Lactose free living

So in November I found out I'm lactose intolerant - I also found out my whole digestive system is shot and I have no enzymes or amino acids and basically can't digest anything, hence the stomach problems, but that's another story. As I'm lazy, I shall let this website explain if you don't know what it entails:

"Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest lactose. Lactose is a type of sugar found in milk and other dairy products. Lactose intolerance happens when the small intestine does not make enough of the enzyme lactase. Enzymes help the body absorb foods. Not having enough lactase is called lactase deficiency. Symptoms often occur 30 minutes to 2 hours after you eat or drink milk products, and are often relieved by not eating or drinking milk products. Large doses of milk products may cause worse symptoms. Symptoms include:

• Abdominal bloating
• Abdominal cramps
• Diarrhea
• Gas (bottom burps hehe)
• Nausea"

Blah blah blah. Bit of a bummer really. But, I'd rather be lactose intolerant than gluten/wheat intolerant so I guess there's a silver lining! Either way, having a food intolerance/allergy is a pain in the butt to start with.

When I first found out, I thought 'oh, it's okay, I don't drink tea/coffee, eat much cheese etc etc'... but then I discovered practically every sandwich in Tesco has a high content of milk products, certain brands of crisps have high levels of milk, pastries, cakes (basically anything fattening and tasty!) and the worst part.. chocolate! I am a definite snacker, which makes snacking so difficult, argh! Eating out can be difficult, especially lunch at work can be a nightmare and I usually end up having chips (sweet diet). On the bright side, there are certain milk products you still can have due to the low levels of lactase in them, such as:

• Buttermilk and cheeses (they have less lactose than milk)
• Fermented milk products, such as yogurt
• Goat's milk (but drink it with meals, and make sure it is supplemented with essential amino acids and vitamins if you give it to children)
• Ice cream, milkshakes, and aged or hard cheeses
• Lactose-free milk and milk products
• Lactase-treated cow's milk for older children and adults
• Soy formulas for infants younger than 2 years
• Soy or rice milk for toddlers

You can also take digestive enzymes which replace the missing enzyme that digests lactase, although I'm yet to try these.

I must admit, I'm not very good with this whole lactose intolerance thing. I get several tellings off a week from my boyfriend for eating foods which contain milk, and he's right, I should behave. I have this attitude that if I'm not doing anything the next day and am at home, I can eat whatever I want - which overall is a bad attitude to have as I'm not doing myself any good! I do however still regularly eat products which contain very small amounts of milk in them such as my beloved Sunbites crisps - it explains on that website that generally if the amount of milk is very small, you should be ok, higher than that, prepare to make friends with your toilet (grim).

Anyway, being a porker, I love to eat and have been researching/trying all sorts of milk free things. Due to my stomach problems I'm overall trying to eat a lot more healthier (the weight loss is a bonus). When I move in with my boyfriend, we're going to try and live a mostly vegan diet to help me and see what happens. Here are a couple of things I've discovered which are tasty and milk-free!

I picked up this oat milk today from Holland and Barrett. I'm yet to try it, but from responses on Twittah, it seems to be everyone's favourite choice of non-animal milk. Of course I bought the chocolate version... very practical.

Rice milk so far has been my non-dairy choice of milk. I'm yet to try it over cereals etc, but my boyfriend made some bangin' Yorkshire puddings with it - tasted no different to using normal milk! I've also tried the little chocolate cartons of this, delicious. There are of course other non cows milk alternatives such as soya milk, and goats milk. I'm not supposed to have soya, and I'm yet to try goats milk, so I can't comment on those.

Holland and Barrett quickly becomes your friend when you have some form of food intolerance. There are so many options available which are milk free which is wonderful. I picked up some Swedish Glace milk free ice cream today, can't wait to try that. They do a huge range of lactose free goods, there's a limited number of items on the website for you to peruse. I also discovered today they have also brought out a loyalty card, woohoo!

Now that food intolerance's are becoming increasingly common, most major supermarkets have a section which I like to call a 'special people food' section (I always feel an outcast when looking as I'm usually the only person looking!), so it isn't all that bad.

Anyway, I'm rabbitting on with no real message, so I'm going to stop here. I shall be updating more often with recipes & yummy lactose free things I find :)


Caroline.x