If you are avoiding gluten, should you also be avoiding dairy?
There are several reasons you may be avoiding gluten. You have:
1. Gluten allergy – an inappropriate response to gluten by part of your immune system.
2. Present gluten antibodies – positive testing on blood labs having a wide-range of effects across all organ systems including your brain, heart, joints, digestive tract, and more.
3. Gluten intolerance– you do not have the digestive enzymes to break down gluten.
4. Diagnosed with Celiac Disease – tissue transglutaminase antibodies. By failing to identify gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, we create needless suffering and death. Health problems caused by gluten sensitivity cannot be treated with better medication. It can only be resolved by eliminating 100 percent of the gluten from your diet.
A gluten free diet is certainly becoming an easier lifestyle as the accessibility to gluten free packaged foods, gluten free cookbooks and gluten free menus at restaurants have increased.Many patients who have gone gluten free feel much better but can hit a plateau in their healing. When you have an immune reaction to gluten the antibodies your body makes bind to the gluten. The immune system can mistake other foods as gluten and react in the same way. To your immune system, the “cross-reacting” food is the same thing as eating gluten.
Why Go Gluten And Dairy Free?
So if you’re on a gluten-free diet BUT also consuming dairy, dairy is a known cross-reactor. Therefore, your immune system is still going to create the antibodies as it would if you were still eating gluten.Cyrex Labs, a new laboratory dedicated to gluten sensitivity, autoimmune disorders, and the overall topic of immunology, has been key in uncovering these cross-reactivity issues. They have actually identified a group of cross-reactive foods that do not contain gluten, but may be triggering the immune response for gluten sensitive patients.At The Healing Center, we can help you identify cross reactive foods through Cyrex Labs, as well as help you manage when to re-introduce these foods if at all.
Although cross-reactivity is not the only reason to cut dairy from your diet, according to Gluten Free Society here are many other reasons:
- Lactose in dairy is hard to digest for humans over three years of age. We go through a genetic down regulation in the production of this enzyme as a natural part of aging.
- The majority of dairy sold in the U.S. is genetically modified and loaded with hormones.
- The cows that produce the milk are not pastured, they are gluten fed.
- Most dairy products contain thickening agents made with grains.
- Products are pasteurized. This denatures the proteins and damages the other immune boosting properties of milk.
- Fat is removed. Skim milk is toxic. Fat is not unhealthy. Unhealthy fat is. The difference is in how the animal is fed. In the case of the cow – grains are the primary staple. Fat derived from grain is highly inflammatory thus promoting and perpetuating chronic disease.
- Many products contain added sugar or artificial sweeteners and flavors. These chemicals are not conducive to good health.
- One of the main proteins in GMO dairy, casein, has been shown to contribute to autoimmune diseases of the skin including eczema and psoriasis. This same protein is strikingly similar in structure to gluten.
- Clinically speaking, people who go gluten and dairy free typically have faster recovery of illness than those only going gluten free.
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To learn more about maintaining a healthy lifestyle, contact The Healing Center today: (303)-721-9800.
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