h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is something that cropped up in conversation this weekend, but... when does lactose intolerance start?

Because pretty much all babies are breast fed, and surely that contains lactose?

Or doesn't it?

So if it does, when and what starts the intolerance?

It comes on gradually as a child grows to adulthood
http://www.caloriesecrets.net/can-you-become-lactose-intolerant-overnight/

Rather than a curse, lactose intolerance can be a protection against cardiovascular disease and/or cancer:
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-sn-milk-health-risks-20141029-story.html#page=1

And it doesn't even guarantee you won't get osteoporosis!

My grandmother was lactose intolerant. She never had cancer or heart disease, though n o one will ever know whether her avoidance of milk contributed to this.

I for one support cow marriages.

On a more serious note, all mammals can digest milk when they are infants. They just lose that later. It could be the same here.

Yes, I thought there are two different things going on with milk digestion, too - I recall learning that babies have rennin to enable them to get all their nutrients from their milk, but adults just have enzymes to digest general protein, sugar and fats...

Quite often it's relative. A small amount of milk might be no problem, but going beyond a certain amount would have consequences. As far as having milk to put in coffee, I could substitute soy milk to some extent. Soy in larger quantities bothers me, but a little if okay. Almond milk would be okay, too. I don't trust the non-dairy creamers. Who knows what goes into those?

Mrs ex-Yelbakk developed lactose intolerance well into her thirties. It was very sad for her as she loved all things cheese. Now, even smallest traces of dairy product will drain all energy from her system. Lactase pills only offer very limited relief...

Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down milk suger (lactose) into sugar (glucose) and stuff. All (healthy) children produce lactase. The majority of adults lose or greatly reduce lactase production. The ability to keep producing lactase is a rather new development in cultures with a long history of dairy farming.

In other words, lactose intolerance in adults is, globally speaking the normal state of affairs.

My own number one reason for avoiding fresh milk is that it is, for me, even in fat free form, the single most fattening foodstuff in the marketplace.

Many people who have problems with fresh milk, usually an adult onset problem begining in their latter 20s, can still tolerate fermented milk products that have been emulsified by bacterial action, that compensating for the loss with increasing age of natural enzymes (rennin) that assist the digestion of milk.

I personally prefer soy based non-dairy creamers for coffee and such like, though I thankfully haven't any problem with things like cheese or yogurt.

I tried a sip of soy milk fairly recently and thought it tasted exactly as you would expect grass to taste if you liquidised it, only slightly greasy

Deb

The trick is getting a blend that works. A little bit of soy milk and a little bit of cows' milk might taste okay and minimize the worst aspects of both. I tried such a blend at a café yesterday, and it was fine,. Not that I have lactose intolerance. Still, there's also almond milk, which some people swear by, though my brother-in-law is allergic to almonds. There's always something!

When I was a girl, our next-door-neighbours children were both lactose intolerant (although it was called a milk allergy so possibly slightly different) from a very early age - they were OK with breast milk but never graduated onto cow's milk - I think they had goat's milk and soya milk instead.

Mol

A friend of my family had a son who couldn't take cow's milk. The family raised goats, because he could tolerate goat milk.

Is goats milk that different then?

Actually the UK breastfeeding rates are shockingly low.

I myself am lactose intolerant but for me it goes away when I am breastfeeding, or at least it did with R. I'm hoping the phoenimenon repeats itself this time!

I've known mother's to successfully breastfeed children with cows milk protein allergy/intolerance by cutting those foods from their own diet.

Lactose intolerance isn't to human lactose, but cow lactose (in the main). Some people also have an intolerance to goats milk which most cow lactose intolerance can tolerate. For those few people, it's ewe's milk. No-one is intolerant to that, but only because nobody drinks it to the extent it starts!

My son started vomiting almost immediately he was put on cows milk at 6 weeks when I needed my husband to help with night feeds. He was never tested, but he more likely had an allergy to protein than intolerance to lactose.

I am lactose intolerant, and probably always have been, but I ignore it.

Lactose is lactose. Or does sodium chloride now differ depending on where you get it from?

To expand on that (sorry, must have been feeling tetchy earlier).

If you're lactose intolerant then it is lactose you are intolerant to. lactose is a specific molecule and does not differ depending on source.

If you are getting a different reaction from different sources then either (a) there are varying levels of lactose in those sources or (b) You're intolerant to something, but it ain't lactose.

Not sure how that works then, as my son was fine on breast milk but began projectile vomiting on cows milk and didn't stop until the cows milk was removed. If he had a problem with something in *all* milk, he would have done the same on human milk.

It is in what Orcas says in the b) explanation you are intolerant to something but it isn't lactose, it is something other in the cows milk

"If you are getting a different reaction from different sources then either (a) there are varying levels of lactose in those sources or (b) You're intolerant to something, but it ain't lactose." [orcus]

Intolerance can cover more than one condition. Lactose intolerance is characterized by a digestive inability. Then there's allergy, which is usually directed to a protein. Milk can also contain fat, which may be problematic. if a baby does better on one type of milk than another, lactose might not be the culprit.