Are You Wondering If You Are Lactose Intolerant?

Many individuals develop intolerance to lactose, the sugar contained in milk and foods made from milk. It is not a serious health issue, because it will not cause damage to your digestive system. It will however make you feel uncomfortable if you consume milk or foods made with milk. You may experience a sick feeling in your stomach, bloating in your abdomen, cramping, gas or diarrhea after eating foods made from milk or after drinking milk. Other illnesses can cause the same symptoms that one may experience when lactose intolerant so it is best to have a doctor assist you in determining whether or not you are lactose intolerant.

If you are lactose intolerant you will need to avoid all milk and milk products as well as foods made from them. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish foods made from milk, as they are often not obvious. Did you know that milk can be found in cereals, lunchmeats, salad dressings, and baking mixes for cakes, cookies, pancakes and biscuits? Did you also know that milk is often found in frozen dinners? Many of these prepared food items contain milk and consumers are not aware of the fact that they are indeed consuming milk; for the lactose intolerant individual this can cause pain and discomfort. Once you know that you are lactose intolerant, you will need to learn how to read food labels before buying to be certain that the item you are purchasing does not contain any milk or milk products.

An individual that is lactose intolerant may be able to handle small amounts of some food items that contain milk such as yogurt, or cheese but not be able to tolerate drinking milk or eating ice cream.

Sometimes a person who is lactose intolerant can drink small quantities of milk or drink milk with food and not have any discomfort. There are also over-the-counter products that are made to help in digesting products with lactose such as Lactaid (an enzyme). Other products are specially made to be lactose-free or lactose-reduced that can be purchased and consumed with little or no discomfort.

Calcium-fortified soymilk is a good substitute for milk that allows you to receive the calcium that your body needs.

There are some dairy products that are naturally low in milk such as Swiss cheese or cottage cheese.

Some products that you would not normally associate with dairy products that may contain lactose are: whey, curds, milk by-products, dry milk solids, and nonfat dry milk powder.

Individuals can usually eat yogurt when they are lactose intolerant because yogurt contains bacterial cultures known as probiotics that aid in lactose digestion. Frozen yogurt will upset the stomach of those with lactose intolerance though.

If you suspect that you may be lactose intolerant you can try an experiment to see if lactose intolerance may be the case by taking all milk and milk products out of your diet for 2 weeks and see if all symptoms of discomfort disappear? Now slowly and one by one reintroduce milk and the milk products. Drink just a little milk or eat just a little of another milk product and see if your symptoms return. If the symptoms return then you have your answer. Continue to eat the item for a two to three days before introducing another item because it may take that long for symptoms to show up.

A doctor can also give you a blood or a breath-hydrogen test to determine for sure if you are lactose intolerant.