Yogurt Benefits for Lactose Intolerance
There appears to be a growing trend for people, particularly women, to self-diagnose lactose intolerance. Regardless of whether a diagnosis is correct or not, it is often wrongly assumed that sufferers cannot tolerate yogurt. Lactose is a type of sugar found in milk. Lactose intolerance occurs when there isn’t enough of the enzyme lactase available in the gut to digest lactose. This leads to undigested lactose passing into the large intestine where it can be fermented by the bacteria in the colon causing unpleasant symptoms, such as flatulence, diarrhoea and abdominal pain. As a result, people with lactose intolerance may avoid all dairy products; putting their intake of vital nutrients at risk.
Research has consistently shown that most people with lactose intolerance can better tolerate yogurt compared to standard/unfermented milks (11) (12) (13), meaning that nutrient dense yogurt can still be included in the diet and people will have the health benefit of high quality protein from dairy. There appears to be a number of possible reasons for this including the activity of live bacteria in the yogurt (10) (14).
