Step 1: Remove gut irritating foods.
If you don’t react well to dairy, I’m guessing you have some other GI symptoms as well.
Giving your digestive system a break can be really helpful. As you embark on this process of gut healing, I recommend experimenting with the following:
-Avoid raw veggies–aim for cooked veggies the majority of the time. If digestion is really compromised, you can cook fruits too (they also taste amazing like this—I just saute in butter or coconut oil).
-Reduce nuts and seeds (if you do that them, chew thoroughly)
-Avoid inflammatory oils such as soybean/canola/rapeseed/safflower, etc.
This will allow your system to rest a bit!
Step 2: Add in gut supportive foods.
Foods such as bone broth, collagen, gelatin, coconut oil, aloe vera (juice is easy to add to things), eggs, cooked mushrooms.
Step 3: Support digestion.
Include a mix of supplement and lifestyle changes:
-Eat without distractions.
-Relax at meals. Taking a few deep breaths prior to eating can allow you to digest your food better.
-Consider digestive bitters. I love Urban Moonshine and Organic Olivia.
Using bitters prior to meals can help stimulate your own digestive process and allow you to break down your food better.
Step 4: SLOWLY reintroduce.
The biggest mistake I see people make is reintroducing too quickly. You can slowly rebuild lactase by slowly reintroducing dairy.
Here’s the order I recommend:
-hard cheeses first (lower in lactose)
-goat/sheep’s milk based cheeses (or A2 cow’s dairy)
-goat/sheep’s milk based yogurts (or A2 cow’s dairy)
-organic, grass fed milk(can start with goat/sheep as well or get A2 cow’s dairy)
Start Small: One small cut of cheese, 1 tbsp of yogurt or milk, etc. Do this daily and slowly increase until you are eating your desired amount.
Step 5: Test don’t guess.
Still having issues? Looking deeper at your digestive health can help you uncover a deeper cause to why you cannot digest dairy.
I use GI map stool testing with clients to see how they are breaking down their food, beneficial bacteria, pathogens/parasites/yeast/overgrowth, and how the immune system is functioning.
Here are a few podcast episodes that also discuss how to support gut health:
I also discuss gut health and digestion inside my course Master your minerals and talk about how minerals can help support digestion. you can learn more about the course here.
reminder: i’m currently taking on 1:1 clients. if you’d like to explore what it would be like to work together and if we are a good fit, fill out this form to get more details!
