If you are experiencing symptoms such as abdominal bloating, diarrhea or nausea after consuming dairy products, you and your doctor may suspect lactose intolerance. A lactose elimination diet can help you determine whether you are lactose intolerant and how to best handle your lactose intolerance. However, while a lactose elimination diet can be useful, you should still consult a doctor or dietitian to help plan the diet and interpret the results.
Purpose
The purpose of a lactose elimination diet is to diagnose lactose intolerance and determine the amount of lactose your body can tolerate. While not usually a dangerous condition, lactose intolerance can cause discomfort for people who have it. People develop lactose intolerance when the production of the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose in the intestines, slows as the individual grows older. Most people with lactose intolerance can handle some lactose, since their bodies still produce small amounts of lactase.
Method
To start a lactose intolerance diet, you must remove all sources of dairy from your diet for two weeks. This includes not only milk, yogurt, cheese and butter, but also any products made with these ingredients. During the time you are not eating dairy, you should increase your consumption of calcium and vitamin D from other sources. After the two week elimination period, you can gradually introduce dairy back into your diet by adding 1 g of milk, cheese or yogurt to your diet on the morning of the first day, 2 g on the second day, 5 g on the third day and 10 g on the fourth day.
Results
Once you have begun to add dairy back into your diet, you should be able to establish at which level your body can tolerate lactose. You may experience discomfort as soon as you begin to add even 1 g of dairy back into your diet or you may be able to tolerate 2 g or 5 g per day. To better clarify the exact amount you can tolerate throughout a day, add a second, gradually increasing dose of dairy in the evening. Some people can only tolerate a small amount of lactose once per day, while others may be able to consume a greater total amount as long as it is spread out throughout the day.
Considerations
A lactose elimination diet may not offer a definitive diagnosis, since other conditions may also mimic lactose intolerance and be helped by this type of diet. Milk allergy, an immune reaction to the proteins in milk, will also respond to a dairy that does not contain milk or milk products. However, milk allergies typically develop during childhood, while lactose intolerance symptoms don't usually show up until adolescence. A skin test at a doctor's office can determine whether you truly are lactose intolerant or whether you have an allergy to milk.
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