How to Eat a Low Lactose Diet
Lactose, the sugar found in milk and other dairy products, is poorly tolerated in many adults because they lack the lactase enzyme needed to break down lactose in the digestive system. Lactose intolerance is not a serious condition. Minor changes in diet can improve lactose tolerance and is easy to achieve.
Instructions
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Test your tolerance to lactose. Remove milk, cream, yogurt, and other dairy products from your diet for at least 2 weeks. If your symptoms of bloating, gas pain and diarrhea disappear, you may be lactose intolerant. Reintroduce dairy foods slowly to determine how much lactose you can tolerate without having gastrointestinal symptoms. You may have to wait up to 2 days for symptoms to appear. Your doctor can also perform laboratory tests to check for lactose intolerance.
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Determine what diet substitutions you need to make. Most people can tolerate a small glass of milk. If you like to drink more milk than not, try lactose-reduced milk or soymilk. Soymilk usually contains calcium, but if you are concerned about your calcium intake, read the nutrition information. Cheese is usually well tolerated, but if American cheese bothers you, try aged cheeses such as Swiss, which contain less lactose. Ice cream varies in the amount of lactose it contains. Generally speaking, the more cream it contains, the more lactose. Try soft-serve ice cream or frozen yogurt. There are also some very good soy-based products on the market that make good ice cream substitutes.
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Order carefully when eating out. Avoid cream sauces and ice cream dishes. Instead, choose vegetable-based sauces and limit your consumption of desserts. Without the ability to read labels, you will not know how much lactose these dishes contain. But remember, most people can tolerate a small amount of lactose.
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Use pills or drops that contain an enzyme that helps break down lactose. This is the enzyme that your body is deficient in and it is not a drug. Take the enzyme with your first bite of dairy foods. Again, experiment to see how much you need.
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Tips & Warnings
Besides milk, look for butter and whey in ingredient lists to determine how much lactose a food contains.
Reducing dairy intake may reduce your intake of calcium. Add these calcium rich foods to your diet: canned salmon, broccoli, tofu, dark green leafy vegetables and sardines. Check with your doctor to see if you need a calcium supplement or before making any major dietary changes.
If your symptoms become severe or do not respond to a reduction of lactose in your diet, see your doctor. There are illnesses which produce similiar symptoms.
