Hey all, new to this site. Just a quick question....did/do any of you experience any reactions when you eat diary?? I've been mostly vegan for 4 years and completely vegan for the last 6 months, and since going completely vegan, i've found that if i accidently eat any dairy that i get a stomach upset, generally feel ill or get a headache. Is this ringing any bells?? If so, will it continue or is it temporary?? Im not usually food sensitive and haven't any allergies. Thanks,
lnl(aria

i dunno, i haven't accidently eaten dairy in the last 4 years. i avoid that stuiff like the plague. :sick:

Welcome to the board :)

What you describe is "normal".

The bacteria (lactase iirc) that processes dairy (lactose) disapears after a while when you don't eat dairy.

Hey all, new to this site. Just a quick question....did/do any of you experience any reactions when you eat diary?? I've been mostly vegan for 4 years and completely vegan for the last 6 months, and since going completely vegan, i've found that if i accidently eat any dairy that i get a stomach upset, generally feel ill or get a headache. Is this ringing any bells?? If so, will it continue or is it temporary?? Im not usually food sensitive and haven't any allergies. Thanks,
lnl(aria Hi and welcome to the boards. :hi:

Not only is this ringing bells for me, it's also blowing whistles, tooting horns and shouting it from rooftops! From what I understand, you have developed lactose intolerancy. This is something that can "happen suddenly" within a person (like you, for example) or can be present through most or all of a person's life (like me, for example). I have found that it will continue and if a person insists on eating milk products when they're lactose intolerant, the intolerancy will actually get worse and not better. Since you are completely vegan, avoiding milk products will be no issue to you since you avoid them already but if you were not vegan and did eat cheese and milk, I would say "get off and stay off of the dairy". Dairy products are not necessary for good health and based on the many things I've read, dairy actually does far more harm than good to a person so instead of trying to be a dairy-eater, I've simply learned to live without dairy in my life. I've also had to learn to read lables because a thing can say "non-dairy" and still use milk protiens and by-products in the ingredients list.

I discovered my lactose intolerance very randomly- it was early on in my vegetarianism, only 3 months in, actually, and it came from nowhere. I was ovo-lacto, I drank skim milk and all that...Well, I ended up getting a really bad sore throat, drank a ton of milk (it was the only thing I could drink, everything else made it worse) and found out the hard way that dairy does not agree with me. Now if I have more than the tracest amount of dairy, I get bloated and bad things happen. Even if it's a yogurt sauce, it messes me up. I never had a problem until then, either...

Anyhow, now I'm working on becoming ovo-vegetarian, though I'll still eat bread or cookies even if they have whey in them, as long as it's one of the last ingredients and that seems to be okay, but if I have ice cream or milk straight, it doesn't hang around in me too long. :doh:

Thanks all! I wonder if im intolerant because of my vegan eating, or whether it was bound to happen? Thanks anyway,
lnl(aria

Thanks all! I wonder if im intolerant because of my vegan eating, or whether it was bound to happen? Thanks anyway,
lnl(aria Not knowing you or your medical situation, I would guess (and it's only a guess) that it's a combo of both. Most of the population will develop an intolerancy in their lives no matter what they do and you might very well be within this group, but it could also be because you eat vegan. I'm not a doctor, but my understanding is that when a person doens't eat a particular irritant like meat or milk for a length of time, and then eats a bit of that irritant, a reaction can and oftentimes does happen.

I wish I could be of more help in settling your wonderings, but sadly, I can't.

Hmmmm...that explains a lot of what I'm going through right now. I've been wanting to go vegan or become a strict vegetarian, so now this gives me all the incentive in the world to go. I just need to finish off the cheese in the house. It doesn't seem to bother my stomach as much as milk or ice cream does, but a lot doesn't agree with me either :-/ .

I'm not vegan but since switching to vegetarianism, I've noticed that over time I have little to no tolerance for any dairy products - especially cheese, much to my chagrin. I began by being lacto- (and I guess sometimes ovo but never knowingly) and now the smallest bit of cheese will make me sick for at least 24 hours, generally in the form of painful digestive symptoms. It sucks. Even if I like the taste of cheese, I can't say it's worth the time spent in a fetal position waiting for the pain to go away.

I have to say, the timing is kind of strange. I never had problems with cheese before although I could never stomach ice cream or milk.

I'm now a total vegan, and discovered I was lactose intolerant about 5-6 years ago when I was a lacto-ovo. For me, dairy side effects were a variety of symptoms, such as headaches, nausea, bloating, cramps, depression, fatigue, and flactuance. All these complaints vanished once I gave up dairy.

Galatea, cheese has a lot less lactose in it than milk or ice cream. Lactose intolerant people usually have an easier time with cheese.

When i used to drink milk and especially ice cream, watch out! i would get diarrhea, bad cramps, my sinuses would get all clogged and mucousy, i generally would feel like crap, although cheese isn't so bad but i still would get constipated.
Thank God for soy milks and soy ice creams, i can still indulge without the nasty side effects.