Reintroduction Question - dairy

[JPJackie]

I had my first reintroduction experience last night. I wish it could have gone according to plan, but we were at a Major League Baseball game and my choices were so limited. I feel I did my best given my options. I found a Greek stand and purchased a Gyro salad. Although the salad contained feta, I didn't eat that. I got the tzatziki sauce on the side. I decided to try a limited amount of the sauce and probably only consumed 1/2 - 1 teaspoon in total of it.

Well, I have had stomach upset that began almost upon completion of the meal and is still going on over 12 hours later. Discomfort, bloating, gas.... I'm a bit frustrated with myself because this isn't the way I planned on reintroducing dairy and I know that it could either be the gyro meat or the dairy that is bothering me.... No way to tell. Unsure of the way the gyro meat is processed, but I know it's not clean like I have been eating the last few weeks!

Trying not to beat myself up. I know I did the best I could given my circumstance.

Wondering how long to continue before introducing something else? I want to give my gut a chance to get back to where it was. When you reintroduce a food and have a reaction, then what? It is truly amazing to me how good I have felt over the last 4 weeks and how one small amount of something could have this effect. I've been a dairy lover my whole life and really never noticed this discomfort. Wow!

This reintroduction thing is so tricky! Any advice would be appreciated.

[MrsStick]

I'd wait a minimum of until you stop having symptoms, then try it again with just one thing - dairy or seasoned/processed meat.

[Tom Denham]

I like gyro meat, so am betting the sauce was your problem. That's not very scientific, but I don't have anything better at the moment. Like MrsStick said, if you feel better tomorrow or the next day, try something again. I would try some dairy, but maybe something simple like yogurt or kefir.

[Joey]

I wouldn't make any assumptions either way, but do some more methodical testing after you've had a chance to heal a bit.

My experience is much different than Tom's- I have never found a commercial gyro meat that didn't contain wheat. Usually bread crumbs used as a binder. Places that process their meats in house might not do this, but I would be very surprised if you could find a place like that at a MLB game. So if I had to guess, I would guess you were suffering from a double whammy of gluten and dairy, and if I were you I'd give myself a full week after your symptoms are gone to repair before careful reintroduction.

[jpketz]

Like any experiment, the more you control the variables, the more accurate the results. One of the hardest parts of reintro for me was isolating ingredients so I could tell what was causing any reactions i might have had. It required patience and a few days of eating clean between experiments. As opposed to diving into a pizza on reintro Day 1 and then having to parse out what caused the ensuing 2-day bathroom stay-cation; the gluten in the crust or the dairy in the cheese or the processed pepperoni?

Dairy in particular can take a while to evaluate it in all its' glorious forms i.e. fermented, raw, cultured, et al but I would heed Tom's advice and go with unsweetened yogurt or kefir first, the fermentation making them less likely to cause G.I. issues.

Oh, and here's a tip I learned the hard way...do your reintro at home, if possible. I reintroduced sugar at a huge public flea market and almost had to call 911...that might be a bit melodramatic but you get my point--you want to be close to your "support system" in case things literally "go south". Bon appetit!

[angshaner]

I have a question about reintroduction. If I'm going to introduce dairy and I have icecream and have a reaction, how will I know if it's the sugar in the ice cream or the dairy? I'm going to start re introduction tomorrow and follow the books guidelines. But, it doesn't talk about re-introduction of sugar.

[Physibeth]

My advice would be to save ice cream until after you have reintroduced dairy. Also keep in mind that some people handle raw dairy and regular dairy differently. I personally seem fine with high quality butter and cheese but when I got a Starbucks Latte I got all gurgly.

[jpketz]

I have a question about reintroduction. If I'm going to introduce dairy and I have icecream and have a reaction, how will I know if it's the sugar in the ice cream or the dairy? I'm going to start re introduction tomorrow and follow the books guidelines. But, it doesn't talk about re-introduction of sugar.

I would start with the purest, four-ingredient ice cream possible (for me it was Breyer's Coffee or Strawberry) or make your own. If you really want to get all science-y about it, you could try coconut milk ice cream first, which would give you the sugar but not the dairy, wait a few days and try some regular ice cream.

My guess would be since something like 40 million people have some form of lactose intolerance, if you had a reaction to regular cow's milk ice cream, the cow's milk would be the culprit. Especially since the protein in the dairy helps to slow down the absorption of the high glycemic carbs. Most of us can probably tolerate a little added sugar in food otherwise (some of us) wouldn't be sugar addicts. Thank you food industry.

Re-introduction was not a linear, clear cut process for me. It's hard to test individual ingredients and get good, actionable information. So basically I didn't sweat it too much. If I ate something and it made me feel bad but I couldn't tell exactly what it was that caused the problem, I just filed that information away. Over time I assembled a pretty clear picture of what works and what doesn't. You will, too.

Bon appetit.

Physibeth: SO true about Starbucks. I used to suck up the grande lattes. Not so anymore.