How to Deal with Lactose Intolerance
If you often feel sick after drinking a glass of milk or eating a bowl of ice cream, you might be lactose intolerant. It’s a health condition where a person cannot digest a significant amount of lactose because there is a lactate shortage in the system. Lactose is the sugar in dairy products, and lactate is the enzyme made by the cells lining the small intestines that break it down. Being lactose intolerant is not life-threatening, but it is very distressing.
Recognizing the Symptoms
Lactose intolerance can have several unpleasant effects, although they’re not life-threatening. Some of the most common manifestations of this ailment are:
Nausea
Bloating
Cramps
Diarrhea
Gas
The symptoms can start 30 minutes or two hours after drinking or eating foods with lactose. Unfortunately, there are still no know cure to permanently increase lactate production. There are ways to treat the effects of this problem, though.
Avoiding Food With Lactose
This is the best way to avoid and treat the symptoms of lactose intolerance. Milk and other food items made from it, such as chocolate, cream and ice cream, should be avoided. Make sure you check labels when buying food from the grocery, especially those that are processed. Some can contain even small amounts of milk and lactose in them, which can still cause discomfort. Examples include:
Margarine
Bread, pastry and other baked foods
Breakfast cereals
Lunch meats
Instant soup and mashed potatoes
Breakfast drinks
Salad dressings
Milk-flavored food items
Candies and other sweet snacks and munchies
Pancake, cookie, and biscuit mix
Diet For A Lactose Intolerant
Milk contains calcium, and since your body needs this nutrition, you must still find ways to include this in your diet.
Drink milk, but in small quantities. Try consuming half a glass a day. You should also drink it while eating something. This helps lessen the unpleasant feeling.
Find soy milk that is calcium-fortified. Calcium-fortified orange juice also helps.
Eat dairy products that are low in lactose, such as cottage cheese and Swiss cheese.
Eat yogurt. Although it contains lactose, it also has probiotics (live bacterial cultures) that can help lactose digestion. Just make sure the yogurt you buy has probiotics, otherwise, you’ll only worsen the symptoms.
Cocoa powder. Adding these to whatever food with lactose you take will help the body digest the lactose, because it slows the rate at which your stomach becomes empty. The slower the emptying process, the less lactose goes into your system at once.
Sardines or canned salmon (as well as other canned oily fish with bones). They have a high calcium content.
Healthy veggies and legumes. Take in green leafy vegetables, cooked dried beans, nuts, dried apricots, and sesame seed.
Chamomile tea. If your symptoms flare, you can drink a cup. This tea has tannins that help constrict your intestinal tract temporarily, lessening pain and spasms. It also stops bloating and gas.
Calcium supplements are also available in capsule or tablet form. By taking these, you can ingest the right amount of calcium, but without the discomfort. Make sure you follow the recommended dosage for your age and condition.
Using Lactase Additives
If you really want to drink milk, you can use lactase additives before drinking it. This is an enzyme added to milk that helps break down the lactose in it. You can buy it at any drug store or health food store, in powder form. Add it to the milk 24 hours before consumption. The lactose will be reduced by 70%. There are also tablets that can help digest the lactose ingested. Take these before eating or drinking.
Having lactose intolerance is never easy, but learning to deal with it is. Just remember these tips and you’ll live a happy and normal life, while eating foods you like.