Milk Intolerant or Processing Intolerant?
How many people do you know who are lactose intolerant? I’m guessing quite a few. There are 30-50 million people in America and around 75% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant No wonder there are so many “milk” alternatives in the store!
But are these alternatives the only option for people? Is it their best option even? Why are so many people all of a sudden unable to digest milk?
We were designed to drink milk. That’s why we are mammals! Women produce milk for their young and babies were literally born to drink milk. Interestingly, human milk contains more lactose than most animal milk that we drink does! Human milk is contains around 7% lactose whereas cow’s milk is around 5% lactose. Yet, we rarely hear of people discouraging breastfeeding because babies can’t digest breastmilk. The reason children and babies can digest their mother’s milk so well is because of the lactase in it and the child’s body naturally produces lactase. Most people after weaning cease to produce the lactase enzyme on their own. Only about 35% of adults continue to produce the lactase enzyme. What they have is called the lactase persistent gene which developed in people groups who regularly drank milk throughout history.
The lactase enzyme is essential to digesting lactose. Our bodies weren’t made to digest lactose without it. Lactase works on breaking down lactose in the digestive track. Without it, lactose cannot be digested properly and can cause GI distress.
So what, only 35% of adults can drink milk without being miserable? No! That’s not the case at all!
The beauty of the original design of milk is that it already has the lactase enzyme in it! Long before people developed the lactase persistent gene, there is evidence that they were drinking and thriving on animal milk. This is because raw milk has lactase in it already to aid in the breakdown of lactose. Many people, myself included, who found they couldn’t tolerate pasteurized milk can drink raw milk with no adverse GI responses.
Pasteurized milk on the other hand lacks the lactase enzyme. The pasteurization process involves heating the milk anywhere from 160 to 212 degrees for a certain period of time. Yes, this kills any harmful bacteria that may be lurking in the milk. But it also damages or destroys many nutrients, enzymes, and probiotics. It completely destroys the lactase enzyme. Therefore, many people cannot tolerate pasteurized milk.
There was a survey in 2007 done in Michigan of raw milk drinkers who had been officially diagnosed with lactose intolerance. A whopping 76% of them reported that they could digest raw milk without the issues they had with pasteurized milk. This was no 10 person trial either. The survey included 155 volunteers.
There are thousands of individual claims as well of improvement in digestion of dairy when people switched to raw milk over pasteurized milk. Hence the rapid popularization of raw milk in recent years. People have realized they no longer have to give up this nutrient dense food!
So is it milk or lactose intolerance or is it processing intolerance? Given the above information, you know where we stand. But come on out to the farm and try a glass of our raw milk to judge for yourself!
Sources:
Raw Milk Institute: Raw Milk and Lactose Intolerance
PubMed Central: The Interrelationships between Lactose Intolerance and the Modern Dairy Industry
