Goat Milk

On this Paleo AIP diet, dairy is out. But from time to time I find myself craving something creamy. Sorbets have too much sugar (which is a no-no on this diet) and cause me to crash, and most coconut ice cream alternatives use guar gum or some other bean-based gum as a stabilizer, and beans and their derivatives are also forbidden.

But, ever on the prowl to see what I can actually eat based on how my body responds to food, I decided to give goat milk a try. I definitely cannot have cow milk because my body has an inflammatory response any time I consume it; my throat produces phlegm as a defense mechanism. But I saw the goat milk kefir and picked it up thinking that maybe the proteins in it are different enough from cow milk that I may be fine.

And fine I was! No response that I could tell; no phlegm and no rashes on my skin.

Kefir itself is a little bitter, but not distastefully so (at least to me), so the next week I picked up some goat milk yogurt. Creaminess, for the win!

Now to find ice cream based on goat's milk...That's more of a problem. I actually couldn't find any in my typical stores. But while wandering down the ice cream aisle at a niche grocer, I stumbled across sheep's milk ice cream.

Cha-ching!

Creamy, flavorful, and no rashes. However, I do appear to be at least a little sensitive to sheep's milk. When you are looking at your own body's response to dairy, it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between the cream and phlegm. I judge it based on how strong the response is and how quickly it goes away. A mild response which doesn't reach my nose, and which goes away after a few minutes is probably just the cream from the ice cream coating my throat. If my nose gets runny, or the phlegm persists, then it is likely an immune response. In the case of sheep's milk ice cream, my throat feels like it is coated in mucus 30 minutes after consuming it, so it appears that I am sensitive to it. :( I'll keep looking for options...

If you can't have dairy normally, you might give alternative milks a try, and not just nut milks (since I can't have any of those at all). There are more options than just goat or sheep milk.