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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
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Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Dairy Food Sensitivity: Facts and Fallacies
Introduction
Misperceptions and confusion surround the cause, prevalence, diagnosis, and management of reactions to cow's milk. There are two general causes of reactions to cow's milk: non-immunological reactions including lactose intolerance, and immunological responses such as milk hypersensitivity or milk protein allergy (1–3).
Lactose intolerance is defined as the symptoms that result from maldigestion of lactose (milk sugar) due to an insufficient level of the intestinal enzyme, lactase, relative to the amount of lactose consumed. An allergic reaction involving the body's immune system to one or more of cow's milk proteins is a second, and less common, cause of symptoms associated with intake of cow's milk. This latter condition is usually observed clinically in infants and young children.
Psychological aversions, or strongly held beliefs, also may contribute to perceived reactions to cow's milk. Many people not only confuse lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy, but also overestimate the prevalence of reactions to cow's milk. When subjected to scientific scrutiny, many reactions to foods such as cow's milk cannot be reproduced (4).
Whether real or perceived, reactions to food can lead to unnecessary dietary restrictions. These in turn can contribute to nutritional deficiencies and failure to thrive in infants and young children (5). More seriously, albeit rare, incorrectly diagnosing the cause of reactions to food can cause life-threatening reactions (1,6).
This Digest reviews lactose intolerance and milk protein allergy, specifically their cause, prevalence, clinical symptoms, diagnosis, management, and prognosis. Milk and other dairy foods are important sources of essential nutrients including protein, riboflavin, vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, and if fortified vitamin D (7). For this reason, it is critical to correctly identify the cause(s) of any symptoms following intake of cow's milk and manage the condition without compromising nutritional status. Fortunately, reactions to milk and other dairy foods affect only a relatively small proportion of the total population and generally are prevented by simple dietary management.
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