General Health

Some 90 percent of Asians, suffer some degree of lactose intolerance. As many as 75 percent of all African American, Jewish, Native American, and Mexican-American adults are lactose intolerant. In fact, the only population left relatively unscathed by the condition are people of Northern European descent.

Lactose is the sugar in milk, and an enzyme called lactase is normally responsible for breaking down lactose in your digestive tract after you’ve consumed milk or a food made from it. Some people, however, don’t make enough lactase enzyme to tackle the lactose they consume. They may be missing a little or a lot of the enzyme. Depending on the degree of enzyme deficiency, consuming dairy products, such as ice cream or cottage cheese, can trigger bouts of nausea, cramps, bloating, gas, or diarrhea, usually 30 minutes or so later. One of the most common misconceptions about lactose intolerance is that it is a milk allergy. Well, some people may have miss understanding about this case.

Instead of milk, we may be better able to tolerate aged hard cheeses such as cheddar, Colby, Swiss, and Parmesan. These cheeses contain little lactose compared with milk and softer cheeses because the whey, which contains most of the lactose, separates from the cheese during processing. In addition, we can consumed some variants from milk consist of enzyme our body needed. Yoghurt is one of them. Many people who suffer lactose intolerance are better able to tolerate yogurt. Yogurts labeled as containing “live active cultures” contain friendly bacteria that help digest lactose. Yogurt is also a good source of calcium.

Hmm.. Living with lactose intolerance doesn’t mean that we permanently can’t drink milk for our entire life. It just needs a proper planning and precaution, so that we can get the fine nutrition for our body. Oh, come on! Enjoy this life :-D

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