If you're lactose intolerant, you are unable to digest lactose, which is the sugar that occurs naturally in milk. As a result, you experience uncomfortable digestive symptoms, including cramping and gas, when you drink milk or consume most dairy products. While you do have options -- like lactose-free milk and dairy -- available to you, there are a number of foods you shouldn't eat if you are lactose intolerant.
Conventional Milk
If you are lactose intolerant, the most basic of foods you need to avoid is milk. Milk, whether it's from a cow, a goat, or any other mammal, contains lactose. To absorb the nutritional compounds in lactose, you need to digest the sugar first, explain Dr. Reginald Garrett and Dr. Charles Grisham in their book "Biochemistry." This requires lactase, an intestinal enzyme. Lactose intolerant individuals don't produce lactase, meaning that lactose in your diet passes through to your lower intestine where it is digested by bacteria, resulting in uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms.
Some Alternative Milks
There are several reasons that some people seek out alternatives to milk, such as soy milk or almond milk. These include lactose intolerance, milk allergy and following a vegan diet. Because not all those who consume alternative milks are lactose intolerant, however, some manufacturers add lactose as a milk sweetening agent to soy and other milks. Read the ingredients carefully before using any milk substitute.
Cheese
Some individuals with various milk sensitivities can consume cheese, because the cheese-manufacturing process separates out some of the proteins in milk, leaving others behind. Unfortunately for the lactose intolerant individual, however, most cheeses still contain sufficient lactose to cause digestive problems. If you're only mildly lactose intolerant, you can try different cheeses to see whether there are some to which you don't react. The very sensitive, however, should avoid all cheeses.
Some Yogurts
Unlike most other dairy products, yogurt contains very little lactose. This is because the process of making yogurt involves culturing milk with a number of bacterial species, including Lactobacillus acidophilus. The Lactobacillus bacteria digest lactose, explain Dr. Mary Campbell and Dr. Shawn Farrell in their book "Biochemistry." In many yogurts, sufficient bacterial activity will have removed most -- if not all -- lactose by the time you consume the yogurt, so you may find that you can eat some brands of yogurt even if you are lactose intolerant. The most sensitive digestive tracts, however, will be unable to eat any yogurt. If you find that yogurt causes you digestive distress, avoid it.
References
- "Biochemistry"; Reginald Garrett, Ph.D. and Charles Grisham, Ph.D.; 2007
- "Biochemistry"; Mary Campbell, Ph.D. and Shawn Farrell, Ph.D.; 2005
