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Dairy is a very important food group. Whether it’s cheese, milk, or yogurt, every dairy-rich food you eat supplies your body with skeletally strengthening calcium. That means healthy teeth and happy bones. With one small cup of milk containing 13% of your recommended daily value, it’s an easy-to-drink essential mineral.
But what happens if you are allergic to dairy? What happens if your child is allergic to dairy? Will they grow up having weak bones and unhappy teeth? Will you go on to develop osteoporosis later in life?
Both scenarios are possible. Let’s take a look at how camel milk could help lessen those risks.
The Cause of Dairy Allergy
When you or your child have a true allergy to milk, it’s actually the proteins within milk that are causing an allergic reaction. Cow milk contains an average of 6% protein made up of mostly casein and whey.
Proteins are a vital part of any healthy diet, but sometimes your body can begin to perceive normal dietary proteins as unknown invaders. This is the beginning of an allergy.
When unrecognized proteins enter your digestive system, your body activates its defences (i.e. your immune system). From this moment on, your body wages a war to isolate and protect. Histamine is released and inflammation is deployed. This reaction is helpful if you bumped your knee, grazed your arm, or picked up a skin infection — it’s how your body heals itself. However, the very same reaction can also be triggered by commonly consumed foods like dairy, which we call an allergic reaction.
The Effect of A1 casein
Of the 6% of protein found in cow milk, over 80% is casein protein. Over the years dairy herds have evolved to create two kinds of casein in differing amounts — A1 casein protein and A2 casein protein.
Cow breeds like Holstein and Friesian, which are the predominant breeds in the US and the UK, produce milk that’s very high in A1 casein.
A1 casein when ingested, can be broken down within your body to an opioid-like peptide. That’s opioid — as in morphine — as in drug. If you have a dairy allergy, chances are you have an A1 casein allergy. When your body comes into contact with this allergen, it breaks it down into an opioid-like ingredient called beta-casomorphin-7.
Beta-casomorphin-7 is bad news for your health. When active, it’s able to suppress your immune system and trigger inflammation. Its consumption is being linked to negative effects like poor digestion, heart disease, type 1 diabetes, sudden infant death syndrome, autism, and schizophrenia.
On the other hand, drinking milk low in A1 casein and high in A2 casein shows the opposite effect, even helping to reverse serious ailments like type 1 diabetes.
The bottom line: A1 casein is a predominant cause of dairy allergy and is linked to many serious health effects.
Drinking Camel Milk for Dairy Allergy
Cow milk, camel milk, or goat milk – they all look white and creamy, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find very different ingredients. This is because milk composition is determined in a very similar way to hair color – it’s genetically pre-programmed. The consequence is that cow breeds like the black-patched Holstein, produce predominantly A1 casein-containing milk.
Now you can probably imagine the DNA of a cow and camel to look very different. This in turn means their nutritional composition is also different.
Camel milk is solely or mostly made from A2 casein. Goodbye inflammatory A1 casein and hello heart healthy A2 casein. Camel milk also provides over double the amount of calcium cow milk does.
The bottom line: You can have a dairy allergy but still be able to get your daily dose of bone-protecting calcium with camel milk. Try adding a small tumbler glass of camel milk to your morning meal, cereal, or breakfast bowl.