Dairy products are not necessarily "friends for life" of all. Some are intolerant, and must find an alternative to replace them.
But how to recognize lactose intolerance?
The symptoms are not the same depending on the individual, but their symptoms usually appear shortly after the ingestion of dairy products, whether it is milk or its derivatives (cheese, yogurts).
Lactose intolerance: the signs that do not deceive
Less than 30 minutes after the meal, the first disorders are more or less pronounced depending on the degree of intolerance to lactose, but also depending on the amount of lactose absorbed.
The most common clinical signs are bloating, chronic fatigue, abdominal pain, poor concentration, constipation or diarrhea.
Sometimes, several symptoms combine, sometimes they are isolated and it happens that these inconveniences persist for several days.
How to be certain that one is really intolerant?
If you suffer regularly from these disorders, then you must try to remove the products from our diet. In case of intolerance to lactose, they will disappear after a few days. It will then confirm this self-diagnosis with further medical tests in a doctor or a gastroenterologist.
If they persist, we must look for another cause.
What to replace dairy products?
It is impossible to cure lactose intolerance, so you have to learn to live with and adapt.
This is not necessarily simple, especially since we can find lactose in cold cuts, cereals, pastries, or fruit juice. So we check the labels of industrial products to make sure they do not contain them.
There are many lactose-free products today, specially dedicated to intolerant people: cheeses, biscuits, drinks ... And to replace yogurt or traditional milk to drink, we opt for products based on soy milk or other vegetable milks.
Beware, if you remove dairy products, there is no doubt that the risk is to quickly have a calcium deficiency. Do not panic, you can find in most mineral waters, whole sardines, tofu, spinach, olives, dried figs, nuts, fennel, leeks and most dehydrated herbs.
