Question:
I am a newbie. What are you folks doing that are allergic to
dairy protein--casein, not lactose). I can only handle dairy
rarely....so that means no cheeses, etc. Anyone with casein allergies
have any suggestions?
Answer:
Try Lactaid pills and limit your dairy intake! Get to know soy products (soy
milk, soy protein powder). Lactaid won't help a bit!!! Lactaid is for an intolerance to lactose, the
milk sugar... not an allergy to casein, the milk protein. Yes. Don't eat it. Ever. If it's not a good food for you, it's not a
good food for you. You can get by fine on meat, fish, eggs, vegetables,
nuts, fruit, oils. Investigate the paleo diet. It's what I do. My oldest son is allergic to casein. He just totally avoids dairy. It's not
needed on a LC plan. You can get plenty of tasty and good quality protein from
eggs/fish/meat/poultry. Make sure you're getting sufficient fat from cold
pressed oils like olive and sunflower, too. I was allergic to dairy for 7 years so I completely understand. Like
with you, this was not lactose intolerance. There is no pill to pop.
Unlike you, I couldn't cheat. I got sick from the slightest trace,
including people not being careful with serving spoons, people putting
parmacian cheese on their food next to me, and eating 90% of products
labelled "non-dairy" (they lie). What types of suggestions are you looking for? I could write a book.
If you want to know how to get rid of the allergy, try acupuncture. I
can eat all the dairy I want now. Yeast too (which I was also allergic
to).
If you want to know how to deal with the allergy, the answer is to
avoid ALL traces of dairy. Period. Don't cheat. You are overtaxing
your system.
If you want hints on dairy substitutes and recipes and etc, that's yet
another set of answers. You will get a lot of great advice from vegan
websites, books, mailing lists, etc. I'm assuming you eat meat...most
vegan lists will welcome you if you are respectful of the choices they
make and do not push animal foods. You can find out about products,
resturants, tips, and all sorts of things you hadn't thought of. You
are welcome to try my veggie lowcarb list which has several vegans on
it. http://www.immuneweb.org/lowcarb/
Another good resource is the kosher community. If you can find a good
kosher market in your area, you're in luck. Any food marked "parve" is
absolutely beyond a doubt non-dairy. No sodium casinate or casein
mascarating as "non-dairy." No trace contamination. Parve foods can
contain eggs or fish, so they aren't vegan, but they are most
definately not dairy. Any meat product marked kosher will also be 100%
dairy free. Watch out for "kosher style" which may not be non-dairy.
Also, a lot of meat products do not qualify as kosher for reasons other
than containing dairy.
You'd be amazed at all the great products out there. Unfortunately,
there aren't many good cheese substitutes. There used to be a couple
but they don't exist anymore. The vast majority of people who eat soy
cheese do it to reduce dairy (or fat) intake and don't care that 99% of
them contain casein.
I urge you not to be tempted to use margerine instead of butter.
Margerine is extremely unhealthy; about the worst type of fat you could
ever have. You might as well inject plastic into your veins.
Fortunately, there are some spread products out there made without
hydrogenated oils, but read the labels very carefully. Most have some
dairy in them and most also are made with really crappy refined and
damaged oils.
You can also make your own products, including cheese. My favorite
books for doing this are listed here:
http://www.consultclarity.com/recipes/cookbook.html
I have some vegan recipes here: http://www.consultclarity.com/recipes/
But do note that they are not all lowcarb (I've had this site for many
years). Check out this recipe:
http://www.consultclarity.com/recipes/alfredo.html
It calls for cashews which are on the carby side. I am fairly sure you
could substitute another nut, but I haven't actually tried it so I
can't say for sure. It's an easy recipe and I have fooled tofu haters
into thinking they were eating real alfredo sauce.
Also take a look at: http://www.consultclarity.com/recipes/vcheese.html
http://www.consultclarity.com/recipes/tempeh.html
