These past four months have been quite a challenge for me, eating-wise. After a couple of months of stomach discomfort, paired with bouts of diarrhea every two or three days, my doctor is finally convinced that I’m lactose intolerant. I’m still not entirely convinced myself although sure enough, those dreaded diarrhea and stomach cramps stopped when I got off dairy. I have tried taking Lactaid pills, but they barely have any effect in alleviating my symptoms. What does that mean??? No more dairy forever? No more cheese? or ice cream? That would certainly help my cholesterol level but it doesn’t solve the MASSIVE CRAVING I have right now for cheese, cheese, and more cheese. I miss eating pizza (pizza without cheese is just not pizza in my book), cheesecake, Cheetos :), cheese in my burgers, salsa, baked potato, pasta and the list goes on….sigh. Still, I am thankful that all I have is just intolerance, and not an allergy with life-threatening responses. The most I’ll get are mind-blowing cramps and diarrhea which are horrible (don’t get me wrong) but at least I won’t die from them. I’m glad to say that I’ve gone two months without dairy at this point. Yay! However, I think the day draws near that I may just break down and go on a cheese binge and deal with the consequences afterwards. :)
Long story short, I’ll be doing a lot more dairy-free recipes in this blog from now on and at the same time, searching for dairy alternatives to use in my favorite recipes. Besides dairy, I’ve also noticed that I’ve grown intolerant of soy over the past couple of years (the body is rebelling from old age) although it doesn’t cause as bad of a reaction as dairy. However, since soy products are a major dairy substitute, I will use them in recipes but in limited quantity. Well, I hope I’ll survive this major diet overhaul and that the result will be a healthier, and more nutritious eating habit, one that my body will appreciate more in the long run. Cheers and stay tuned!
