Ahh, dairy. Lifelong issues for me. My mom couldn't feed me cow's milk as a baby, I had horrible and endless colic. Goat's milk worked, though. But my entire life I believed I had trouble with dairy and mostly avoided it, I wasn't a milk/cheese/ice cream fiend at all. I had lifelong digestive issues, and despite having a mom with celiac disease (diagnosed in 1967), I didn't think I had it since I wasn't sick like she was. And for years, doctors said my chances were slim of having it anyway. Wrong! At age 55 I learned I had it too, plus I was tested for some other sensitivities at Enterolab (dairy, soy, egg) and was told my casein sensitivity was so high I should never eat dairy. It's still unclear how reliable Enterolab assessments are, but I gave up gluten and all dairy at the same time, and stayed dairy free for 8 or 9 months at least. Then I introduced it back into my diet in very limited amounts and seemed to do OK with it.

Since low carbing, I've wondered about it. Despite how they say full fat yogurt agrees with many people, it didn't for me. So at this point in time I limit my dairy pretty much to this: 3Tb or so whipped half and half in my cappuccino every morning. Occasional but not daily one-ounce amount of cheese. Butter on stuff here and there. I've gone periods of time on low carb with no dairy, then put it back, and saw no real difference. The worst I do is make an occasional Atkins friendly cheesecake, using full fat cream cheese, egg, liquid splenda to sweeten, and a sour cream topping. I've clearly seen on quite a few occasions that this boosted fat nicely and seemed to help my weight loss, no evidence of stalling from it.

So go figure....I remain uncertain about it. What I do know is that I don't feel so great if I go overboard on it, but I definitely handle it better in its fullest fat versions.

What I've also seen in general is that it's not too good to overdo eating anything at all. And to alternate around what you eat. My son had serious allergies as a kid and we did extensive testing. I remember the allergist saying you should only eat any potentially problematic food every 4 days or more. It's the "every day" aspect of eating foods that causes problems.