Ry and I are starting to see a pattern; dark chocolate gives me migraines. This is a very sad day for me as I LOVE chocolate. Every year for Christmas, Santa remembers to bring me a box of dark chocolate Pot of Golds. Chocolate covered raisins are my favorite treat at the movies. When Ry wants to do something nice/special while he's out and about, sometimes he picks up something spiffy like Lindt orange or chili chocolate bar. A couple of chocolate chip cookies wont do it, but a handful of chocolate chips will. For example, last night while finishing up season one of Wolverine and the X-Men we borrowed from a friend, we poured out a small bowl of the chips and enjoyed. About an hour, maybe an hour and a half later while trying to study for my midterm, my left temple started to throb and after a short time it felt like my left eye was going to pop out of its' socket. Time for bed, much to both our disappointment. This type of headache seems to attack specifically after having chocolate.
The other foods I'm no longer eating include milk products; I can have a little bit of solid cheese or cream cheese on a bagel, but that's it. Milk and yoghurt cause some fairly decent lower bowel distress, every time. Even icecream is out, unless it's a spoonful or so in the smallest bowls we own. This sucks because I REALLY love icecream too. And sometimes I really want a nice cold glass of milk but know it'll bite me in the ass if I give in. It might be time to give soy milk a try again, even though I hate the taste of it. I need to take care of my bones, especially after several years on depo which causes bone loss. A friend suggested I get my blood pressure checked but that's always been fine, even when I was pregnant with Gabe.
Heidi over at http://littleowl.com/heidi/2010/02/05/intuitive-eating-vs-calorie-restriction-or-dieting/has a great post up right now about intuitive eating vs. calorie restriction. I left a slightly rambly comment over there about bacon last night before going to bed that I should probably expand on in this context. Since finding the FA and HAES blogs and movement two years ago, this idea of intuitive eating has been one I've been trying to incorporate into my life as much as possible. Eating what my body asks for, in the amounts it asks for, has been something I've struggled with. When I was a kid, my parents would make me sit at the table until I was done. There are pictures of me and/or my sister, asleep at the table, with full bowls of something we didn't like infront of us. I think it's chili. I can still remember the pickrel chowder incident when I was a little older; we were at the table for a looong time on that one too, giggling over this god-awful smelling bowl of fish. We were eventually let down, but it made an impression on me. For a long time, I would I finish my plate, even if I was already full, but I *always* leave a bite on it. This shows I'm not a big pig, that I didn't eat it all, even if I ate more than I wanted. I've learned to ignore the full feeling but now I'm unlearning that. I eat less and listen more to what my body says, and like Heidi, it's working out pretty well because my body's getting what it wants in the amounts it needs. If I want bacon every day with breakfast, I have bacon.
I'll have to finish/edit this later, my sister is coming to get me so I can pick up some groceries. If anyone has a no fail cheese cake recipie, please leave it in the comments or email it to me! Thank you.
My sincerest condolances on finding out your body does not like chocolate, and/or dairy. That would be a big blow to me, too.
Oh dear! I'm sorry to hear that you can no longer eat chocolate. Weirdly enough, chocolate actually helps my headaches due to the caffeine, strange how that works, right?
My roommate, who is lactose intolerant, swears by Silk Very Vanilla soy milk, so maybe you could try that instead of the "regular" flavor?
Thanks for the tip and condolences, ladies. I appreciate it. :)
Perhaps it is the caffeine in it? For some people caffeine helps headaches, but for some it's triggering. Do you have problems with coffee or tea or other caffeine foods? Keep a mental food diary and see what else seems to trigger this.
As for milk, lots of people get lactose intolerant as they get older. It's best to respect that and avoid dairy, but if you want to occasionally indulge in a little dairy without a huge price afterwards, try taking some of the Lact-Aid pills before you consume the dairy.
It may or may not help you, but it's worth at least trying.
My boys are allergic to dairy; they use vanilla rice milk as their substitute. Not as good as milk, but they like it better than soy. And soy can cause problems for thyroid issues, so I think rice milk is generally better for most people.
WellRoundedMama: Ooh, never thought of rice milk. As for coffee or tea, no problems there with the caffiene. I have a cup of coffee in the morning and usually one cup of tea at night. I should go get that now, actually.
Hey there! I'm a total stranger rather than a regular commenter, alas, but I suggest trying almond milk. It's a bit more expensive than soy, but it tastes much more like milk, doesn't taste chalky and weird, etc. The "regular" variety has a little bit of sweetening in it but does not taste sweet, unlike regular soy milk. It's also great for substituting in cooking.
In terms of ice cream, if you live near any kind of natural foods store or yuppie grocery (except the dreaded and fatphobic Whole Foods!) you can get coconut milk ice cream. Also, mint soy milk ice cream is pretty good; I find the other flavors a bit flat.
I would second the suggestion to try almond milk - I don't drink it but my mother does and she has liked it the best of the non-dairy milks.
It's really, really frustrating discovering that a food disagrees with your body. For me it's doughnuts. I LOVE them but the vast majority of the time, unless I time it exactly right (and I don't know what makes it a "good" time yet, to my frustration), they give me horrendous heartburn. It's not the same as a migraine in terms of severity, I know, but it's painful and just not worth it.
Most of the time, that is.
My nutritionist says that it's okay to grieve foods that you're giving up because they make you sick - it's totally normal to be sad/angry/etc. about it.
Almond milk, eh? I'll have to price things out next time I'm at the grocery store.
Heidi: Heartburn is NOT FUN. You have my full sympathy on that one.
Frowner; welcome to my blog and thanks for the tips. There is a health food store downtown that might carry what you're talking about. Most speciality foods are way out of my price range, unfortunately.
I'd also suggest trying almond milk or hazelnut milk, which is harder to find, but delicious.
I'd be terribly upset if I had to give up dark chocolate, too.
omg hazelnut milk sounds delicious! I adore nuts, especially hazelnuts. I wonder if our local health food store has it...
My husband works for the company that distributes most of the food for Whole Foods Market. I think that I have tried almost every milk replacement product on the market, and I would definitely choose Almond milk. Rice milk tastes rather grainy, and soy milk has a texture that I do not particularly enjoy (sometimes, especially at the bottom, it clumps. ICK!)
I had problems with lactose as well - at least I thought I did. Then I tried some raw milk, and braced for impact(!). Guess what...nothing. No indigestion. No upset stomach. No gas. No diarrhea. As it turns out, it is not the milk itself that made me ill, it's how it's processed. The way it was explained to me is this: Pasteurization and homogenization destroy the valuable enzymes in milk that the body recognizes. My body pretty much *attacked* the milk as a pathogen (enter gas, indigestion, diarrhea, etc). This may not be the case for you, but it might be worth a try.
If you are able to, try raw milk. It's very expensive, and there is a infinitesimal risk of contamination, but you will not believe how much better it tastes, and how much better it is for you.
And do not fret. Despite what the USDA and the American Dairy Council says,
HUMANS DO NOT NEED DAIRY PRODUCTS IN OUR DIET!
We don't. Our bodies stop making lactase at around age 3 for a reason...we are able to eat solid food.
Also, I would like to add that you try goats' milk as well. You might just have an intolerance to cow's milk. Goat milk is quite a bit easier on the digestive system than cows' milk, and it tastes creamier, too!
It's composition is closer to human milk, and it also has more calcium than cow's milk - it has more vitamins and other minerals.
There are other great things about goat milk, and if you want to learn more, a Google search should do the job.
Happy hunting!