• 1 Votes - 3 Average
Dairy Free Low Carb...anyone?

Newbie Low-Carber

I know I have problems with dairy products. I’ve stopped consuming milk years ago but I still continued to have cheese and butter. When I eat low carb I increase my dairy consumption with cheeses, creams and lots of butter. I used to think that my first two weeks of feeling terrible and no energy was because I was going thru withdrawals of low carbs. Then I noticed that the more dairy I eat, the worse I feel and the more I crave sweets. I’m now to a point that I have a hard time to bend over to pick something off the floor or even just getting out of a chair because my muscles and joints ache so much. Though, I’m 43 years old I feel like I'm 90. I don’t have a lot of weight to lose… only about 15lbs but my weight seems to go nowhere after losing about 3-4lbs. I’m planning to go off dairy completely but it is so hard because everything seems to have dairy in it. All low carb recipes seem to make up for the carbs with dairy. I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience and how you go about doing low carb with no dairy.

Expert Low-Carber

I don't consume much dairy ( cream, butter and cheese ). I consume more butter and cream. But, I use cream mostly in my coffee, rarely in cooking. If dairy cause problems, I would avoid it. Make up your own recipes that do not contain dairy. Don't eat anything that will cause systemic distress...go outside of the box.

Advanced Low-Carber

You could get some of your carbs from veggies and nuts. I had a bout with lactose intolerance shortly before I went LC, I was able to use soy products and lactaid though. I also read that someone else on the forum didnt have problems with goatsmilk products. I also think you could substitute oil for the butter in a few baked recipes. The microwave flax muffins in the recipe section of LLVLC might work. Hope some of this helps.

Advanced Low-Carber

I have celiac disease, hypoglycemia and hyperthyroidism. Well I don't because I control them with a gluten-free sugar-free diet.

I am lactose intolerant. Before I discovered and started controlling my celiac disease, I could ingest no milk products. Now I can ingest most cheeses and yogurt in abundance.

Celiac disease has a wide range of severity. Celiac disease carries with it intolerance to the complex sugars sucrose and lactose. The mechanism for breaking apart these sugars lies in the eroded "villi", the lining of the small intestine.

There are two forms of milk problems with some subtle nuances. They are lactose intolerance and casein sensitivity and intolerance. Try a gluten-free sugar-free diet. If it doesn't put you back on cheese and yogurt after a month, then your problem probably isn't a celiac-caused lactose intolerance.

Then try a dairy-free sugar-free diet to test for casein sensitivity and intolerance.

Newbie Low-Carber

Thank you everyone for your replies. I have done the low carb once with only meat and veggies and after a few weeks I felt encredible but it only lasted for a few days before I'd crash from no energy from lack of carbs. I do find that as long as I eat some greens with lunch and dinner I feel much better though. Veggienft... that is really interesting what you said about having celiac, hypoglycemia and hyperthyroid since I've always been suspected to having both celiac and reactive hypoglycemia. Though, I've been tested for both the tests always came out negative but I am not convinced that I don't have a problem with it. As far as thyroid problems I do have hypothyroidism but I take Nature-Throid (same as Armour) so I have my thyroid under control. I believe my main problem is blood sugar and dairy intolerance. I was a colic baby and was raised on goat's milk because of it but seem to have problems even with that now. I guess my best bet is to go back to meat, non-starchy veggies and some low glycemic fruits again and this time stick to it. I'd like to be able to get some energy back so I can start exercising. I'm convinced that once I exercise on a regular basis that a lot of my ailments will heal on it's own. Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions.

Expert Low-Carber

The energy will come back. Your body is so accustomed to eating carbs that it is actually going through withdrawal. But like any other drug, your body will bounce back...it will.

Advanced Low-Carber

Joubi, Your symptoms point directly at celiac disease. Celiac tests are absolutely rife with false negatives. If you have celiac disease, the tests may or may not find it. Said another way .....You get tested for celiac disease. If the test comes back positive, then you have celiac disease. If the test comes back negative, it means ...........nothing.

Personally I'm convinced that autoimmune thyroid disease is virtually always a manifestation of celiac disease. I can run through at least a couple of chemical routes which arrive at that end.

It is funny. You complained of lactose intolerance. I laid out the connection to celiac disease and autoimmune associations. You came back saying that you have all the autoimmune associations, but somehow do not have celiac disease.

Most doctors want you to think that you need them and their tests for a true celiac diagnosis, but obviously that is incorrect. Please allow me to redefine celiac disease for you. You have certain autoimmune symptoms, and you abstain from eating sugar, wheat, rye, barley and oats. Then if the symptoms go away:

1. Call that "celiac disease"
2. Don't go back and start eating sugar, wheat, barley, rye and oats.

This is not purely about "carbs". It's about the combination of ingested sugar and gluten protein. There's a sugar-fed fungus in the gut which attaches to the gut wall using the same protein which gluten uses. The immune system views both the fungus and gluten as the same antigen. The immune system does a couple of things to counter both antigens.

1. It attacks host tissue.
2. It rinses the gut contents into the bloodstream.

"Cut back" on carbs ........other carbs ..........or don't. But totally stop ingesting sugar, including fruit. Stop ingesting wheat, barley, rye and oats. The loss of energy you blame on your low carb diet is likely autoimmune hypoglycemia and hypothyroidism.

You'll probably start eating cheeses and yogurt over the next year.

You're welcome