Your indigestion may actually be lactose intolerance

(NC) – It’s not uncommon for people to develop lactose intolerance as the years go by. It’s not uncommon but it is unexpected.

You may have spent most of your life enjoying the taste of milk, ice cream and cheese for example—and then one day you find you have difficulty digesting them as your stomach bloats with varying degrees of indigestion, gas, cramping, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea.

Lactose is the main sugar found in milk but the ability to digest it varies from age to age, and also from culture to culture. Dietitians tell us that lactose needs the enzyme lactase to be broken down sufficiently—and while lactase is naturally high in infants it doesn’t stay that way. By early childhood, humans worldwide may lose 90 to 95 per cent of it and the amount of enzyme the body produces continues to decline with age.

If you are lactose intolerant, you are certainly not alone. About 70 per cent of the world’s population has trouble digesting this sugar, including 30 to 50 million North Americans. Individuals of Asian, African, or Hispanic descent as well as Aboriginal North Americans are more likely to develop lactose intolerance—and in Canada approximately one million women and 400,000 men are coping with its most uncomfortable symptoms.

What to do

Be aware of the ingredients in your food and watch for lactose content where you may not expect it, dietitians say.

Even so, the best monitoring will still be trial-and-error since people differ in the quantity and type of dairy foods their body can smoothly digest. Generally, lactose intolerant people are able to handle around 12 to 18 grams of lactose per day—the amount in one large glass of milk. But symptoms may occur, specialists warn, when lactose is hidden in other favourite foods like baked goods, cereals, salad dressings, soups, sandwich meat and more.

There is good news however. There is an effective remedy that can be conveniently taken on the spot.

Just like some people don’t go anywhere without breath mints, antacids, or headache pills, lactose intolerant individuals have learned to bring along Lactaid supplements.. If, for example, you anticipate a meal with lots of dairy, or can’t quite tell what’s in a recipe or on any given menu, this naturally sourced, over-the-counter lactase enzyme, when taken with the first bite of food, supplies both the digestive ingredient and the peace-of-mind.

Another option is ready-to-drink Lactaid Milk, which is lactose free and available in the dairy case. Easy-to-use drops, by the same name, may also be added to regular milk to break down lactose.

More information about managing lactose intolerance — including the opportunity to take a personalized dairy digestion quiz — is available online at www.lactaid.ca.

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