Milk Allergy | Milk Protein Allergy
MILK-FREE DIET
You'll probably find yourself eating more meals at home, or at least preparing your own lunches instead of flirting with fate in the pffiee cafeteria.
If milk is your problem, your symptoms are likely to be digestive: bloating, abdominal cramps, flatulence, diarrhea, or constipation. Headaches, earaches, rhinitis, eczema, and asthma are also associated with cow's milk.
Soy milk is a popular alternative, and has a slightly stronger flavor that benefits from chilling. Both soy and goat's milk are potent allergens, however, and should be used with restraint. Milk and soy allergies are particularly common in infants and children.
Other possibilities are nut milks, coconut milk, fr and tea. Kosher products labeled "parve" or "pareve" don't contain milk. People with lactase deficiency can usually eat yogurt, which contains its own lactase. Be sure the label specifies "live cultures." Pasteurization destroys the enzyme.
Be sure, too, to get adequate calcium and vitamin D in your diet, especially if you're postmenopausal. Most calcium pills or tablets now come with vitamin D.
Depending on your degree of sensitivity you may be able to tolerate the small amounts of milk in bread and some other baked goods. Milk is fairly easy to avoid because it's found where you most expect it, in dairy products such as butter, cheese, cottage cheese, and ice cream.
Dairy also turns up in such less-obvious places as:
o Cakes and cake mixes, doughnuts, fritters, cookies
o Carob
o Chocolate candies, nougat
o Cream sauces, gravies
o Cream soups, chowders, bisques
o Custards, puddings, souffles
o Margarine
o Mashed potatoes
o Meat loaf, sausage, luncheon meats, hot dogs, milk-fed veal
o Noodles (macaroni, spaghetti)
o Pancakes, waffles
o Pasta
o Potato chips (some)
o Puddings
o Salad dressings (some)
o Sherbets
o Some luncheon meats and hot dogs
HINT: Be a compulsive label reader. The effort will pay off.
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