A New Class of Milk Products For Lactose Intolerant People
Is your child lactose intolerant or allergic to milk? If so, by heating the milk, she may be able to drink it without experiencing the normal signs usually associated with lactose intolerance.
The information comes from a report in the Allergy and Clinical Immunology publication. According to the report, when the liquid was heated and given to children who were allergic to cow’s milk, 3 out of 4 children no longer exhibited allergy symptoms. Under normal situations, when a lactose allergy sensitive child drinks the liquid, his antibodies go into action to attack the proteins. This is what causes the allergy symptoms. The theory is that when the liquid is treated past a specified temperature, the heat destroys the proteins that normally trigger the allergy symptoms.
The researchers tested their theory by gradually introducing the heated liquid to the study participants. They first gave the heated product to the children indirectly through other food products. For example, they would heat the liquid, and then add the heated product to various recipes such as muffins, pancakes, and others. If the children had no reaction from eating foods containing heated liquid, they then had them drink the heated milk directly. As theorized, most of the participants had no reaction to the liquid being heated.
Up to now, if a lactose intolerant person wanted to drink a product with lactose in it, they did have choices. These choices usually came down to one of the following four options:
1) They could do what many people do and simply avoid those products altogether.
2) They could drink the products and simply suffer the consequences of bloating, cramps, upset stomach, diarrhea, and so on.
3) They could orally take food enzymes that enable them to pre-digest the food proteins.
4) They could purchase the more expensive products that have food enzymes added to them.
Of course, there are quite a number of health professionals who believe that humans should not be drinking liquid from cows anyway. They suggest that if you really desire the taste of a cream like product that you try one of the many substitutes on the market made from substances such as soy, nuts, rice and the like. For those that do want the taste of cream, however, the study could provide them with new food choices.
Up to this point, its long been thought hat if a person was allergic to milk, it didn’t matter whether the milk was cold, warm, hot, or whatever. At the very least the study forces researchers to rethink some of their earliest assumptions about milk allergies and how to handle them.
Although the milk study was small, only consisting of one hundred subjects, if larger follow up studies show the same results, an entire new class of products could hit the market targeted at the millions of people who are lactose intolerant but who love to drink milk. But that’s not all. The study could also lead to entirely new ways of managing and controlling lactose intolerance in both adults and children.