Green Living: Multicultural Milk

Last month we discussed the fact that lactose intolerance is the norm for most people in the world. A few adults, mostly those of northern European heritage, produce sufficient lactase to digest large amounts of lactose, the sugar unique to milk. The rest will react with some degree of discomfort or pain as lactose passes undigested into the colon where it can cause bloating and diarrhea.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that most lactose-intolerant people have a number of ways to enjoy the nutritional benefits of milk without pain and discomfort. Most lactose-intolerant people can still consume small amounts of lactose each day.

Over the centuries, fluid milk has been processed by people into a whole host of traditional products including cheese, butter, yogurt, kefir, and buttermilk. Along with the many practical reasons for processing milk in these ways (storage, transport, keeping quality) comes the very important benefit of lactose-reduction.

To varying degrees, most traditional milk products contain less lactose than the fluid milk that was used to make them. This is because most traditional milk processing incorporates the use of lactic acid bacteria--a class of microorganisms that, when added to fluid milk and allowed to grow, convert lactose to lactic acid.

This processing is probably what allowed many traditional societies outside northern Europe--who were generally lactose intolerant--to incorporate some milk products into their cuisine.

In cheese, lactic acid bacteria slowly consume the lactose in the milk, so younger, softer cheeses retain more lactose than harder aged cheeses. Some aged cheeses contain only trace amounts of lactose. If you have difficulty digesting lactose, try older cheeses, and avoid soft cheese.

In yogurt and kefir, lactic acid bacteria reduce the lactose somewhat during the culturing process, but they do not reduce it nearly as significantly as in cheese. How to explain, then, that many lactose intolerant people can handle yogurt quite well? It turns out that when we eat yogurt containing live cultures, these microorganisms actually consume most of the lactose in our stomach before it moves into our small intestine. This is why it is important to eat only yogurt that contains live cultures.

Other common dairy products such as butter, buttermilk, cream cheese, and cream can be found in cultured form. In most cases, these are more easily digested--and have better flavor--than their un-cultured counterparts. Look for the word cultured on the label.

You can often compare lactose levels in different products by comparing the "Sugars" line on the nutrition label, though this will not work for products with added sweeteners such as flavored yogurts or sweetened kefir drinks. (Remember to adjust for different serving sizes.)

Finally, if moderate consumption of traditional cultured milk products still causes you pain, there are a number of more modern methods for reducing lactose in milk products even more dramatically. Some manufacturers add isolated lactase to fluid milk or ice cream to reduce the lactose by up to 70 percent or more.

Alternatively, you can employ the same principle by carrying lactase pills with you and taking one with any meal containing milk or milk products. For some, this provides enough help to allow them to drink milk or eat milk products.

With some trial and error, most people--whether lactose intolerant or not--can find a place for milk and milk products in their diets.

Brian and Jennell Kvistad own and operate Blossom Organic Grocery on Lopez Island. They can be reached at blossomonlopez@rockisland.com or 468-2204.

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