Big Cheese doesn’t want you to know this, but there’s a trick where you can still eat some cheeses while lactose intolerant, even without pills.
Some cheeses have very low lactose, even though they don’t advertise it. My brother is lactose intolerant but eats plenty of Emmental and he’s fine.
The trick is to look at the sugar content when you buy cheese. If it’s zero or close to it then you are much more likely to be fine after eating it. That’s because lactose is a sugar!
Of course, not every country or every place selling cheese marks it this way, but it’s a neat trick when you can use it.
You know that you can buy lactase enzyme to be able to digest lactose?
About 20 years ago I bought some and then read the directions. It said I had to plan ahead before deciding to eat dairy. I think it required taking an hour before. Given that my reaction is normally tolerable and I cannot be so unspotaneous, I gave up on that idea right away.
The ones you buy now, you take with the first bite of dairy. I use Lactajoy, they work great and don’t let me down. The problem I have is remembering to take them or to even check if something not obvious contains dairy. But when I remember, no problems whatsoever.
I can’t eat a whole slice of cheesecake without quite a bit of suffering, but I can eat half a slice and save the other half to eat the next day, and be fine.
Lactose intolerance will not take cheesecake away from me.
At least you figured out what causes your issue. I still haven’t figured out mine. I pretty much eat the same thing and I’m mostly good but sometimes I’m not.
This is anecdotal of course and TMI but honestly same with my IBS-D. I tried keeping a food journal for a couple months - didn’t matter what I did or didn’t eat no through line stuck out.
Seems my main trigger is anxiety and stress which sucks because there isn’t too much to be done about that at times.
Cutting down on coffee helped me some but still enjoy a cup a day or maybe a couple cups - same with caffeine in general - slamming a couple energy drinks paired with a coffee or two - recipe for poop city (probably goes for most folks though).
Anyways you’re not alone in your whole, “I have some weird stuff going on with my GI tract and it doesn’t seem to line up with any dietary restrictions”. As always, a chat with a doc is not a bad idea, you might be able to find some relief.
Best of luck on your journey.
Might be histamine intolerance. Try eating fresher food for a few weeks to check
Time to get a coloscopy.
This message brought to you by Big Gastroenterology
For real, I don’t mean to scare anyone but that could be a sign of colorectal cancer. Better safe than sorry.
I’m allergic to milk, so similar thing, but:
My problem is I rarely drink milk but when I do I instantly chug half a liter and gastric ragnarok ensues.
This is me this morning after my wife made mashed potato for dinner. Ive had barely any carbs in months and then this morning it was like a solid log coming out requiring a midway flush so the work toilet wouldnt clog, then followed by soft post-shit clenching to tighten my anus back up
Sounds like you needed a poop knife.
I always say that for me, consuming dairy is a sin, and its punishment is severe and instant.
Edit; I fear no gods though. Only my guts.
Apparently lemon juice is supposed to help, it has the enzyme you’re missing to help break down the lactose, I have no idea, I haven’t tried it, nor researched it, I may be sending you on a wild goose chase, or a wild poop chase, as the case may be…
Lemon juice does not contain lactase. Its main active components are citric acid and other organic compounds, along with vitamin C. Acidity is not a substitute for the missing lactase enzyme.
Sure, lemon juice’s acidity can curdle milk, but curdling is not the same as breaking lactose down into sugars your body can absorb. So this is an old wives tale.
So just stop? Especially for the poor exploited cows.
Dairy is currently free game imo. So much dairy is produced in the breeding of new generations of cows that much of it needs to be creatively disposed of. If you want to affect cows, just focus on cheap meat and ending meat subsidies. Without subsidies, consumption will drop. No one’s willing to pay full price for beef, so demand inherently shrinks.
Or you know stop killing innocent beings and stop animal exploitation.
stop killing innocent beings
Indulge me for a second. You’re talking about an extinction event on the same scale as the Yucatán. Are you genuinely for the complete cessation of meat consumption?
Yes.
That’s an interesting, but completely unreachable goal with such enormous ramifications that I can’t find myself interested in exploring it, personally. Cutting subsidies reduces household costs via capitalism and alienates voting blocs, but societal veganism is a bit too big for me to consider. Good luck with it
When there are alternatives, yes. For most people in the Western world they have alternatives.
That’s an interesting, but completely unreachable goal with such enormous ramifications that I can’t find myself interested in exploring it, personally. Cutting subsidies reduces household costs via capitalism and alienates voting blocs, but societal veganism is a bit too big for me to consider
