice cream.

Try the coconut kind. It's brilliant.

(And I'm an American who doesn't use that word lightly. )

[KnottedYet]

I had a slice of pizza and some Annie's mac & cheese last night. Oh. My. G*d. I was so uncomfortable last night, even with taking digestive enzyme beforehand.

I can't stomach milk, literally and figuratively. It grosses me out to think I'm drinking breast milk from another animal.

A friend of mine has rheumatoid arthritis and she's cut out dairy from her diet. She reports that her flare ups are fewer and less painful now. I know I could do better without dairy, but sometimes it's just not the same eating soy ice cream.

There is no lactose in cheese. It gets digested by the critters that turn milk into cheese.

Little to no lactose in the pizza or the mac. However, both have a nice large dose of gluten, which is unaffected by OTC digestive enzymes.

Are you sure it's only dairy that is your problem?

(if it were a caseine issue, you'd have an allergic reaction to the cheese - histamine, autoimmune, and anaphylactic stuff)

Most celiackers are also missing the genetic trigger to produce enzyme to digest lactose as adults.

Just being Devil's Advocate here...

[badger]

There is no lactose in cheese. It gets digested by the critters that turn milk into cheese.

Little to no lactose in the pizza or the mac. However, both have a nice large dose of gluten, which is unaffected by OTC digestive enzymes.

Are you sure it's only dairy that is your problem?

(if it were a caseine issue, you'd have an allergic reaction to the cheese - histamine, autoimmune, and anaphylactic stuff)

Most celiackers are also missing the genetic trigger to produce enzyme to digest lactose as adults.

Just being Devil's Advocate here...

not sure. I knew that yogurt and cheese, because of the probiotics, are easier to digest, but I always feel somewhat icky after eating dairy. Me and latte...yeesh, after about an hour you do NOT want to be in the same room with me!!

And I LOVE bread. I'm able to digest that no problem, along with other stuff like pasta and crackers. Aside from the combustion problems after consuming dairy, I rarely have the "excited intestine" problem. Could I still be sensitive to gluten?

[OakLeaf]

I know that there's some controversy in the medical field about food allergies and histamine reactions, but as I understand it, it's really a definitional controversy. There's no question that many people have histamine reactions to many common foods; immunologists just quibble about whether it's truly an "allergy" in the technical sense of the word.

There's really no downside to just TRYING a challenge diet. It's a hassle for sure, but it will give you valuable information that you really can't get any other way (serum IgG yields lots of false positives, intracutaneous skin prick yields lots of false negatives, monitoring systemic reactions after subcutaneous injection just isn't that sensitive).