Photography by Stephanie Rieter, Total Capture Photography

If you know me at all, you’ll know I love cheesecake. Sadly, for many years, I couldn’t eat it! Whenever I ate dairy, I’d end up with headaches, an upset tummy, a stuffy nose, hayfever, and (if I had dairy a few days in a row) horrible flu symptoms… But sometimes I’d give in and have a bit of cheesecake anyway and just deal with the aftermath because I LOVE CHEESECAKE!!! But yeah, not ideal.
I started reacting to dairy as a small child, and as I grew my intolerance to dairy also grew. For many years I thought that the only thing I could do about it was to avoid it… forever. I began to think that since dairy bothered so many people, it must not be a food suitable for humans to eat, and really everyone should avoid it. Sure, I knew it had been a staple in the diet of many ancient cultures and hadn’t caused health issues for them, but maybe the people back then were hardier and coped with it better or something"" I didn’t really understand it, but figured it wasn’t a great food and I would stay away from it.
Fast forward fifteen or twenty years, and enter my son Isaac’s sudden downturn in health, his struggles with severe OCD, my realisation that gut health is foundational for good overall health, and our subsequent massive gut-healing journey… (read the story here). We began by taking out all the foods that were difficult to digest o...