<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Thanks to all who wrote in reply to my questions vis dairy products.
It was very helpful, at a time when I was unsure whether or not to
re-introduce dairy products into my diet. Rgarding Jim Barron's
advice to try goat's milk products - I have a sister whose skin allergies
improved after switching to goats milk, so it may work for me too.
 
When I first went GF, I was immediately floored by other allergic reactions
- to cat hairs, dust and milk especially. As time goes on, the
symptoms seem to be moderatating. I can now eat yoghurt and some
cheeses. They may make me a little sleepy, though - and the cat-hair
and dust don't bother me as much. I'm really happy about that, but
still don't understand the logic of it all. Allergy seems to be
wierder than most doctors can understand.
 
I now know, after a minor slip up yesterday, why I was never
diagnosed as a celiac - the initial
reaction of my system to wheat products feels like a deadening of the
digestive tract, resulting in constipation, not diarrhoea. In fact I
just curl up and can't do anything anymore, my throat and mouth get
a sort of paralysis, my brain goes numb as well. Does this sound like
anyone elses celiac symptoms, or is this something else, maybe a
wheat allergy?
 
Here are some of the replies I got:
Markus Isler wrote:
> And I also
> eat happily all sorts of cheese EXCEPT THE BLUE CHEESES (i.e.
> gorgonzola, stilton, roquefort etc/).  A long time, I didn't know
> why they were forbidden for a gluten-free diet, but some time ago
> somebody illuminated the subject on this very listserver:  the blue
> mold is cultivated on bread crumbs and introduced as such into the
> cheese during the production.  The mold lives from the bread crumbs
> and will eventually digest them so there's no bread left over, but
> still some harmful gluten proteins.
 
Jim Barron wrote:
> Because some people react to the protein in milk, they find that
> they can tolerate goat's milk in spite of being unable to tolerate
> cow's milk (which has a *very* different protein).   If lactose also
> bothers you, try yoghurt instead of milk (the lactose is broken down
> by the bacteria).   Goat's milk yoghurt bought as such is very
> expensive, but if you buy goat's milk and make that into yoghurt
> (very simple really - yoghurt makers are inexpensive and have easy
> to follow directions) then it's a *lot* cheaper.
 
Karen Bulmer wrote:
> In regards to the yogurt thats good for intestinal flora, my GP
> recommended I get some when I was having problems with yeast.
> Something about the yogurt brings a persons yeast under control.  It
> had nothing to do with the celiac.
 
Amy Eliezer Syracuse wrote:
>   I also have learned (as a dietitian) that the bacteria in
>   live-culture
> yogurt does help digest the lactose in it;  and that most cheeses
> have so little lactose that most everyone can eat them.,( unless
> they are actually allergic to the milk protein, called casein, a
> different problem.)
 
Jere Cordell wrote:
> Yes, there is a difference between caseine and lactose and their
> effects and the reasons to avoid them.  I avoid caseine because of
> irritability - both attitudinal as well as topical/tactile, but
> having nothing to do with the ability to digest it.  I avoid lactose
> because of digestive problems.  In either  case, my doctor lets me
> have 1/2 cup of yogurt a day and the odd piece of cheese and I do
> fine.  Yogurt is good for calcium as well as the various flora.  In
> cheeses, avoid the imitation ones that are artificially colored.
 
Linda Blanchard wrote:
> As for yogurt's healthful properties, I quote from "On Food and
> Cooking" subtitled "The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" by Harold
> McGee (Collier Books, copyright 1984)
>
>   "The claim that yogurt is an especially healthful food dates from
>   the
> turn of the century, and is based on the mistaken belief that the
> lactobacilli populate the intestine and, as they do in milk,
> suppress the growth of harmful microbes. Unfortunately,
> Lactobacillus bulgaricus cannot survive in humans."
 
Max Desorgher