Hi, I'm new to this site!

[Jenna]

Hi, my name's Jenna, I'm 21 and a student at Manchester University. I have suffered from eczema since I was an infant, at at various points of my life it was been extremely severe, resulting in infections due to severely cracked and inflamed skin.

It seemed to settle down after puberty but within the last 2 years had come back on an impossible scale. I was covered literally from head to food in eczema, being worst on my hands (which were too painful to hold a pen properly) chest and upper legs.

Repeated trips to the doctors resulted in more steroid creams and no promise of help. I decided it may be a food allergy (my doctor told me it was highly unlikely and not to bother trying) but I went for it anyway.

In June 2005 i# cut out wheat for 2 weeks with no improvement. I then went on and cut out dairy from my diet. Within 2 weeks I could see a noticeable improvement, and within a month my eczema had amazingly cleared up considerably. Within 2 months, I was completely and utterly clear, with perfect clear skin that I had never seen before in my life. I couldn't even believe it was my skin!

I kept going with it, and then to be sure it was a dairy allergy, in October I ate a pizza, some chocolate, drank some milk and had a cheese sandwich!

The next day my eczema was back and I was in agony. During flare ups simple things like sitting and having a shower were so painful.

Needless to sayI went back on the dairy free diet and have had clear skin since, and /I still cant believe it! found this site because i'm bored with the foods i'm currently eating and miss chocolate! I have lost 9lbs in weight since June, and although I wasnt overweight i'm liking this new slimmer me! And this summerI can happily wear a bikini without being so self-conscious of my terrible skin, and I;m looking forward to it~! I told my Doctor about my new discovery and he just mumbled something about it being good, i think reluctant to admit it was true.

So, just thought I'd share my story and say hi!

Any tips on a dairy free lasagne would be great! I really hate the smell of cheese now so just something to replace the milk would be good! And are there any good low-calorie dairy free chocolates around?

Thanks

Jenna

[cnc]

Hi, welcome to the site!!
Glad that dairy has made such a difference to your life.

I personally use Alpro Soya milk, found with normal fresh milks.
Chocolate- I don't know about low-calorie, but I eat Tescos Finest, Lindt or Green & Blacks Dark chocolate.
Hope this helps, and stick around to share info with others :)

[Nic]

Hi Jenna!

I'm much the same - horrible eczema for years until I cut out dairy. I also have to avoid swimming pools (chlorine) and soap and (ideally!) stress, but dairy is the real culprit. I have every sympathy with you - I spent quite a lot of time wearing scarves and gloves to cover up my eczema in my teens. And a lot of nights awake and scratching.

On lasagne, I got a nice recipe from www.vegweb.com (http://www.vegweb.com). Its at:
http://vegweb.com/recipes/pasta/lasagna12.shtml
I adapted it, making my own (meat-based) bolognese and using the 'cheesy' sauce from the recipe. Its definitely worth using the nutritional yeast - it really adds something. I get requested (by my soya-hating husband!) to make this a lot, but its a bit of a faff and quite high calorie so its more of an occasional treat. But it is very nice.

As for low calorie dairy free choc, the plain or Maya Gold 20g mini bars of Green and Blacks chocolate are around 110 calories. Beyond that, any dark chocolate in smallish quantities is good.

Nic

[Jenna]

thanks for your replies guys. Nic, it's amazing how many people dont know that dairy is a big trigger for eczema in a lot of people. I guess it doesnt help when Doctors basically tell you its a load of rubbish.

Can you get this Green and Blacks stuff in Sainsburys? is it with the normal choc or do you have to look in the free from range? free from range is good but expensive and all the choc is so high calorie! i tried some lindts 70% cocoa choc, but it was absolutely disgusting!!

[cnc]

I think, Green & Blacks can be found in Sainsburys, if not Tescos, or local health food shops. Some Green & Blacks isn't dairy free, so just be careful.
You should be able to find it very easily in Manchester.

[Jenna]

excellent, thanks :) is soya milk as fattening as normal milk? i don't really want to get into all these subsitutes if i'm going to end up putting the weight i've lost back on, i mean i've lived without milk and cheese and choc for 8 months now, and i'm alive, right?!

[cnc]

Yes, but every girl needs chocolate!! Especially students, chocolate makes essays seem better.
The Soya milk in my fridge says low fat, as does the Oat milk, which says less than 1.5% fat. Hope this helps.
Oh and the easy way to solve eating chocolate is to exercise more!! What are you studying??

[Jenna]

Hehe i do do quite a fair bit of exercise as it is!
i'm studying english and french.
I'll look into some soya milk to make some lasagne sauce and check out this green and blacks stuff on friday!
are you a student?

[cnc]

Green and Blacks is good!! The best thing about dark chocolate is that most people can't eat as much of it as they can standard chocolate, unfortunatly my taste buds grew to accept it quite happily :) Also theres more cocoa in it, so its probably better for you than milk chocolate!!
Yes, am a student as well :)

[Jenna]

cool :)

i was thinking, does anyone take vitaminand mineral supplements because they're missing out on essential nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D found in milk? if so which ones should i buy?

[cnc]

I have calcium supplements lying around here somewhere, but don't take them very often. Fortified soya milk should do the job as well as brocolli and other things, but I can't remember what else.
Vitamin D- make sure you get out of your room everyday and that should solve that problem (I'm a geographer not a biologist, so don't blame me if this is all rubbish!!)

[Jenna]

eww brocolli. guess i should get some of that then. maybe i'll just buy a multivitamin and mineral, that should cover the lot.
i heard you get vitamin D from sunlight - not much of that around here at the moment!!

[Lan]

Hi there

Soya chocolate and cheeses etc to tend to be higher in calories. When I went to slimmers soyas milk was in the book as the same calories as normal milk.

Definitely worth trying some of them as very nice. Just limit the amoutn you eat and like me, have a small amount when needed. I have lost over 2 stone in the past 10 months, so not doing me any harm.

Lan :lol2::lol2:

[Jenna]

wow, congrats on losing the 2 stone, thats amazing. not trying to lose any weight, i only weigh 8st12, just dont want to put any on my eating loads of fatty choc etc!

thanks for all your comments. xx

[matt]

welcome to the site, hopefully they'll be someone to answer all your questions.
sainsburys...not generally well liked on the site as they tend to not care and have lots of recalls and mistakes made with dairy free stuff.

high cocoa content choc nice and good for you if taken in small quantities. flavanoids help protect against odds and sods.

vit d i seem to recall that 1 hour sunlight should give you enough. calcium is something to not avoid though as that can lead to longer term health problems. fortified soya/rice milk as long as you are having enough if not then leafy green veg and fish. if not then a suppilment. i take boots own vanilla flavour ones. but your gp might prescribe...worth asking.

enjoy:lol2:

[cnc]

I rely on fortified soya milk, as the only other place I used to get calcium was cheese, so I'm not really missing out on any!!
I wouldn't worry too much about the calcium, if you were younger (teenager), then its more important as it sets standards for the health of your bones. That probably didn't make much sense, sorry.

[ellsie]

I do but I just buy from own brand supermarket wherever I am as they are much cheaper! :D

[Jazzingal]

Im like you lan, ive eben dairy free for 2 months now (not wit the tome tho ), and ive lost just over a stone just now, and prob will keep going,if u dont like broccoli Jenna try adding spinach into salads,or a small amount into a main meal. it does really help, Also just watch your iron levels as well, make sure u have some sort of red meat each week as well. ive found that you can get to reliant on multivitamen tablets as times as well.

[matt]

don't want to contradict you claire but you do need to worry about calcium now.
it's an ongoing thing, if you don't keep up the calcium intake then you seriously risk osteoporosis.

your body needs calcium all the time and if you stop having it then you can get problems very young that normally don't effect you till later in life.
so keep the calcium intake and avoid some very nasty problems.

[rebecca c]

I still haven't solved my calcium problem. I tried increasing the rice milk but havent had a chance to try again because of other challenges, meals out and tummy bug. Must sort it out. In the meantime I've managed to add in rhubarb and figs on occasion which are both good sources but cant have them every day. Osteoporosis is nasty but then so is living in daily pain - it is a dilema I havent sorted yet, I guess I will have to see if I can tolerate daily supplements.

[cnc]

Matt, my point was basically that if shes having a balanced diet, then she shouldn't need to worry about extra calcium particuarly. Having read about this, the times when your body needs lots of calcium are when your bones are growing, and when you get older as your body cannot repair itself as efficiently, so more leeching of calcium occurs. I never said to ignore calcium at all, it was meant to be more of a eat healthily and you should be fine point.
As I said in my other post, it probably didn't make much sense, which it didn't!! hopefully this will make more sense.

[Nic]

Hi Jen!

As others have said, you can get Green and Blacks in most supermarkets. But the little bars that are only 100 calories are mostly in newsagents and health food stores, plus Pret a Manger. The 'milk' chocolate freefrom bars are around 300 calories, or you can buy the Plamil big slabs and just have a few squares.

On supplements, I find I get leg cramps if I don't take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement, but that could just be me. I do have a fairly balanced diet, so I don't know quite why, but since the supplements sort it I assume I'm lacking something. Possibly I don't have enough fortified soya milk (just in tea and coffee, not on cereal or anything).

Other tips you might find useful are cooking with nutritional yeast (low calorie and gives a cheesy taste) and the Provamel soya puddings (you can get them in any health food shop, even Holland and Barrett) which come in chocolate, caramel (nicest!) and vanilla (like thick custard) and are only 100 calories each.

If you have any other questions, do ask.

Nic

[matt]

never meant to attack claire!!!:D

suppliments would appear to be the way forward if you can find ones that you can tolerate. have you spoken to the doctor?

i get some prescribed. calcichew i think they are called but make sure they check dairy free.

[Kamagrian]

Hi Jen!

I'm afraid I can't contribute anything extra to what others have already said (haven't quite read ALL the thread as I've only just returned after a bit of a break!), but I wanted to say hello and welcome to our friendly little corner of the web. :) Hope you stick around and get to know us all.

Gill x

[Jenna]

hi everyone! thanks for all your comments :D
Decided i'm not going to start buying soya milk cos i never drank milk anyway really, i dont eat cereal or drink tea.
i am gonna take a trip to holland and barrett at the weekend and have a nose though, get some supplments and maybe some of those soya puddings nic mentioned! i bought some sainsburys freefrom choc and enjoyed it a lot, i cant believe how much i've missed chocolate without actually realising it :)

xx

[Copper]

Oh yes one thing you will discover if you stick around is that a number of us are obsessed with chocolate - me included :lol2:

[goose]

I agree with copper, it's the one thing i make sure i have plenty of , and thats chocolate. palami is my fav as they make a really good mint chocolate.
Welcome to the site anyway.

[cnc]

Goose, you've been to buy chocolate then have you??
Just in case you haven't- I had some lovely Lindt 70% earlier today :D

[goose]

i most certainly have:D :D

[cnc]

But do you have more chocolate than I do??
Last count was 2 bars, a box, some truffles and about a 1/3 of a box!!

[Jenna]

i just bought a whole massive bar of green and blacks mint choc... and ate the whole lot in one go! it was soo good! but it's got so many calories!

i also bought some tofutt i think its called - tofu soya and chocolate ice cream style dessert. looks amazing! anyone tried it? its comes in choc and vanilla.

i also bought a calicum and vitamin D supplement, that provides 100% RDA of each, and some multivitamins and minerals. only prob is that means technically i'll be getting 200% of vitamin D a day, is it bad if u overdose? the vit/min thing only had 25% RDA of calcium so i got the other one as well, but i still wanted to have a basic multivitamin too.... anyone?

[cnc]

I think you need to be taking a lot of Vitamin D to cause an overdose toxicity problem, have a google for it and see what you think. It was quoting quite high numbers, but I'm too lazy to check what the RDA of Vitamin D is!!

[Jenna]

its 5ug or whatever that funny symbol is. the vitamin/mineral supplemtna nd the the calcium/vitamin d supplement both have 100% RDA, so i'd be getting 10ug a day. so it shouldnt be a problem?

[goose]

not sure if have has much as u claire, but have got 2 slabs of palmi mint chocolate, yogurt drops, coconut balls and a marazapan bar. yummy,
i take multi vitamins every day along with cranberry capsules.

[matt]

the rda are for minimum daily amount.

the toxic level for them are lots higher so i'd not worry at all about being 200%.

i think tesco's own brand multi vita and minerals is free from. check first but i think i'm right. that's 100% of the lot of vitamins and a good spattering of the rest.

you shouldn't have calcium with iron i think it is...stops the absorbtion. spread out any suppliments over the day.

[cnc]

I finally got around to reading the label on the tablets in my room- toxicity levels for Vitamin D are around 50,000 I.U a day-, 2.5ug=50 IU and 5ug=200 IU (this IU converstions have come from two different bottles), so you'd need a lot of Vitamin D to make it dangerous!!

Calcium is difficult to absorb in general-the calcium tablets I have are 'absorbable calcium' tablets, not sure what makes them more absorbable though!!

[matt]

found this site which goes into details about calcium etc. american site but informative
http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/What_you_need_to_know_about_calcium.htm

i might be reading the site wrong but it would appear that vit d is the thing to take at the same time. that and exercise. and avoid calcium carbonate as it's not so easy to absorb.

[cnc]

and avoid calcium carbonate as it's not so easy to absorb.

Very strange, having gone to read the labels on my calcium capsules again, apparently they're made of calcium carbonate, and are advertised as absorbable calcium. These are a capsule, so theres no powder inside, which may make it more easy to absorb I guess, as its carried in an oil.

[Jenna]

thanks for all the stuff to read guys.

decided i'm going to carry on taking the multivitamin the morning, and then take half the calcium/vitamin D combination in the evening. the recommended dose is 2 capsules but i'm just going to take one so i'm getting 150% vitamin D and 75% of the RDA of calcium (25% from the multivitamin and 50% from the vitd/calcium tablet). then i'm going to start eating spinach etc, as i don't think i'm actually that calcium deficient and i do a fair bit of exercise, so i think i should be ok!

[Nic]

Jenna - I do exactly what you've just decided - a standard Superdrug multivit and one (rather than the standard dose of two) of Osteocare calcium and magnesium. Which seems to work, though I still get the occasional leg cramp in the early morning after lots of exercise the day before.

My GP said that he would do a blood test for calcium and other mineral deficiencies if I wanted, but I'd obviously have to come off all the vits for a week or so first. Which I'm not keen to do, as waking up with leg cramps is *not* my favourite way to start the day.

Nic

[Jenna]

interesting! why do you think that you get the leg cramps if you don't get calcium?

i was really happy today to find that the Student Union shop stocks a whole range of dairy free flapjacks, including chocolate coated ones! (dark choc). I was dead chuffed :)

[Nic]

I have no idea! But when I first started getting leg cramps a doctor friend of mine suggested that I might be low on magnesium or calcium and to try multivits. They worked for a while, but then the leg cramps came back so I tried extra calcium. Which works, most of the time. I have no clue why, I'm afraid.

There's a range of flapjacks in slightly dodgy looking packaging made by RJ foods most of which are vegan (except the chocolate and fudge ones, which have dairy in). Lots of little corner newsagents sell them, at least in London, and they're really good as emergency food to put in your bag in case of ending up somewhere with no non-dairy options. Or for exercise. The website is http://www.rjfoods-flapjack.com/, if you want to see what they look like.

Nic

[Jazzingal]

You get leg cramps, due to the lack of calcium ions in your body as they help bond together myosin and actin which is needed to for the hydrolisis for ATP(Adenosine Triphosphate) which is used in the muscles, (just recently studied this in my alexander technique classes,) But also leg cramps can do with having to much salt intake. dunno if this helps u lol!

[Jenna]

ohhhhh dear

i just ate dairy.

my housemate made an amazing looking chocolate mousse cake. i really couldnt resist even though i know what it could do to me. the chocolate was dark choc green and blacks so dairy free, but it had butter in. not loads of butter though... that's what made me decide to risk it and have some.

the cake was amazing, i have to say. but now i feel terribly guilty. my skin feels itchy but i dont know if thats just cos i'm worrying/thinking about it.

all my housemates were eating it and it looked and tasted so good :( :(

[matt]

you pays your money and takes your choice.......

hope the reaction wasn't too bad.

[Nic]

Jenna - been there, done that! Its taken me about 10 years to persuade myself that its not worth it, plus an incredibly supportive husband. So don't kick yourself over it, and I hope the reaction isn't too bad.

Jazzingal - that's really interesting. Any sources of further info that you could point me towards? I don't think I have that much salt, but perhaps all the hidden stuff adds up. I would like to find out more, though.

Nic