Suzanne Tiernan wrote:
>  This may be a question long ago answered but,  what is Whey?  I heard it
was
the byproduct or waste water from cottage cheese.  I've noticed that
cookies
or items with whey seem to bother me more than others. So where does whey 
fit into the dairy vs. protein vs. allergy vs. intolerance vs. reaction
area?<

Milk separates into lactose (milk sugar), whey proteins, casein proteins,
water, 
fat, and a few vitamins and minerals. Most cheeses, not just cottage and
other soft 
cheeses, are predominantly hardened casein. The remaining liquid is known 
as whey. It has some of the milk's proteins and almost all of the sugar.

Commercial bakers love whey because it is indeed a cheap waste product, 
but one that gives a product many of the same nutritional and taste
benefits 
of whole milk. Most commercial whey is dried, meaning that it is roughly 
50-75% pure lactose and the rest mostly whey protein. If you are lactose 
intolerant, whey is one of the worst ingredients to encounter on a label. 

Most allergies seem to be to casein, but many people are allergic to the 
whey proteins as well. And of course, since the majority of the world's 
population is LI, by sheer chance many of them have protein allergies as 
well. It's not clear which is your problem, but you should avoid whey on 
a package label.

See my web site for more info on dairy.

Steve Carper
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper