Lactose Intolerant? Watch Your Calcium Intake

If you experience bloating, flatulence or diarrhea after eating products such as milk or yogurt, you can retain your bowels to tolerate these foods without ill effects. Here is how to do that:

If you stop eating lactose, your body stops making the enzyme lactase, which is needed to digest it. (Antibiotics or a gastric illness can also reduce lactase production.) “Start by taking a small amount of lactose-containing foods again,” says Catherine Collins from the British Dietetic Association. “This will urge the bowel to make lactase, or a different lactose-digesting enzyme.”

Try taking one or two teaspoons of milk everyday for a week. Increase that gradually each week until you can drink a small cup without discomfort. So, it is a kind of adapting your body to milk.

“If you can not do this without problems, it is probable that you have a true intolerance,” says Collins. “You must include other sources of calcium in your diet (e.g. calcium-fortified soya milk, sardines, green leafy vegetables, tofu) or you run the risk of osteoporosis.”

So, even if you are intolerant to milk or milk products, try not to starve yourself of the nutrients that it provides. Always keep your body stores of calcium and phosphate by taking alternatives sources, for example, if not diet, you can try taking calcium containing pills. Women, who are at menopausal age, should take special precautions while dealing with lactose-intolerance, as they are already at increased risk of osteoporosis, due to decreased blood levels of estrogen hormone in their body.