I’m not an expert in nutrition nor a doctor. I like food, I like to eat good food. Good food means for me as genuine as possible. Before my son was born I actually didn’t really care about healthy eating as much as today. Today food shopping is only organic and I do not deep fried any more. Everything’s changed because of an intolerance. We started from there I can say. And from that moment on I started to dig into this subject deeply.

In our case milk was a big issue as we discovered our son’s allergy when he was five months. I was breastfeeding only so I decided to stay on this path and make my diet suitable for his needs. So bye bye milk I thought at the beginning…and then after a while I realise that this is not so damn simple. Why? Well, because MILK HIDES EVERYWHERE!

But before I will give you some useful tips in this topic, lets have a short look on what, why and how come.

There is always more and more people with food allergies. But what are the causes? An allergy develops when the body’s immune system reacts to an allergen as though it is harmful, like it would an infection. It produces a type of antibodies (protein that fights off viruses and infections) called immunoglobulin E (IgE), to beat off the allergen.

When the body comes into contact with the allergen again, IgE antibodies are automatically released. These cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.

An allergen is any substance that causes your body’s immune system to overreact and produce antibodies against it. But which allergen is the strongest  and common one? In our case it was milk that triggered the reaction. It could be tree pollens,animal dander or nuts.

Let’s talk about milk. There is milk everywhere nowadays. Even bread and lollipops contains it. But who doesn’t’ know all ‘milky ambushes’, doesn’t realise that it is not only the word ‘MILK’ on the label which should warn you. We prepared the list.

First – Milk derivates in 4 languages. Might seem obvious, but…

English: Cheese/Yogurt/Cream/Butter/Ice Cream

German:  Käse/Joghurt/Sahne/Butter/Eiscreme

French:  Fromage/Yoghourt/Créme/Beurre/Crème glacée

Italian:  Formaggio/Yogurt/Panna/Burro/Gelato

Second – not everyone is aware of the fact that ‘milk & family’ is not always called with with the name ‘milk’.

I think it will help. A lot. At the beginning you will probably freak out spending hours of your precious time to figure out what the hell is wrote on the back side of every chocolate bare and marmalade jar. But once you will get familiar with all the ingredients to avoid you will become quick and foolproof. It’s a matter of time and practice. Stay sharp!