The Dairy Debate: Why I Decided to say Goodbye to Dairy

My Personal Experience

Even before I began studying nutrition, I had always heard that you should cut dairy out of your diet. It seemed to be everywhere. Want to lose weight? Cut out dairy. Want clear skin? Cut out dairy. Stomach aches? Probably dairy. But I liked my iced capps and cheesy pizza, so there was absolutely no way I was going to do that.

All throughout high school I had experienced serious bloating problems, which were painful and made it hard to zip up my jeans. I didn’t really think anything of it, I mean everyone gets the occasional sore stomach, right? The painful bloating followed me to college. It was annoying, but not exactly life altering. However, once college came, I noticed the skin around my nose and mouth was consistently red. And I mean, no makeup could cover it, no moisturizer helped, and neither did the 6 bottles of water I tried to drink. Again, irritating, but not life altering.

At the end of my first year of college, I had started going to the gym regularly. The gym, conveniently, had a scale right outside the change rooms. So, I, conveniently, weighed myself every time I went (I don’t recommend this). This is when I realized how much my weight was fluctuating in short periods of time. My weight was fluctuating between 10 pounds. TEN POUNDS. Not over the period of a month, I’m talking 1 day. This is when I started to wonder if something was going on. Don’t get me wrong, your weight will naturally fluctuate daily, but 10 pounds? I knew my body was trying to tell me something, but at this point I knew nothing about nutrition and wrote it off as stress, water and early period symptoms? For the entire month? Sure.

The painful bloating, redness and weight fluctuations continued, and I continued to do nothing. I mean I felt fine sometimes, so that’s okay right? Fast-forward to when I started school for nutrition. The general consensus for dairy between my classmates and professors was that it was a big no. Big red flag. Big bad. At this point I could start to connect the dots between my symptoms and dairy. But was that enough for me to stop? Still nope.

I finish school, I work for a year, continue dealing with bloating, redness and weight issues. Cue the pandemic. You start to notice a lot of things when you spend all your time in your house, alone. My symptoms seemed to be exasperated, maybe because I had more time to focus on them, maybe stress, probably both. In May of 2020, I started to notice I was getting more pimples than usual. I have been lucky to never have issues with pimples, just my redness and a few pimples every once and awhile. I figured it was just stress and didn’t think much of it. June came, and what seemed like overnight, I had 100+ pimples on my forehead, sides of my face and chin. Yep, that did it for me. I spent $100 on face products, gave it a month and nothing changed. So, I made my first appointment with a naturopath.

The truth was I knew what she was going to say before I even booked the appointment, but I was praying for a different answer. Because I couldn’t possibly do without cheese? Iced capps? Ice cream? No way. Sure enough, we both came to the conclusion that it was best to see dairy go. I was concerned about my skin so that same day I stopped eating dairy. A month later, my skin was almost completely clear. It’s now been 6 months and my skin is clear, no redness, I forget what painful bloating is and my weight sits comfortably (even though I rarely weigh myself).

So, Dairy is the Root of all Evil?

First, I want to start by saying everybody’s different. Everybody’s body is different. Can everybody’s painful bloating be soothed with removing dairy? No. Can some people eat dairy with no negative side effects? Probably. But it’s usually a good place to start.

Dairy sensitivities are common and even more commonly unnoticed

Food sensitivities are not always hives, rashes, itching or immediate, making it difficult to connect the dots between symptoms and food. The reality is, it is common that reactions to foods sometimes take days, so by the time you have a reaction to that piece of cheese you ate, you’ve had 7 other meals. Some of the common symptoms of dairy sensitivities are skin issues and bloating, sound familiar? Other symptoms may be aching, headaches, nausea, and excessive mucous (coughing, runny nose).

The issue is that it often goes under the radar, therefor these issues become chronic, like we saw in my personal example. When we have a sensitivity to certain foods it means our immune system is activated and trying to protect our body and sends out our immune cells to fight the “invader”. This could be the culprit of the symptoms we feel, bloating headaches etc. When we ignore the body’s warning system, like how I ignored the bloating, it keeps sending signals, which is how I ended up with four million pimples.

Why are dairy sensitivities so common?

Milk and other dairy products are highly processed. The truth is, milk can be full of rich vitamins, minerals and be quite nourishing. The issue lies in the processing of store-bought milk products. Let me ask you this, why is it common people who are lactose intolerant can’t drink processed milk, but can drink fresh raw milk? The answer is because the processing of milk destroys the natural enzyme called lactase. Lactase helps the body breakdown and properly absorb milk in the human body. It’s no wonder processed milk products can leave us feeling bloated, sore and inflamed. In one of my favorite books, “Food and Healing” by Annemarie Colbin, she also talks about how cows’ milk can have up to four times the amount of certain nutrients humans require. She then discusses how when our bodies have too much of something, it’s natural for them to try to get rid of it. The excretion can result in runny noses or pimples. See where I’m going?

How to know if you should consider saying farewell to dairy

I don’t know if removing dairy will make your stomach feel better, or soothe that nasty headache you get every day, but if you experience any of the symptoms we’ve talked about, it’s probably worth a shot. So, I challenge you, to remove all dairy products from your diet for 10 days. And I mean, check every food label (it likes to hide), switch to a dairy alternatives in your coffee and give cheese the cold shoulder. During this time your symptoms may start to relieve. However, as I had mentioned in my personal story, it can take a few months for your body to find a new normal and see a reduction in uncomfortable symptoms.

For more reading I highly recommend Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin

Find it here: