You may have heard that the molecule lactose can have a significant impact upon your health and comfort. To some extent, this is true -- if you're lactose intolerant, consuming lactose will make you very uncomfortable. If you're not lactose intolerant, the lactose molecule doesn't have much bearing whatsoever upon your health. Like other carbohydrates, it can act as a source of cellular energy, but you don't need it to remain healthy.
The Lactose Molecule
Lactose is chemically classified as a disaccharide, which means it's a sugar made up of two smaller sugar units. The smaller sugar units comprising lactose are called glucose and galactose. Lactose is a carbohydrate, which puts it in the same chemical family as starch and table sugar. The most common source of lactose in the diet is through dairy -- lactose is more commonly known as milk sugar.
Uses of Lactose
Provided you're not lactose intolerant, your body can digest and absorb lactose. You break lactose into glucose and galactose in your small intestine, and then absorb the smaller sugars into the bloodstream. From there, cells take up the glucose and galactose. You can either burn them immediately to fulfill cellular energy needs, or store them for later use. Your cells can store glucose and galactose either in the form of glycogen, a carbohydrate, or in the form of fat.
Special Importance
Because it shares so much in common with other carbohydrates like table sugar, also called sucrose, and starch, lactose has no special dietary importance. You don't need it to remain healthy or for your cells to function properly, and it doesn't provide any nutritional value that you can't get elsewhere. Good sources of lactose happen to be good sources of certain other nutrients, however. For instance, milk is a major source of lactose and of the important mineral calcium.
Lactose Intolerance
There is one subset of the population to whom the lactose molecule is quite important, because they can't digest or absorb it. These individuals have lactose intolerance, meaning that they don't produce the enzyme necessary to digest lactose. If you're lactose intolerant, your health won't suffer by being unable to consume lactose, but you may find it inconvenient to be unable to consume dairy, since it's a good source of protein and calcium. There are lactose-free milks on the market that will allow you to enjoy the flavor and nutrition of milk without the lactose.
References
- "Biochemistry"; Reginald Garrett, Ph.D. and Charles Grisham, Ph.D.; 2007
- "Human Physiology"; Lauralee Sherwood, Ph.D.; 2004
Member Comments