In this YouTube video, Cheryl McColgan—founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow—answers an Instagram AMA question about managing dairy intolerance while following a ketogenic diet. She begins by clarifying that "dairy intolerance" can mean different things, ranging from lactose intolerance (digestive upset) to true dairy allergies or inflammatory responses, and notes the distinction between A1 and A2 casein proteins. McColgan explains that U.S. dairy processing (hormones, additives, fat content) may exacerbate sensitivities, whereas raw, fat‑free, or European‑imported dairy often causes fewer issues. She offers practical workarounds: trying lactase supplements, switching to A2 or raw dairy, using fat‑free dairy, or sourcing European cheeses. For those who must avoid dairy, she suggests keto‑compatible alternatives such as vegan or nut‑based cheeses, nutritional yeast for a cheesy umami flavor, and cautions about the high oxalate and additive load in many nut‑based products. McColgan emphasizes the importance of experimenting—eliminating dairy, tracking symptoms, and re‑introducing gradually—to determine personal tolerance levels, and advises aligning dairy choices with individual keto goals, whether strict ketosis or a more flexible approach. She concludes by encouraging viewers to subscribe, share their questions, and let her know what health‑related topics they’d like covered.
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Hey everyone, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to my channel. If you've never been here, I'm excited for you to join, and if you're coming back, hello, so good to see you again. Today I wanted to share a question that I got and answer— er, today I wanted to share a question that I got when I did an Ask Me Anything on my Instagram stories, which by the way, I'm in them every day, just kind of sharing what I eat, ideas for quick meals, random stuff about my day. So if you're not already following along there, much more day-to-day content. But the question I got was about dairy on keto, and she was saying, um, I have dairy intolerance. Any tips for doing keto when you have that issue? So this is kind of a nuanced topic, and because of that, I thought I'd do a longer version video here and link it up in Instagram because there's no real short answer to this. So doing keto when you have a dairy intolerance is just like doing any kind of diet you might choose when you have a dairy intolerance. You obviously might have to avoid the dairy. And I guess probably where her line of thinking was, I'm already restricting some things on keto, so if I have to restrict dairy too, is that going to make it too hard? Well, I guess my first question would be like, what does dairy intolerance really mean? Because it's different for everybody, right? So some people might just have a lactose intolerance problem with dairy, which is going to give them some stomach upset, indigestion, maybe some other issues that are not even less pleasant than those two things. So if that's the case, it could be something simple like trying a lactose supplement and seeing if then you can handle dairy. If it's more like it's causing you allergies, or is it causing you inflammation, things like that, It might need to be avoided, but the short version is it might not be needed to be avoided forever depending on what your issue with dairy is, and there might be some other workarounds as well. So there is A1 versus A2 dairy. It's got different caseins in it, and people can have different sensitivities to those. So if you find that you are sensitive to dairy, it could be because it's— you're, you know, eating the more common American dairy. So maybe trying that other version could be an option. Some people do really well with raw dairy. Even though they can't handle processed dairy. So that's something to try. In addition, I follow another keto person, and she was saying— and this is so true— I've noticed I've been going to Europe for over 25, 30 years now, and whenever I go there, I eat— I never have issues with dairy generally, to be fair— but when I go there, I eat all the dairy and never have any issues with it. But my husband, who is sometimes sensitive to dairy, has said that when he eats it in Europe, he doesn't have the same effects for it. So there's definitely something about the processing here in the US. Could be the hormones that we use in our cows, could be the additives that are in some of our dairy, could be any number of things. But anyway, this other person that I follow mentioned that, and she said that she'd experimented when she— whenever she, she actually lives in Europe, so when she's there, she eats dairy, no issues. When she comes back to the States to visit, she often finds that dairy here makes her really inflamed. But after doing some experimentation and listening to other people, she discovered that she could do fat-free dairy in the States, and that seemed to agree with her fine, not make her inflame, but using the dairy with the fat here. So, um, we mentioned the hormones and stuff in the cattle here. You know, when any animal, including us, we store kind of toxins and different things in our fat cells. So I'm wondering if removing the fat takes out whatever that is that people are sensitive to out of the dairy here. But so it just depends on what your symptoms for dairy are. If it's just some unpleasantness or bloatedness and it doesn't, you know, stress you out too bad to have dairy, maybe you can still have it on occasion. If it's like you really have severe allergies, you really have severe inflammation, but you love dairy, maybe it's trying some of these other things— trying fat-free dairy, trying raw dairy, trying, you know, imported cheese from Europe if you can find a really good source of that. Those may be some ways that you you can still have dairy without having to give it up entirely. That being said, there may be a case where you do have to give it up entirely. And in that case, again, it's just like any other dietary restriction. So you're not gonna be able to have dairy, and then you're also going to be eating way less carbs if you're going all the way to, you know, if your goal is to be in ketosis and have metabolic flexibility, then for at least a short amount of time you'll have to adhere to keto pretty strictly and deal without the dairy. So yeah, it all depends on what your goals are. It depends on what your sensitivities to dairy are. And, you know, just being creative with finding some workarounds. If you're not caring about being, you know, very strict keto all the time, you could try some of the vegan cheeses that are out there, although a lot of them have a a whole lot of additives in it, and I don't recommend that. But way back when I used to be a vegetarian, I would occasionally make some nut cheeses, which, you know, it's, it's not the same thing, but it can kind of be in the transition something that can get you through if you're still looking for a dairy-like substance. Another thing that was a thing for my vegetarian days is nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is not dairy at all, but it has a very umami flavor to it. It has something that's sort of like cheese. I used to like to put it on top of broccoli, and in fact, I still occasionally use it now. I haven't in a long time, but I always like the flavor. It is kind of cheese-like. It's not exactly the same thing, but so just finding some of those substitutions. And again, you know, then with nuts, they have their own issues, right? Like there's a lot of oxalates in some, in some nuts, and you know, other compounds that we might not want to have too much of. And then when you're eating nuts in the quantity that is required when you have something like almond milk or a nut cheese, that is like way more nuts than we would normally consume on any kind of normal basis if you were just like eating them in the wild. So I think that that's always something to consider as well, if it's something that's highly processed and it's like a quantity of something Same thing with substitute sweeteners, you know, monk fruit, for example, you find in the wild. You would never have that much of it at one time. So these are just things to think about when you have these sensitivities. Experiment, see what the problem is. If it's, you know, there's a whole range of symptoms where some might be somewhat acceptable to have dairy on occasion and then some might not. And if it's something where you're dealing with a really inflamed body Maybe it's just you cut it out for a short amount of time. It doesn't always mean it's forever. Some food sensitivities, especially, they'll do food sensitivity tests. A lot of people are sensitive to eggs, something like that. You go off eggs for a long while, or you— and then you introduce them and maybe only have them less frequently. So those are just some of the ways to kind of approach it. And again, it all depends on your goals. It depends on what exactly your issue with dairy is. So that's my two cents, for whatever it's worth. I hope this was helpful. If you're not already subscriber here, I would love for you to subscribe. I actually have been thinking, and I've mentioned this in previous videos, I've been thinking about putting more content on here, but, um, I'm just— number one, I'd like to know more about what people are looking for. Does this kind of little tips video help you, or just my thoughts on, you know, being in the health and wellness space over a number of years? Always open for questions, so if you think of anything else you'd like to learn about, drop it in the questions below. This particular one I didn't do a whole lot of research on because number one, I've heard it addressed many times before. I've had other people ask me with this in the past, and not knowing what this person's specific issue is with dairy, it's kind of hard to really give a very specific answer. But I think again, like I said, there's always a spectrum of things you can try. Give it up for a time if it's necessary you can always try to reintroduce it. And it could be, if it's just some unpleasant symptoms, maybe those are things that you're able to, you know, willing to deal with every once in a while because you love cheese so much, or whatever dairy is that you want to have in your life, yogurt or whatever else. So anyway, yes, please subscribe, let me know what you'd like to hear about, and hopefully I will talk to you again soon.
