Each year, thousands of individuals suffer from chronic digestive disorders such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).  Digestive conditions such as IBS can be extremely confusing and wearing on the body.  Furthermore, most suffering from this condition are left in the dark about what foods they should be consuming for good digestive health.

In particular, many are confused as to whether they should be consuming dairy products.  With all the bad press surrounding dairy, even those without digestive problems will purposely avoid dairy products in an attempt to preserve optimal health. 

However, as with anything, there are two sides to the story, and those with conditions such as IBS may find that dairy products are extremely beneficial for their healing process.  That being said, quality is always of the utmost importance and plays a significant role in whether a food is “good” or “bad” for the body.

The Problem with Most Dairy Products

To be clear, most store bought dairy products will be detrimental towards an individual’s healing process from IBS.  This is because most store bought dairy products come from cows raised in confined feed lots and are often fed an unnatural diet of wheat, corn, and soy.

These foods are extremely inflammatory to not only humans, but also to cows.  When cows consume a diet rich in these problematic foods, the inflammatory properties get transferred into the milk.  Not to mention conventionally raised cows are going to be pumped full of anti-biotics and steroids which can also make their way into the milk.

Unfortunately, consuming these types of dairy products can be a disaster for those with digestive conditions such as IBS.  It’s important to understand that IBS is primarily a symptom of chronic intestinal inflammation.  As a result, inflammatory foods need to be kept to a minimum if an individual wishes to make a full recovery from IBS.

In fact, a large majority of the population cannot digest the milk sugar lactose and most IBS patients attribute their symptoms to the consumption of milk and dairy products (1).  However, little is known as to how the majority of population, as well as IBS patients, will respond to high quality grass-fed dairy products.

Tell The Maasai Dairy is “Bad”

For those unaware, the Maasai are a long lived tribe from East Africa.  These people have a rich culture going back centuries and have survived in one of the harshest and driest climates in the world.  The harsh conditions do not allow for agriculture or farming.

As a result, these people keep cattle as their main source of nourishment.  However, these people rarely eat meat, rather, they consume an abundance of milk produced by their cattle.  It should be mentioned that this milk is consumed raw and does not undergo a pasteurization process which is required by law in most states in order to sell milk products publicly.

Despite their rich diet of dairy, the Maasai are known to be one of the fiercest warrior tribes to ever walk the planet.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for these warriors to single handily take down a lion who attack their cattle with nothing but a spear.  Throughout history it could be seen that the Maasai dominated all other tribes surrounding them. 

Interestingly, these people displayed no digestive problems despite their milk heavy diet.  Again, these people always consumed their milk raw and their cows were never fed a diet of wheat, soy, and corn.  This is extremely important when it comes to producing high quality dairy products and can possibly play a role in an individual’s ability to properly digest the milk.

Grass-Fed Dairy

Grass-fed dairy is a whole different story when compared to conventionally produced dairy products.  Grass-fed dairy will naturally be rich in important fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin D and Vitamin K2.  These two vitamins are essential for mineralizing the teeth and bones and are great for the immune system.

Also, grass-fed dairy will not contain the inflammatory properties that result from cows eating grains as the base of their diet.  This can be good news for those suffering from digestive disorders such as IBS. 

Furthermore, although not scientifically proven, there is talk among health communities that those who struggle to properly digest milk due to lactose intolerance will have no problem digesting raw milk.  In fact, there are various testimonials of individuals with lactose intolerance being able to digest raw grass-fed milk without issue. 

The theory to this phenomenon is that the raw enzymes present in raw milk naturally help the individual break down lactose thus preventing an allergy.  However, little can be found of raw milks digestibility and those suffering from a casein (protein found in milk) allergy.

IBS and Dairy – Should you Eat it?

At this point you’re probably wondering if you should consume dairy if you suffer from IBS.  Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this question. 

However, there is evidence showing that individuals can survive and thrive on a diet high in raw grass-fed dairy products.  Whether this is true for those with IBS is unclear.  As a result, self-experimentation is a must.

With that said, if you suffer from IBS and want to experiment with dairy products, it’s highly recommended that you only use the highest quality.  Real Milk is an excellent website for locating high quality dairy farmers and producers local to your area. It should be mentioned that this website is a big advocate for both raw milk and grass-fed dairy.  As a result, most farmers listed on Real Milk sell both grass-fed dairy and raw milk.

The Case for Kefir

For those unaware, kefir is a fermented milk beverage.  It’s typically referred to as “sour milk” and is created by placing kefir grains in high quality milk.  These kefir grains are a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria that breakdown and digest the sugars (lactose) in the milk and produce high amounts living probiotics.

Studies have shown that IBS patients can experience a dramatic reduction in symptoms when given probiotics (2).  If milk is well tolerated, kefir can be a great option for naturally increasing the amount of probiotics in the gut.  However, this is highly dependent on whether high quality dairy is tolerated by the individual.

The Take Away

Dairy is a tricky subject when it comes to conditions such as IBS.  We know for certain that all forms of conventional milk products should be removed from the diet.  However, there seems to be a case for high quality grass-fed and raw dairy products.  In fact, many with lactose intolerance claim that they can consume raw dairy without issue.

In our opinion, we do not recommend the consumption of any dairy products except for grass-fed butter and ghee in small amounts.  In our experience, dairy products can cause severe digestive issues in sensitive individuals.  Even high quality milk products can be problematic for those with digestive disorders such as IBS.

With that said, this is just our honest opinion.  It’s entirely up to you if you want to add dairy into your diet.  However, if you do choose to experiment with dairy, please ensure that it’s of the highest quality!

Try our Cookbook

For those with digestive disorders such as IBS, we highly recommend you give our Intestinal Health Cookbook a try.  Our cookbook contains over 20 different gut friendly recipes that are both good for you and taste amazing.  The recipes were carefully designed with those with digestive conditions such as IBS in mind.

Our cookbook can be great for anyone looking to eat delicious tasting meals without compromising the health of their gut.  Also, many find that the cookbook helps them stay true to a gut healing and IBS friendly diet which can help expedite the healing process.

Eat an IBS friendly Diet

For those confused about what type of diet they should be consuming with IBS, we highly encourage you to go to our Diet Protocol Page.  Here you will find all the free information you need about the best diet for IBS and what foods are best for overall gut health.

You will also learn which foods are naturally inflammatory to the body and should be avoided.  Don’t waste your money on an expensive IBS protocol that most likely won’t work.  Our IBS protocol is simple, effective, and best of all, FREE!