Two Things

There are two things I know for sure about my milk allergy. First, I know that as soon as I say it, people think I mean lactose intolerance. But that's not the same thing. Second, I know that after I explain the difference between the two, people will simply file away in their brains the memory that Taylor is lactose intolerant. The problem I have with that is they will inevitably see me eating cheese or the occasional bowl of ice cream and they'll say, "I thought you said you were lactose intolerant." And the fact that they didn't listen to me will somehow turn into me being a liar.

No, I am not lactose intolerant. There are no digestive consequences involved with my consumption of dairy products.  I have an allergy to milk, specifically a protein in milk called sodium caseinate (thank you, Google, for teaching me about this). What that means is that if I have too much milk and/or ice cream, my throat starts to hurt and my nose starts to run, and I get sick slowly. And the really sad part about that is that I'm a sucker for cereal. I have yet to try a cereal that I didn't like. I could literally eat cereal everyday and not get sick of it. I would get sick from it, but not of it.

I tried soy milk a few years back and decided it would be better to die of my milk allergy than drink soy milk ever again. I hated it. And it contains the protein I'm allergic to, so it's useless in my fight against my condition. But a fortnight ago (that's two weeks), I tried almond milk for the first time. I put it in some Raisin Bran, and gave it a shot. And I was surprised to find that it tasted good. There is no perceivable difference between regular milk and vanilla-flavored almond milk when added to a bowl of cereal (except my lack of an allergic reaction). It's like I've been reborn. So I've gone a little crazy on the cereal since then. I'm eating two very large bowls a day. In the past week and a half, I've gone through four boxes of cereal by myself.

And I realize two things now. First, anyone reading this is going to think I'm a weirdo for loving cereal so much. But I don't care, because it's awesome. And second, everyone reading this is only going to remember that I'm lactose intolerant.