Food for the Lactose Intolerant?

Parents Forum Parent Cafe
#1

I’m going to become a freshman in college and want to avoid almost all traces of dairy. I recently became aware of my extreme sensitivity, so I’m looking for food that would go down well. When I say I’m extremely sensitive, I mean it. Even eating bread made with dairy (which is almost all bread) causes… problems. :-&

For those of you who are lactose intolerant, know someone who’s lactose intolerant, or know about the condition: What should a dairy-sensitive college student be eating? I’ll eat pretty much anything that’s dairy-free, just not salad. I won’t be cooking anything, just buying it from campus restaurants. I’m also allergic to mushrooms and will not take Lactaid pills.

If it matters, I’m going to the University of Arizona.

#2

http://www.health.arizona.edu/hpps_nutrition.htm

I suggest you contact the school’s nutritionists and work with them individually to pinpoint foods specific to your campus and your school’s meal plan that would be safe to eat. Beyond the obvious lactose in dairy, they should be able to help you discover which foods are safe and which have more hidden forms of lactose.

#3

Why won’t you take Lactaid pills?

#4

Thanks for answering my question. 8-|

I won’t take Lactaid pills because they’ll run out extremely quickly and I’ll end up buying another $20 pack within days. I’m also aware of the campus nutritionist, but I have 1 month until now and then, so I need suggestions on what to eat now and when I’m off campus.

#5

Friend, do yourself a favor and go to Wal-Mart and get the Equate brand lactose dietary supplement. It costs $6.95 for 60 pills and they will last a lot longer than a few days. I became lactose intolerant in college because I was living like a monk on a budget and wasn’t eating a balanced diet my body stopped producing the enzyme that digests dairy products. I had no idea. It happened very gradually. I got out of college, started eating like a human being again, and would get sick every other meal. I couldn’t figure it out. I thought I was dying. I went to the doctor and he thought it wa stress. So I asked, well then, why do I get sick every other or every third meal?

He didn’t have an answer and he rushed off to his next patient. Thanks, Bones. I figured it out of myself a few weeks later when watching the evening news. I take my Equate pills everywhere. They are cheap. Do yourself a favor and buy 2 or 3 bottles of 60 capsules each, it will cost less than $20, and it will last a few months.

#6

DH also uses the no name brand of lactaid. He says they work just as well. He likes the silk unsweetened almond/coconut blend milk. But regardless of which milk substitute you buy,try and make sure it doesn’t have Carrageenan in it. There are studies out there that it may be bad for you… while some say it doesn’t matter at least for him the milk substitutes that have it give him problems.

#7

Ethnic recipes from places with high rates of lactose intolerance. Many from east Asia are obvious ones. Many others like Mexican, Italian, Greek, Arab, Iranian, etc. should have dishes without cheese or other dairy. Do not recall seeing dairy in Ethiopian or Eritrean either. South Asian dishes commonly do have dairy, but lower lactose forms like yogurt and cheese.

Of milk like drinks, soy milk is closest to the macro nutrient profile to milk, and may be fortified with calcium and vitamin D.

As far as bread goes, look at labels carefully. Or consider other breads like tortillas (cannot be hard to find in Arizona). Or make your own (bread machine makes it easy).

#8

When I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance, my condition had deteriorated so much I was put on a “as close as possible to no fiber” diet for nearly 10 months. Meat and potatoes, mostly just meat. And I can use lactase pills; lactase is the enzyme and it’s sold by everyone in generic or brand form. I generally get them from Costco: 180 pills with 9k “Lactase Units”, which is a lot, for about $14. I can eat any dairy with a single pill. I don’t understand reluctance to take pills.

It’s very difficult to track all milk products because they appear deep in labels. It’s safer and simpler to take a pill at any meal not prepared with ingredients you know. I don’t trust anything that doesn’t have a kosher pareve label because that is a pretty high guarantee there is no dairy in there (so it can be eaten with meat by the Kosher observant).

If you don’t want to take lactase for some youthful stubbornness, fine but I wouldn’t want to room with you because you’ll take in dairy more than you realize.

#9

Okay, I’ll go for the Equate pills 60 pack. Another question: Does lactose intolerance ever go away?

#10

The mix of intestinal bacteria can change, resulting in greater or lesser effects.

#11

Well, a friend who was having excruciating migraines was told by a naturalpathic doctor to eliminate gluten and see if that helped. It really helped and as a side benefit, as predicted it helped her be able to tolerate more lactose than she had been able to previously. She’s very pleased about that.

Eating yogurt that has live bacteria MAY help for some people, especially if they’ve had a course or two of antibiotics that have killed the bacteria that was living in the gut, as well as the other bacteria.

#12

Is it true that eating a banana split with 1 pill won’t be enough? Would 2 work?

#13

Each person is different. For H, even a handful of pills won’t help him, as he’s VERY intolerant. For some people, just one pill works wonders. The larger the size of lactose intake, the larger the amount of lactaid or similar you’d want helping you try to digest the item. Now is the time to try to experiment and figure out what dose works best for you with different items so you aren’t having to figure this out so much in college when you’re trying to adjust to so many other things as well.

#14

Get to like Mexican food. Skip sour cream and cheese. Salsa, beans, lettuce, tortillas, meat fixings. It will not be hard to find in Arizona.

Ice cream has the same % of lactose as milk. I don’t see why a banana split would require a mega dose of lactase pills. Sure, most enzymes don’t work as efficiently at low temperatures as at the body temperature, but hopefully you will eat your ice cream slowly enough not to cause hypothermia in your GI tract… :slight_smile: IMO, you should be OK unless there is something super inhibitory in the particular type of banana split you eat… or if the banana split is so huge that it can feed an army… :wink:

http://education.seattlepi.com/effects-ph-temperature-enzyme-activity-lactase-lactose-7034.html

#15

H has learned that if he orders tacos “fresco style,” they skip all lactose ingredients–sour cream and cheese. He says it both ways, in case he’s misunderstood and USUALLY, he gets the order correctly. If it’s wrong, he brings it home & take a lactaid pill or several, depending on how he’s feeling and how much dairy he sees. He’s so lactose intolerant, his gut is even bothered by dairy he adds to his coffee, so he’s learned to drink it black instead of worrying about whether the creamer is dairy or non-dairy.

#16

My son in law is very lactose intolerant. One thing we have discovered is that Kraft SHREDDED cheese (not the "extra creamy kind that has cream cheese added) is actually lactose free. Check the label! It says made with one hundred percent milk but also that it contains no lactose. He’s delighted that he can have pizza, burgers, etc.

#17

Never knew Kraft made Lactose-FREE cheese! Will have to look for that. What a fascinating revalation. The other day, when pizza was being ordered, we asked that one pizze be at least 1/2 without any cheese or dairy. They chose to order the entire pizza without dairy and it was popular amongst many of those at the gathering–some were vegan, some lactose intolerant, and some of us just like veggies. It tasted fine to me, even tho it had no cheese or dairy. There were other pizzas for folks to choose among, so lots of variety.

#18

The harder the cheese, the less lactose it tends to have.

#19

There is lactose-free (defined as being 99% or more free of lactose) dairy milk (the enzyme pre-added to it removes lactose), dairy products made of such milk, and there are varieties of cheese that are virtually lactose free. This has been reported to taste OK:

http://www.foodmayhem.com/uploaded_images/Breyers-Lactose-Free-Vanilla-Ice-Cream-753331.JPG

#20

I’m just going to go with the pills. Thanks.