I spent two non-sniffly non-phlemghy weeks in Peru recently and now that I’m back home in Chamonix I’ve really noticed the difference.
I don’t eat fondue every week, but yes I do live in the land of cheese and dairy, and it has to be said I can quite easily snack on a ball of mozzarella or pile on the parmezan to any plate of pasta or pimp up my home cooked pizza with all manner of toppings… Extra cheese? Yes please.
About 10 years ago my doctor told me I was slightly lactose intolerant, but since then I’ve not really noticed any major issues, save for cold sweats on my nose after scoffing a wedge of good mature British cheddar (and that doesn’t happen very often). I have cereal with milk every day – high fibre cereal, lots of milk, and I share it with my cat most days (sad but true – he cleans the bowl most mornings)… I digress.. but I’ve never really stopped eating cheese or drinking milk until my recent trip to Peru.
I can count on two fingers the days I had a cheese snack the whole time I was there. The funny thing is that I never really noticed at the time that I was able to breathe more easily, used less tissues and generally slept better, the whole time I was there. At altitude too.. which made it hard to breathe on most of the days we were biking..
Yes Chamonix has pollution problems (it’s not clean mountain air you breathe when you live here, more like smog and diesel fumes from the hundreds of trucks that use the Month Blanc tunnel) but I knew something was different after just 2 days of being back here.
My solution? For the whole of June, cut out cows milk and trade it for soya or almond milk (not easy when you live in a mountain town as me and my Californian friend discussed earlier). Not easy of you live in the land of cheese… and probably not cheap too. Bummer.
At least wine doesn’t have diary in it , there’s one saving grace..for now.. as I also need to cut down consumption on my favourite tipple too.. maybe I’ll do that next month???
MTBgirl808 