Dairy Denial and Complexities of Diet

tl;dr

I have to drop dairy.

Pork ribs, or bacon, or sauce is also a problem.

Dairy

Dairy isn’t safe for me.

I get aching bones when I’ve had too much dairy. The weeks where I had a little bit here and there, it seemed okay. But if I make tacos, I get achy bones for a day or two. The taco are ground meat, topped with shredded cheddar and sour cream, wrapped in a mozzarella shell. Lots of dairy, and lots of delicious. But then the next day I wake up with pain that feels like it’s in my spine.

I had also found a very simple ice cream desert (egg yolk and heavy cream) that was fairly pleasing to the palette. I think I have to cut that out, too. It’s too easy to overdo it. I also worry about the effects it might be having that I’m not noticing.

I’m fine when I’ve gone weeks without dairy, but then I think, maybe small amounts would be okay, and then I overdo it. I need to stop being in denial and just not consume it any more. Given so few meal options, it was nice to have for variety. But maybe there’s some other lesson in here that I’m missing. Why am I seeking out this variety? I had no problem with the flavor of Soylent when I would consume while traveling, years ago. Maybe it’s just the sugar/sweetness that pulls me back to dairy. Soylent was plenty sweet, so of course I wouldn’t need to seek anything outside of that to satisfy the craving for sweet things. Maybe it’s a more subtle problem of reward-seeking behavior and I’m not doing enough, other rewarding things right now.

Why is this so hard?

I continue to avoid plants in general. It takes a really long time to figure out if a food is safe as it seems to take weeks for any given thing to build up enough to have a negative effect. Even if it was a food I assumed was safe before, it takes time to notice inflammation-related symptoms unless they culminate into a larger more obvious and often times painful effect. It’s such a subtle thing. For years I’d experience pain here and there that I thought was part of getting older, but no, if I avoid plants (sigh, and apparently dairy) I can be absolutely pain free. So at even a hint of pain, I know to pay attention. And that’s just the pain symptoms! Memory, recall, and emotional effects are also hints that there’s a problem.

Symptoms on Dairy

Memory and recall may also be impacted by dairy. I don’t know why they would be. Maybe it’s due to too many carbs, or the raw sugar, I don’t know the mechanism. I just know that after doing a month of pure carnivore, my ability to focus, recall details, and task switch without dropping details is absolutely at its peak. And then within hours and lasting for days after consuming dairy, I have interference in recall and focus.

Ribs, bacon, or sauce…

Another complication popped up. I had been fine with regards to gout as long as I avoided fish. Specifically, sardines. I was eating a fair amount of bacon each week, seeminly with no problems. I had ribs twice one week – they were on sale, and that no-sugar-added Sweet Baby Ray’s Sweet and Spicy sauce is a nice change from eating just chuck steaks, chicken, eggs, and bacon all the time. Except the day after I consumed rack number two of the ribs I woke up with a touch of gout in my right foot.

It was very mild. I ate a handful of frozen blueberries and it was entirely gone before bedtime. I don’t even think I ate enough blueberries to cause sugar cravings. But it’s still a concern. I hadn’t been paying very close attention to the quantities of anything that I was eating. I think I was consuming ribs once or twice a month before this without issue, but I don’t know how much bacon I was having at the same time.

So, now what?

I guess I’ll leave dairy and pork out of my diet for the next month. That doesn’t leave me with a lot of food options, but it beats the alternative.

And while I’m at it, I don’t know if it was the dairy, the unexpected heat, or the sauce, but I started getting some acne. I’ll avoid the sauce, and just go back to using salt on everything until that clears up, too.

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