Reactions to non-vegan foods

[the-jackal]

Hi guys! New here but have a question about a friend of mine.

She became strictly vegan last month but had been easing into it for a while now. She has told me that consuming certain animal products has and have been giving her violent reactions. EG One morning she had butter on her toast. Not long after eating she was throwing up in the toilet, dry wretching, and as quickly as it came on - it stopped. She was fine.

This evening she told me her father was cooking in butter (baking vegetables) and the fumes from the kitchen - as she was cooking around him - has given her pretty bad nausea, so she is sleeping with a bucket by her bed.

I have come into contact with dairy by mistake and accident as all vegans occasionally do and had no ill effects, but I was wondering; is it normal to have these extreme reactions, is it physically possible (IE possibly in her head), and is it something she should worry about?

Thanks x

[ellaminnowpea]

I've had VERY bad reactions to non-vegan foods... Even before I was fully vegan I had issues digesting proteins and milk products. I haven't eaten meat for over 10 years, so technically I could consider it an 'intolerance' or 'allergy'. I'm not sure what reactions I'd have... but I'm not gonna try lol. The dairy issue came up a while ago while in foreign country. I had severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, dry and tight chest, a cough, really bad mucus and clogged sinuses, and weird tingling on my tongue and throat.

I think these reactions are normal... our bodies are meant to eat plant matter only. And eating animal proteins is very hard on our bodies.

[the-jackal]

There is the possibility she is lactose intolerant, I just cant understand how her body has started randomly rejecting dairy (even air contact) after a lifetime of eating it!

[burl]

Last summer I ate some butter and cheese on accident. Abeit a small amount because I realized quickly what I was eating, but it made me feel terrible. I have heard other folks tell me that they've felt pretty bad after eating animal products after being vegan for a long time. The lactose intolerance is a certain possibility. I would imagine that if someone hasn't eaten dairy for a long time that they're system wouldn't be as used to it as someone who it's it with some frequency.

[cxmnz]

Last summer I ate some butter and cheese on accident. Abeit a small amount because I realized quickly what I was eating, but it made me feel terrible. I have heard other folks tell me that they've felt pretty bad after eating animal products after being vegan for a long time. The lactose intolerance is a certain possibility. I would imagine that if someone hasn't eaten dairy for a long time that they're system wouldn't be as used to it as someone who it's it with some frequency.

From what I've read in the past, lactose intolerance is a natural development for humans, which should start to be developed after stopping breast feeding. This is obviously staved off by continuing to ingest lactose amongst milk drinkers, but it's not uncommon to suffer the symptoms of it when you've avoided dairy products for such a time.

After a month though, I wouldn't expect such extreme reactions to very little contact in such a short time. It might be worth a non-urgent trip to the doctor if it continues.

[Ruby Rose]

After a couple of years of veganism, I was unknowingly fed goats cheese by a "well-meaning" friend. Threw up approximately 2 hours later, and had a terribly upset stomach.

[Elahiya]

From what I've read in the past, lactose intolerance is a natural development for humans, which should start to be developed after stopping breast feeding. This is obviously staved off by continuing to ingest lactose amongst milk drinkers, but it's not uncommon to suffer the symptoms of it when you've avoided dairy products for such a time.

it´s only kind of coincidence that some people are able to digest dairy to to the fact that some people especially in the north of europe went through some sort of evolution. so there are people who still have the encyme (called lactase) which lets the body able to digest dairy. it is a genetical issue that most common people are dairy intolerant, they guess about 70% of the world´s population. althoguh the fewest know about that, they just think they ate something wrong. that what i read once.

moreover, i also in the opinion that living as a vegan the body isn´t used to that other stuff any more and wants to get rid of shit. i´m not surprised about extremer effects. think of it when you went vegan, maybe there were also some products with which your body needed time to get used to it. mine needed some time to get used to more tofu, soya and seitan stuff which wasn´t there in those amounts before.

[twinkle]

I started off as a child having a milk allergy/intolerance(?) which brought me out in a rash if I ate things with milk in. Later on that disappeared, not quite sure how. After I'd been vegan a few years my mum accidentally gave me the puff pastry she'd made with butter while all the rest of the family ate the identical looking pie () she'd made for me with marge and I definitely noticed that, as I developed a swollen throat and some other symptoms, but they were different to what I had as a child. Maybe the body just goes through different stages that we don't fully understand?

[Elahiya]

the body does go through different stages, definitely. once i heard your boy changes every seven years. i´ve been allergic to hazelnuts for example sine i was a child. when there were hazelnuts in something it brought me immediately out in a rash. later as a teenager, i suddenly noticed by accident that i can have some things with hazelnuts, depending on the amounts used. a few years later i began to react allergic to them again, my throat terribly began to itch when i had something with even smallest amounts of hazelnuts. my body reacts in a different way today since earlier.

[Quantum Mechanic]

the body does go through different stages, definitely. once i heard your boy changes every seven years. i´ve been allergic to hazelnuts for example sine i was a child. when there were hazelnuts in something it brought me immediately out in a rash. later as a teenager, i suddenly noticed by accident that i can have some things with hazelnuts, depending on the amounts used. a few years later i began to react allergic to them again, my throat terribly began to itch when i had something with even smallest amounts of hazelnuts. my body reacts in a different way today since earlier.

That's a lot like how I've been with milk, I would get a scratchy throat whenever I drink some milk or ate ice cream or sour cream or other dairy except then I would have upset stomach too and it would hurt to breathe. But I didn't ever communicate these things until I was about 18 and it was a lot milder and by then I was vegan anyway. LOL!

[dawnindigo]

Her reaction may have been genuine. A well-meaning relative who doesn't understand what being a vegan is went through a lot of trouble to get me broccoli and cheese soup. I ate a little after not eating cheese for awhile and was constipated the next morning.

Also there is a degree of guilt some of us vegans feel after accidentally consuming dairy. "Oh gross, I just consumed a tortured cow's breastmilk!" or "Dairy is bad for my cholesterol and will make me heavy!" That may or may not explain her reaction, too. It may have been psychological and physical on her part.

[Roxy]

A few years back, I tried eating cheese again and ended up having an excema rash break out on my face. At the time I thought it might've been a coincidence, but after doing a little research, I found that excema can be caused by dietry factors, including dairy consumption.

[journey]

Before being vegan, I ate huge amounts of dairy yogurt (and cheese of course). Back then I used to always get what I assume were allergies - stuffed up, achey sinuses, etc - which often evolved into something flu-like for a week and a half at least. Several times a year.

Could all that just have been from eating all the dairy products? Could it have been some sort of slow onset, mild milk allergy symptom? Just from having a constant level of dairy in my system?

[Quantum Mechanic]

Those things sound more like intolerance than allergy to me, but I'm no expert or anything. I suspect that I have one or the other myself. I also had chronic sinusitis over the years, which pretty much all cleared up when I ditched dairy a few months back. But I also had more immediate things like the scratchy throat, since childhood, that made me suspect a mild allergy perhaps. When I was an older teenager I used to eat a lot of dairy ice cream at one time despite it hurting a lot (mainly because I could tolerate a lot more than I could when I was younger).

Fortunately now I have a much better choice for everyone, which is soy ice cream! ;p Some flavors soy yogurt I fell in love with immediately (lemon and cherry for instance) whereas some took getting used to. But I love those too now (which is really good, because blueberry is my favorite yogurt and I would've been REALLY disappointed at not having a likeable blueberry yogurt.

[the-jackal]

Hmmm! While all of this information is helpful, nobody seems to be describing such violent reaction of body rejection, which is all the more worrying in some ways

[fiamma]

Umm... we're all different. I've never had any problems digesting dairy after going vegan, but some people do I guess. As for the fumes, it may be very upsetting for her, or it might be psychosomatic. I'd get her to see a doctor anyway, as these reactions sound very unpleasant, just to rule out any underlying physical causes.

[philfox]

I had some bread the other day, which i suspect might have had milk powder in it. The place reassures that its freshly cooked on site and no milk products were in it, but that night and next day I was terribly ill, sickness and diarrhoea. It's happened before after eating out. I think I'm gonna just stop eating out, at least in non veggie/vegan specific places. I never had any issues before I went vegan, at least that I remember.

[Elahiya]

after some unpleasant experiences at places which weren´t even completely vegetarian and had vegan options i decided not to go to such places any more, too. i don´t feel safe what they might serve you and i´m just through with it with being served non-vegan thingies although pointed out and explained earlier.