Lactose Intolerance and Me

After all the fighting and all of the trying to mitigate, after all the denial, I have ended up with lactose intolerance.  For some reason I can take butter, cheese, and milk baked into things, however milk and ice cream are forever off my list.  I am going to be looking into some of those pill treatments for those with lactose issues.  I cannot live a life without milk.  I am one of those people who never stopped drinking milk even long after I was a child.  I love it in every form.  My favorite form is still cheese, but there is no way I can give up drinking normal milk.  I am hoping that with the pills I will be able to consume as much  milk as I did previously.  One thing I didn't get is why I could still eat cheese and other milk products without being affected.  The answer is simple  lactose intolerance does not include the chemically altered form of lactose that occurs when the milk goes through some form of process. 

When Milk goes through the souring process to become cheese the lactose which is milk sugar gets turned into lactic acid.  I don't have an issue with lactic acid.  Also lactose can change when something when it is processed in other forms, for example baking.  I have true lactose intolerance, and not a milk allergy many people confuse the two.  Over the last month or so I started experimenting to see what made me sick and what didn't.  The reason that I can still eat butter is that it is milk fat and not the milk it's self.  That means that there is very little lactose in the butter.  This is great for me since I need to cholesterol.  (With my Celiacs I flushed it and didn't keep enough)  So while I am building backup my levels I will continue to eat butter and cheeses.  For those special days when I have to have milk or ice cream I will be taking those little magic pills Lactagen, Lactiad or one of the store brands.  There is no way I will be able to give up all the milk in my life.
I guess I will be trying the brands and finding the cheapest and best version of the pill, I will let everyone know which pill wins in a few months.

Also on a side note I decided as my last test to drink lactose free milk and see if I reacted.  I didn't react I was fine with the lactose free milk.  Normally I would just switch the type of milk I drink.  However, I discovered one very important thing about lactose free milk.  It tastes disgusting, it may be milk without the lactose but it is overly sweet and it has the flavor of warm sweetened skim milk.  Not that I mind Skim, I just cannot stand it warm.  Also the price is prohibitive for every day use.  Lactose free milk is more expensive since it has to be processed differently.   It is just not worth it in my mind.