These days my diet is so clean that I can usually pinpoint exactly what is giving me grief and that's how I know for sure that dairy is usually the culprit if I am feeling sick or sinusy. I am very strict with my diet but, now and then, I run out of my milk and so I sneak a bit of GLM's to have a mug of milky rooibos tea (which I LOVE!) I buy raw cow's milk for GLM and raw goat's milk for myself but, because mine is more expensive, it tends to run out sooner and that's when I give in and think, "Surely such a little bit will be ok..." Nope. It's never ok but the tea is usually worth it;)
You may be wondering why, if I can't have dairy, can I have goat's milk. That's a good question that has a couple of answers. Milk contains a type of sugar called lactose. You may be familiar with the term "lactose intolerant". Well, just because a person is lactose intolerant, doesn't mean that they are dairy intolerant. Goat's milk actually contains a lot LESS lactose than cow's milk. That is one of the reasons I am able to drink it. Secondly, goat's milk has superior digestibility in comparison to cow's milk. It's more completely and easily absorbed. That means it leaves less undigested residue behind in your colon. The problem with that residue is that it literally ferments and that's what causes the uncomfortable symptoms of lactose intolerance.
What are those symptoms? They include bloating, pain or cramps in your stomach, gurgling or rumbling sounds in your stomach, gas, loose stools or diarrhea, throwing up, excess mucous, moodiness and irritability. If you experience that after drinking a glass of milk, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are lactose intolerant. It could be anything causing it really. BUT, if you experience it every time you drink a glass of milk, it's likely that you are lactose intolerant.
Lactose intolerance happens when people stop making lactase, the digestive enzyme that breaks lactose down into glucose and galactose for easy digestion. A lot of people stop making lactase around the age of four or five. The reason for that is because the body realises that there is no more breast milk on a daily basis and there is no more need to expend energy producing more lactase. Without lactase, lactose is instead metabolised by bacteria, which can cause all the symptoms listed earlier. Lactase production is actually genetically pre-determined. If you come from a long line of ancestors that drank milk on a daily basis, you are more likely to possess the gene need to maintain lactase production. If you don't, you will very likely be lactose intolerant for the rest of your life.
Sometimes it's not the lactose in milk that is the problem. 1 in 10 people are allergic to the protein in cow's milk. You may know it as whey but it's also known as casein. Allergies give very different reactions to intolerances. You will know straight away if you are allergic. Most food allergies illicit more or less the same symptoms: severely plugged sinuses, itchy skin, hives or rashes, hypotension, diarrhea, vomiting, an elevated heart rate and difficulty breathing. Intolerances are harder to pinpoint. Some of the symptoms are similar to, but milder than, an allergy. For some people, it manifests as constipation. For others, diarrhea. Still others get tingly fingers, joint pain, and a foggy head. The symptoms usually take longer to appear which makes it really to point an finger at one particular culprit.
If you suffer from any of these symptoms on a daily basis, it may be worth cutting dairy out of your diet for about 4 weeks. That gives your body a chance to get rid of it all and fix up the symptoms you have been having. If nothing changes, it's likely something else that's causing it. You may need to have some tests done to determine causes.
If you find that your symptoms disappear, the next step is to determine if it's ALL milk or only cow's milk. Start by introducing goat's milk into your diet. Woolies has a good range of goat's milk products these days. Give your body a week or so and see where things stand. If you are fine with that then it's likely simply cow's milk that you can't have. However, sometimes people CAN handle cow's milk of it's raw. So that would be the next step. Buy a bottle of raw cow's milk and give that a try for a week or so. Milk bought from a grocery store is pasteurised and homogenised and there are many reasons to avoid drinking that.
Quick science lesson! Homogenisation is a process where milk is raised to high temperatures and agitated and filtrated to break down the naturally occurring fat molecules that would otherwise separate and rise to the top of the milk to form cream. The process of homogenisation stops the separation from taking place and gives store bought milk its smooth appearance which most people have come to prefer. It also gives the milk a longer shelf life making it easier for manufacturers to transport it over longer distances, and also for consumers to have longer-lasting milk, once it's opened. The problem with this process is that it kills off all of the many healthy enzymes in milk. But a much bigger problem is that the process of breaking the fat globules into such small pieces is now a leading cause of arteriosclerosis and heart disease. It's been listed as one of the top three causes of heart disease, along with transfats and chlorinated water.
Sometimes, just drinking milk in its real form is enough to make your body understand what to do with it. You'll find raw milk at farmer's markets and, if you're in Johannesburg, you'll find info on a supplier here.
These days, thanks to finding goat's milk, I drink milk every day of my life, after going about 10 years without it! Before you assume that you can't touch milk every again, explore your options. It's such a valuable part of your diet, particularly in its raw form, that everyone should have it in their diets.
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