Giving up dairy, thoughts and suggestions please!

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carom
carom Posts: 188 Member
Hi everyone, I am a dairy queen, I love the stuff, cream, cheese (all cheeses), yoghurt, butter and all variations of these. Seriously my brother, who is skinny, and I often joke about our cheese addiction. Since going keto I have cut out snacking on cheese but still eat it and lots of butter and cream. The thing is ..... that I have a suspicion that its no good for me. This Friday at friends I ate cheese on a platter, 30mins later terrible pain in my belly that didn't go for a day. Also I now get the cheese breath each time I have some. I had my coffee without cream on Saturday and went until 3pm before I was hungry! I wonder if it encourages my hunger so I am going to go without any dairy for 30 days and see if I improve. Any thoughts or experiences with this? Please share with me :)
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Replies

  • LowCarbInScotland
    LowCarbInScotland Posts: 1,027 Member
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    There's no need to suffer with black coffee, have some coconut cream :smile:

    I've been eating too much cheese lately and need to cut back or just cut it out all together. Used to restrict myself to 1 oz a day, but that number has been creeping up faster than carb creep does when you're not watching.
  • Foamroller
    Foamroller Posts: 1,041 Member
    edited October 2016
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    If you consistently get tummy pain after cheese and it also drives hunger, then a 30 day experiment without it sounds like a good idea to test. Are there specific cheeses that create the pain or all of them?

    Dairy can be quite insulinogenic, which could possibly explain the "hunger". But I understand your sorrow in maybe cutting it out. Maybe you can slowly reintroduce smaller amounts after a while? For me food sensitivities are often a question of volume and frequency. If I can limit the intake to below tolerance, I can still occasionally enjoy stuff I love. YMMV. Good luck!
  • doodleswithpencils
    doodleswithpencils Posts: 74 Member
    edited October 2016
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    I've also had to (very sadly) give up dairy due to intolerance. Le sniff. It is hard, but worth it for me. I seem to be able to handle some gluten but be very sensitive to dairy, so you'll have to experiment for yourself how much if any you can tolerate. I found I have to clear/heal my system by staying off things I'm intolerant to for a good long while, months maybe, and then I can possibly have a little here and there, but I'll notice a difference in symptoms within a week really, but definitely give it a few weeks to 30 days. Dairy makes me extremely and constantly fatigued, and makes depression and anxiety flare up, plus of course physical symptoms - which in fact I've had on and off all my life but never related to food. My young daughter also started to get tummy aches on a regular basis, and that has stopped with a trial of cutting dairy. In her case she seems to be able to manage small amounts every now and then even without the prolonged healing period, but I suspect it's because she's young and her body hasn't had the burden of dealing with foods it doesn't like over many years.
    I do use coconut cream/milk as a replacement for dessert, but I don't like it in tea or coffee - I have a product called soy milky, which doesn't have such a pronounced soy flavour, but it is a long life milk and full of a bunch of other additives, so from a health perspective I don't recommend it! My husband, also dairy free, uses an organic almond milk. Sometimes, depending on whether they are lactose or casein intolerant, people can manage butter or yoghurt, even though they are otherwise dairy free, but that doesn't work for me. You can experiment with that after your 30 day trial, although you mentioned butter as being a possible problem. The other thing to try is goat/sheep/buffalo dairy - it's a different milk protein, so casein intolerant people can sometimes take those. I do, and it seems ok. And you can still have cheese! I think partly the key is enjoying the food you can eat, make it tasty, have chutney etc to boost the flavour factor. I find it hard to stay completely free of everything and inevitably it comes back to bite me, but that comes of not being organised enough to have satisfying foods to hand.
  • retirehappy
    retirehappy Posts: 4,752 Member
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    I go better with goat cheese, very hard cheeses, and yogurt. Butter & cream are fine as well. I did give up dairy for two weeks and noticed only very small changes, but since then, I have found sticking to the ones just mentioned give me better results in terms of health and weight management.
  • moonlights
    moonlights Posts: 141 Member
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    Q: what sort of things do you eat as snacks with zero or little carb but high fat if you don't have dairy? I rely on dairy to make up quite a bit of my calorie and fat intake over a day as it's affordable...
  • carom
    carom Posts: 188 Member
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    @PaleoInScotland - yes I love me some coconut cream and I will try that in my sauces but not sure if I can do it in coffee :)
    @Foamroller - Im not sure if it is specific cheeses or even cream or butter but I just thought maybe doing a dairy free month then introducing small bits I will see what reacts with my system,

    @doodleswithpencils - yes thanks I will try the goats and buffalo cheese after my 30 day experiment. I am not keen on sheep cheese so I will give that a miss, thank you for your suggestions :)

    @moonlights - I know! Right? what else is there? I have just added a tbsp. of coconut oil in every meal (staying within my macros) and am thinking that should solve the need for snacks.
    The only other snack food for me would be almonds or walnuts and of course they have carbs :)
  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
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    carom wrote: »
    Hi everyone, I am a dairy queen, I love the stuff, cream, cheese (all cheeses), yoghurt, butter and all variations of these. Seriously my brother, who is skinny, and I often joke about our cheese addiction. Since going keto I have cut out snacking on cheese but still eat it and lots of butter and cream. The thing is ..... that I have a suspicion that its no good for me. This Friday at friends I ate cheese on a platter, 30mins later terrible pain in my belly that didn't go for a day. Also I now get the cheese breath each time I have some. I had my coffee without cream on Saturday and went until 3pm before I was hungry! I wonder if it encourages my hunger so I am going to go without any dairy for 30 days and see if I improve. Any thoughts or experiences with this? Please share with me :)

    Tell you what, I'll join you with this. I know dairy is not good for me. I know it causes me issues. I eat far too much of it anyway. I'll cut it out. I've done it before. You can do this. I feel great when I leave it out.
  • carom
    carom Posts: 188 Member
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    @FIT_Goat - that's awesome!! yay :) I would love to hear updates from you about this.
  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
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    I will update. There is currently nothing to say except that I didn't have heavy cream in my coffee this morning. I don't eat breakfast, usually, so avoiding dairy is easy there.

    Lunch is a steak. No dairy there either.

    I am not sure about dinner, yet. I will be rushed. So, maybe leftover corned beef. I work until after 5pm today and have training at 6:30pm. Which is cutting it close with drive times.
  • carom
    carom Posts: 188 Member
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    I survived day one! lots of coconut oil with every meal and coconut cream/curry sauce with dinner. I will probably eat the same today but going to the movies tonight with a quick bite before hand at a burger place. Should be easy :)
  • MariahMichaels
    MariahMichaels Posts: 48 Member
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    My husband who eats LCHF, is giving up dairy for 30 days as well. He's been having a lot of digestion problems and thinks it might be dairy. My question is, what do you put on your LC burgers? He does not like mustard and he has to stay away from tomatoes. He seasons his veggies now with either coconut oil or avocado oil. He's also looking for ideas on what to put on his LC tacos? Salsa is out because of tomatoes.
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
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    My husband who eats LCHF, is giving up dairy for 30 days as well. He's been having a lot of digestion problems and thinks it might be dairy. My question is, what do you put on your LC burgers? He does not like mustard and he has to stay away from tomatoes. He seasons his veggies now with either coconut oil or avocado oil. He's also looking for ideas on what to put on his LC tacos? Salsa is out because of tomatoes.

    Guacamole!
  • Sarahb29
    Sarahb29 Posts: 952 Member
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    moonlights wrote: »
    Q: what sort of things do you eat as snacks with zero or little carb but high fat if you don't have dairy? I rely on dairy to make up quite a bit of my calorie and fat intake over a day as it's affordable...

    Fat bombs made up of any mix of coconut oil, coca, or peanut butter/almond butter. Avacados or almonds.
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
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    @MariahMichaels I eat hamburgers with Mayo and dill pickles. Actually lettuce, tomato, mayo and pickles but I hear ya regarding his needing to stay away from tomatoes. Maybe the other 3 and maybe onions?

    I like taco meat over a salad or in a lettuce wrap. Guac, sour cream, black olives, a bit of cilantro, chopped onions, cheese, nix the tomatoes for him.
  • carom
    carom Posts: 188 Member
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    My husband who eats LCHF, is giving up dairy for 30 days as well. He's been having a lot of digestion problems and thinks it might be dairy. My question is, what do you put on your LC burgers? He does not like mustard and he has to stay away from tomatoes. He seasons his veggies now with either coconut oil or avocado oil. He's also looking for ideas on what to put on his LC tacos? Salsa is out because of tomatoes.

    Homemade Aioli? and avocado and bacon :)
  • carom
    carom Posts: 188 Member
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    I posted this on another thread but I will share here also. Today, day 4 of no dairy (6 weeks into keto) my ketostix went from middle pink to dark pink! Yay! I'm thinking it must be the dairy ... Which now im thinking about it... is a shame as I should probably stay off dairy as much as possible. Today I have done up 4 small pottles with 1tbsp coconut oil in each. For when I am eating out.
  • annalisbeth74
    annalisbeth74 Posts: 328 Member
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    I'm on day 11 of a keto Whole30, so I gave up dairy. I didn't really have any physical symptoms that seemed to be dairy related, but I do have a severe lack of control over portion sizes. The calories had started creeping up in a major way. I gave up my morning coffee instead of drinking it black, and replaced it with actual breakfast, and I haven't noticed a need to snack between meals at all.

    I've had to get creative with meals and spend a lot of time in pinterest looking for new ideas. It's tough, and I miss cheese a lot, but I think when my 30 days are over I'll keep it to an occasional treat and not an every meal kind of thing. Unless staying away from it makes me intolerant?
  • jasperdog52554
    jasperdog52554 Posts: 115 Member
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    Cadori wrote: »
    My husband who eats LCHF, is giving up dairy for 30 days as well. He's been having a lot of digestion problems and thinks it might be dairy. My question is, what do you put on your LC burgers? He does not like mustard and he has to stay away from tomatoes. He seasons his veggies now with either coconut oil or avocado oil. He's also looking for ideas on what to put on his LC tacos? Salsa is out because of tomatoes.

    Guacamole!

    loads of mayo!
  • 53YOWM
    53YOWM Posts: 40 Member
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    I've had to cut out certain dairy. The heavy cream triggered my old issues. I was hoping that my history of problems with dairy was due only to the additives, but I pushed myself too hard. I am able to tolerate ghee, goat/feta cheese and mozzarella, so I plan to keep those in my diet for awhile longer.
  • Sunny_Bunny_
    Sunny_Bunny_ Posts: 7,140 Member
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    My husband who eats LCHF, is giving up dairy for 30 days as well. He's been having a lot of digestion problems and thinks it might be dairy. My question is, what do you put on your LC burgers? He does not like mustard and he has to stay away from tomatoes. He seasons his veggies now with either coconut oil or avocado oil. He's also looking for ideas on what to put on his LC tacos? Salsa is out because of tomatoes.

    My favorite burger topping besides bacon is a fried egg and a little mayo. Super yum!