The Facts About Lactose Intolerance Should be Understood By More People

There’s a lot of people who love to eat dairy. Those creamy flavors are hard to beat and cheese… oh cheese. HOwever, there’s a huge number of people throughout the United States who are unable to enjoy delicious dairy. These people suffer from lactose intolerance. While it’s a very common condition, many people don’t know much more about lactose intolerance than people who can't drink milk or have dairy products. There’s a lot more to lactose intolerance than that, and there’s a large number of interesting facts about lactose intolerance that people can learn about. This article is going to focus on these facts. Hopefully after reading, you will have an added appreciation for this condition and the people who suffer from it. 

1 - Lactose Intolerance is an Enzyme Problem

Lactose is a milk sugar that is located in various amounts within dairy products. Most people produce an enzyme which counteracts lactose when it is consumed. Those with lactose intolerance simply don’t produce this enzyme. Products like tablets and pills to help a person digest lactose simply provide an exterior source of this enzyme with varying levels of success. 

2 - There are Different Forms of Lactose Intolerance

There’s several different causes of lactose intolerance and this leads to different forms of it. Primarily lactose intolerance is the most common one. People with primary lactose intolerance simply don’t produce the enzyme to counter lactose. It’s common and is more common as a person gets older as well. Secondary lactose intolerance is different because it’s caused by another condition! These typically are conditions which involve your small intestine like Crohn’s disease. If you treat the underlying condition, then the ability to process lactose can come back. In some rare cases babies can suffer from congenital lactose intolerance. This happens when both parents pass on a specific gene variant. 

3 - You’re More Likely To Suffer From Lactose Intolerance As You Age

Basically, people stop producing the enzyme to digest lactose over time as they age. Since the need to do so decreases as a child ages, it’s not surprising that the risk of becoming lactose intolerant goes up as we age. Most people still produce enough to eat dairy, but essentially at any point it can decrease to the point where it causes problems. It may come on quickly, but it’s more likely that people may feel uncomfortable if they consume large amounts of dairy to start, 

4 - Lactose Free Food is Big Business

Considering the huge number of people who can’t drink lactose filled dairy products, it’s not surprising that companies smelled profit in providing products for these people. It starts with tablets that allow people to digest lactose. These are essentially the missing enzymes provided through an exterior source. From there, the different kinds of lactose free milks come into play. Some are lactose free because their source is not dairy. Items like almond and oat milks are certainly not going to contain any lactose. In other cases, milk and other products have been chemically formulated to remove the lactose by treating it with the digestive enzyme ahead of time. Lactose free items can be found in essentially every type of dairy food and means that people can still keep close to the same diet that they would have otherwise used.