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Lactose Intolerance
Lactose Intolerance and Minorities: The Real Story
How Can Health Professionals Encourage Minorities to Try Dairy Foods? Tips to Improve Tolerance to Dairy Foods
Increasing minorities' familiarity with dairy foods, beginning in the early years, may increase their consumption of these foods and their calcium intake. Also, minority role models may help to encourage minorities to give dairy foods a try. "Minority educators could help people in their community learn about the nutritional and health benefits of dairy foods, as well as the differences between lactose maldigestion and lactose intolerance."
Michael Levitt, M.D.
Associate Chief of Staff for Research
Minneapolis VA Medical Center
Minneapolis, MN Tips to Improve Tolerance to Dairy Foods
In most cases, lactose intolerant individuals do not have to give up milk and other dairy foods. Here are some easy tips to help people with lactose intolerance manage their condition, include dairy foods in their diet, and meet their calcium needs:
- Adjust the amount of lactose consumed. Individuals differ according to how much lactose they can tolerate at any one time. To determine how much lactose is well tolerated, individuals should consume a small amount of milk (less than 1 cup) with food and gradually increase the serving size until symptoms just begin to develop.
- Drink milk with a meal or snack. This slows gastric emptying and/or delivery of lactose to the colon, allowing more time for any remaining lactase enzyme to digest lactose. Also, when lactose is consumed with food, relatively little undigested lactose reaches the colon at any one time.
- Choose wisely. Some dairy foods are better tolerated than others.
- Yogurts with "live, active cultures" are well tolerated.
- Whole milk may be better tolerated than lower fat milk.
- Chocolate milk may be better tolerated than unflavored milk.
- Many cheeses, especially aged cheeses like Cheddar, Colby, Swiss, and Parmesan, are low in lactose and generally well tolerated.
- Sweet acidophilus milk, yogurt milk, and other fermented dairy foods are tolerated as least as well as milk.
- Try lactose-free or lactose–reduced products. Lactose-hydrolyzed milk and other dairy foods contain all the same nutrients, including calcium, as their regular counterparts. You can also use commercial lactase preparations (capsules, chewable tablets, solutions). Drops of liquid lactase can be added to milk to break down much or all of its lactose. Or, oral lactase tablets can be taken before consuming lactose-containing foods.
- Train for tolerance. Gradually increasing intake of lactose-containing foods improves tolerance to lactose. Continued exposure to lactose may enhance the efficiency of colonic bacteria to metabolize lactose, thereby producing fewer intolerance symptoms.
"Good medicine for lactose intolerance is a glass of milk. Drinking a little milk helps the digestive system learn to digest dairy foods without unpleasant side effects. If you only consume dairy foods once in a while, you are more likely to have symptoms from them. Here's some advice to improve tolerance to lactose. Drink 1/4 to 1/2 cup of milk two to three times a day and gradually increase the amount. Avoid eating dairy foods in large quantities at one sitting, and eat dairy foods as part of a meal. Also, yogurt, which contains the enzyme lactase that helps the body digest lactose, is well tolerated."
Dennis Savaiano, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Foods and Nutrition
Dean and Professor
School of Consumer and Family Science
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
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