I have several questions, trying to figure out for myself why
people may be reacting to various foods, including dairy, and
if any of my reactions are due to dairy or not.
 
1. I have heard that there are basically 3 things people may be
reacting to in dairies: lactose, casein, whey. Some people
may be sensitive to some, but not others. E.g. sensitive to
casein, but not whey. Is this true?
 
2. If the reaction is to proteins - casein, whey - can one take
protein digesting enzymes to break them up? I am already taking
bromelain, there are plenty others out there as well. Or is the
reaction to specific chains of aminos that are found in milk
proteins and would not be broken down by these enzymes.
 
3. If the reaction is to casein (or even whey) why is there
reaction to other dairies, such as yogurt. I thought that
bacteria in yogurt use the milk proteins to make the proteins
they need, therefore the only milk proteins found in yogurt
would be 'residual' proteins, not yet digested by the bacteria.
Is this residual amount of milk proteins responsible for the
reactions?
 
4.a. Is it possible that reaction to milk proteins really happens
due to other reasons. For example, gluten, yeast overgrowth,
or other problems causing 'leaky gut syndrome' or similar
problems. So your body now starts absorbing incompletely digested
milk proteins and then starts developing antibodies to them.
Has anybody had these kinds of problems? And if yes, has milk
intolerance improved when those problems were taken care of?
 
4.b. The reason I am thinking of this is that if the body is
developing antibodies to milk proteins they must be getting into
blood steam. The body does not normally develop antibodies to
things still in the gut, as that will be broken down and there
is no reason to 'waste' immune system efforts on it. If milk
particles (proteins, lactose, whatever) are getting into blood
stream then the problem is with the 'leaky gut'. Does this make
sense?
 
5. Could the problems with milk (and eggs, etc. for that matter)
be due to hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc that go into
cows and end up in milk? Anybody switched to organic dairies
(or eggs, etc.) and found their symptoms improve?
 
6. I have seen a lot of references to Paleolithic diets, eating
only what could be picked in nature/killed with a stick. Dairies
are usually excluded from that list on the basis that neanderthals
did not raise cows. But they were still breast fed as infants.
Does anyone know why these diets exclude milk if it's a natural
part of one's life early on? How is human milk different from
cows, goats, etc.?
 
7. I remember seeing that casein is similar to another protein
in another food that people are sensitive to, but can't remember
which one. Is that gluten? Anybody out there remembers this?