Why Do Gluten-Sensitive People So Often React to Dairy?

According to nutritionist Dr. Shari Lieberman (Ph.D.), author of The Gluten Connection, patients with gluten sensitivity or intolerance have a high frequency of cross-reactivity to milk, specifically casein and whey. She emphasizes the difference between lactose intolerance and an immunoreactivity to milk, especially cow milk. She goes into some biological specifics and relates some dramatic case studies. This is a subject that could easily fill a book. We’ll barely scratch the surface for the moment.

I don’t normally see any “morning shows” on TV, but I just happened to catch a brief presentation on a local Texas station by a registered dietician wearing the “got milk” apron, pushing chocolate milk as healthy for kids due to the calcium, vitamins, potassium, magnesium. Obviously, she is a hired spokesperson for regional and/or national dairy processor boards ~ see Wikipedia for a straightforward history of the entire “got milk” campaign.

She stumbled through questions regarding organic labels, hormones and antibiotics. She stated that, no matter the farming practices, the “end products are the same” and that she is more concerned about kids getting the above-mentioned nutrients ~ a true factory-farmers’ spokesperson!

Here is a very quick layman’s list (by a researcher/writer, not a “scientific expert”) of some things for you to research (and things we will continue to talk about) and some personal observations.

Pasteurization and mechanical homogenization (unnecessary around the world for millennia) denature proteins and kill vital enzymes intended to help digest the milk. Modern farmers strive for volume to overcome low prices. That leads to factory farming with too many cows in almost-feedlot conditions with no or little pasture, eating often-unhealthy feed mixes, which then requires the regular use of antibiotics. Holsteins produce the most milk, but greed has led to destructive breeding practices and use of growth hormones. No wonder modern milk causes allergies and immune reactions? That’s why we are grateful to have found sources for raw goat milk, like Rocky & Carol Testerman of R&C Dairy & Farmstead, shown here with Velvet and Mia.

Factor all of the above together with damage to the small intestine from modern-day sticky and omnipresent gluten, further organ damage from also-pervasive high fructose corn syrup and refined white sugar, and even further damage from other junk foods and additives, low levels of vital good fats (the low-fat myth), mercury levels in fish and other toxins, and is it any wonder a gluten damaged body reacts to a denatured milk protein?

When the small intestine is so inflamed and damaged, gluten and dairy proteins leak through the gut walls into the bloodstream and cause immune reactions. No wonder “celiac” causes a host of symptoms we don’t have room to list?

When the body’s physical foundation of existence (the digestive system) is so constantly attacked and disabled, no wonder the dominoes fall in every direction.

Raw goat milk, and for some, raw cow milk (from well-bred pastured cows) can be a healthy part of the diet. However, we are all individuals, and some celiacs are probably not able to tolerate even the finest raw milk products. Certain cheeses and butters are better tolerated by many. We are glad to have R&C Dairy & Farmstead, a grade-A certified raw dairy, as neighbors. Hey Rocky, which faucet does the chocolate milk come out of?