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Do you eat dairy? (currently)
I eat all kinds of dairy 64%  64%  [ 9 ]
I only eat lactose-free dairy 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I take goat/sheep dairy not cow's 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I drink plant-based milks but eat yogurt or cheese 7%  7%  [ 1 ]
I don't eat any dairy but eat meat 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
I am vegan and don't eat any dairy 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Variable intake - trying different diets or undecided 14%  14%  [ 2 ]
Other 14%  14%  [ 2 ]
Total votes : 14

MrsPeel
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02 Jan 2025, 11:46 pm

I have seen so much conflicting information on the health benefits or hazards of dairy, and cow's milk in particular. For example:

- cow's milk is supposed to be more natural than milk alternatives BUT is it natural to feed humans on calf food?
- yogurt, butter and cheeses are important foods in European / US / Indian cultural traditions
- it is a useful source of protein and fat-soluble vitamins in a vegetarian diet
- it is an important source of calcium
- some say dairy is harmful due to the prevalence of lactose intolerances
- some say dairy is harmful because the casein can get into the blood/brain and affect dopamine
- unpasteurised dairy is touted for health benefits BUT may contain dangerous bacteria
- (something I just discovered) even pasteurised dairy can contain MAP (Mycobacterium Avium ss Paratuberculosis) which is associated with crohn's disease, type 1 diabetes, and other autoimmune diseases
- it may contain traces of antibiotics, growth hormones, etc.
- what about the welfare of the dairy cows?
- Environmental and climate change considerations?

What types of dairy or alternatives do you eat/drink and why?
Which ideas about the benefits / harms do you believe?
All responses are valid, no judgement, and no right or wrong answers. This is just a discussion for interest.

(Personally, I have always eaten dairy as it was part of the culture I grew up in and I love cheese, but I am considering removing milk from my diet for health reasons. I'm confused over the health/harm claims and still undecided which types of dairy I will continue to eat.)



Carbonhalo
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03 Jan 2025, 12:07 am

I would rather put up with the effects of lactose or other dairy intolerances than give up milk.
A cheeseless diet sounds awful.
The stuff may be designed by nature to double the weight of a calf in 3 weeks, but no way could I give it up (although I have tried switching to A2 milk, smart milk etc. to see if it changed anything, but found it didn't.)
One of the best things about travelling through USA was coffee with half and half. It even made up for US coffee! (Now we just need something to make up for US beer.)



Gentleman Argentum
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03 Jan 2025, 1:27 am

I buy oat milk and almond milk when they go on sale, but feel they are much too expensive otherwise. My favorite is Chobani extra creamy oat milk for my coffee.

I discovered I had become lactose intolerant a couple of years ago, which surprised me because I always thought of myself as a tolerant person accepting those of different races, religions and sexualities.

I went through a phase where I bought lactose-free milk, but that stuff is extremely expensive, and I cannot justify paying for it.

I began buying lactase pills, which I chase whenever I drink the cheap stuff. I buy a gallon of skim milk for $2.85, and if I am drinking a cup or more, will chase with a lactase pill. It works and is cheaper than the alternatives.


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Edna3362
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05 Jan 2025, 5:22 am

Not lactose intolerant, but my gut has some reaction to dairy that may or may not trigger overlapping nonallergic rhinitis symptoms.

Tragically, a lot of food I indulge in has dairy.
I don't necessarily like milk and cheese itself, but more like stuff that happens to have those as an ingredients.

In taste preference, I want them creamy and whole.
I don't like anything that tastes too watered down. I prefer plenty of dairy based stuff sweetened.

My main issue is more to do with how my body might process sugar...
Thus anything with glucose may or may not affect my cognition if taken excessively.

It doesn't help that I stress eat or/and emotionally eat...


I don't know.
I'd rather pray that I didn't inherited the diabetic gene from my father's side.


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Velorum
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05 Jan 2025, 1:08 pm

Im vegan and the types of food I will eat is limited by sensory issues in that I can only tolerate very dry items.

I am also lactose intolerant and very sensitive to additives / chemicals in food - something that is though to be linked to my MCAS diagnosis.

Due to my lifelong highly restricted eating pattern I was diagnosed with Avoidant Restrictive Eating Disorder (ARFID) a couple of years ago.

I also find being around other people when they are eating unpleasant and so generally avoid it.

My pattern is to restrict myself to just a handful of food items. My current selection consists of:

Meal Replacement Bars (Plenny Bars - 100% nutrition)
Raw almond nuts
Crackers
Dry corn snacks

I drink tea and coffee - both black. I did try various milk substitutes such as oat/almond/coconut milk etc but they ruined the taste. This was mainly in tea as I have always preferred coffee black.

I endeavour to consume 2K calories each day but sometimes struggle to achieve this. I treat 1.5K as an absolute minimum.

Due to all of this I never eat dairy produce.


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lostonearth35
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05 Jan 2025, 1:23 pm

Yes, I eat dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream, you name it. Because I can eat them.

I wonder if a life without ice cream is really worth living?



funeralxempire
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05 Jan 2025, 6:01 pm

Yes I eat dairy. I can't conceive of not eating dairy.


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renaeden
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08 Jan 2025, 12:36 am

My housemate insists on having UHT lactose free milk. It doesn't bother me so I have it as well. On my cereal and in tea and coffee.

There's no way I could give up ice cream. Strawberry and caramel are my favourite flavours.

I'll have cheese in sandwiches and in various cooked dishes.

About once a fortnight I'll eat a small tub of yoghurt.



enz
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08 Jan 2025, 12:42 am

its part of my coffee fix



kokopelli
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08 Jan 2025, 1:25 am

MrsPeel wrote:
- it may contain traces of antibiotics, growth hormones, etc.
I don't know about growth hormones. That could be the case, but I don't know why. Growth hormones are used to make the cattle grow faster so that they can be sent to the slaughterhouse sooner. Dairy cows are already fully grown and so growth hormones would seem to be a rather useless added expense.
Quote:
- what about the welfare of the dairy cows?
Dairy farmers take good care of their dairy cows.
Quote:
- Environmental and climate change considerations?
I'm strongly in favor of Global Warming. A warmer planet is a more productive planet. The real danger would be global cooling.

Regarding other sources of milk, I grew up on goats milk. My sister had the job of milking the goats.

While I never did like goats milk much, they did seem to make better biscuits than cows milk.


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kokopelli
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08 Jan 2025, 1:37 am

Gentleman Argentum wrote:
I buy oat milk and almond milk when they go on sale, but feel they are much too expensive otherwise. My favorite is Chobani extra creamy oat milk for my coffee.

I discovered I had become lactose intolerant a couple of years ago, which surprised me because I always thought of myself as a tolerant person accepting those of different races, religions and sexualities.

I went through a phase where I bought lactose-free milk, but that stuff is extremely expensive, and I cannot justify paying for it.

I began buying lactase pills, which I chase whenever I drink the cheap stuff. I buy a gallon of skim milk for $2.85, and if I am drinking a cup or more, will chase with a lactase pill. It works and is cheaper than the alternatives.


I used to have trouble with lactose. If I tried to eat even a spoonful of ice cream, it would give me a quick and strong diarrhea. So I used lactaid pills for several years.

Several years ago when I ran out of the pills once, it was going to be a while before I went to a store that sold them. I would get them from Walmart but I generally don't make it to a Walmart store very often. The nearest Walmart to be is in a town about 35 miles away that I only went to about three times last year.

So I went without Lactaid for several months. I tried eating a small bowl of ice cream and didn't have any problems. I also tried eating a bowl of cereal and had no problems. Over time, I found that I could eat a large bowl of ice cream (with Coke or Dr Pepper in it, of course) with no problems.

I no longer take Lactaid.

I don't know why the symptoms disappeared. After my first colonoscopy, I took some probiotics to repopulate the bacteria in my intestines. My guess is that I might have lost the bacteria needed to digest lactose from taking antibiotics. Like I said, that's just a guess.

Whatever the cause is, I haven't needed Lactaid in a few years now.


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Ursula
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08 Jan 2025, 12:43 pm

kokopelli wrote:
MrsPeel wrote:
- it may contain traces of antibiotics, growth hormones, etc.
I don't know about growth hormones. That could be the case, but I don't know why. Growth hormones are used to make the cattle grow faster so that they can be sent to the slaughterhouse sooner. Dairy cows are already fully grown and so growth hormones would seem to be a rather useless added expense.
.


Not growth hormones but milking hormones, which means dairy needs 1 cow to produce same milk as 10 cows.
I think this is why in reproductive systems there are aspects a male doctor or scientist can't understand. The pill causes breast tenderness, breast feeding is painful, as a mother I can't believe what cows go through.
I was never big on dairy, however liked occasional pizza, but rarely milk. Found long life milk at times tasted odd, taste of hormones must just being administered, very strong dose because 1 glass and my breasts were tender for day. Yip, black coffee for me. It's annoying as pesto has cheese, sometimes put mascarpone in olive tepenada so hugely upsets me as battle on restrictive diet, even canola use means I have to omit this. So end up eating lot of humus.
Very strict now, not even slice of cheddar or butter. But really have to read label as sweeten almond milk and that's a no-no as well. So I get annoyed on harmeish diet, I buy items for those in house without same degree of allergies which requires more discipline not to try nibble.



Ursula
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08 Jan 2025, 12:53 pm

kokopelli wrote:
So I went without Lactaid for several months. I tried eating a small bowl of ice cream and didn't have any problems. I also tried eating a bowl of cereal and had no problems. Over time, I found that I could eat a large bowl of ice cream (with Coke or Dr Pepper in it, of course) with no problems.

I no longer take Lactaid.

I don't know why the symptoms disappeared. After my first colonoscopy, I took some probiotics to repopulate the bacteria in my intestines. My guess is that I might have lost the bacteria needed to digest lactose from taking antibiotics. Like I said, that's just a guess.

Whatever the cause is, I haven't needed Lactaid in a few years now.


Ice-cream does not contain dairy, very few brands of ice-cream are healthy due to additives, so look on YouTube to find out more about healthy ice-cream.

Most Probiotics don't last in gut once discontinue taking them, so instead of yoghurt which contains most common long living cultures, I use pickles but say sauerkraut is full cultures,
Antibiotics wrecks havoc, I think it's what causes my weight loss as a child and partial deafness.

Even cappacino at restaurant using milk alternative in spray can, unless you specify cream or milk froth.
So realising what's in food helps, most sausages use little meat, contain gluton. Even sausage rolls don't have actual meat.

Could explain why your allergy seemed to clear.
For years I made white sauce from packet of mushroom soup, dairy free but gluton issue holds up, same with coffee creamers...
But I taste palm oils, never liked cremora due to my sensory issues, other issue is cappacinno cream would melt and I'd see yellow vegetable fat floating over my coffee, so it's black. Some say skim milk could work which I buy son lactose free milk but still contains dairy or some are like mixed up cremora so it's tedious keeping up with labels, so just buy son oats milk and lots vitamins.

One day I got tired and may used little more preservatives than usual, energy drinks as I used to keep sugar to Min, and it's not age it's diet that gives you Candida overgrowth, and slipping up eat cold meats as bad as dairy, so no processed meat.
It's awful as when younger occasionally ate at restaurant, now I simply can't risk allergy. Awful



funeralxempire
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08 Jan 2025, 5:02 pm

Ursula wrote:
Ice-cream does not contain dairy


Your assertion is in conflict with the ingredients list on my ice cream. Somehow I feel the ice cream container is more authoritative.


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kokopelli
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09 Jan 2025, 5:29 am

Ursula wrote:
kokopelli wrote:
So I went without Lactaid for several months. I tried eating a small bowl of ice cream and didn't have any problems. I also tried eating a bowl of cereal and had no problems. Over time, I found that I could eat a large bowl of ice cream (with Coke or Dr Pepper in it, of course) with no problems.

I no longer take Lactaid.

I don't know why the symptoms disappeared. After my first colonoscopy, I took some probiotics to repopulate the bacteria in my intestines. My guess is that I might have lost the bacteria needed to digest lactose from taking antibiotics. Like I said, that's just a guess.

Whatever the cause is, I haven't needed Lactaid in a few years now.


Ice-cream does not contain dairy, very few brands of ice-cream are healthy due to additives, so look on YouTube to find out more about healthy ice-cream.

Most Probiotics don't last in gut once discontinue taking them, so instead of yoghurt which contains most common long living cultures, I use pickles but say sauerkraut is full cultures,
Antibiotics wrecks havoc, I think it's what causes my weight loss as a child and partial deafness.

Even cappacino at restaurant using milk alternative in spray can, unless you specify cream or milk froth.
So realising what's in food helps, most sausages use little meat, contain gluton. Even sausage rolls don't have actual meat.

Could explain why your allergy seemed to clear.
For years I made white sauce from packet of mushroom soup, dairy free but gluton issue holds up, same with coffee creamers...
But I taste palm oils, never liked cremora due to my sensory issues, other issue is cappacinno cream would melt and I'd see yellow vegetable fat floating over my coffee, so it's black. Some say skim milk could work which I buy son lactose free milk but still contains dairy or some are like mixed up cremora so it's tedious keeping up with labels, so just buy son oats milk and lots vitamins.

One day I got tired and may used little more preservatives than usual, energy drinks as I used to keep sugar to Min, and it's not age it's diet that gives you Candida overgrowth, and slipping up eat cold meats as bad as dairy, so no processed meat.
It's awful as when younger occasionally ate at restaurant, now I simply can't risk allergy. Awful

For some reason, I have a sudden desire to never visit South Africa.

I don't think that I've ever eaten any ice cream that weren't mostly dairy. That said, back in the 1960s, we had an ice cream substitute called mellorine (sp?) that was not very good. The fats in it were either animal fat or vegetable fat. My mother used to buy it to save money. Mellorine, however, is not ice cream. Maybe that's what you have in South Africa.

And sausages, depending on their country, will generally contain quite a bit of meat.

There was a bit of a trade war over this something like 30 years ago. I think it was Germany who required that sausages be a minimum of 80% lean meat. England, on the other hand, had a minimum of 60% lean meat and most were pretty close to that with the rest fat. So England could not export sausages to Germany because their fatty sausages were illegal under German law. England filed a complaint with the EU claiming that Germany was barring their sausages under illegal laws that were illegal barriers to trade. There was an interesting article in The Economist about this back then. I never did hear how it turned out.

That said, you used to be able to get Welsh Dragon Sausage in Wales, but the bureaucrats banned it since they felt that the name was misleading because it contained no actual dragon meat. They had to protect those consumers who wanted dragon meat in their Welsh Dragon Sausages.


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Yesterday, 4:22 am

I voted for Other. I've always been a majorly picky eater who hates the taste of drinking milk including chocolate milk. But I do really like the taste of some various sweets like candy & baked goods & also fast-food & junk-food stuff some of which of coarse contains dairy. I care about the taste of the food but I also dislike cretin textures & certain smells so I don't give a cr@p about eating healthy or not.

When I was a kid my mom tried having me not eat dairy for a bit & she also put me on other various types of diets to avoid certain foods. Some of the reason was due to misinformation back then about autism being caused by food intolerances . The diets did not improve my autism symptoms & instead made some things worse because I threw tantrums/had meltdowns because I hated most of the food I was being given & lots of times I choose to go hungry.

I also had bad skin eczema & nasal allergy problems as a kid & an allergist did a skin prick test on me & said I was allergic to dairy. Avoiding dairy did not improve my skin nor my nasal allergies. My parents did not trust that allergist because the prick test said I was allergic to every single thing tested & my skin can overreact to pressure like just holding my finger against my other arm for a couple minutes can leave a mark on my arm that can last for over five minutes. Plus it's kinda impossible for me to live a life like the movie Bubble Boy & trying to avoid a few things at a time did not majorly improve my issues.


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