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"Oh, hello there! You&amp;#039;ve caught me doing a little light reading.  Now then! Please allow me to introduce myself. I&amp;#039;m Briana. Welcome to my Dairy-Free Diary. Pop a calcium supplement with me, and strap yourself in for a ride filled with thrills (vegan chocolate!), chills (&amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s mac &amp;amp;amp; cheese day in the cafeteria&amp;quot;), and spills (hello, ambulance). I&amp;#039;ve been on this roller-coaster for roughly 27 years. In other words, since I was born.  I expect that eventually we&amp;#039;ll get to my back-story \u2014 I&amp;#039;d love to have my mom tell it, since she was the one breastfeeding me when I had my first allergic reaction \u2014 but in the interest of saving time, here are the CliffsNotes: I have an anaphylactic allergy to all milk products and derivatives. Yes, that&amp;#039;s milk in all its myriad forms. No milk, no butter, no cheese, no cream, no yogurt, no ice cream. No lactose, no sodium caseinate. No whey, no how. Which makes each and every meal I eat a potentially deadly game of Russian roulette. Some Definitions I hate to be didactic, but since I&amp;#039;m talking about death, and you&amp;#039;re probably assuming that&amp;#039;s just artistic license, it&amp;#039;s a good time to clear up the difference between lactose intolerance and a milk allergy. People with lactose intolerance lack a sufficient amount of the enzyme that digests the milk sugar, lactose. This can cause all sorts of gastrointestinal anguish if you consume more dairy than your system can process. The big &amp;quot;but&amp;quot; here is that most people with lactose intolerance can still have a limited amount of milk. Depending on the degree of your sensitivity, if you decide a visit to TCBY is worth a visit to the W.C., that might be your prerogative. (If you&amp;#039;re Meg Ryan in the movie French Kiss, this is all annoyingly cute, by the way.) A milk allergy is an &amp;quot;adverse immune reaction&amp;quot; to milk proteins that can affect your GI tract, your skin, and your respiratory system. In addition to the GI nastiness of lactose intolerance, the list of symptoms starts to include things like hives, wheezing/asthma, and vomiting. At the far end of the allergy scale, anaphylaxis is an overreaction of the immune system to a substance (generally a protein or drug) that is foreign to the body. Without swift medical attention including an injection of epinephrine, it can be fatal, resulting in a sudden drop in blood pressure and asphyxiation. Anaphylaxis is especially nefarious because it doesn&amp;#039;t always happen as a result of eating the allergen, either. Some individuals are so hypersensitive that inhaling or touching the allergen is enough to send them into anaphylactic shock. For most people, anaphylaxis is what happens to that kid they know who is deathly allergic to bee stings, or maybe something they heard about on an episode of House. For me, it&amp;#039;s a day-to-day reality, something I&amp;#039;ve had to contend with from before I could even pronounce the condition. A Disclaimer Now, despite everything I&amp;#039;ve just said, I am not a doctor. Seriously. While I do aim to be a dairy-free doyenne, nothing I say on this blog should be taken as health advice, as I have roughly the same medical credentials as a can of Dr. Pepper. If you think you may have an intolerance or allergy to milk \u2014 or any other food \u2014 you should see an allergist. My musings, opinions, and recommendations are a product of my personal experiences and perhaps some light Internet research. I welcome (polite) corrections, illuminating addenda, and healthy discussion in the comments section. But, to quote the great &amp;quot;Frantic disclaimer&amp;quot; of another blogger, &amp;quot;do not assume I think I know what I&amp;#039;m talking about. Sadly, I know I do not.&amp;quot;  A Discussion Enough about me! How about you? Are you afflicted with food allergies? What kind, and how severe? Does the moo juice spell murder for you, too? Let&amp;#039;s get to commiserating. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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