You probably know by now that a real concern with lactose intolerance is making sure that you get enough calcium in your diet. Your body requires calcium, no matter what age you are. Long term dietary deficiency of calcium can cause bones to become weakened and prone to fracture.
Our children need calcium to ensure they have strong bones. As a woman, you need calcium, especially if you are approaching or have reached the age of perimenopause. You want to do everything you can to help ensure against any further bone density loss.
There is a dairy product that you may not want to exclude completely from your diet - yogurt. It seems that the yogurt organisms actually release lactase, which in turn helps with the absorption of the dreaded lactose. And it is the lactose that leads to your symptoms of lactose intolerance.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that “Ingestion of 18 g of lactose in yogurt resulted in only about one third as much hydrogen excretion as a similar load of lactose in milk or water, indicating a much better absorption of lactose in yogurt."
You can read the abstract from the NEJM here.
An 8 ounce serving of yogurt can provide between 400 to 450 mg. of calcium. That is about one third of a child's requirement, and almost one half of an adults calcium requirement.
My daughter, who is lactose intolerant, does eat yogurt. And she takes one of the lactase enzymes right before she consumes any yogurt. To date, she has not experienced any lactose intolerant symptoms afterwards. I hope it stays that way, because it is a big relief knowing that she has this healthy source of calcium.
This is something you will have to experiment with. Start by eating small amounts of yogurt and see if you experience any of the lactose intolerant symptoms. If you don't have any problem, then add a little more to your diet. If you can eat yogurt, it is a good source of calcium for you diet.
So go try some yogurt.
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