Good Afternoon,
I’ve started researching Keto, and my wife and I are thinking about taking the plunge soon. One issue that we have, though, is that we are both lactose intolerant. So today we tried some of the low carb waffles and Pumpkin Moose. Very good, but lots of cream cheese, and stomach-ache inducing. We also both occasionally have the same reaction to eggs. A lot of the recipes that we’ve been looking at have cheese and eggs … has anyone else had to deal with this? Suggestions?
Thanks!
Danielle walker has written a great cookbook “Against the Grain”. That has many grain free dairy free recipes. She uses honey for a sweetener, but you can experiment with stevia glycerite or swerve…making recipes work can be part of the adventure…if you have the time. Many egg sensitive people use a flax mixture as egg replacement, but ive never done any egg tweaking before. It’s a great challenge to make traditional recipes into wonderful ketogenic recipes. The recipe section on this forum is amazing. I’m new to Keto so I don’t have any contributions yet. Happy adventures 
I eat very little dairy, just my preference. So my meals tend to be meat, or chicken, sometimes fish, and a leafy green veg. Just keep it simple, especially at the beginning.
When I first started keto, 2.5 years ago, I started dairy free though I still ate eggs and butter with no problem. I stayed dairy free for a year and then introduced some dairy in the form of cheese and HWC, mainly in cooking. I can tolerate dairy now as long as I don’t eat too much of it. My 23andMe results showed that I was ‘likely’ lactose intolerant but they couldn’t say for sure. You might look at some paleo recipes because they will likely be dairy free but you’ll have to watch the starchy carbs and sugars in some of those recipes.
Check out Maria Emmerich’s cookbooks. Lots of dairy free recipes!
Your reaction to eggs is clearly not lactose intolerance, so if you feel it’s the same reaction you have to dairy you might want to consider getting that re diagnosed. Was it originally diagnosed by a medical doctor or a self-diagnosis?
There is nothing you have to eat on a ketogenic diet, but you cannot have carbohydrate (more than a trace amount). Since lactose (milk sugar) is a carbohydrate it’s pretty much a no-no. That’s why ketogenic eaters don’t drink milk, it’s actually a mid-level sugar food.
Cheese has very little lactose and falls into the “trace amount” exception. That may still be to much for a small number of people. In that case, you can simply avoid cheese. It’s not required.
Have you tried consuming heavy cream? It may be fine for you since there is no sugar in HWC, thus no lactose.
I know a few people who can tolerate HWC who can’t drink milk at all.
I believe that heavy whipping cream retains some lactose, as does cream cheese.
I have a few of her cookbooks and you are so right. There are tons of dairy free options! I think her newest one is 100% dairy free since it’s also paleo compliant.
If you are lactose intolerant as opposed to milk proteins that actually gives you a limited amount of dairy - butter and some hard cheeses like parmesan. All you have to do is check the nutrition stats for 0 sugars. Be careful with US labels though as I believe they can ‘hide’ carbs if the portion size has only a small amount. Ideally, check a label that tells you what is in 100g.
Eggs - well that is something else entirely.
To confirm both, the best thing to do is an exclusion diet and then test these and other foods to see what reaction you get.
My advice would be to start things simple (you could actually use it as an exclusion diet) for say the first month - fatty cuts of protein, leafy veg and oils and butter. After the month you could then test eggs and hard cheeses. Start with the zero % like parmesan but you could also test up to say 1 or 2% and see what (if any) your tolerance is.
If you have these allergies, there is a chance you have more so you could test these too - nightshades (tomato, aubergine, peppers), nuts (esp peanuts and almonds) and anything else you might be suspicious of. It would be a great way of killing two birds and getting healthy at the same time.
Good luck whatever path you take.
I am actually lactose intolerant, so I can’t eat dairy products. I sometimes substitute with almond or soy milk, but I don’t really like the taste so I don’t use them often.
If I’m not eating dairy, am I missing out on any important nutrients? Or can I find replacements in other foods?
Thanks for your help!
HWC has lactose in it, just not much, and add that most people dont consume more than a little bit of HWC at a time. Just to compare, a cup of HWC has about 7 gms of lactose, https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/cream-heavy-fluid?portionid=606 and by comparison at cup of whole milk has about 12 https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/milk-cows-fluid-whole
Many brands of HWC and Cream Cheese contain other ingredients too, like thickeners and stablizers, and some people are very sensitive to that stuff. You may have to be very careful about what you eat.
My hubby and I have been doing KETO since this January. He is not lactose-intolerant but I am. I’ve had this issue for years. I’ve learned there are some dairy products that I can eat.
Chedder and Romano, and Patmesean Cheeses… but to be sure, they have to say “Aged” for something like 12 months. The cheeses at your grocery store that are usually in a separate place from the other cheese… and they cost more… THOSE are the cheeses that usually have a label with the aged for so many minths. But some brands not in the special area that are trustable are: Tillamook and Cabot. An article I read says to look at the package for carbohydrates. Lactose is a sugar or carb. Sometimes you can have a small amount because the quantity is small, but eating a big amount means you eat more lactose and that can be a bummer!
Also there is one brand that sells Organic Lactise Free Dairy. It called Green Valley. This is not to be confused by Organic Valley. Go the their website and you’ll find: yogurt (I can handle this!), cream cheese and sour cream (I can’t eat the whole thing, just a serving), kefir too.
Check out this! It’s a SUPER guide to KETO plus dairy issues:
Guide to Going Dairy-Free on a Ketogenic Diet | Ruled Me