OMG This is true and more people then not do customize every plan to fit their body, their needs and expectations....

For me I can do small amounts of dairy but not cheeses. Hard aged cheese gives me a headache.

kwikdriver you are so right. I used to eat a 3 egg omelette for breakfast the first time I did Atkins. This time round I can't manage that much as I've already had 2 cups of tea with cream and I cook my eggs in lard and butter. In fact - the cost of doing this has gone down since I upped the fat percentage. I find it hard to eat steak because all the steak is quite lean here. So I eat a lot of fatty pork. Lard from pork makes me feel amazing.

Well I put my cheese tolerance to the test last night and have to say too much is definitely NOT a good thing for my poor old tummy. We made fake pizza with a ridiculous amount of cheese/cream cheese - I ate too much and suffered all night with indigestion. Blurgh.

WEll I am fine with small amounts though. NOw I understand the 3-4 oz thing. I don't think I have the same problem with cream though, so it must be the casein.

As a side-note - I was expecting the rash round my right eye to maybe flare during the night after my cheese binge - but it DIDN'T - which means it is NOT CONNECTED TO DAIRY. Wow. That is a relief.

As far as the invention of cheese, I heard a food anthropologist say it was probably created when a animal stomach was used as a container to carry milk in. That was on "Good Eats".

Anyone know why rennet is such a problem for some people? What is its substitute for those who can't tolerate it?

I didn't know rennet could be a problem.

Rennet is an enzyme that specifically acts on kappa casein in milk. It is used in very small amounts and I have always assumed it is deactivated in the final cheese. The acidic environment of the stomach would also deactivate (denature) it.

There are different types of rennet - some are from animal sources and some are from microbiological sources - these are the types used in "vegetarian" cheese. Check labels; ask the manufacturer.

http://www.labspec.co.za/l_milk.htm#Cheddarhttp://
This explains that allergy to casein is the greatest culprit. It's from an allergy lab.

Thanks, Santabarb. That was interesting. I agree, it is most likely to be a reaction to the caseins and the breakdown products of the casein as the cheese ages, rather than rennet.

there is some casein in cream though isnt there??

I know I can do cream, cream cheese but any hard cheese give me really nasty headaches... Not sure why but thought I would throw that in...

There's allergies, and there are food intolerances, two different but related things. IGE is used to measure food allergens while IGA is used to measure food intolerances. They both cause an immune system reaction, but one can result in allergy like symptoms like an insect bite, while the other is delayed and often results in gastro-intestinal symptoms (and sometimes neurological symptoms).

You can have either or both at the same time.

You may be allergic to or intolerant of the mold. I have no problem with hard cheeses, but soft cheeses with more casein give me problems (mainly stuffed up sinuses). I have no problem with the miniscule amount of casein in the <1T of heavy cream I use in my coffee or tea.

I'm not sure you're right about casein content and cheese. Hard cheese might actually have more casein since there's less liquid in it, makes the casein more compact and denser.

http://www.allergysa.org/milk.htm

Hi JandLsMom. According to the USDA database, heavy whipping cream (37% fat) contains just over 2% protein. The ratio of casein to whey proteins in milk is approx 80:20 so the cream probably would contain about 1.6 g of casein per 100g.