Click Partners

Lactose is found in all animal milks. Goat’s milk, for example, has 5% to 10% more lactose than dairy milk. It was assumed that only a minority of people suffered from lactose intolerant, but the latest research dispels this myth. The reality is that virtually everybody is lactose intolerant - it’s just a matter of degree.

With lactose intolerance the body cannot digest lactose properly, causing varying degrees of nausea, cramps, gas, bloating and diarrhea. Typically, this happens about 30 minutes to 2 hours after milk consumption.

The symptoms vary depending on the amount of lactose consumed and the tolerance of the consumer. Lactose intolerance usually gets worse as you get older (you don’t outgrow it), with men and women suffering equally.

Lactose is the main sugar in milk. When it is consumed it gets broken down by lactase bacteria into glucose and galactose. But if, like most people, you don’t have enough lactase you will not be able to break the lactose down and this then causes the symptoms of lactose intolerance.

Human babies have enough lactase to digest the lactose in human milk. But in the first few months or years of life the baby gradually loses the capacity to breakdown and digest lactose.

For example, in the USA the medical profession regards over 50 million people as being clinically lactose-intolerant. Some racial and ethnic populations are more widely affected than others. As many as 75 percent of African-Americans and American-Indians (and 90 percent of Asian-Americans) are said to be lactose-intolerant. The condition is known to be least common among people of northern European descent.

Even people who do not regard themselves as being lactose intolerant do in fact feel the effects whenever dairy milk is consumed. However, the effects for some people can be so mild as to be hardly noticeable. Slight feelings of bloating or indigestion will typically be associated with overindulgence or a rushed meal rather than with lactose intolerance.

There is plenty of research showing how lactose in milk causes human illness (too many studies to quote here). But a quick search on Internet will reveal the research on this subject.

Government dietary guidelines for people wanting to avoid lactose in milk recommend eating other calcium-containing foods like fish, broccoli and fortified orange juice. But this is poor advice because what people need is information on milk alternatives.

You can, of course, buy ‘lactose reduced’ or ‘lactose free’ milk. For example in the USA you can buy ‘Lactaid’ which is lactose free. The drawback is that lactose-free milks are generally not so widely available, and tend to be more expensive.

But the biggest drawback is that lactose-free milk is usually ultra-pasteurized (also known as UHT or ‘Long Life’ milk). This is a major drawback because all the research is showing that UHT milk is much worse for health compared to regular pasteurized milk. For example, the research is showing that UHT milk may be the biggest dietary cause of a variety of serous brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s and others.

How then can you best avoid lactose in milk? Quite simply, switch to milk made from a variety of nuts, seeds, or soybeans. These non-dairy milks are super-nutritious and they offer a wonderful variety of delicious creamy flavours.