Inflammation and Dairy-Free Experiment

A low carb paleo diabetes diet helps reduce inflammation and helps me manage diabetes.  Could I reduce inflammation more by avoiding all dairy?

• to reduce inflammation in our diet is important, it’s one thing we can control (somewhat).
• is dairy inflammatory?  It is for many, I decided to experiment to see.

 

My personal goal is to reduce inflammation as much as possible to achieve peak physical and mental health. I’ll never be able to remove all of the pollution and toxins in my environment, that’s why removing as much as possible from diet is so important.

 

 

Is dairy inflammatory? It can be, only one way to find out.  Avoid dairy for at least a week, two weeks is better.

 

Is DAIRY inflammatory?

Dairy can be inflammatory for some, many suffer from a lactose or dairy intolerance.  The problem is, few people know that dairy is inflammatory to them.  It is not inflammatory to everyone but it is inflammatory to most of us. According to studies, most of us have a lactose or casein intolerance which varies from slight to serious.

 

So what is the easiest way to know if you are Dairy intolerant? Go Dairy-Free. 

Dairy-Free Experiment

Look, I follow a low carb paleo diabetes diet … and I THRIVE!!   And I maintain truly normal blood sugars.  But hey! … I am always seeking ways to improve my health and fitness.  Who knows, one day I might actually find a cure (a real cure) for diabetes. So …

After beating my grain, sugar and starch addictions… I set my sights on dairy.  My friend Sharon Ecim mentioned she was experiencing improved health benefits after ditching dairy…. at her recommendation I decided to find out for myself if I was “dairy intolerant”.

I performed a “Dairy Fast” and avoided butter, cheese and Heavy Cream for five days. (I’ve been Milk Free since August ’09)  On the sixth day I added Heavy Cream to my coffee…. within an hour my stomach began to churn and later I experienced nausea with light diarrhea.  I continued to drink the Heavy Cream in my coffee throughout the day as I wanted to make sure it was the cream that was causing the problems… IT WAS.  Later in the day, I became VERY lethargic and had not felt that way since my Diabetes diagnosis.

Still, I love butter, cheese and Heavy Cream. I wanted to make sure it was the cream that caused “problems”.  I decided to repeat the dairy fast and reintroduce the Heavy Cream again a week later.

SAME results…. I am Dairy Intolerant. It took me 49 years for me to figure it out.

I also know that pasteurized butter ‘inflames” my system but as yet I have not re-introduced cheese.

 

Possible Dairy Alternatives

There are several possible options people have submitted, thanks to you all!  I am not saying any of these options are or are not “non-inflammatory”… but they are possibilities to explore which I will do over time.

1) Goat Milk & Cream

2) Ghee or even better Coconut Ghee. (Ghee is clarified butter, butter fat ONLY, no milk proteins nor whey)

3) Organic Cream (in case the intolerance is due to chemicals/hormones etc.)

4) Pastured Cream – from grassfed cows

5) Cutting Heavy Cream – one person suggest cutting with water, another with goat milk.

** If you have other ideas, feel free to comment. … THANKS!

Dairy Intolerance Update

Before and after this dairy-free experiment, I tested my blood sugars and dairy (butter, cream or cheese) never significantly elevated my blood sugars.

So from a strict diabetes angle, there was no reason to avoid butter, cream or cheese.

I decided to do another experiment. I avoided dairy for 6 full months.  No butter, no cheese, no cream… and I still enjoyed life, believe it or not.

Instead of just adding back butter, cheese or cream, I began eating a lot of fermented foods, especially fermented dairy including plain, full fat yogurts and kefir.  No adverse reaction.

Next after weeks of eating the fermented dairy I added back cream, then butter and lastly cheese.

This time, no reaction.

My conclusion?  Perhaps I was never dairy intolerant. Perhaps I was simply lacking the appropriate gut bacteria to properly digest the dairy products?

Remember, I never drink milk. I tested raw milk and the sugars jacked my blood sugars.

We live, we experiment… we learn.

 

Reduce Your Blood Sugar the Warrior Way

Below is my personal ‘diabetes care’ manual. It is truly diabetes friendly, not Big Food, Big Pharma and Medical Industry friendly.  Every person who follows my plan improves blood sugar control.  Not coincidentally, each person who follows my diabetes care plan reduces the profits of Big Food, Big Pharma and the Medical Industry.