Eating Pure Lactose

[KevinG]

I know I have a mild/moderate reaction to dairy products, but I've never been able to isolate whether my reaction is to casein, lactose, or something else. Last week I tried some cheese (high casein/low lactose) and didn't have much of a reaction.

To further isolate the source of my symptoms, I bought pure lactose powder, and plan to consume about 10 grams, the same amount as in a glass of milk. My physician says it's safe.

Can anyone think of a reason this would be less safe than drinking a glass of milk?

[mushroom]

Can anyone think of a reason this would be less safe than drinking a glass of milk?

No, but I think I would just drink the glass of milk

[tarnalberry]

Not unsafe, but not useful. Lactose intolerance isn't an all or nothing type of thing. Your body needs to produce only enough lactase to digest the amount of lactose you consume. Almost ANYONE is going to get lactose intolerance symptoms by consuming 10g of lactose, because your body doesn't generally handle that much. "Lactose intolerance" generally means that you don't have enough lactase to digest normal amounts of lactose. This is one reason why milk is a better test - it has what we consider "normal" amounts of lactose for a meal.

['lynrn]

OK folks!!! This is the newbie question of the week.. Why can't we just have a lactose intolerance test done? I used to work in the lab and we routinely ran these. Do these not pick up the lactose intolerance that frequently goes along with celiac??

[Skylark]

OK folks!!! This is the newbie question of the week.. Why can't we just have a lactose intolerance test done? I used to work in the lab and we routinely ran these. Do these not pick up the lactose intolerance that frequently goes along with celiac??

Around here we don't trust doctors or clinical tests as far as we can throw 'em. The whole medical system has failed many of us miserably. So many of us are self-diagnosed we're just in that self-diagnosis mindset.

Yes, the clinical lactose intolerance test works fine for celiacs.

[KevinG]

Not unsafe, but not useful. Lactose intolerance isn't an all or nothing type of thing. Your body needs to produce only enough lactase to digest the amount of lactose you consume. Almost ANYONE is going to get lactose intolerance symptoms by consuming 10g of lactose, because your body doesn't generally handle that much. "Lactose intolerance" generally means that you don't have enough lactase to digest normal amounts of lactose. This is one reason why milk is a better test - it has what we consider "normal" amounts of lactose for a meal.

THANK YOU Tiffany. I love reading replies from people who know their stuff.