[OahuAmateurChef]

I went to a naturopathic/acupuncture/Chinese medicine doctor a couple of weeks ago. My bad knee is almost completely healed, no surgery!

But anyway, she guarantees me that if I completely remove all dairy from my diet, my chronic nose stuffiness will disappear.

So no more dairy for me. Anyone got any good cheese-less pizza recipes? Or how about a butter substitute that is not artificial?

[DC Sunshine]

That's great your knee is better - specially without surgery

No idea what to do about the pizza - seems a bit pointless but if you like 'em that much I'm sure someone will have a solution. Maybe there's a tofu product that would do the trick.

As for the butter substitute - I don't know if its available in your area - but shops here have an olive oil spread that's not bad. You may have to search for it a bit but its worth a try.

[Suzanne]

Yeah, I was going to say use olive oil for cooking, and if you want to dip bread in it. Even mayonnaise, if you need something to spread.

For pizza -- switch to foccaccia -- similar dough, topped with all the same vegetables and herbs. I wouldn't look for cheese substitutes; I'm a believer in "If I can't have the real thing, I'd rather have something else entirely."

[shel]

No need to even use focaccia - many restaurants will serve cheeseless pizza, or you can make it at home. No need to use cheese substitutes either, Just get a nice crust, brush with olive oil, add sliced or diced veggies, maybe tomato sause, and bada-bing.

Olive oil instead of buttter - getbseveral brands and styles of oil. Look for the Low Hholesterol Olive Oil Cookbook - Amazon.com: The Low-Cholesterol Olive Oil Cookbook: More Than 200 Recipes - nice recipes for many dishes using OO instead of butter.

Shel

[OahuAmateurChef]

I just finished eating my first homemade cheese-less pizza. It was delicious!

I made a batch of whole wheat pizza dough in my KitchenAid mixer, stretched it out thin and threw it on my BBQ grill. I topped it with BBQ roasted tomatoes and red peppers, sauteed Maui Sweet Onions and Ali'i mushrooms, and preservative-free bacon. I also simmered garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary in olive oil to baste with.

So ono! I didn't even miss the cheese. And I can breathe today! (inhales and then exhales clearly).

[siduri]

Apart from the question of whether dairy causes runny nose (too much evidence to the contrary to ruin my life for such beliefs) there are countless ways to make pizza without cheese. Even without tomato.
Marinara is without cheese, as are all the fish pizzas (shellfish of various kinds on the tomato). Put arucola on white pizza (cooked with just oil and salt without any other condiments) and thin slices of bresaola or prosciutto. Fry onions slowly in oil, salt and pepper till tender and only barely browned, put on pizza with anchovies (preferably the kind that are packed in salt, which you have to wash off well, because they hold their shape better, but you can use the oil ones, just rinse) and gaeta olives and bake. (= pissalidiere : provencal pizza) , you can cook vegetables like rapini or endive in boiling water, drain and put in a frying pan with a little olive oil and garlic and put on the pizza with (or without) anchovies, gaeta olives
. etc etc etc.

However, tell me after a month or so of this milk-free torture if you really have no more runny nose. (unless by then allergy season is over and you wouldn;t have it anyway).

[shel]

Originally Posted by siduri

Apart from the question of whether dairy causes runny nose (too much evidence to the contrary to ruin my life for such beliefs)

OahuAmateurChef didn't say s/he had a "runny" nose, but that congestion and stuffiness was the problem, and later went on to say that s/he's feelin better already having cut back on cheese, When I cut back on or eliminate dairy products I also feel better.

Shel

[siduri]

Sorry, stuffy, not runny. But runny or stuffy, i don;t believe the milk theory. All the people i know who tried this were enthusiastic the first couple of weeks, and then after a couple of more weeks had to admit that it wasn;t working any more. Usually placebos will work for a while, but then the effect wears off. Let me know if it works in the long term without any other factor changing.

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by siduri

Sorry, stuffy, not runny. But runny or stuffy, i don;t believe the milk theory. All the people i know who tried this were enthusiastic the first couple of weeks, and then after a couple of more weeks had to admit that it wasn;t working any more. Usually placebos will work for a while, but then the effect wears off. Let me know if it works in the long term without any other factor changing.

As it turns out, people of Asian descent have a high probability of being lactose-intolerant. People from Scandinavia, on the other hand, have a very low probability of being lactose-intolerant.

It is interesting, therefore, that the advice to give up dairy came from a Chinese naturopath.

[CRLevesque]

I've head of a culture in China that uses no dairy and the life expectancy is 105!!! That being said I can't imagine a life without cheese, cream, or butter. I would take a runny nose for a delicious slice of pizza anyday.

[siduri]

Originally Posted by Free Rider

As it turns out, people of Asian descent have a high probability of being lactose-intolerant. People from Scandinavia, on the other hand, have a very low probability of being lactose-intolerant.

It is interesting, therefore, that the advice to give up dairy came from a Chinese naturopath.

Well, don;t confuse "lactose intolerance" which gives digestive problems with dairy food's supposed connection to mucus. "Milk makes mucus" is a belief that comes from the middle ages in europe, and probably ultimately from asia, who knows. In any case, it derives from a view of the body as being composed of "four humours" one being phlegm, supposedly induced by milk. I believe the chinese system is not exactly the same but quite similar. Anyway, i don't get the impression that either chinese or medieval europeans were all that healthy.

But anyway, controlled trials repeatedly show that there is no connection between milk consumption and mucus production.

As for asian people being more lactose intolerant, what i read is that if you don;t drink milk, you lose the ability to digest it, and if you drink a lot, your body produces the necessary enzymes. Since milk is not part of most asian diets (with exceptions, like india) then naturally the people growing up with that diet would not be able to digest milk.

As for the life expectancy of 105, please! I don;t think the majority of chinese have such long lives, and milk is pretty much not part of the diet in most areas of china. I believe i read that the longest-living populations are italians, japanese and finnish - one thing they DON'T have in common is milk consumption. In fact, they have hardly anything in common.
Go figure.

[OahuAmateurChef]

I had a nose job a few months ago to fix my crooked sinuses. Although my nose now looks straight from the outside, my left nostril is prone to being stuffed up. I suspect the dairy might have something to do with swelling and causing more difficult breathing.

I am aware that this might be a placebo effect, and I intend to test it out empirically over the next few weeks.