Lactose Intolerance

When my sneaky coffee habit began I consumed very milky coffee. Latte - absolutely. Cappuccino - regularly. Cafe Misto (a Starbucks concoction which tastes a lot like instant but nice if you want a milder drink) - very often. However - in the autumn of 2009 I realised how ill I felt. For some time I had suffered with bloating, nausea and lots of other issues a polite lady would never post on the internet! One morning in October I was leaning on my Tesco trolley in the breakfast cereal aisle and a thought occurred to me - maybe it is milk.

Now I am convinced that the 'thought' was actually the voice of God - especially given what happened subsequently.

I gave up milk and milk products. No breakfast cereal (a particularly sad loss), no cheese, no cream or custard. I gave up latte and other coffees in the family and tried to learn to love my coffee black.

Within twelve hours I felt so much better. Within two days I genuinely felt like a new woman. Within six weeks I had lost a stone in weight (every cloud....) Since then I have visited various doctors who, having heard my history, feel no need to further investigate. Lactose intolerance it is. Lactose intolerant I am.

I really miss milk sometimes but on times I throw caution to the wind (ha ha - what a pun!) the effects are fast and nasty. It isn't worth it.

I really really miss latte, flavoured latte, cappuccino.... and I am gutted not to be able to try the new 'flat white' appearing everywhere. I am learning to enjoy black coffee... still learning.

The enjoyment of sneaky coffee has become much less to do with the actual coffee.

On the plus side I think I am developing a more discerning palate for coffee generally. A couple of times I have genuinely loved my black coffee, now I need to find out exactly why that was.