Lactose Intolerance
Anyone else here lactose intolerant? I have always had adverse reactions to dairy but I did not know what it was until about a year ago. Can it get progressively worse? I use to have ice cream and only get a small stomach ache. Now it is to the point that it can cause severe vomiting if I intake anything that contains lactose. And I love cheese which sucks. The only one I can have safely is Swiss an I found out that the bacteria that ages it eats the lactose in the cheese (American Swiss that is).
I am lactose intolerant. I cannot have more than a half scoop of ice-cream or a spoon full or two of yogurt. If it not a young cheese I can eat it fine, young cheese is better than milk, but not great. So mozzarella I have to be careful with, and I have to watch how much lasagna I eat. All cheese is better than milk because most of the lactose is in the whey not the curds, and the curds are what is used to make the cheese.
I buy sorbet or coconut milk ice-cream or lactose removed ice-cream, the soy stuff is gross. I use Silk coconut milk, and now yoplait has lactose removed yogurt. The lactaid pills also work, but it is best if I take one before and one 30 min after.
Lactose intolerant guy here. Soy milk is definitely a blessing -- I have it on my cereal all the time, and have totally gotten used to the different taste from regular milk. Also, an over-the-counter product called Lactaid is our secret weapon when we have a craving for dairy. Also, with me at least, the more non-dairy ingredients/food I eat along with my dairy, the better my system can process it. Like, ice cream with a lot of other stuff/toppings in it, like nuts, and whatever else you like in your ice cream. It's almost like as long as the dairy molecules are separated by enough non-dairy matter, my system can still break down the dairy part, even though I'm highly lactose intolerant, being 33 years old. Yes, it gets worse with age; I still have a little ability to digest dairy, but not much. I take a Lactaid pill or two before any food that I feel is more than about 10-15% dairy.
Hope that helps! I know what it's like to have to turn down stuff you like. Cheese and milk, especially taken straight, will be your stomach's worst enemies. Even taking two Lactaid and then having a small bowl of cereal with real milk doesn't keep me out of pain and constipation. (Lactaid gives you a dose of the lactase enzyme of which our bodies have stopped producing adequate quantities. So, basically, it temporarily makes you about 80% lactose tolerant again. It's not a perfect solution, but it majorly helps. I usually take two pills together in order to be sure, unless the food or drink has a really small amount of dairy.)
_________________
Christianity is different than Judaism only in people's minds -- not in the Bible.
It depends on the type of lactose intolerance. A lot of people get worse with the typical kind, where you have trouble digesting it and it can cause you to get quite gassy.
I, on the other hand, have the kind where it causes internal bleeding if I have too much, I would literally die if I were to try that challenge of chugging a gallon of milk. Hell, I almost did die when I was two weeks old when my parents found out the hard way I had this allergy. However, as I've gotten older I've been able to consumer more without seeing the warning signs that I should probably stop consuming any (you probably don't want to know what they are). On the other hand, I've noticed that I'm getting worse with the "traditional" lactose intolerance, the consumption of (relatively) large quantities of milk products has been leaving me extraordinarily flatulent these past few months.
Ironically, despite the brush with death as an infant, I now have the highest tolerance for milk products out of anyone in my family.
You could try some alternatives. I suggest Almond Milk for someone whom enjoys the taste of milk. In my Natural Resource class when I did a presentation on factory farming I did a taste test. The Almond Milk was the one everyone drank not knowing it was Almond Milk, when asked which was the natural food and which was Almond Milk everyone believed the Almond Milk to be regular milk.
Also try ice cream used with cocounut milk. It taste divine. Soy ice cream is good and some tofu ice cream is good as well.
Please become a part of the system to help. I'm lactose intolerant myself and am tired of picking up an item in the grocery market that has milk in it. And some really odd things have milk, like jalpeno chips. Some brands put milk and other brands don't put milk.
Kjas
Veteran
Joined: 26 Feb 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,059
Location: the place I'm from doesn't exist anymore
I am. I'm also intolerant to other things, but this is one of my worse ones. In the last 6 months, if I have any amount of dairy, even butter I end up vomiting and other fun things. I'm intolerant to soy too (worse than the dairy) so I mostly have coconut or almond replacements.
I used to be able to tolerate small amount of it but it's gotten progressively worse over the last 2 years.
_________________
Diagnostic Tools and Resources for Women with AS: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt211004.html
Lactose doesn't make me vomit, but it bloats me up like a balloon. But that's a good thing, because together with my soy intolerance, my lactose intolerance forces me to avoid most processed foods and eat relatively healthy. And if I eat out and treat myself to something with a cream or butter sauce, I can always pop a lactase pill.
I use soy quite a bit. The milk I have gotten used to, other products,not so much. Soy cheese just makes me angry and any cheese that is not white makes me twice as sick as white cheese. A few sprinkles of yellow cheese on a taco and I gotta run for the John. I had never heard of almond milk but I will look it up and it must suck to be intolerant to soy and milk! >,< Because I like boca burgers!
Alright, since everyone is sharing the gross-but-true details of what lactose does to their systems, and since none of these effects I've read in this thread match mine, here's mine: Ingesting lactose (without having previously taken a lactase pill) has the same effect as would pouring concrete into my intestines and letting it set. My abdomen stiffens up, and I wouldn't be able to go number 2 if my very life depended on it. Lactose is superglue, to my system. Nothing but prune juice or an enema makes things right again.
_________________
Christianity is different than Judaism only in people's minds -- not in the Bible.
ValentineWiggin
Veteran
Joined: 15 May 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,907
Location: Beneath my cat's paw
I was as a baby- was put on medication so I could be fed dairy.
Vegan now.
_________________
"Such is the Frailty
of the human Heart, that very few Men, who have no Property, have any Judgment of their own.
They talk and vote as they are directed by Some Man of Property, who has attached their Minds
to his Interest."
ValentineWiggin
Veteran
Joined: 15 May 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,907
Location: Beneath my cat's paw
I love the unsweetend kind at my Kroger! (PureAlmond? Er, something.) It's 35 calories a cup. <3
I've cooked extensively with it, actually, particularly baking.
And yes, there are almond cheeses in a lot of health food stores and vegetarian sections.
I've never tried any- I've never really seen the appeal of cheese.
_________________
"Such is the Frailty
of the human Heart, that very few Men, who have no Property, have any Judgment of their own.
They talk and vote as they are directed by Some Man of Property, who has attached their Minds
to his Interest."
I love the unsweetend kind at my Kroger! (PureAlmond? Er, something.) It's 35 calories a cup. <3
I've cooked extensively with it, actually, particularly baking.
Yup, that's the kind. Accidently got a cartoon of the coconut kind once. I'm no longer tempted to try that again.
Doesn't baking with almond milk leave your goods kind of brittle?
It is possible that some people who believe their are sensitive to lactose (the sugar in milk) may actually be sensitive to caesin (the protein). Some Aspies report an almost opium-like mind-numbing effect from too much caesin (such as hard cheeses) and strong cravings if they try to quit.