A simple fact for the lactose intolerant – you can enjoy cheese. How so? With a little understanding of lactose, you’ll be you chomping down cheese in a jiffy.
A not so scientific lesson in lactose
Lactose is a complex sugar. So, think of it as a sugar that is too “complex”, or difficult to digest. Someone who’s lactose intolerant lacks the enzymes to digest its complex sugars, and this is what leads to gaseous eruptions and/or urgent ventures to nature’s nearest facilities.
Lactose – Allergy or Tolerance?
It’s easy to think that lactose intolerance is an allergy, but this is far from true. Lactose intolerance is simply a tolerance of lactose. With this in mind, everyone can tolerate lactose on different levels. Even more fascinating is the fact that every food or dairy product has different levels of lactose. So, if you can combine the two – how much lactose you can tolerate with the level of lactose in whatever you’re consuming – then you can in fact enjoy certain dairy products.
What Dairy Products?
Aged cheese! The older the cheese, the less lactose it contains. Let’s take cheddar cheese. It comes in various varieties: mild, sharp, extra sharp and extra extra sharp (made from raw cow’s milk). The sharper the cheese, the more it has aged. (For a cheese-lovin’ lactosian such as myself – this is remarkable.)
So, if you’re looking for a less devious lactose, extra sharp cheddar is certainly a way to tame those cheesy cravings without getting the rumbles rumbling.
