TMI warning (sorry!).

I used to think that I was lactose intolerant, because I often seemed to experience stomach issues after consuming dairy. I realized over time though that non-fat milk doesn't usually cause me any problems - I can drink a 16 oz. skim latte in the morning and not experience any digestive issues at all, and I've been eating non-fat greek yogurt lately and have been fine. So I figured that maybe something else in my diet was causing the stomach problems. Tonight though I tried to have some dairy with a little fat in it (some 2% cheese and a bit of 1% milk), and had major stomach issues.

Nonfat dairy still has lactose, so it doesn't seem to be an issue of lactose intolerance. Does anyone have any idea why I might have digestive issues with dairy fat only? Is there such a thing as a dairy fat allergy?

One of my roommates from college had a dairy fat allergy! It's totally a real thing. I'm not sure if Lactaid or another supplement helped her but it's worth a shot.

Phew! I thought I might be a little crazy thinking that it was the dairy fat. Thank you - I'm glad to know it's something real. When I googled "dairy fat allergy" exactly two results came up, and they were posts on other message boards, lol. I also saw a nutritionist today, who recommended that I get more dairy in my diet, and when I told her that I thought I might have a problem with dairy fat she said "hmm, that's weird."

I have definitely tried Lactaid, and thought it seemed to work sometimes... but that was when I thought my problem might be lactose intolerance, and so maybe the times when it worked were times when I was having non-fat dairy? I don't know. I started taking 2 at once instead of 1 because it wasn't working all the time, but that didn't seem to change anything. I think Lactaid is lactase, which is the enzyme lacking with lactose intolerance, so that's probably why it didn't work consistently for me. It would be great though if there's something else out there that I could take to help with this.

Thank you

I actually did a google search too and it seems like there's debate in the scientific community about whether or not this is a "real thing" or not. My friend's philosophy, and her doctor's philosophy was- if you eat dairy high in fat and it bothers your system, and you eat dairy low in fat and you're fine, there is probably some sort of allergy going on. No use in eating dairy with fat just because the medical community hasn't yet agreed upon that you're allergic to it Good luck!

My google skills apparently suck, lol. When I goggled without the quotes, there are definitely a lot more results - some on topic and some not. I will be reading, but your summary is useful, and your friend's/her doctor's philosophy makes sense to me. Thanks once again.

I'm lactose intolerant, but oddly enough...I can eat yogart, cheese, etc without a problem, but for some reason...milk gets me everytime! Sorry I don't have any answers...but just thought I'd share my experience with it.

I think the amount of lactose is lower in yogurt and cheese, which might explain why those seem ok for you. Lactase persistance (that is, NOT being lactose intolerant) is caused by at least a few different mutations, and so I wonder if differing degrees of lactose tolerance might be conferred by different mutations, or being heterozygous for one of those mutations. It's interesting.

In any event...whether it be milk or the dreaded ICECREAM.....it's always worse for those around me than it is for me!

Chickadee - I have the same thing. I'm fine with low/nonfat dairy, but anything like cheese, cream etc just ruins me. (I won't go into detail!). My sister suffers too.

Can't find anything about it online, but I'm still looking. I totally agree with that doctor's theory - whatever the medical community say, I know what I experience and let me assure you it's very real (and pretty uncomfortable, even painful)...!! And the worst be about it is that cheese is abolutely my favourite food . It's a fairly new thing for me - I've had it for ages that I get bad effects after eating a LOT of cheese, but it's fairly recent that it's been even a small amount that knocks me out.

Of course, it might be that it's something else, but that seems to be how the symptoms work. I'll keep looking!!

X

I'm glad to know there's someone else who experiences the same thing I do! (Though I wish you didn't, for your sake ) Like you, cheese, cream, and especially butter seem to do horrendous things to me. Not only is it uncomfortable and painful at times, it can be very disruptive and embarrassing. I've had to leave restaurants, parties, other people's homes, etc. in a rush on many, many occasions, and I sometimes feel queasy for hours after the fact. I'll still eat some lowfat dairy at home when there's something I really want to have, but I always worry about hidden dairy when I'm eating somewhere else. It seems to be in a ton of things you'd never suspect contain dairy.

Please do let me know if you find out anything interesting, and thank you for sharing your experience with this issue.

I also seem to have a problem with dairy fat. Taking lactaid doesn't help. I have skim milk all the time with no problem, I don't seem to have a problem with butter, but fatty cheese and cream are a huge problem. I do ok with the cheese made from 2% milk, or part-skim, that you can buy at the store, but when I eat things out that have cheese I have major problems. I feel like it's related to the amount of fat, because I can eat Breyers ice cream just fine, but get really sick from Haagen Dazs, which I think is much higher in fat... It's tough to figure out. I just got sick this weekend I think because of eating a piece of wedding cake - the frosting was probably made with cream.
It seems to be related to the type of fat because I can eat a burger and fries and other fatty foods with no problem. It really sucks because I used to be able to eat anything!

It certainly seems to me like your reaction could be related to the amount of dairy fat you consume. As shoeless mentioned, she didn't used to react to small amounts of cheese, only large quantities of cheese. I definitely wasn't always this way either - I can't remember any dairy being a problem for me as a kid, or even in HS or college. It's been since that time that I really seemed to develop these issues, and they seem to be worse now than they used to be. When I ate that 2% cheese last week... shudder. It was really awful.

And I'm the same way as you - I don't seem to have problems with other fats, just dairy fats. I use olive oil regularly when I cook, and it never causes a digestive problem.

As for the wedding cake frosting... maybe it was a buttercream frosting? That much butter (much more than you'd put on toast or something) could definitely do it!

Thinking about this a little more...

My sister in law is severely lactose intolerant. Or at least that's what she and her doctor have assumed. She dealt with the same types of stomach issues several years back, and since things like lactaid didn't do anything to help her, she went through a process of cutting many different things out of her diet to try to determine the allergy. In the end, she settled on completely eliminating dairy, alcohol and caffeine from her diet. (I had thought in the past that I'd noted a connection as well between dairy and caffeine - that is, that caffeine seemed to amplify the issues I had with dairy. A cup of coffee with some 2% milk or half and half was [and still is] a huge no-no for me, as it wreaked havoc with my stomach. That's part of why I was later surprised to find that I could have coffee with skim milk and have no problems whatsoever.)

I've never asked her whether she had problems both with non-fat dairy and dairy with fat. I'm not sure whether it's something she checked into at all. I'll have to find out.


Edit: I'm also curious as to whether any issue I have with dairy fat is limited to cow's milk dairy fat or is a problem with all dairy fat. I might have to experiment with this a little - with controlled meals at home of course.


Sorry again for all the TMI in this thread, but I hope that in posting some of this here, someone else might find it useful at some point. Thanks to all who have responded and shared their knowledge and experiences.

No idea if this is useful or relevant, but I was trying to find some information on the components of dairy fat and this is what I came across:

http://www.milkfacts.info/Nutrition%...Components.htm

A component of milk fat that seems to have received a fair amount of research attention is conjugated linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid that has anticarcinogenic properties, improves immune function and reduces inflamation, and may contribute to bone density maintenance and improving lean body mass.

http://www.milkfacts.info/Nutrition%...Health.htm#CLA

Another page I was reading indicated that the other primary source of CLA is beef fat. However, there are many different forms (isomers) of CLA, and I don't know how they might function differently. That is, whether the isomers of CLA in beef fat are the same as those in milk fat, or whether particular isomers could cause an allergic reaction while others do not. It seems feasible that they could, but I took biochemistry a long time ago and it wasn't my strong suit anyway. Note that none of these pages mention anything about dairy fat allergies... I'm just trying to see whether there's any info out there that could point to a particular allergen.


This page (http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/grassfed.html) states that sheep's milk has more CLA than cow's milk. Relevant to my last post, it would be interesting to try the two and see whether the stomach effects were different.


OK, last one. This page (http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html) has some more info on the isomers of CLA - which has apprently been touted as dietary supplement for weight loss. Like many things, it seems that the supplement may not provide the same isomers as those occuring naturally, and so many not have the same effects. A search here on 3FC found this thread (http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/does...22616-cla.html) regarding CLA, where Suzanne has posted regarding the potentially serious side effects of CLA supplements. To anyone who reads this thread, please note that my posts and information regarding CLA here were NOT intended to promote it in any way as a diet aid.. Rather, I was looking at it from the perspective of a potential allergen (and that only because it was the only component of milk fat that I could find any info about). For reference, the third scientific article cited at the bottom of this page (http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html#3), Riserus et al. 2002, "Treatment with dietary trans10cis12 conjugated linoleic acid causes isomer-specific insulin resistance in obese men with the metabolic syndrome" covers the negative consequences of CLA supplement use.

I'm weaning myself off of dairy (but I still like cheese...it sucks) right now, I have stopped consuming milk and other dairy products...except cheese, of course.