Dairy is an essential ingredient in most of the foods we consume on a daily basis.
It provides us with the nutrition we need and makes for some tasty treats. Although most of society is able to enjoy dairy products of such variety, lactose intolerant individuals aren’t so fortunate. I am one of them.
According to Terra Dobias, a nursing student, the lactose enzyme that breaks lactose into monosaccharides is not produced, which means the body cannot absorb the lactose. Because of this, grocery shopping becomes difficult.
It’s hard to get used to and places don’t make it easy for people with the condition. I’m constantly having to make sure places don’t have dairy in the foods they make.
Family get-togethers are also tough because family members sometimes forget to substitute ingredients.
It can suck because you end up paying for it, no matter how careful you try to be.
Now I have not always been lactose intolerant. I used to drink milk more than four times a day. I was obsessed with mac and cheese and ice cream was my favorite dessert.
My sophomore year in college is when I started feeling extremely sick after I ate and that’s when I found out my body had changed. Every few years your body changes and mine unfortunately decided to start hating the thing I loved the most.
Once I was declared lactose intolerant, I am not going to lie, I rebelled against it and figured my body was just having some issues and this wouldn’t be permanent.
I am pretty sure I was the worst lactose intolerant person on the planet: I still put milk in my cereal, I ate pizza, whatever I wanted I would eat and just try to ignore the fact that I couldn’t have it.
Well, after I realized my body hated me after every meal and my friends got sick of me complaining that my stomach hurt all the time, I decided to try out the pills you can take to help digest dairy and make your stomach not hurt.
Now, I am not sure if it is just because my body really cannot stand dairy or not but these pills did not help one bit. You take the pill before each meal that contains dairy, however after the meal I was still feeling gross inside and I hated that feeling.
It was not until my senior year of college that I decided I can’t be so foolish anymore and I need to really realize this disorder is not going away no matter how hard I try to think that it would.
I then turned to making my own food with dairy free substitutes, and I accept the fact that I need to say no cheese or sour cream on my tacos at Taco Bell or any other food place for that matter.
So despite the threat of lactose, intolerant people do have options available and ways to still enjoy the many foods that normally use milk as an ingredient, just with a little twist.
Although many suffer from this disorder, there are ways to substitute
milk-based products to create similar tastes and textures. The use of almond milk, veggie cheese, natural butters, dark chocolates and coconut milk all can
be used safely with little taste loss.
Many restaurants and ice-cream stations are coming out with new products and menu options to accommodate those who are lactose intolerant.
Here in Bowling Green, Kroger may be a shopping destination of choice for they have a dairy-free section, and if you’re feeling an ice cream treat to cool you down this summer, the ice cream station across town has dairy free ice-cream that is quite good and refreshing.
Although it can be difficult, there are ways to live with lactose intolerance.
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