Was just wondering what people’s experience with dairy has been. I’ve been strictly gluten free for over a month now and last week decided to reduce/ cut out dairy and sugar... but I feel AWFUL! Energy has plummeted! Was wondering if anyone else has found this and if it’s necessary to be as strict with dairy as with gluten?
Thank you!!
Hi Alessia91
I had a blood test from Blue Horizon and found I had a strong casein and whey intolerance that are present in all dairy products and lots of other things like processed meats, breaded and battered foods. I never even knew I had it. I took the plunge despite being keto and living off cheese ❤️ 🧀. Ten days in on dairy free and I have stomach pains, stomach rumbles, mega constipation (sorry lol) feel fairly yuk, am bloated and have pretty much a constant headache. I’ve tried to google dairy withdrawal symptoms but nothing much is there. Therefore I can’t work out if it’s because of the desperately needed levo increase and so part of those symptoms or if actually corresponds to cutting out a major food group! Perhaps it does but all the articles I’ve read say you should be feeling amazing pretty quickly. I suspect it’ll be quite a while before I know if there’s a difference so will definitely keep going 💪🏻 Will give it at least three months.
Might be worth considering having a blood
test first to see if you have any intolerances to any milk by products or lactose etc.
Sorry you’re feeling so horrid. I hope you feel better soon. Maybe these are all withdrawal symptoms after all and will improve as the days go on xx
Thanks for your reply! I should look into having the blood tests. I’ve also had a headache every single day since cutting down but I usually struggle during spring due to seasonal allergies so I wasn’t sure! Have you stopped doing keto then? I was planning to ease into it by doing low carb first but not sure how to do keto without dairy!! Hope you feel better soon too!!
Keto is dead and buried for me now 😂🙈. As sad as I am I did some research and found some good studies suggesting Hashimoto’s and keto don’t mix. Now I look back, for me at least, I agree. I was putting on weight like mad once I started getting thyroid symptoms and it didn’t help me whatsoever. I’ve now gone back to good old calorie counting and sensible eating. I had my first pasta dish in a year 😂 although am still doing fairly low carb and buy a fair bit of gluten free foods.
I’m not sure how accurate and brilliant these tests are but I assume from others Blue Horizon is pretty good so I’m going for it in the hope in time it’ll help. I’m glad I did it. Even though it’s not cheap. Just to know either way is a real help for me.
You can do a dairy free type of keto I think. Maybe that would be much better. X
"I did some research and found some good studies suggesting Hashimoto’s and keto don’t mix."
The problem is that reducing calories when you are hypothyroid can make things worse and even cause you to gain weight! Your thyroid gland, which helps your body produce the right amount of energy for life, is already struggling. Dieting or fasting will make it go into "Famine mode" and produce even less hormone.
I fasted once - last year I think - (drinks only, such as soup, hot chocolate, smoothies etc) for several days. But after a while I began to get more and more lethargic and "Hypo" feeling.
Even after fasting for that short time it took a couple of weeks of eating normally to recover.
Yes fasting can apparently cause cortisol levels to rise and put body under stress. I think they recommend 12-14 hours max of intermittent fasting? But I had a session with a thyroid nutritionist and she also said low calories was out of the question as you say.
Jnetti I completely agree. It’s not a good thing to eat very little at this stage.
Keto wasn’t calorie controlled and it didn’t work either. I’m pretty sure nothing will until my fT3 is fine.
I eat around 1000 calories a day now. I have no choice otherwise I put on around a pound every two days eating normally. I initially put on two stone in around eight months and was eating very normally. Thank god I’m tall !!! 🙈 I have lost 4lbs on the calorie diet. I probably should have lost way more but I’ll take it. I have to do it because my bmi is high and it’s pushing my blood sugars up. When I’m stable I’m praying it all starts to sort itself out 🙏. x
Hi Jnetti a few years ago I did the Atkins diet and lost a stone in 6 weeks. I also felt really good but struggled with it eventually. I'm hypo and was on t3 only at the time. Jo xx
@Cat013
"...I did some research and found some good studies suggesting Hashimoto’s and keto don’t mix..."
It would be useful, if statement like this was acompanied by a link to the "good studies"...
so that we can make our mind whether these studies are really "good"?
On some very surface level googling I saw a lot of people stating that keto is no good for hypothyroid patients because it can lower conversion to T3.
However, dr. Axe in his book “the keto diet” says that although this can happen when following the keto protocol, most of his patients find they are ok with the lower levels of T3. His version of keto is mostly dairy free if I’m not mistaken and focusses on healthy supplements and spices. I haven’t taken the plunge to do keto yet but the idea of lower T3 does concern me!
That rings a bell, think I've read something like that too.
Most need our fT3 to be in the higher range so for me it was too low to carry on. It just didn’t work. I kept wondering why I wasn’t losing weight when everyone else was. I was following it perfectly too (my son is a type 1 diabetic so I am practically a nutritionist now lol) So I thought I needed to bite the bullet and try a different way. Who knows if this helps either. Probably nothing will yet but I’ve lost a bit of weight on this one. I may well return to a dairy free keto too one day and see how it goes. Basically I’ll try anything to shift the weight 😂🙈. Well within reason!! I hope it works well for you. It would be great to know how you get on with it if you try it 😊 xx
Bambuko. Yes probably. I was just writing from my point of view to a reply. It was a while ago and I didn’t save them. I just thought well seeing as I’m doing it correctly and putting on weight still maybe there’s some merit, for me at least. My point was that I then found out I was dairy intolerant so that was quite possibly why it wasn’t working. I won’t know until I try again once my fT3 is working efficiently. I missed so many good foods on keto and it’s currently really nice to be eating things off the list again 😃. Even if it’s just for a while!
After asking you that question I realised I read dr Axe’s book and his keto is mostly dairy free. Lots of coconut milk and avocado oil and things like that! My give it a try once I’m used to the no- dairy!
My problem is that I love milk and cheese - especially cheese!
Same!! A cappuccino with milk is the highlight of my day 😭😭😭
Oh god yes. I lived on it. It’s the one thing I miss the most. But I’ve managed to find a cheese spread that’s actually really nice. Not so sure about fake hard cheeses though!!! Yuk. There’s a nice dairy free cream too for coffee. Slowly getting there!! 😊
Hi Alessia91, I have Hashimoto's. I have never been on a diet of any kind but for 'some reason' I don't put weight on..
Certainly can't exercise as far too tired and spine prob/osteoporosis.
I just wanted to ask if you have tried probiotics as they can help with mood, energy, bowel problems, leaky gut etc etc 
I have really bad digestive issues when I’m hypothyroid and for the last 2 years before diagnosis I thought I had become lactose intolerant as eating dairy made me bloated, refluxy etc. It then gradually happened with all carbs and I went low carb too.
Then when I started on medication things began to improve and I reached a point in March where my t3 levels were really good and I could eat normally (back to good carb intake with no effects) and I tried dairy again and even without having eaten it for 2 years I have no ill effects and can eat it completely fine! Makes me wonder how many people who think they’re intolerant just have suboptimal digestion!
Allergy testing (Gluten & Dairy)
Levothyroxine and Dairy
Hyperthyroidism and gluten, soya dairy free
Gluten/dairy free protein shakes 
Thoughts on removing Gluten, Dairy and Sugar 
