Dairy free

Going dairy free was a big decision for me. It was something I had been thinking about for a very long time and one day I woke up and decided that today is the day.

It has only been a few weeks now and I am still struggling with knowing what I can and can’t eat and food shopping is taking a lot longer as I am having to check the ingredients on everything! I had no idea there was milk powder in naan bread?!

I have grown up with migraines, like as long as I can remember. I am on daily medication to prevent them and I have them under control compared to when I was younger. I used to get several a week and now its maybe one a month, not even that? They aren’t too sure what causes them. It could be something I eat, stress, bright lights, my eyesight, literally anything. They tried to figure it out when I was younger by eliminating certain foods but it didn’t make a difference.

Fast forward to about 3-4 years ago. My acne was at it’s worse and I was getting stomach aches after eating certain foods. I self diagnosed my stomach aches as milk. I still continued to chug those chocolate milkshakes and eat pizza loaded with cheese but it got to the point I thought, well maybe just a small amount will be ok.

A friend of mine went for an allergy test called the vega test which is where the use a special machine and electrodes to identify if your body reacts to certain things, anything from certain food groups to animal hair. I thought I would give this a go out of curiosity and mine came back saying I reacted to wheat/yeast, not individually but when mixed together and also cows milk.

The test was good as it helped you identify any allergies but at the same time it said your body reacted to these things but doesn’t advise how. Were these effecting my migraines? Which was giving me a tummy ache? Did either of them make my acne worse?

I made the decision to switch to almond milk and give up cows milk. My migraines did get slightly better but that may just me growing out of them or the acupuncture I was receiving for them. My skin got slightly better and my tummy aches got better so I thought I was on to a winner.

I toyed with the idea of giving up dairy completely to see what would happen but I thought no way I can do that, I love pizza and chocolate etc. Over the last two years I very slowly moved onto dairy free butter and yogurts but I just couldn’t give up Dominos or chocolate. If I had more than half a pizza my skin would flare up crazy the next day and my stomach would hurt so bad. I needed to do this for my health.

I made the decision after I ate my Easter chocolate that was it. I’m done with dairy. It has only been a few weeks but I honestly feel so much better in myself. I feel healthier and my skin is clearing up. I thought I would crave a bar of dairy milk but after trying some free from chocolate I am totally fine and don’t look back.

The hard part will be going out for dinner or going to someones house but luckily my family are all being very supportive. No more takeaway pizza for me but do you know what, I don’t even care. I am at that point where I am like, yes this is hard, but it is my choice to make and I am just going to get on with it.

It really does surprise me how many foods have milk powder in. I went though all our cupboards to sort out if there was anything I couldn’t eat and it was a real eye opener. What also shocked me was how you can look at a branded product eg jaffa cakes or after 8 mints and they have dairy in but if you go for a tesco or asda own then they don’t.

I am really glad I made this choice and if you have any good suggestions that are dairy free please let me know!

Sarah x