Lactose-Free Milk Can Seriously Damage Your Health
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Lactose is present in all animal milks. Goat’s milk, for example, usually has 5 to 10% more lactose than cow’s milk. It used to be thought that only a minority of people suffered from lactose intolerance, but the latest research dispels this myth. The reality is that virtually all people are lactose intolerant - it’s just a matter of degree.With lactose intolerance the body cannot digest lactose properly, causing varying degrees of nausea, cramps, gas, bloating and diarrhea. Typically, this happens about 30 minutes to 2 hours after milk consumption.
The symptoms of lactose intolerance will vary with individuals, depending on how well you tolerate it, and the amount of lactose consumed. The condition develops over time, getting worse with age. Men and women suffer equally.
When lactose (the principal sugar in milk) is consumed it is broken down by lactase bacteria into galactose and glucose. If you don’t have enough lactase (which most people don’t) your body won’t be able to break the lactose down - that’s when you suffer lactose intolerance.
Human babies have enough lactase to digest the lactose in human milk. But in the first few months or years of life the baby gradually loses the capacity to breakdown and digest lactose.
In the USA, for example, over 50 million people are regarded by the medical profession as being clinically lactose-intolerant. Certain ethnic and racial populations are more widely affected than others. As many as 75 percent of African-Americans and American-Indians (and 90 percent of Asian-Americans) are lactose-intolerant. The condition is least common among persons of northern European descent.
But even people who do not think they are lactose intolerant do in fact suffer from the condition whenever animal milk is consumed. However, the effects for some people may be so mild as to be hardly noticeable. Slight feelings of indigestion or bloating will usually be associated with a poor or rushed meal rather than with lactose intolerance.
There are many studies showing how lactose intolerance causes human illness (too many to list here). A quick search on Internet will reveal lots of studies into the subject.
Typical government advice for people wanting to avoid lactose in milk is to say they should eat other calcium-rich foods such as fortified juices, fish and broccoli. But this doesn’t help much because what most people need is information on alternative kinds of milk.
You may, of course, consume ‘lactose reduced’ or ‘lactose free’ milk. For example in North America you can buy ‘Lactaid’ which is a brand of lactose-free milk. The drawback is that lactose-free milks are in general not so widely available, and are usually more expensive.
But the biggest drawback is that lactose-free milk is usually ultra-pasteurized (also known as UHT or ‘Long Life’ milk). This is a major drawback because all the research is showing that UHT milk is much worse for health compared to regular pasteurized milk. For example, the research is showing that UHT milk may be the biggest dietary cause of a variety of serous brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s and others.
What is the best way to avoid lactose in milk you may wonder? A simple solution is to switch to milk made from seeds, nuts, or soybeans. Non-dairy milks offer a great variety of delicious flavours and they are full of healthy nutrients.
