Have you had any benefits from removing dairy? page 6

[pace2race]

The breathing problems that I used to blame on mold or dust or pollen went away when I stopped the dairy. It was gone in just three days. I was able to stop the daily allergy medicine I had needed for twenty years. My skin cleared up also which is nice to finally happen since I'm 50. Since it never upset my stomach I thought I was tolerant of it. As much as I loved cheese I love breathing freely without the meds to dry everything out and the brine rinses I used to have to do even more. Better without than with for me.

[spuggygirl]

I've always eaten a lot of dairy - used to be cheese but more latterly greek yoghurt. I also suffered from really bad sinus problems.

When I gave up eating dairy I didn't really notice a marked improvement, but these days I rarely eat it at all. Last Wednesday I ate some greek yoghurt and have had stuffed up sinuses and headaches ever since. I reckon I'll think twice before I do it next time!

[gopintos]

I've always eaten a lot of dairy - used to be cheese but more latterly greek yoghurt. I also suffered from really bad sinus problems.

When I gave up eating dairy I didn't really notice a marked improvement, but these days I rarely eat it at all. Last Wednesday I ate some greek yoghurt and have had stuffed up sinuses and headaches ever since. I reckon I'll think twice before I do it next time!

This is me, except that I never think twice for very long, and so yesterday I had some yogurt and within minutes I had a slight headache Today a little more stuffy.

So what am I doing today? Making more yogurt Yesterday's was store bought. I don't know if it will make a difference or not but thought I would try.

[ChocoTaco369]

I'm completely convinced that people that have issues with dairy are just using the wrong kinds of dairy.

Breast milk is the only thing in nature designed for human consumption. You don't NEED to eat meat. You don't NEED to eat vegetables. The ONLY thing you absolutely need to survive from an evolutionary standpoint is dairy - human dairy. It's natures' only complete food designed specifically for human consumption. Furthermore, the only reason why weening exists is to give the mother a break. It's rough on the mother and it keeps you absolutely dependent on them, but every single study shows that the longer you breastfeed, the better. It blows my mind that people think that at some point, breast milk goes from the most important substance on Planet Earth outside of the very air we breathe to poison after a certain age. I have seen countless studies showing significant harm coming to children who do not breastfeed long enough - or at all - but I have never seen a study showing that after a certain age it becomes bad. If it were possible to mass produce and bottle the stuff and sell it to the public, who is to say that it isn't ideal to never stop consuming it?

Then you have the paleos that say that sure, breast feeding is great for babies, but (insert mammal here)'s milk isn't designed for human consumption. Great, a cow's ass isn't designed for human consumption, either. It's designed to help the cow move around, not for you to eat. We adapted to eating cows' asses because our mothers couldn't physically handle breastfeeding us anymore after we got too big and required more calories than they could produce on their own without passing out from exhaustion. Cow's milk may not be designed directly for humans, but according to nature, it's a more complete food than muscle meat or plant leaves. Hell, show me any animals or vegetables that want you to eat them. Animals run from you or try to kill you, plants contain mineral-binding anti-nutrients and mild to acute poisons. The only things that want you to eat them from an evolutionary standpoint is milk and fruit, the two things paleos seem to rail against the most in the "approved" food categories. Huh?

If you can't handle dairy, maybe you're just not eating the right kind of dairy. Not being able to drink CAFO homogenized milk without getting gassy and inflamed is a pretty lousy representation of how your body reacts to dairy. Have you tried non-homogenized dairy? How about grassfed raw dairy? Have you tried it from different species of cows? Maybe a cow is too far from the human genome for you. Have you tried sheep's milk? Goat milk? Have you tried different types of yogurts and cheeses from all these different animals so the dairy is partially digested by bacteria cultures to make it easier on your body? Have you tried pairing your lactose-containing foods with sugary foods so your body can better digest the lactose? Drinking milk while eating two oranges is going to make the lactose vastly easier to digest until your body sufficiently starts producing lactase again.

I think most people that think they can't handle dairy feel better from removing homogenized CAFO skim milk from their diet. I'll meet that with a resounding "Duh." If I start drinking that crap, I will break out in acne and my dust and pet allergies will flare up. Yogurt and cheese? Bring it on, baby. I also think a lot of these symptoms are psychosomatic and people dream them up because they're looking for them.

[paleo-bunny]

Yep, 'dairy' is a very broad-brush term so treating all dairy as equal is meaningless.

Development of lactose tolerance into adulthood in humans is the only widely acknowledged significant diet-related genetic change since the neolithic era. It has helped fuel population growth, for better or for worse. No other mammal has had the intelligence or mastery of tools to make this happen, so far.

[ChocoTaco369]

Yep, 'dairy' is a very broad-brush term so treating all dairy as equal is meaningless.

Development of lactose tolerance into adulthood in humans is the only widely acknowledged significant diet-related genetic change since the neolithic era. It has helped fuel population growth, for better or for worse. No other mammal has had the intelligence or mastery of tools to make this happen, so far.

This is another important bit of information. Paleo critics of dairy usually use the argument that "no other animal drinks its mothers' milk into adulthood." Not only is that completely fallacious, but it is actually a reason TO consume dairy.

Yea, well no other animal cooks its own food, spices its own food, mixes different types of food together on a plate, preserves its own food, developed climate-controlled dwellings and invented medicine.

I'd love to see a study that shows that there is an age range where dairy goes from the most important food substance on Earth to poison. Again, every study I've ever seen shows the longer you breastfeed the better. For all we know, we'd be best off never stopping.

[paleo-bunny]

... Not only is that completely fallacious, but it is actually a reason TO consume dairy.

Yea, well no other animal cooks its own food, spices its own food, mixes different types of food together on a plate, preserves its own food, developed climate-controlled dwellings and invented medicine.

I'd love to see a study that shows that there is an age range where dairy goes from the most important food substance on Earth to poison. Again, every study I've ever seen shows the longer you breastfeed the better. For all we know, we'd be best off never stopping.

Absolutely.

Dairy is widely recognised among body builders as the ultimate food for building muscle. The reasons are obvious when one considers the rates of muscle gain among infants. Just think ... no other mammal has the ability to tap into this during adulthood.

[sakura_girl]

I get congestion after eating at least 100g cheese of any animal, which I attribute to mycotoxins. I tend to feel like shit if I consume stuff like cottage cheese, butter, and other very young cheeses, which I attribute to an intolerance to casein. I have yet to try this with fresh, quality milk or non-large mycotoxin loaded non-cow items because I don't care for the stuff.

[Jareddame]

acne is completely gone ... also dry skin has cleared up.

[Forgotmylastusername]

Absolutely.

Dairy is widely recognised among body builders as the ultimate food for building muscle. The reasons are obvious when one considers the rates of muscle gain among infants. Just think ... no other mammal has the ability to tap into this during adulthood.

I think increased igf1 is one of the main arguments against it by some people. Milk is definitely good for rapid growth as it enables a tiny calf to grow into a 500kg cow pretty quickly, whether that's good or bad for humans depends on your short/long term goals. The "no other species drinks milk" or the "It's not paleo" argument is stupid.